The Magic of a Click: A Technical Odyssey into Google's Realm

Introduction

Before we start, let me put forward a warning. This post is for the Alices' of the tech world. You are about to go down a rabbit-hole, a rather pointless one for some muggles, if I may add. Anyway, I had a lot of free time this week (not really) and I'm hoping you do too. They say an idle mind is a devil's workshop. Well, my devil prompted me to look up the inner workings of everyone's favorite uncle, good Ol' uncle Google. What happens when you type https://www.google.com in your browser and press Enter? If this question never crossed your mind, it certainly has now {not me grinning}. Come on then, dearest muggle, join me and let's embark on a journey to uncover one of the modern-day mysteries.

Upon typing "https://www.google.com" into your browser and pressing the "Enter" key, it initiates a very detailed process. I'll get to that in a minute, butfirst, let's make sure that we're atleast in the same book. I know at some point you must have heard of an IP address. Every computer or IoT device has a unique address which identifies it. This enables computers to basically "talk" to one another. Websites such as www.google.com or www.facebook.com also have IP addresses associated with them. I know you must be wondering, if IP addresses are for computers, why do websites have them too? Well dearest muggle, this is bcause websites/pages are hosted on beautiful super machines called web servers, that ensure the sites will be accesible to you 24/7. Yes, you have web servers to thank when reading this article at 3am because you just can't fall asleep, lol!

The shortcut

Let's get into the process of loading www.google.com on your browser. This involves a fascinating journey through the intricate layers of the internet's infrastructure. The device you are using AKA the web client first looks at it's own files to see whether it has a recollection of the website in question. At this point it is searching if it has the IP address of the website stored somewhere. Let's face it, it's 2023 guys, it probably does at this point. In the of chance that you've never googled anything, genius, then your computer goes up one step higher and looks for this information from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). For most, the process is almost over here. I'll get to the remaining bit soon, but first let me explain something.

The Long route

If you truly live in technological blackhole spot, that even your ISP does not have Google's IP address, a Domain Name System (DNS) request is sent to the DNS server. The human-friendly domain name "www.google.com" needs to be translated into an IP address that computers can understand. There's probably a couple million websites on the Internet. It might not be humaly possible to remember a set of 4 or 6 numbers that's linked to every single website out here. Most of us have to hit the "Forgot my Password" button once in a while, or in some cases a lot, yikes! Fret not, cause the DNS server is your buddy that saves the day. Your browser sends a DNS query to a DNS server, which responds with the corresponding IP address for Google's servers. Of course this is a whole process that deserves its own post, so I'll move on.

The connection i.e TCP/IP

With the IP address, your browser can now establish a connection using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP). TCP ensures that data is reliably transmitted between your computer and Google's servers, while IP is responsible for routing the data packets across the internet. Uh oh, not so fast. Before reaching Google's servers, the data packets pass through firewalls, which act as gatekeepers protecting against unauthorized access. Firewalls monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic, ensuring the security of the connection. Just like in real life, safety first.

Once connected, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) in conjunction with the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) come into play. This encryption ensures that the data exchanged between your browser and Google's servers remains secure and private. A HTTP request is sent and feedback is given from the web server.

The Web Servers

Google's web infrastructure is vast, it therefore makes sense that it is distributed across multiple servers. To optimize performance and distribute incoming traffic evenly, a load balancer is employed. The load balancer directs the HTTP request from your browser to a specific server. This ensures efficient resource utilization and preventing overload on any single server. Again, the load-balancing methodology is a whole other topic, that I would not get into at this point in time. I need to google that some more, :-) Can you imagine the chaos if Google crashed for a few hours/days?

We are almost there, I promise. Once the request reaches the designated server, the highly optimized and scalable Google web server takes over. The web server processes the HTTP request, and sends back the requested web page to your browser in Hypertext Markup Language(HTML). This basically gives instructions to your browser on how to render the page correctly. I'd like to think of this like brand guidelines that you give your graphic designer. At this point Google's search page loads into your browser. Now you can search for the article I wrote on Load balancing (just kidding, there's no such article).

Your particular search

In order to get your personalized search results, an application server is used. It processes the request, interacts with databases, and generates dynamic content based on the user's input. In Google's case, this could involve complex algorithms and vast databases to deliver relevant search results.

Conclusion

The journey from typing "www.google.com" to seeing the actual webpage displayed is a stack of technologies working seamlessly. Each component plays a unique role in ensuring a fast, secure, and reliable browsing experience. Understanding this intricate process highlights the complexity and sophistication of web infrastructure. This journey takes places in a fraction of a second. Fascinating, right? Almost magical!