Google Search

Google Search (also known simply as Google or google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze and rank websites based on their relevance to the search query. Google Search is the most-visited website in the world. As of 2025, Google Search has a 90% share of the global search engine market. Approximately 24.1% of Google's monthly global traffic comes from the United States, 5.6% from India, 5.5% from Japan, 4.8% from Brazil, and 3.7% from the United Kingdom according to data provided by Similarweb. The same source reports that 58% of users are male and 42% are female.

The order of search results returned by Google is based, in part, on a priority rank system called "PageRank". Google Search also provides many different options for customized searches, using symbols to include, exclude, specify or require certain search behavior, and offers specialized interactive experiences, such as flight status and package tracking, weather forecasts, currency, unit, and time conversions, word definitions, and more.

The main purpose of Google Search is to search for text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers, as opposed to other data, such as images or data contained in databases. It was originally developed in 1996 by Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Scott Hassan. The search engine would also be set up in the garage of Susan Wojcicki's Menlo Park home. In 2011, Google introduced "Google Voice Search" to search for spoken, rather than typed, words. In 2012, Google introduced a semantic search feature named Knowledge Graph.

Analysis of the frequency of search terms may indicate economic, social and health trends. Data about the frequency of use of search terms on Google can be openly inquired via Google Trends and have been shown to correlate with flu outbreaks and unemployment levels, and provide the information faster than traditional reporting methods and surveys. As of mid-2016, Google's search engine has begun to rely on deep neural networks.

In August 2024, a US judge in Virginia ruled that Google held an illegal monopoly over Internet search and search advertising. The court found that Google maintained its market dominance by paying large amounts to phone-makers and browser-developers to make Google its default search engine. In April 2025, the trial to determine which remedies sought by the Department of Justice would be imposed to address Google's illegal monopoly, which could include breaking up the company and preventing it from using its data to secure dominance in the AI sector.^{[needs update]}

Google indexes hundreds of terabytes of information from web pages. Before 2024, Google also provided desktop users links to cached versions of their search results, formed by the search engine's latest indexing of the website in question. Additionally, Google indexes some file types, being able to show users PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, certain Flash multimedia content, and plain text files. Users can also activate "SafeSearch", a filtering technology aimed at preventing explicit and pornographic content from appearing in search results.

Despite Google search's immense index, sources generally assume that Google is only indexing less than 5% of the total Internet, with the rest belonging to the deep web, inaccessible through its search tools.

In 2012, Google changed its search indexing tools to demote sites that had been accused of piracy. In October 2016, Gary Illyes, a webmaster trends analyst with Google, announced that the search engine would be making a separate, primary web index dedicated for mobile devices, with a secondary, less up-to-date index for desktop use. The change was a response to the continued growth in mobile usage, and a push for web developers to adopt a mobile-friendly version of their websites. In December 2017, Google began rolling out the change, having already done so for multiple websites.