Google It by Crowley Redding is an intriguingly styled non-fiction book, retelling the story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin and how the pair founded the multi-billion dollar company Google we know today. Along their decades of work on what was originally just a homework assignment, they had implemented countless software and hardware upgrades, created several smaller companies, each focused on providing a different type of service, and, most importantly, changed their name from Backrub to the Google we know today.

However, I believe Google It’s fascinating tales are not only told because of its’ fun stories and history, but because Crowley Redding saw a lesson worth teaching behind the history of one of the biggest companies in the world: ‘The user is first priority’. This phrase is seen paraphrased multiple times throughout the book, and is even said to be one of Larry and Sergey’s main secrets to success.

Above was a notebook page noting many interesting quotes I found over the two-week course of reading the book (more are in the form of post-its stuck in my copy). I noticed that many of the quotes were from right before a success of Google’s of some kind, and generally went like this: “Google was easy on the eyes and easy to use” (also contrasted with the visually unappealing pains of using other search engines that were too bright, full, or loud with images) “If an ad was useful, people would click on it. If an ad wasn’t particularly useful, fewer people would click on it” (noting the difference in popularity between something that many people felt they needed and was useful, and something fewer people wanted or needed).

Many of these quotes lead to creations like AdSense (which brought relevant ads to relevant people), which was one of Google’s biggest income sources and many additions to Google that resulted in, again, a popularity rise later on. These cause-and-effect relationships are clear pieces of evidence towards one thing, or concept: “The user is first priority”.

I also compiled many of my notes into another cause and effect visual; One might note that many of the points were similar to before: “The process to find information before Google was lengthy and annoying”. Larry and Sergey noticed this, attempted to fix the flaws of, the very thing you, the reader, are using to read this article: hyperlinks, which was its’ inability to, despite being able to travel from one page to another, return from that page back to the original. Users found this incredibly more efficient and spread the word (see the trend?).

A more detailed example. Picture this: You desperately want to look up the image of a new popular outfit, celebrity, or important event. Before (and during the beginning of) Google, image-based search simply did not exist. Google developers noticed this, and, catering to the requests and needs of millions of users online, quickly figured out a way to add this. Image-based search today is regularly incorporated into every search engine, and is something that I myself would have some trouble living without. The intended audience (the troubled, desperate web-surfers) was, unsurprisingly, very pleased.

This is another visual representation of my thinking at an earlier stage: pink highlights the very important key words, yellow represents the main/central idea, and blue shows a supporting, smaller idea or note. My central idea, “Considering the intended audience is the best way to gain popularity” was, despite a work in progress, what I ended up adding to and eventually sticking to. In the end, this is applied to many things we now see as normal: updates in a popular game, software patches in a glitchy website, and even school activities like correcting formatives and summatives through teacher feedback to create a better product. Larry and Sergey recognized it. Extremely successful companies recognized it. And maybe Crowley Redding, the author, wants you to recognize it as well.