Google Search

Google Search, commonly referred to as Google Web Search or Google, is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. It is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, handling more than three billion searches each day.As of February 2015 it is the most used search engine in the US with 64.5% market share.

The order of search on Google's search-results pages is based, in part, on a priority rank called a "PageRank". Google Search provides many different options for customized search, using Boolean operators such as: exclusion ("-xx"), alternatives ("xx OR yy OR zz"), and wildcards ("Winston * Churchill" returns "Winston Churchill", "Winston Spencer Churchill", etc.). The same and other options can be specified in a different way on an Advanced Search page.

The main purpose of Google Search is to hunt for text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers, as opposed to other data, such as images or data contained in databases. It was originally developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997. Google Search provides several features beyond searching for words. These include synonyms, weather forecasts, time zones, stock quotes, maps, earthquake data, movie showtimes, airports, home listings, and sports scores. There are special features for numbers, dates, and some specific forms, including ranges, prices, temperatures, money and measurement unit conversions, calculations, package tracking, patents, area codes, and language translation. In June 2011 Google introduced "Google Voice Search" to search for spoken, rather than typed, words. In May 2012 Google introduced a Knowledge Graph semantic search feature in the U.S.

Philo

Philo of Alexandria (/ˈfaɪloʊ/; Greek: Φίλων, Philōn; Hebrew: ידידיה הכהן‎, Yedidia (Jedediah) HaCohen; c. 25 BCE – c. 50 CE), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt.

Philo used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy. His method followed the practices of both Jewish exegesis and Stoic philosophy. His allegorical exegesis was important for several Christian Church Fathers, but he has barely any reception history within Rabbinic Judaism. He believed that literal interpretations of the Hebrew Bible would stifle humanity's view and perception of a God too complex and marvelous to be understood in literal human terms.

Some scholars hold that his concept of the Logos as God's creative principle influenced early Christology. Other scholars, however, deny direct influence but say both Philo and Early Christianity borrow from a common source.

The few biographical details known about Philo are found in his own works, especially in Legatio ad Gaium (Embassy to Gaius) of which only two of the original five volumes survive, and in Josephus. The only event in his life that can be decisively dated is his participation in the embassy to Rome in 40 CE. He represented the Alexandrian Jews before Roman Emperor Caligula because of civil strife between the Alexandrian Jewish and Greek communities.

Byblos

Byblos, in Arabic Jubayl (Arabic: جبيل‎  Lebanese Arabic pronunciation: [ʒbejl]), is a Mediterranean city in the Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon. It is believed to have been occupied first between 8800 and 7000 BC, and according to fragments attributed to the semi-legendary pre-Homeric Phoenician priest Sanchuniathon, it was built by Cronus as the first city in Phoenicia. It is one of the cities suggested as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world and the site has been continuously inhabited since 5000 BC. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Name

Gubal was a Canaanite city during the Bronze Age, at which time it also appears as Gubla in the Amarna letters. During the Iron Age the city is called Gebal in Phoenician (𐤂𐤁𐤋) and appears in the Hebrew Bible under the name Geval (Hebrew: גבל‎). It was much later referred to as Gibelet, during the Crusades. The city's Canaanite/Phoenician name (GBL, i.e. Gubal, Gebal, etc.) can be derived from gb, meaning "well" or "origin", and El, the name of the supreme god of Byblos' pantheon. The present-day city is known by the Arabic name Jubayl or Jbeil (جبيل), a direct descendant of the Canaanite name. However, the Arabic name is most likely derived from the Phoenician word GBL meaning "boundary", "district" or "mountain peak"; in the Ugaritic language GBL can mean "mountain", similarly to Arabic jabal.

Philo of Byblos

Philo of Byblos (Greek: Φίλων, Phílōn; Latin: Philo Byblius; c. 64 – 141 CE), also known as Herennius Philon, was an antiquarian writer of grammatical, lexical and historical works in Greek. He is chiefly known for his Phoenician history assembled from the writings of Sanchuniathon.

Life

Philo was born in the first century in Byblos in Lebanon. "He lived into the reign of Hadrian, of which he wrote a history, now lost." His name "Herennius" suggests that he was a client of the consul suffectus Herennius Severus, through whom Philo could have achieved the status of a Roman citizen.

Works

Philo wrote a dictionary of synonyms, a collection of scientific writers and their works organized by category, a catalogue of cities with their famous citizens, and a Vita of the Emperor Hadrian. Some of his work is known to us by titles only; others have survived in fragmentary quotes in Christian authors. Among his works were: