As the highest-ranking search engine in the world, Google is a fast search engine that helps roughly 50% of the global Internet population find what they want on the Internet.
Google's patented algorithm—PageRank—was created in 1996 by two PhD students at Stanford (Larry Page and Sergey Brin). PageRank spiders through web pages looking for more than just keywords and content (as do most sites). Google Search also ranks websites on the number of site-wide links and backlinks pointing to the website, which boosts the ranking of informative websites with information lots of other websites are referring to. Google Search also takes other elements into consideration, such as: natural links, popularity, category, web page title, web page description (Meta tag), as well as page content and keywords.
Google Search is just one of the services offered by Google Inc. Google also offers: Google Maps (providing precise street maps and directions worldwide), Google Earth (where you can get a birds eye view of the whole world, using satellite images), Google Product Search (giving you price comparisons so you can shop for bargains at home), Google AdWords, Google AdSense, Gmail (Google email), Google Checkout (providing secure, fast purchases online), Google Toolbar (a downloadable toolbar that provides dozens of features, including Google Search window, pop up blockers, personalized bookmarks accessible from any computer or location, and other features), Google Groups (where you can participate in forums and discussions), Blogger (Google's free blog service), and other services.