Think of a search engine. If you thought of one, chances are it would be Google. Most people do. The verb to "google" has apparently entered the English language, at least, not to mention others, and something like 50% of all web searches start with Google (up to 80% of searches were, until recently, carried out by the Google engine, counting those searches where Google sits under the hood of other search sites).

Last year Interbrand asked people around the world the question: "Which brand impacted your life the most last year?". The brand that came out tops, with 15% of the vote, ahead of brands such as Apple, Coca Cola and Starbucks? You guessed it: Google.

Google didn't exist seven years ago. But today it's the world's number one search engine. How'd they do it?

Well, they must have spent millions of dollars on advertising to get there, right? Wrong. Nary a bean.

Now compare that feat with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on getting the five-billion dollar Iridium satellite phone network off the ground - only to have it fail through lack of subscribers.

What's the difference?

The consumer. You and me. Despite being told by Iridium that I could call my aunt in Edinburgh from my phone in Antarctica, or some-such, I never could think how I'd use it on a day to day basis - or why I'd pay so much for so little. (Not so little: the handset could barely fit in a briefcase.)

But I use Google every day. And no-one has to tell me why or how I should use it.

After all, it's not as if Google was jumping into a relatively unexploited niche, like Netscape did. When Google was still unknown outside Larry Page's dorm room, the likes of AltaVista, Yahoo and Excite were the search engine kings. Their brands were well known, their reputations established, their audiences loyal - or so it seemed, till Google arrived on the scene.

Let's talk about the marketing budget. Have you ever seen an ad for Google? Any glowing TV spots that look like a million dollars and probably cost more? Any double-page spreads in Time or Wired or PC World? Nah.

"We have done virtually nothing to market the brand," said Google's head of marketing, Cindy McCaffrey*

"We have done no consumer marketing, advertising, big brand awareness advertising of any kind. It is something we considered early on but decided that what we really should do is invest in innovating the technology itself. And again, that's all about staying very, very focused on the user and delivering an experience that was unparalleled on the Internet."

McCaffrey said Google's marketing strategy is focused on word of mouth. "When people find something exceptionally useful, they tell others."

Pretty simple, really.

I love the Google story simply because it's the epitome of what can be done without a budget the size of a planet, in a relatively short time, and in seemingly impossible circumstances.

Oh, and for those interested in the technology behind Google's power, check out the background on their awesome technology called "pigeonrank", at http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html.

* In an interview with Becky Worley on Tech Live