Question

Nonfiction Reading Test

Google

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. Refer to the text to check

your answers when appropriate.

You know that you're doing something big when

your company name becomes a verb. Ask Xerox.

In 1959 they created the first plain paper copy

machine. It was one of the most successful

products ever. The company name Xerox grew

into a verb that means "to copy," as in "Bob, can

you Xerox this for me?" Around 50 years later, the

same thing happened to Google. Their company

name grew into a verb that means "to do an

internet search." Now everyone and their grandma

knows what it means to Google it.

Unlike Xerox, Google wasn't the first company to

invent their product, not by a long shot. Lycos

released their search engine in 1993. Yahoo! came

out in 1994. AltaVista began serving results in

1995. Google did not come out until years later, in

1998. Though a few years difference may not

seem like much, this is a major head start in the

fast moving world of tech. So how did Google do

it? How did they overtake their competitors who

had such huge leads in time and money? Maybe

one good idea made all the difference.

There are millions and millions of sites on the

internet. How does a search engine know which

ones are relevant to your search? This is a question

that great minds have been working on for

decades. To understand how Google changed the

game, you need to know how search engines

worked in 1998. Back then most websites looked

at the words in your query. They counted how

many times those words appeared on each page.

Then they might return pages where the words in

your query appeared the most. This system did not

work well and people often had to click through

pages and pages of results to find what they

wanted.

Google was the first search engine that began

considering links. Links are those blue underlined

words that take you to other pages when you click

on them. Larry Page, cofounder of Google,

believed that meaningful data could be drawn from

how those links connect. Page figured that

websites with many links pointing at them were

more important than those that had few. He was

right. Google's search results were much better

than their rivals. They would soon become the

world's most used search engine.

It wasn't just the great search results that led to

Google becoming so well liked. It also had to do

with the way that they presented their product.

Most of the other search engines were cluttered.

Their home pages were filled with everything from

news stories to stock quotes. But Google's

homepage was, and still is, clean. There's nothing

on it but the logo, the search box, and a few links.

It almost appears empty. In fact, when they were

first testing it, users would wait at the home page

and not do anything. When asked why, they said

that they were, "waiting for the rest of the page to

load." People couldn't imagine such a clean and

open page as being complete. But the fresh design

grew on people once they got used to it.

These days Google has its hands in everything

from self-driving cars to helping humans live

longer. Though they have many other popular

products, they will always be best known for their

search engine. The Google search engine has

changed our lives and our language. Not only is it

a fantastic product, it is a standing example that

one good idea (and a lot of hard work) can change

the world.


2. Explain how Google was able to overcome its competitors. Cite information from the text to support

your response.


3. What do Google and Xerox have in common? Support your answer with information from the text.

Answer 1

Respuesta:

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