In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin Noticed Links Could Reveal Which Pages People Actually Trusted: The Idea That Built Google

During the late 1990s, the internet had expanded significantly; however, the search engines that existed back then failed to keep pace with the development of the World Wide Web. Most of them were using a technique called keyword matching. Although these mechanisms could easily identify all relevant results, they were unable to objectively assess their value. As a result, there was a need for a new approach that would solve users' problems with low-quality information.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin came up with a different method to address the aforementioned issue while working at Stanford University. In addition to the keyword-matching algorithm, they suggested adding another element to their search engine's technology: links. Stanford Engineering states that Page and Brin used the concept of citation in order to establish the significance of certain documents. Namely, a web page that has many links pointing to it can be considered important, not because of its content, but simply because it is frequently used by other pages. Thanks to this solution, the internet was transformed into a complex network with certain dependencies between pages.

BackRub and the Logic of Links

Prior to being incorporated, Google operated under the name BackRub, which refers to the analysis process it uses. According to Stanford documents, the process relied on backlinks, which referred to links from other pages that pointed towards a certain site. The backlinks were used to determine the site's credibility, as they provided the algorithm with a way to measure context in addition to volume.

In other words, the algorithm is recursive and works in the way described in Stanford's PageRank lectures: an important page is a page that has backlinks from other important pages. As a result, credibility could be determined based on the actions taken by the network participants.

According to academic materials discussing the principles of link analysis, the number of incoming links contributes to the page rating in such a way. The algorithm relied on observation rather than on truth since the links were interpreted as a proxy for credibility.

1998 Marked a Shift, Not a Beginning

When Google launched in 1998, the underlying concept had already been formulated during their studies at Stanford University. As noted in the university's historical records, the company itself was founded on this innovation, not vice versa, as an innovation was implemented within an existing entity. Thus, the date of launching Google was not the birth date of the idea, but its public application.

This detail clarifies why Google seemed unique from the very first days of its functioning; unlike other search engines, it did not strive to outmatch them in any way, but instead offered a new approach. Instead of considering which keywords are used in the text, it suggested assessing how the entire network reacts to the page under consideration.

Even now, after years of further development and algorithmic adjustments, the significance of the initial idea is obvious.