Google Expands Index to 6 Billion Items

Posted on March 5, 2004

Google Inc. announced it expanded the breadth of its web index to more than 6 billion items. Google's expansion comes as the company faces new competition from Yahoo, which recently dropped Google for its own new in-house search engine. Microsoft has also promised to come up with a more powerful search option.

"People worldwide can find more information with Google than with any other search engine," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of Products.

Google's collection of 6 billion items comprises 4.28 billion web pages, 880 million images, 845 million Usenet messages, and a new collection of book-related information pages.

Google's Search Services

Google Web Search: The company's flagship search service now offers 4.28 billion web pages. Google Web Search also enables users to search for numerous non-HTML files, including PDF, Microsoft Office, and Corel documents.

Google Image Search: Comprising more than 880 million images, Google Image Search enables users to find electronic images relevant to a wide variety of topics. Advanced features include search by image size, format (JPEG and/or GIF), coloration, and the ability to restrict searches to specific sites or domains.

Google Groups: This 20-year archive of Usenet conversations is the largest of its kind on the Internet. Google Groups offers more than 845 million postings in more than 35,000 topical categories.

Google Print: A test service that enables Google users to access a range of book related information, such as first chapters, reviews, and bibliographic information. These pages also offer users links to directly purchase titles.

Other services owned by Google include Blogger.com and Orkut.com, a newly launched social networking service. Google acquired Blogger.com last year but has not incorporated it into its search services.

"Google Image Search has been significantly updated," said Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president of Technology. "We've doubled the index to more than 880 million images, enhanced search quality, and improved the user interface."