noveltune Chapter 189 Larry Page
Chapter 189 Larry Page
The corridor was filled with the smell of coffee and old books. The door to Laboratory 301 was open, and the hum of server fans could be heard from inside.
Ling Yun gently knocked on the door.
A tall, thin young man looked up; his blond hair was a little messy, and he was wearing a plaid shirt. He held a screwdriver in his hand, and in front of him was an open server case.
"Larry Page?" Ling Yun asked.
"It's me. You are... Ling Yun?"
"Yes."
Page put down the screwdriver and wiped his hands on his jeans. He pointed to the corner of the room, where a dozen desktop computers were piled up, connected by a network cable, with code scrolling across their screens.
"Our test cluster," he said, "indexes about ten million web pages."
Lingyun went over to take a look. One of the machines displayed the crawler's progress, processing approximately 50 pages per second.
"What about the accuracy rate?"
"Higher than AltaVista." Page walked to another computer, opened a simple web page, and typed "Stanford admissions".
The search results returned within 0.5 seconds. The first result was Stanford's official admissions page, the second was related news, and the third was academic papers.
"The ranking algorithm is based on link analysis." Page pulled up the backend data. "This admissions page is referenced by 187 internal web pages and 43 external web pages. The weight calculation takes into account the quality of the citation sources."
How long will it take for users to adapt?
"No need to adapt," Page said. "Just enter keywords and get results. It's more direct than Yahoo's directory categorization."
Ling Yun pulled up a chair and sat down.
"Sequoia told me about their interest in collaborating," he said. "My system can incorporate your search functionality."
"What are the conditions?"
"Three years free. All my products, including the Star System, Star Browser, and Star Language, will have their search entry points prominently displayed so users can access them immediately."
Paige sat down, placing her hands on her knees. "Three years from now?"
"Revenue sharing. It's based on the search volume generated through my entry point. You get 70%, I get 30%."
"Where's the data?"
"Users log in with my account to search, and their search history and click behavior data are sent to my data center. You keep the algorithm data yourselves."
Page was silent for a few seconds. He got up, walked to the whiteboard, and picked up a pen.
I drew two boxes. The left one says "Users" and the right one says "Search Engine".
"Your entry point brings in traffic." He drew an arrow in the middle. "We provide search results. Data... why store it separately?"
"Because the users are mine," Ling Yun said. "They use my account system. Search history can feed back into my system, making it better understand user habits. This is valuable for optimizing the entire ecosystem."
"This involves privacy."
"So we'll anonymize it. And," Ling Yun paused, "the data is safer with me. If it were all stored with you, the government might request access in the future. Separate storage diversifies the risk."
Page put down his pen and walked back to the server. He unplugged a network cable and plugged it back in. The crawler's progress on the screen paused briefly, then continued running.
"We need money," he said. "To buy more servers. Our current indexing speed can't keep up with the growth of web pages."
"I can vote."
Sequoia said it would cost ten million for a 20% stake.
"I agree with this valuation, and the money should arrive next week."
“But the data terms…” Page turned around, “I need to talk to Sergei. He’s not here today.”
"Okay." Ling Yun stood up. "But my conditions won't change. Data sharing is essential; it's the foundation of our cooperation. Why should I give you access without the data?"
The lab fell silent. Only the sound of the server fans and the voices of students talking in the distant corridor could be heard.
Paige walked to the window and looked at the palm trees outside.
"Three years of free service, then a 30/70 split," he said.
"Yes."
"You can store the data, but you cannot sell it to others."
"We will not sell the data. It will only be used for internal product optimization."
"An agreement needs to be signed."
"certainly."
Paige walked back and held out her hand.
"I need three days to confirm the details with Sergei. We'll have the final meeting with Sequoia next Monday."
"it is good."
Shake hands. Peppa's hands were dry, and her grip wasn't strong.
When Lingyun left the lab, Page had already returned to the server and continued debugging.
There was a public telephone at the end of the corridor. Lingyun inserted the coin and dialed Sophia.
"Prepare ten million US dollars and go through the investment process. Target: a search engine team at Stanford."
"What's the valuation?"
"After the investment of 50 million, we will take 20%."
"What are the key terms?"
"Three years of free promotion, after which we will take 30% of the traffic revenue, using our account data and uploading user data to our data center."
There was a two-second pause on the other end of the phone.
"Data sharing terms...did they agree to that?"
"The deal has just been reached."
"This is crucial."
"I know."
After hanging up the phone, Ling Yun walked out of the building.
The afternoon sun was shining brightly at Stanford. Students were reading on the lawn, and bicycles were passing by.
Ling Yun took out his notebook from his briefcase, turned to a new page, and wrote:
1997.10.30
Stanford, BackRub
Key points of the agreement:
1. The search box is pinned to the top of the Star Browser homepage.
2. The Starry Sky system desktop integrates a search plugin.
3. Three years of free traffic redirection
4. Divided into: 30% (Stars) / 70% (Search)
5. User search data is synchronized to the Starry Sky Data Center.
6. Investment: $1000 million / 20% equity
I closed the laptop and started the car.
As he drove out of the Stanford campus, he glanced in the rearview mirror.
The computer science building gradually shrank in the shadows of the trees.
Inside, a young man was facing a server, debugging code that would one day index the entire Internet.