I'm Feeling Lucky_ The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 - Douglas Edwards [211]
CPU: Central processing unit—the part of a computer that does the actual "thinking" or processing of code to execute instructions.
Crawler: An automated computer program that follows links from website to website, collecting information about the pages it finds and the URLs at which they live. See Spider.
Cruft: Cruft is bad. Like the stuff that grows under ungroomed toenails. Like barnacles on a speedboat. It usually refers to old code or dead links on a web page, but it can be applied to any unwanted material that accumulates anywhere. The men's locker room in the Googleplex was filled with cruft, much of it unwashed and hockey-related.
Database: Information collected and stored in a computer in a structured way, so that it can be easily accessed and searched. Like a dictionary that contains words in alphabetical order.
Google Original Ads: The first ad system developed and deployed by Google, it offered CPM ads that were sold by sales representatives. These ads, which appeared above the search results, became known as "premium Ads" when AdWords ads were introduced.
Googler: A Google employee who is neither still a Noogler nor yet a Xoogler.
GoTo (later renamed Overture): An advertising network founded in Pasadena, California, that pioneered the idea of a pay-for-placement search engine, in which companies bid for the most prominent position in search results for specific terms. GoTo was Google's key competitor in supplying ads to major Internet sites like AOL, Yahoo, and MSN.
GWS: Google Web Server (pronounced: "gwiss"). The software that interacts with users when they enter searches and when Google sends results back to them. It doesn't determine the results, it just delivers them. It also controls the look of the pages on Google's website, so when those pages need to change, a new GWS needs to be pushed out (sent) to the servers.
Hardware: Any part of a computer you can touch with your hands. Anything with wires, disk drives, cables, or a power cord coming out of it.
Incremental index: An index that is continually refreshed with new data and is integrated with another index that changes less frequently. For example, an incremental index might include daily-updated pages from news websites to be mixed in with infrequently changing pages that form a much larger index.
Index: An organized list of web pages that can be searched much more quickly than the original pages listed within it. There are many ways to organize an index, and the more efficient the technique used, the faster an algorithm can find and retrieve a specific piece of information.
Inktomi: A search-technology company from Berkeley, California, that supplied search results to the majority of web portals, such as Yahoo, AOL, and MSN, before Google entered the market.
Intellectual property (IP): The output of a creative effort that can be legally protected. It often refers to patented technology, such as search algorithms, but can also refer to music, movies, artwork, and so on.
Internet Service Provider (ISP): A company that provides a connection to the Internet, whether by phone line, cable modem, or wireless network.
Keyword (also query or search term): The word or words that users type into a search box—that is, the thing they are trying to find. Advertisers specify (target) keywords when they purchase ads. When a user searches for one of the targeted keywords, the results page may display the targeted ad.
Machine: A generic term for a computer or a web server. Also a box, a PC, a server.
Nontrivial: A euphemism for "impossible." Since engineers are not going to admit anything is impossible, they use this word instead. When an engineer says something is "nontrivial," it's the equivalent of an airline pilot calmly saying you may encounter "just a bit of turbulence" as he flies you into a Category 5 hurricane. See also Trivial.
Noogler: A new Googler.