I just discovered that Google's 2001 index is now searchable as a result of their 10th anniversary.
http://www.google.com/search2001.html

Some notable differences are:

1. Search 1,326,920,000 web pages

This may have seemed like a lot on 2001, but if Google was to list the pages today, it would run right off the screen.

2. No sponsored links

That's right...their wasn't a Google AdWords or AdSense...or any ads. The search results without ads seem cleaner in 2001, yet the right side without these ads appears empty to me now that I'm used to seeing Sponsored Links.

3. Web, Images, Maps, News, Shopping, Mail, and more

Well in 2001, there was only the web, nothing else. Now there's Images, Maps, News, Shopping, Mail, Video, Group, Books, Scholar, Finance, Blogs, YouTube, Calendar, Photos, Documents, Reader, Sites...and the list goes on and on! But I'd like to mention one more that I believes sums things up for Google in 2008,...Google Earth. Maybe by 2010 there will be a Google Galaxy.

...And it all started with a search engine.

Well this is the simple rule of this world. Improvment and success, they grow at very fast rate and they put everything at the right place and at right time.

Originally Posted by qwest21

Well this is the simple rule of this world. Improvment and success, they grow at very fast rate and they put everything at the right place and at right time.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by kline11

Agreed.

hmm... they didn't have adsense back then? And I didn't know that they keep their index I thought they just trash it.

No adwords or adsense till 2001
where did they got money from then ?

Originally Posted by motherknucker

No adwords or adsense till 2001
where did they got money from then ?

Adsense was launched in 2003...June 18th I believe. How did they earn money? INVESTERS.