I would say that it was technology + design, rather than technology alone. It's also very important to remember that Google also looked different than Yahoo!,

I would say that it was technology + design, rather than technology alone. It's also very important to remember that Google also looked different than Yahoo!, AltaVista, etc. They were large portals with huge numbers of links. It was pretty confusing. Google was very simple. There was a search bar on a clean white screen.