GOOGLE - SER Special Report

By Martin Kelly

What is Google? In my opinion it's the world's most powerful company. Also one of its most secretive and profitable. But trying to get a fix on the beast is nigh on impossible. It moves quickly, aggressively and powerfully. Its staff are trained to say nothing about its machinations to outsiders. It makes all its money from the Internet but as you'll see from the following stories its ambitions - and corporate ego - will not be contained by any industry boundaries. Witness its move into alternative energy production (Huh!). Whether this ambition, which does border occasionally on hubris, is a good thing remains to be seen.

But one thing is for sure. Google is worth knowing more about, and that's why I have produced this Search Engine Room 'Special Edition" a series of eight or nine stories which attempt to paint a picture of where Google is at at this point in its history. The stories essentially covers the last couple of months in its corporate life while also takes a look under the hood of PageRank, its core website page ranking system. It's by no means comprehensive - rather a personally chosen overview. The stories are best read consecutively and I hope you enjoy them.

Search Engine Room: December 6, 2007