I like to compare it to the phone system. Each URL is like a phone number: Just about every company has one, and you can dial it up to connect with them. But what do you do if you know the company but not their phone number (URL)? That’s where Google helps. Google is NOT like the phone directory, which has every single listing alphabetized; it’s more like directory assistance, where you tell them some stuff about what you’re looking for (city, name, type of business, whatever) and they’ll come back with a couple of suggestions.
The analogy works with seasoned IT people too. We look in amazement how my query goes through dozens or hundreds of switches and routers to get to the right server, and the correct response comes back successfully to my own PC. But this technology is literally almost a hundred years old. The automatic switching of a NY-LA phone call via Chicago and/or Miami is really no different that what the data networks do.