Google Part I: Origins of Search

We tell the story of the single greatest business ever created: Google search. From its origins as a Stanford research project called BackRub, Google became the front door to the internet. Today it’s an essential service for over half the world, and one that generates more profit than ANY other US company — more than Apple, Microsoft, or Berkshire Hathaway. But it wasn’t always so obvious. When Larry and Sergey began working on BackRub in 1996, search was a backwater industry in silicon valley. Existing search companies were eking out a living as vendors to the then-dominant “portals” like AOL and Yahoo. Google’s come-from-behind success was the result of three massive step-function leaps forward in algorithms, infrastructure and business model… some invented by Google and some borrowed (and perfected!) by them. Today, things are not so obvious once again for Google. Despite earning more profits than all of its big tech peers, its stock trades at significantly lower multiples — a $1 trillion or more discount to Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. Investors are concerned that AI will render Google’s beautiful business model obsolete, even though Google also basically invented modern AI and continues to lead on many dimensions. This episode begins a multi-part series where we dive into the full history that led us to this point. Tune in and enjoy! Update: when you finish, check out our Google Part II episode, " Alphabet, Inc. "! Sponsors: Sentry: WorkOS: Anthropic: Statsig: Links: BackRub recreation Original Google logo Jeff Dean’s resume Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Alphabet Study Episode sources Carve Outs: The Rehearsal with Nathan Fielder (Season 2) Your Friends and Neighbors Andor Season 2 Gamecraft Season 3 Steam Deck vs Switch 2 dilemma More Acquired! Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes Join the Slack

You can listen to Google Part I: Origins of Search online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Google Part I: Origins of Search is an episode from Acquired by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal.

This episode is 217:38 long.

This episode was published on Jun 30, 2025.

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