A Search Engine Worth Gambling on

Size Matters

A search engine is only as good as the volume of the Web pages it has indexed. Brin says Google has indexed approximately 100 million of the estimated 800 million Web pages. It can list pages it hasn't indexed; but those pages aren't ranked for relevance. That extends Google's present page reach to about 300 million.

In the next few weeks, Brin intends to increase Google's number of indexed pages to 200 million and its entire coverage to 400 million pages. According to Search Engine Watch, the search engine with the most indexed pages is currently AlltheWeb.com, with 200 million.

Google's site offers a clean, simple interface--no e-mail, directory lists, or pulsing banner ads. So how does Google plan to make a buck? Right now it's riding on $25 million in funding and technology partnerships.

But ads are coming. To maintain speed, the ads will be text-based, plus they'll be finely tuned to your search, Brin says. Meanwhile, Google offers some of the fastest, most relevant searching you can find.