Google Adds Web Pages to Gird for Competition
Online search engine leader Google Inc. added an additional 1 billion pages to its Web index Tuesday, increasing its breadth by about one-third as it prepares for tougher competition from Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
Google’s search engine now spans 4.28 billion Web pages, up from 3.3 billion pages earlier this week. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company also said it had enlarged its index of Web images to 880 million, up from slightly more than 400 million.
Even with the expansion, Google still isn’t close to capturing the constantly expanding constellation of online content. By some estimates, there are 10 billion pages on the Web.
Nevertheless, the expansion underscores Google’s determination to remain the Internet’s most popular search engine -- a prized position that formidable rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft hope to take away.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo has been drawing on Google’s index for the search results on its website since June 2000 but plans to end the partnership before April.
Yahoo intends to rely exclusively on search technology it picked up last year after spending more than $2 billion to buy Foster City, Calif.-based Inktomi Corp. and Overture Services Inc.
Meanwhile, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft is spending millions to develop a sophisticated search engine to use on MSN.com in hopes of toppling Google as the king of search.
Google has been regularly upgrading its search engine since its late 1998 debut with a Web index of 25 million pages, but the potential threats from Yahoo and Microsoft have added more urgency, said co-founder Sergey Brin, the company’s president of technology.
“We have decided to put even more energy into our improvements and have turned up the notch on innovation a bit,” Brin said Tuesday.
The upgrades are being made as Google considers a widely anticipated initial public offering of its stock later this year. Brin declined Tuesday to discuss the possible IPO, expected to be one of the richest in nearly a decade.
If it occurs, a Google IPO could build a bigger war chest for the looming search showdown with Yahoo and Microsoft.
Google has built a sizable lead since Brin and fellow Stanford University graduate student Larry Page developed a new way to guide Web surfers to their desired Internet destinations.
Google’s websites handled 35% of all Web searches in December, compared with 27% at Yahoo sites and 15% for Microsoft sites, according to the latest data compiled by comScore Media Metrix, a research firm. AOL and other websites owned by Time Warner Inc. have a 16% share. Those sites largely rely on Google for their search results.
The latest improvements should help Google’s search engine maintain its advantage, predicted Chris Winfield, who runs an Internet marketing firm in New York that tracks the search engine industry.
“Having all those extra pages in the index really isn’t going to make much difference for average users, but it cements in their minds that Google has the best search engine out there and the company isn’t just resting on its laurels,” Winfield said.
