Just Don't Be Evil.

Sometimes I wonder if Google is the single web site I could least live without. People, places, things - there's little you can't Google, particularly as the data collected in its ever-widening net could provide a tsunami of information at the click of a button. Sometimes, it's frightening just how much is available. At one point, I used the search engine to do background research for a job interview and the employer was astounded at how prepared I was; another time, I tried the same thing and had to conceal my knowledge of sensitive information about the interviewer. Knowledge can be a double-edged sword.

As one of those brands that has begun to transcend its industry - like Kleenex or Post-it Notes - the ubiquitous term 'Google' has become one of those words used interchangeably in language as an object, subject or verb. Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to attend the London Economic Development Corporation's Technology Breakfast with Google and came away with a better understanding of the company and its origins.

Shuman Ghosemajumder (who, I suppose, might find this post if he ever Googles himself - the search engine does seem to be one of the great vanity tools of our generation), Business Product Manager for Trust & Safety at Google, came to share some of his experiences with the silicon valley giant. A graduate of The University of Western Ontario (where he actually taught debating skills to a class of mine when I was in university), it was a coming-home of sorts for Ghosemajumder, who has been busy racking up awards on the left coast for the past few years.

He spoke for approximately 45 minutes about the history of the company, its objectives, his role and a little bit about the future. In brief, here are some of the more salient - or interesting to me - points from the discussion:

• Early versions of the Google home page didn't yet include the copyright message at the bottom and people thought the page had simply not yet finished loading. Ah, the early days of dial-up modems. With the addition of the message, people began clicking away and haven't stopped since.
• Google penetration for Internet searches in the United States is 65 per cent - and even higher in Canada.
• The company's original logo (when it was still called BackRub - yes, that was apparently he project's original name) was a hand on a back. Maybe that explains why Google has been used so much for, ahem, porn.
  
• To get his job, Ghosemajumder had to endure 19 - yes, 19 - job interviews over three months, jetting between New York City and California. And his final interview - with founder, Sergey Brin - revolved predominantly around Ghosemajumder's home stereo system.
  
• The most highly sought-after employer in the United States for both undergraduates and graduate students, Google receives more than 3,000 job applications. Daily.
• When Ghosemajumder started at Google three years ago, there were 1,000 employees. Now, there are more than 12,000 worldwide, which is expected to double over the next year.
  
• 98 per cent of the company's revenues come from advertisements. I suppose it would be bad to say I never realized I had been viewing Google's ads. Or, maybe that's a good thing - impressions are being made without my realizing it.
• Early iterations of the artificial intelligence used for the company's AdSense software (which links advertisements to the copy on a given web page) apparently didn't do a great job detecting negative news: after one particularly gruesome murder in which body parts had been disposed of in suitcases, an AdSense ad was generated for luggage. Um, yike.
• The AdSense part of the business for which Ghosemajumder is responsible has grown by $2 Billion. Not a shabby thing to have on your CV.
  
• Google revenue in 2006: $10.6 Billion. Yes, that's with a 'B'.