America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 17 Google

"Google's goal is to provide anyone with instant access to any information they want in the future. In my opinion, current search engines cannot be called search engines; the logic of portal websites is more like categorization."

Ernst had just finished his lecture in the auditorium when he received an invitation from Professor Snape, a leading computer scientist at Stanford University.

Upon arriving at the other party's office, we found that in addition to this big shot, two of his students were also there.

When asked about Google's future development goals, Ernst offered his own thoughts.

"Mr. Ernst, could you explain your Google algorithm to me in detail? Of course, if it involves trade secrets, please forgive my abruptness."

Ernst smiled slightly. "There are no trade secrets. To be frank, it's just a concept that anyone can develop and commercialize."

He pointed to his head and said, "But to succeed and become great, an algorithm isn't enough; you need this."

"To be precise, this isn't called the Google algorithm; I call it the PageRank algorithm."

Ernst cleared his throat and experienced the feeling of showing off.

"The PageRank algorithm is based on two core assumptions: the number of links and the quality of links. Neither can be omitted."

"The more times a webpage is linked to by other webpages, the more important it is. Links from high-authority webpages are more valuable than links from low-authority webpages; these two points are the core of PageRank."

"Simply put, a webpage's PageRank value depends on the sum of the PageRank values ​​of all webpages that point to it, and the contribution of each link is normalized based on the total number of links to the source webpage."

"We can view the Internet as a directed graph, where each webpage is a node and the connections are directed edges. We assign an initial value to each webpage and iteratively update its PageRank value according to the developed iterative calculation formula until convergence."

"It's like a huge maze, where each webpage is a small room and the links are the doors between the rooms. We keep updating the importance value of each room using iterative calculation formulas until the result stabilizes."

Professor Neptune's eyes widened in astonishment. "You say you don't understand computers? Your use of technical terms makes me question that. Some of your ideas are simply astonishing."

There's no real understanding; it's just the result of being bombarded by the information age.

Ernst now understands why successful people can succeed in starting their own businesses. The most important thing in the business world is information warfare, and who could know more about the future than a reborn person who can foresee the future?

"Mr. Ernst's PageRank algorithm guarantees convergence to a unique solution through iterative computation, but isn't the computational cost too high for large-scale web page graphs?"

"Another factor is content quality. The PageRank algorithm cannot directly assess the quality of webpage content. If someone inflates their page views, it will cause low-quality but highly linked webpages to rank higher."

At this moment, the two young men that Professor Snape brought suddenly interrupted. Ernst turned to look at them. He had been so focused on befriending Snape, the computer whiz, that he had forgotten about the two mascots.

Snape slapped his forehead. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Ernst. I'm so fascinated by your novel ideas that I forgot to introduce you. These are my two most outstanding students, Sergei Brin and Larry Page."

Ernst was shocked; he never expected that the imposter would meet the real deal, that he would encounter the true god.

These two young men with their cringeworthy curly hair are practically the future founders of Google.

Isn't my algorithm and theory the result of their joint research and development?

Now, however, I can act as their mentor, answering their questions and resolving their doubts.

"That's right, such an algorithm does have a higher computational cost than the current Internet model, but it also has its advantages."

"For example, resistance to manipulation. Compared to simple keyword matching, the PageRank algorithm is more difficult to manipulate maliciously. In my view, the future is the information age. What is most important in the information age? It is information security."

"Regarding the cost issue you mentioned, and the issue of neglecting content quality, this requires us to continuously modify and improve it. The PageRank algorithm is just the foundation; we will integrate dozens or even hundreds of other algorithms to optimize it in the future."

"For example, we can incorporate the time factor to consider the dynamic changes in the importance of web pages. We can also combine user behavior data to optimize rankings, and so on."

The three men's eyes grew brighter and brighter as Ernst spoke, especially Sergei Brin and Larry Page, whose eyes were practically sparkling.

Finally, Snape burst into laughter and said to the two of them happily, "It seems you already have your answer in mind. I also think it's a very good choice."

Ernst had some guesses, and his heart was pounding.

"Mr. Ernst, I won't lie to you, my two students are about to graduate. Their talent is beyond doubt, I can vouch for that, but they are quite confused about their future career choices."

"I invited you here because I am very curious about your ideas, and also because my two students are very interested in Mr. Ernst's company. I wonder if Mr. Ernst could give them a chance."

Can you? Absolutely!

This isn't just giving the two a chance; it's like a windfall.

Ernst wasn't looking for ability. Although the two were computer geniuses, such students weren't exactly a dime a dozen at Stanford.

Ernst valued the connections behind the two men, which was what he lacked most at the moment.

The United States has plenty of talent; money can buy it. But top-tier experts can't be found with money alone; they require connections.

Looking at the giants of America who came after, which one of them was truly from humble beginnings? Even those who were from humble backgrounds all built their own networks through their talents before starting their businesses.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, on the other hand, would have enabled Ernst to gain more connections in academia.

Both men come from highly educated Jewish families. Larry Page's parents were both computer science professors at Michigan State University, and his father, Carl Victor Page, was a pioneer in the field of computer science, having been deeply involved in the industry since the 60s.

Sergei Brin's family was even more impressive: his great-grandmother conducted microbiology research at the University of Chicago, his grandfather was a mathematics professor at Moscow State University, and his father was an economist at the Soviet Commission for Planning and Economic Affairs.

The family immigrated to the United States in 79. At that time, the father was a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, and the mother was doing scientific research at NASA.

Many people attribute Google's success to the founders' abilities and the top management's excellent strategies, but what truly supports Google's rapid development and technological leadership is its large number of technical personnel.

Google has the most top-tier experts in various fields among all companies in the American tech industry.

What attracts so many talented people?

Salaries? Other giants aren't short of money.

Work environment? They're all pretty much the same across all the giants.

Respect? Technologists are the lifeblood of these giants.

Is it just because it's called Google?

It's about connections—the powerful connections brought by their families and their alma maters.