The secret to Google

Searching the Internet for stuff can really be aggravating. You might get what you're looking for, or you might not. But you know you'll get at least 1 million extraneous items.

Believe it or not, search used to be worse. It was tough to find much of anything until the mid-90s.

Then, around the year 2000, Google came along. This search engine was really a great achievement. People have long wondered how they do it.

Well, Google has lifted the curtains. It's not a bank of powerful computers. Nor is it a handful of clever algorithms.

Amazingly, Google does it with a large flock of pigeons. The company calls its search technology PigeonRank. Pigeons can find the smallest differences between things, including Web pages. When you enter a search term, they instantly find the page you want.

Google explains this on its site. And, by the way, happy April Fool's Day.