Casey Newton

And so if you were a publisher or even just a blogger that had decent traffic, you could just run ads that Google would manage, and you could begin to make money on the web as a creator. So you just see this huge rush of talent and capital into the web as Google leads the charge in making it more useful for all of us.

A big reason is just that the more that people used Google, the better that it got. So for example, I used an example earlier of somebody trying to find the New York Times website, and Google starts out with this thing, PageRank, that says, we actually have a pretty good idea of what you're looking for right now.

A big reason is just that the more that people used Google, the better that it got. So for example, I used an example earlier of somebody trying to find the New York Times website, and Google starts out with this thing, PageRank, that says, we actually have a pretty good idea of what you're looking for right now.

A big reason is just that the more that people used Google, the better that it got. So for example, I used an example earlier of somebody trying to find the New York Times website, and Google starts out with this thing, PageRank, that says, we actually have a pretty good idea of what you're looking for right now.

Well, then think about all of the people who start visiting Google and they search for the New York Times and they click the link and they go to the New York Times and they don't go back to Google. And Google says, aha, we served them the right link. And it starts feeding that model. And it does that across every category of search for every single thing.

Well, then think about all of the people who start visiting Google and they search for the New York Times and they click the link and they go to the New York Times and they don't go back to Google. And Google says, aha, we served them the right link. And it starts feeding that model. And it does that across every category of search for every single thing.

Well, then think about all of the people who start visiting Google and they search for the New York Times and they click the link and they go to the New York Times and they don't go back to Google. And Google says, aha, we served them the right link. And it starts feeding that model. And it does that across every category of search for every single thing.

And so all of a sudden, Google has the most accurate index by far of any of the search engines. And the longer that it goes, that just becomes more and more true. So it starts to gain this momentum that nobody else can really match.

And so all of a sudden, Google has the most accurate index by far of any of the search engines. And the longer that it goes, that just becomes more and more true. So it starts to gain this momentum that nobody else can really match.

And so all of a sudden, Google has the most accurate index by far of any of the search engines. And the longer that it goes, that just becomes more and more true. So it starts to gain this momentum that nobody else can really match.

Yeah, so from the start, people were trying to figure out how do we optimize our webpage so that it floats to the top of these Google search rankings? Because as Google becomes... A default place to start your day on the internet, one of the things people are doing is searching for news.

Yeah, so from the start, people were trying to figure out how do we optimize our webpage so that it floats to the top of these Google search rankings? Because as Google becomes... A default place to start your day on the internet, one of the things people are doing is searching for news.

Yeah, so from the start, people were trying to figure out how do we optimize our webpage so that it floats to the top of these Google search rankings? Because as Google becomes... A default place to start your day on the internet, one of the things people are doing is searching for news.

And so publishers, they're changing the HTML, they're talking with people at Google about what exactly are you looking for, and it becomes this dance. And there are some players in the game, like I think probably most of the publishers were, that were pretty good actors.

And so publishers, they're changing the HTML, they're talking with people at Google about what exactly are you looking for, and it becomes this dance. And there are some players in the game, like I think probably most of the publishers were, that were pretty good actors.

And so publishers, they're changing the HTML, they're talking with people at Google about what exactly are you looking for, and it becomes this dance. And there are some players in the game, like I think probably most of the publishers were, that were pretty good actors.

And then there were a bunch of unscrupulous fly-by-night characters that were just trying to sell you a vacuum or whatever and wanted to swarm every keyword you can imagine just on the off chance that maybe their webpage would get to the top of the search results. And so it becomes this very competitive adversarial thing.

And then there were a bunch of unscrupulous fly-by-night characters that were just trying to sell you a vacuum or whatever and wanted to swarm every keyword you can imagine just on the off chance that maybe their webpage would get to the top of the search results. And so it becomes this very competitive adversarial thing.

And then there were a bunch of unscrupulous fly-by-night characters that were just trying to sell you a vacuum or whatever and wanted to swarm every keyword you can imagine just on the off chance that maybe their webpage would get to the top of the search results. And so it becomes this very competitive adversarial thing.

And an effect of that was Google just became increasingly powerful because basically it's not just the publishing industry. It's like every industry is beating down a path to Google's front door saying, hey, how do I get to be the top link on the thing? And that becomes like one of the sort of main drivers of Google eventually taking over the web.