《英语流行话题阅读:语境识词4500》60 What Do You Know about Google?

　　Unit 60
What Do You Know about Google?
Just a few years back, the word Google existed as the name of a cartoon character (Barney Google) and possibly among the random¹ phonemes mumbled² by toddlers. Today, one would be hard-pressed to find a person who hasn't heard of the search engine that bears this name. The word Google is a variant³ on the Google (10^100), a term coined by the 9-year-old nephew of American mathematician⁴ Edward Kasner, who asked him to think of a name for a very large number. The word Googolplex is the numeral that represents 10^googol. And perhaps not oddly, the word Googleplex is also now in play.
Within a few short years Google has become the top search engine in the world and has earned the most esteemed⁵ privilege in contemporary pop culture -- it has became a verb. ("I googled you and found out you were lying to me about your Ph.D. And you have a prison record!"). It is interesting to note that Google is fighting in the courts to keep its name out of the dictionary, much as Xerox⁶ fights to keep its name from being used as an equivalent to photocopying⁷. The legal concept in a nutshell: As the name becomes more commonly used, it becomes less of a brand, detracting from its proprietary⁸ nature. Google has also spawned⁹ products, projects concepts, and imitations galore. It is safe to say that Google is not just an Internet search engine, but has become something of a phenomenon.
Google stores a copy of every web page, except images, that it finds while spidering the web. Google does ALL this magic with just cheap PC servers. Google's data centers include a lot of the same equipment and software found in traditional IT data centers. For example, Google has a supercomputer based on hundreds of Intel's advanced 64-bit Itanium microprocessors¹⁰.
Google sees itself as a hard-core engineer culture that has virtually no managerial controls. Engineers work in teams but no one is there to control or set their projects. There is no management of the engineers. Google publishes pages of content and sells ads on those pages. That's very traditional newspaper or magazine business model, except that Google uses machines to harvest and publish the content instead of using editors, reporters, copy editors, etc. Google News is an engineering solution. Advertising¹¹ is also harvested by machines, running a simple auction¹² system between advertisers. And the distribution channel is the global computer network of the Internet. It's a very efficient business process, but it is a media business process.
Yahoo, however, clearly thinks of itself as a media company. It is full of media professionals, and the business is handled by people who know how to run a large media company. Yet at Google, there NO media professionals! They've done well so far, no one would disagree, but can computer engineers grow a media business? This could be Google's Achilles' heel.

1 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

2 mumbled   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He mumbled something to me which I did not quite catch. 他对我叽咕了几句话，可我没太听清楚。
• George mumbled incoherently to himself. 乔治语无伦次地喃喃自语。

3 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

4 mathematician   

n.数学家

参考例句：

• The man with his back to the camera is a mathematician.背对着照相机的人是位数学家。
• The mathematician analyzed his figures again.这位数学家再次分析研究了他的这些数字。

5 esteemed   

adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为

参考例句：

• The art of conversation is highly esteemed in France. 在法国十分尊重谈话技巧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He esteemed that he understood what I had said. 他认为已经听懂我说的意思了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 xerox   

n./v.施乐复印机，静电复印

参考例句：

• Xerox and Lucent are two more high-tech companies run by women.施乐和朗讯是另外两家由女性经营的大科技公司。
• You cannot take it home,but you can xerox it.你不能把它带回家，但可以复印。

7 photocopying   

v.影印，照相复制（photocopy的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• All photocopying machines need careful usage, and regular cleaning and maintenance. 所有照像复制机都需要小心使用、定期擦洗和维修。 来自辞典例句
• A trademark used for a photocopying process or machine employing xerography. 商标名，用于采用静电复印术的影印过程或机器。 来自互联网

8 proprietary   

n.所有权，所有的；独占的；业主

参考例句：

• We had to take action to protect the proprietary technology.我们必须采取措施保护专利技术。
• Proprietary right is the foundation of jus rerem.所有权是物权法之根基。

9 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

10 microprocessors   

微（信息）处理机( microprocessor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This sort of work would have been inconceivable before the advent of microprocessors. 在微处理机问世之前这种工作是难以想象的。
• In microprocessors, the name used for the IEEE interface bus standard. 微处理机中，IEEE接口总线标准的名字。

11 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

12 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。