Australia Blog
News and notes from Google Down Under
What’s it like to have a superpower?
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Not so long ago you would have visited a library if you wanted a specific, hard-to-find fact.
You may have had to travel across the city, or wait for a book to arrive from out of state. You might have had to call a university, and if you’re lucky, receive a fax, or for more general knowledge reference an encyclopedia.
The ability to call on the world’s knowledge with a flick of your fingers would have seemed like a superpower.
Source: AlphaBeta
It’s been a long journey from there to where we are today.
The first search engine,
Archie
, was created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal, before there was even a World Wide Web. The
first website
only went live on August 6, 1991, and contained information on how readers could set up their own web server.
By the time Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the Google.com domain in September 1997 they had decided to name their creation after the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros, reflecting the seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.
The invention of Search allowed digital records across the world to be indexed and made available for every person with access to the web. Today we take for granted the fact that Search allows us to find information for work or leisure and connects us with businesses that provide services we want to use and goods we want to purchase. Nowadays the majority of Google searches in many nations are made on computers that fit in people’s pockets.
Search has given all of us information superpowers, but what does that mean for Australia today? We asked the experts at AlphaBeta to
get into the numbers
.
AlphaBeta estimates that in the past year:
Around 15.5 million Australians used Google Search
The average Australian saved around 5 minutes per day, or 31 hours per year, using Google Search, which equates to $9.8 billion of value
Around 840,000 Australian businesses connected with consumers through Google
These headline figures mean improvements in the lives of everyday Australians. Business owners Sandra and Stuart from
Bay Fish N Trips
, for example, have
transformed their business, and their lives, using digital tools
. They’ve experienced 55 per cent revenue growth since beginning to advertise their business online. Where they’d previously had half-full fishing charters, they now have full boats. Stories like this are unfolding all around Australia.
Source: AlphaBeta
As the cost of finding information has fallen, people across Australia are using Search to find answers more regularly than they could in a pre-search world. Most people have had a dinner table argument solved with a quick search on a mobile phone, or found a solution to a workplace problem online, but perhaps the most important change of all is for the students growing up today who’ve never seen a world without Search.
In 1990, students answered around 3.5 million questions per day using offline resources like library books and tutors. In 2015, students answered around 25 million questions per day using offline and online resources such as Search and YouTube. Now that’s a superpower. You can read the full report from AlphaBeta here.
Alan Noble, director of engineering, Google Australia
Labels
20%
3D
AdSense
AdWords
AdWords Express
Agencies
agencies adwords TV
Analytics
android
announcements
antarctica
App Marketplace
apps
art
Australia
Australian IT
big data
Big Query
blogging
blogs
books
broadband
business
calendar
campaign management
careers
CeBIT
chrome
Chromebox
cloud computing
competition
computer science
conversion tracking
creativity
currents
cyber safety
cycling
dashboard
Developer Day
developers
digital advertising
digital economy
Display
display ads
Doodles
drive
ebooks
education
Election
energy
enhanced campaigns
Enterprise
entrepreneurship
environment
Equatorgate
Fairfax
film
filtering
G'day Google
Getting Aussie Business Online
Gmail
gone google
gonegoogle
google
Google App Engine
Google Apps
Google Apps for Business
Google Apps for Education
Google Art Project
Google Australia
Google Chrome
Google Code
Google docs
Google Drive
Google Earth
google maps
Google Places
google play
Google Search
Google Serve
Google Sites
Google Talk
Google Trends
Google+
Googlers and culture
government
green
Guest blogger
guest speakers
Hangouts
HR
iGoogle
information
innovation
internet
internet industry
IT
Julia Gillard
language
life
local
maps
measurement
media industry
mobile
Moderator
movies
music
navigation
NBN
netball
new features
news
NGEN
non-profit
online advertising
online safety
open government
open source
Partnerships
picasa
play
Policy
politics
prime minister
privacy
prizes
PSI
publishers
puppies
real estate
Reception
recruitment
removals
rentals
reporting
research
Running
scholarships
schools
science
search
search ads
Security
shopping
sitelinks
sketchup
small business
smartphones
SMB
street view
student programs
students
Stupid Google employee tricks
Summer of Code
Support
survey
sydney
symphony
tablet
technology
Themes
tips
training
transit
translate
transparency
transport
Universities
vault
voicesearch
Wave
women
workplace culture
YouTube
YouTube Live
zeitgeiest
Archive
2019
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Feed
Google
on
Follow @googledownunder
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
