February 12, 2007 3:55 AM PST
In 1999, Google emerged in the crowded field of Web search, dominated by the likes of Yahoo, Lycos, AltaVista and Inktomi. But Google eventually rose to the top of the search heap because it developed a better algorithm for mining the Web. Design experts argue that what really captured the world's attention was Google's simple design approach. Rivals like Yahoo feature crowded home pages of ads and links, but Google keeps its home page relatively spit-spot of everything but the search box. The company is also said to have a staff of about 50 user design experts, a relative rarity in Silicon Valley.
Photo by Google
