Video

Extension: Most Popular Websites | June 2013

Who owns the site?
Do they also own any traditional media businesses?
What other internet sites do they own?
What is its revenue?
What is its overall worth?
Research five key facts about the institution.
Find three quotes (with references) about the institution.
Summarise two linked Wikipedia articles (5 bullet points each)
List the key info provided on the company’s corporate homepage.


Google own it
AdMob, DoubleClick, Motorola Mobility, On2 Technologies, Picnik, YouTube, Zagat, Waze
YouTube, Google+
US$ 50.18 billion (2012)
US$ 93.80 billion


6.#1
The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. In fact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.

#2
Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just sitting looking at the screen. After a minute of nothingness, the tester intervened and asked ‘Whats up?’ to which they replied “We are waiting for the rest of it”. To solve that particular problem the Google Copyright message was inserted to act as a crude end of page marker.

#3
One of the biggest leap in search usage came about when they introduced their much improved spell checker giving birth to the “Did you mean…” feature. This instantly doubled their traffic, but they had some interesting discussions on how best to place that information, as most people simply tuned that out. But they discovered the placement at the bottom of the results was the most effective area.

#4
The infamous “I feel lucky” is nearly never used. However, in trials it was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users wanted it kept. It was a comfort button.

#5
Orkut is very popular in Brazil. Orkut was the brainchild of a very intelligent Google engineer who was pretty much given free reign to run with it, without having to go through the normal Google UI procedures, hence the reason it doesn’t look or feel like a Google application. They are looking at improving Orkut to cope with the loads it places on the system.

7) Quotes: Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.
Bill Gates

I'm a visual thinker, not a language-based thinker. My brain is like Google Images.
Temple Grandin

Google never knew how successful key words would be.
Yuri Milner

With Google I'm starting to burn out on knowing the answer to everything. People in the year 2020 are going to be nostalgic for the sensation of feeling clueless.
Doug Coupland

I never Google myself. Only if I want to feel really terrible about myself would I do that.
Sienna Miller

8) Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

9) Corporate information link: http://www.google.co.uk/about/company/