Many of you in our customer base, especially those of you closer to Omaha, may have noticed an important announcement last week.  Google announced that it would build a server farm in Council Bluffs, Iowa, bringing an estimated 200 new jobs to the local Omaha area economy.  Google will build the site on a 185-acre parcel of land in the southern part of Council Bluffs, with an option to expand by an additional 1,000 acres in an undisclosed location south of the city.

For many of you, this announcement came as a positive development for the future of Internet access and our local economy.  There are probably also many of you who heard that announcement and wondered, “Okay, just what is a Google and why should I be jumping for joy about this?”  So this month’s article is for those of you in the second group.  We’re going to talk about what Google is, what it does, why it needs to build a so-called server farm, and how it affects you in your daily Internet use.

First of all, what Google is.  Google is basically a search engine site available on the Internet.  A search engine is a Web site that allows you to type in a word, phrase, or combination of words into a blank, and then click a search button.  You then see a list of your screen of all the Web sites the search engine can find that have some link to the word or phrase you typed.  The search engine will try to organize those displayed results according to which sites are most likely to contain the information you need.

Google was founded in 1998, based in Mountain View, California, and has since grown to be arguably the most popular and comprehensive search engine available on the Internet.  As a matter of fact, its popularity has been such that a new definition has entered the word lexicon.  In popular usage, “to google” something is now defined as “to search the Internet for information about that topic.”

Google has also expanded its services beyond providing a search engine.  You can search for images and/or video clips on the Internet by clicking on additional links.  You can read the latest news by clicking on the news link on the main page.  There is also a map feature allowing you to get driving directions anywhere in the United States . . . but Google’s map feature doesn’t stop there.  You can also get current traffic reports for any location, and satellite pictures of any location as well.

Google also recently acquired YouTube and its collection of video clips.  However, YouTube is still operating independently despite being owned by Google.

In addition, Google provides e-mail services through its Gmail feature.  You can sign up for an online e-mail account using this, and also have access to chat services within your account.  You can also download a Google Desktop toolbar that gives you search capabilities and access to other Google features right from your desktop without opening a browser window.  As a matter of fact, Microsoft attempted to imitate this desktop feature in its new version of Windows, Windows Vista; Google filed a complaint for breach of Microsoft’s antitrust settlement with several states regarding middleware and Microsoft recently announced it would make changes in this feature of Vista.

So Google is a search engine . . . but also provides much more.  It has quickly grown to be one of the most ubiquitous names on the Internet.  In order to provide as much information to its users as Google does, it has to keep increasing the number of computer servers it has available to store this information.  Therefore, the company builds a “server farm”—basically a building housing several servers connected to Google’s network that hold this information and transfer it to users who access the Google site.  Google is also building server farms in Oklahoma, North Carolina, and South Carolina that are all similar to the one in Council Bluffs.

As a matter of fact, the amount of information that Google provides, and the extent to which it stores this information on its servers, have raised concerns about privacy.  Some people have questioned whether Google’s storing of images, satellite maps, and queries from customers can violate those same customers’ privacy rights.  This recent article contains a very balanced discussion of the pros and cons of Google’s approach.

So Google is a major presence on the Internet.  The services they provide extend to millions of Internet users . . . and beginning soon, they will be providing at least some of those services from a location near you.

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