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You know what Google is. At least,you think you know Google. Chances are you associate Google with being among the most successful high-tech businesses in the world,as well as being the most popular search service on the World Wide Web. And you have probably heard ‘‘google ’’used as a verb,meaning ‘‘to search for or find something online,’’as in: ‘‘I Googled my professor and found his home page …I Gmailed him my report.’ ’(Gmail is Google ’s email service;you ’ll hear quite a bit about it in the pages that follow.) If that ’s all you think of when you hear the word ‘‘Google,’’you ’re missing the latest Internet revolution.What you can learn from this book will improve your life immeasurably, especially if your goals are to work more efficiently and to do a better job of marketing yourself or your company.

What ’s So Great About Google?

Back in 1996,two graduate students started their own Web-based search service, which they called BackRub. By 1998,the project had gained a lot of attention, secured some investors, and turned into a corporation called Google a Web site that made specific Web pages, discussion groups, or even individual words and phrases easy to locate. In recent years, Google has expanded its services for businesses in a dramatic way. Its Gmail and AdWords services are now in widespread use. For example, Google offers scheduling, word processing, spreadsheet, email, and other applications both separately and as part of an umbrella package called Google Apps. These days, Google is also an increasingly popular solution for small businesses that need to increase their visibility and build their brand. Google is fast becoming the most affordable and effective marketing venue for businesses.

Through its expansion into the business services space, Google itself provides you with a role model that you can follow as you develop your own business online. It all starts when you create a service that gives you a solid foundation. After a steady stream of customers are knocking at your virtual door, you can expand into new areas. Google can help you make that exciting move.

These days, Google is much more than a directory of the Web ’s contents. It ’s on the verge of becoming an integral part of many small business operations. Google is itself a model for a 21st-century business. You can learn a great deal about how a successful company operates by reading the sections that follow.

Information Sells

What ’s the first lesson you learn from Google ’s story? Having identified a need that is shared by each one of the millions of individuals who go online every day, Brin and Page stuck to their core business and kept improving it. They spent many years building their company, slowly focusing on the basic activity of searching for content on the Web. Only when that process became widely accepted did they begin to sell ads that would appear alongside search results pages. Only after several years did the company go public. Only recently have they begun to provide the business applications.

Keep It Simple

When you look at the Google home page shown in www.google.com, what do you see? Along with the search box and heading and links,your eyes will rest on lots of white space. While other Web sites (such as that of Google ’s competitor Yahoo!) are cluttered with links, words, images, and corporate logos,Google ’s remains remarkably uncluttered.No doubt Google could make millions by placing a single ad or two on its well-traveled home page. But the site ’s managers know the value of simplicity, and you should appreciate it too.

Focus on Your Core Business

Even as it expands to the desktops of individual business users, Google hasn ’t lost sight of its core business:providing accurate search results. Google doesn ’t make money off the search results by themselves. However,its paid advertising programs such as AdWords, which place ads alongside search results,have proven to be highly lucrative. Google has found a way to preserve its original mission and maintain the quality of its product for the millions who search the Internet each day.

The lesson for you is to focus on your own core business and establish a base of operations on the Web first.Then you can begin to think about branching out into trying to boost productivity as well as revenue. Suppose you are starting from square one: you have a Big Idea for an online business and you have identified the target audience you want to reach. But that ’s as far as you ’ve gone so far. You have Internet access through your office,your school,or your home.But you need to set up your own business online. If you only wanted one service to get you started, the logical first choice would be to sign up for email with Google ’s Gmail service email, after all, is central to all online communications. But if you want a complete solution, sign up for Google Apps and look around at other Google services.

Twenty Google Tools for Boosting Your Productivity

Google has extended far beyond its core search business to provide a variety of new services,including free email,Web hosting,and business applications. It only makes sense to pay attention to what Google has to offer and take advantage of the services that can help you. Go Google does not attempt to be a comprehensive examination of all of Google ’s online services. For one problem,a book like that would be far too large to fit on your bookshelf. But more importantly, the book would become obsolete between the time it is written and when it is delivered from the printer. That ’s because Google is constantly expanding its services and acquiring new technologies.