“Google it.”
For the past two decades, Google has literally become the dictionary definition for web search.
Forget relative also-rans like Bing, DuckDuckGo, and ancient competitors like AltaVista and Ask Jeeves (who, by the way, seems way ahead of his time now that ChatGPT has come along).
What Google Search looked like at launch, in 1998.
Google has grown into a $3 trillion behemoth that touches basically every aspect of our digital lives. And it amassed its size and power through being damn good at one single thing: search.
In the late 1990s – when I was using the internet for the first time as a nine-year-old – Google’s minimalist interface was revelatory. In an era in which every web page bombarded users with information, ads and links, Google’s search page was white and clean. And it was lightning fast, too.
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I remember Googling what praying mantises …