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BBC Pidgin of Saturday, 30 September 2023

Source: BBC

Four ogbonge tins, two controversies wey don happun for di history of Google in 25 years

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"Who bin know say one dress go change di world?", na wetin actress and singer Jennifer Lopez laugh tok afta one ogbonge Versace dress she bin wear for 2000 bring out one need Internet users bin get.

For di old school Google search engine, pipo bin wan see wetin di dress wey Lopez wear go di Grammy gala look like but at di time, nothing bin dey to find only pictures. All di tins wey dey appear na text results with links to web pages.

Di ginger to find dat J-Lo dress loud sotay di search engine engineers start di Google Images to help find pictures dem.

Dis na one of di plenti moments of di search engine wey university students Larry Page and Sergey Brin start on September 27, 1998.

In di last 25 years, e don turn to di most used search engine for world, even as e dey face plenti gbas-gbos even reach legal actions for dia number one position and how dem dey take boost advertising revenues.

Wetin be some of di ogbonge tins and controversies wey Google don face?

Di Birth of Google

Larry Page and Sergei Brin bin dey run dia PhD for Stanford University for di 1990s wen dem start to work on one project wey go later be one of di biggest success of di tech insustry.

Even though dem admit say dem no immediately gel, dia friendship bin grow as dem dey work on new Internet search engine system for dia dorm room.

At first, dem call am BackRub wey be software wia di search engine go list di results by which one dey popular pass, as dem find out say most times, na di most popular result be di most useful.

Search engine sabi pesin for di University Duisburg-Essen (Germany), Professor Dirk Lewandoski explain give BBC Mundo say, "wetin bin dey special about Google for di beginning na di PageRank algorithm and di clear search-centric ad-free page layout".

Page and Brin later change di name to Google wey come from di mathematics word "googol" wey be di number 10 raise to power 100.

Dem gada $1 million from family and friends and oda investors and on September 4, 1998, dem launch di company from dia friend garage. Na for 2005, dem officially shift di anniversary go September 27.

Prof Lewandoski note say, "wen Google bin comot, competitors bin dey use portal strategy, dat is, dem bin dey pack plenti services (like email, news, etc,) for inside one website. So search bin dey background and users dey face websites wey full with things."

Google blow immediately with about 10,000 searches per day in di first few weeks. Today, di search engine dey ansa about 1 billion searches per day inside 150 languages for 190 kontris.

Google Images solution

Like search engines bin start sake of di need to find web pages with di amount of information for di internet, na so Google Images search engine bin comot to ansa anoda need wey Internet users bin get 20 years ago.

Jennifer Lopez bin dey nominated for di 2000 Grammy Awards wia she cause kasala with di dress wey she wear wey get big slit for front.

She tell NBC Access Hollywood for interview say, "we bin put cello tape so di dress go stay. Wen we start dey waka, all of a sudden pipo start to whisper like, 'Who be dat, wetin dey happun?' And wen we enta red carpet, na so kasala burst."

Google don tok say, dat na ogbonge moment for dia history because for 2001, dem launch di display images option for dia search.

Di company explain for one of dia blogs say "Her daring Versace dress turn to instant fashion legend and na di most popular query for Google dat time. Back den, search engine results bin dey comot in list so pipo no fit find picture dem dey search for easily. Na wetin ginger us to create Google Images."

Lens Search

In di last two decades, Google don add useful tools to take browse di internet, like translator wey fit allow pipo read for oda languages, or voice search wey become popular with handphones.

But one of dia ogbonge technology comot for 2017 and na Google Lens. E be technology wey make am possible for pesin to use dia camera lens take get informate from di internet.

If pesin wan know di name of plant, e go hard to describe am well-well in words to search am. Also wen you travel go wia dem no dey speak your language, e dey useful to fit use di camera translate signs for road.

And dat na wetin Lens fit do. In layman terms, di way e dey work be say e go compare di object with tins wey resemble am online and den rank am by relevance.

Di way Google explain am be say, "imagine Lens dey look dog wey e see say 95% dis na German Shephard and 5% probability say na corgi. Lens fit only show you result wey show German Shephard cos na wetin e see say di dog resemble pass."

According to recent report, na 12 billion queries Lens don ansa every month.

BERT wey no dey well known

Di company explain say for instance, "if dem tell you to mix batter with banana to make pancake, you no go use di banana as spoon take mix di batter, but wetin dey obvious to humans like context, tone dey very difficult for computers".

Di engineers come create Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), system wey dem base on neural network engineering wey dey allow Google language understanding models to collect training on how human beings dey tok.

Dem start to dey use am for 2019 for ova 70 languages.

BERT dey ansa user queries by finding wetin di word mean as in di way wey di search come in so e go find result.

Google say, "difference dey between knowing di words and understanding di meaning".

Now we dey enta di controversies wey Google don get for dia 25 years.

Di all powerful algorithm wey get wahala

Wen pesin search for sometin, most times dem no dey pass di first page of results. E dey make big difference for which sites and which kain information dey come to di attention of internet users.

Throughout dia history, Google no dey comot with random list, na algorithm dey arrange am.

How di search engine algorithm dey work, why e dey work like dat, and wetin how e dey work dey cause na sometin wey technology analysts don dey call out for recent years.

Nilay Patel wey be editor-in-chief for di tech site The Verge tok for article say, "wetin Google promise be say dem go organize di world informate but ova di past 25 years, plenti of di informate don dey organized for Google: to rank for Google results."

Lewandoski explain say di original algorithm, PageRank bin dey responsible for judging di structure of links for web and to gain informate about di popularity or quality.

E say no perfect search engine dey as everyone dey judge web content differently.

As di number one industry search engine, di company don face wahala from goment agencies for Europe and di United States wey don try control am.

Google don dey face dia first major lawsuit for US as di Justice Department dey accuse dem say dem dey run illegal monopoly practices with anti-competitive distribution agreement with phone manufacturers and telephone companies so dem go only use dia services.

Google lawyers don reject di charges and dey argue say Google position for di market na from dia merit.

Advertising results

Lewandoski hala say "wetin Google no dey do well na im business model, wey be context based advertising. Dis adverts dey appear as result for search and e be like normal search results."

E add say "Ads no only dey for just products and services but also for political and social mata."

As at now, Larry Page and Sergei Brin no dey public eye. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai na who don dey collect all di gbas gbos di company don face recently.

For letter to celebrate di company 25 years, e gree say "some stumbles" don dey wia "you learn lessons and work to improve".

But e hail di innovation from di company founders and engineers ova di years.

E say, "one ogbonge truth of innovation be say once you push di limits of technology, e don move from extraordinary to ordinary. Dat na why Google never take success for granted."