I remember very clearly the days before Google, the web before Google, web search before Google.
I can tell you exactly why Google rocketed to popularity:
1. Shockingly good search results
2. Zero-BS home page
3. Charming, geeky “Don’t be evil” ethos
That’s pretty much the story.
Fast forward (from @arstechnica):
https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/111228880939956716
I can also tell you how Google became so profitable:
1. AdWords
It’s more complicated than that, but also it’s kinda not.
One of my broken record Paulisms: A company’s values will asymptotically approach its business model.
@inthehands many people under appreciate that googles main accomplishment is building the ad back-piping for most of the internet. It’s more about the infrastructure than the websites. (Which given how dominant the websites are says even more about the infrastructure).
@b3n Yup. Search is what made them popular, but AdWords, the DoubleClick purchase, and other associated infra is what’s had the greatest systemic/societal effects.
@inthehands @b3n For better or worse, Google rules the non-China Internet. So much of the core Internet infrastructure is linked to Google's systems and networks.