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{{Short description|American multinational technology company}}
{{about|the Internet company|the number|Googol|the search engine|Google Search}}
{{About|the company|the search engine|Google Search|other uses}}
{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{pp-move-indef}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2018}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox company
{{Infobox company
| name = Google LLC
| name = Google LLC (google.com)
| logo = Google 2015 logo.svg
| logo = Google 2015 logo.svg
| logo_size =  
| logo_size = 100px
| logo_alt = Each letter of "Google" is colored (from left to right) in blue, red, yellow, blue, green, and red.
| logo_alt = Each letter of "Google" is colored (from left to right) in blue, red, yellow, blue (again), green, and red (again).
| logo_caption = Logo {{as of|2015|lc=y|since=y}}
| logo_caption = Google's logo {{as of|2015|lc=y|since=y}}
| image = Googleplex HQ (cropped).jpg
| image = Googleplex HQ (cropped).jpg
| image_size = 250px
| image_size = 100px
| image_caption = Google's headquarters, the [[Googleplex]]
| image_caption = Google's headquarters, the [[Googleplex]]
| former_name = Google Inc. (1998–2017)
| former_name = Backrub (1995-1997)<br />Google Inc. (1997–2017)
| type = [[Subsidiary]] ([[Limited liability company|LLC]])
| type = [[Subsidiary]]
| industry = {{Unbulleted list
| industry = {{Unbulleted list
| [[Artificial intelligence]]
| [[Internet]]
| [[Advertising]]
| [[Cloud computing]]
| [[Cloud computing]]
| [[Computer software]]
| [[Computer software]]
| [[Computer hardware]]
| [[Computer hardware]]
| [[Internet]]
| [[Artificial intelligence]]
| [[Advertising]]
}}
}}
| founded = {{Start date and age|1998|09|04}}{{efn|Google was incorporated on September 4, 1998, however, since 2002, the company has celebrated its anniversaries on various days in September, most frequently on September 27.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Fitzpatrick |first=Alex |date=September 4, 2014 |title=Google Used to Be the Company That Did 'Nothing But Search' |url=https://time.com/3250807/google-anniversary/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Telegraph Reporters |date=September 27, 2019 |title=When is Google's birthday – and why are people confused? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/09/27/when-is-googles-21st-birthday-doodle/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/09/27/when-is-googles-21st-birthday-doodle/ |archive-date=January 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Griffin |first=Andrew |date=September 27, 2019 |title=Google birthday: The one big problem with the company's celebratory doodle |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/google-birthday-surprise-spinner-date-problem-start-company-a7968951.html |website=[[The Independent]]}}</ref> The shift in dates reportedly happened to celebrate index-size milestones in tandem with the birthday.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wray |first=Richard |date=September 5, 2008 |title=Happy birthday Google |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/05/google.mediabusiness |website=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>}} in [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]], [[California]], United States
| founded = 1995 (first prototype)<br />1997 (second prototype)<br />{{Start date and age|1998|09|04}} (final launch)
{{efn|Google was originally incorporated on September 4, 1998, however, since 2002, the company has celebrated its anniversaries on various days in September, most frequently on September 27.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/3250807/google-anniversary/ |title=Google Used to Be the Company That Did 'Nothing But Search' |first=Alex |last=Fitzpatrick |date=September 4, 2014 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/09/27/when-is-googles-21st-birthday-doodle/ |title=When is Google's birthday – and why are people confused? |author=Telegraph Reporters |date=September 27, 2019 |website=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/google-birthday-surprise-spinner-date-problem-start-company-a7968951.html |title=Google birthday: The one big problem with the company's celebratory doodle |first=Andrew |last=Griffin |date=September 27, 2019 |website=[[The Independent]] |access-date=June 1, 2020 |archive-date=January 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112103548/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/google-birthday-surprise-spinner-date-problem-start-company-a7968951.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The shift in dates reportedly happened to celebrate index-size milestones in tandem with the birthday.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/05/google.mediabusiness |title=Happy birthday Google |first=Richard |last=Wray |date=September 5, 2008 |website=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>}} in [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]], California, U.S.
| founders = {{Unbulleted list
| founders = {{Unbulleted list
| [[Larry Page]]
| [[Larry Page]]
| [[Sergey Brin]]
| [[Sergey Brin]]
}}
}}
| hq_location = [[Googleplex|1600 Amphitheatre Parkway]]
| hq_location = 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
| hq_location_city = [[Mountain View, California]]
| hq_location_city = [[Mountain View, California]]
| hq_location_country = U.S.
| hq_location_country = U.S.
Line 36: Line 32:
| [[Sundar Pichai]] ([[Chief executive officer|CEO]])
| [[Sundar Pichai]] ([[Chief executive officer|CEO]])
| [[Ruth Porat]] ([[Chief financial officer|CFO]])
| [[Ruth Porat]] ([[Chief financial officer|CFO]])
| [[Thomas Kurian]] ([[Chief executive office|CEO]], [[Google Cloud Platform]])
| [[Prabhakar Raghavan]] ([[Senior Vice President|SVP]], search, ads, and e-commerce)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Langley |first=Hugh |date=May 11, 2021 |title=Prabhakar Raghavan is the surprisingly powerful exec running Google's most important businesses. Insiders describe how he went from wonky Stanford professor to CEO Sundar Pichai's most trusted lieutenant at record speed. |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/google-head-of-search-prabhakar-raghavan-ceo-sundar-pichai-alphabet-2021-5 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210511195507/https://www.businessinsider.com/google-head-of-search-prabhakar-raghavan-ceo-sundar-pichai-alphabet-2021-5 |archive-date=May 11, 2021 |website=Business Insider}}</ref>
}}
}}
| products = [[List of Google products|List of products]]
| products = [[List of Google products]]
| parent = [[Alphabet Inc.]]
| num_employees = 114,096
| num_employees_year = {{As of|2020|9|11|alt=Q3 2019}}
| parent = Independent (1997-2015)<br />[[Alphabet Inc.]] (2015–present)
| subsid = [[List of mergers and acquisitions by Alphabet|List of subsidiaries]]
| website = {{URL|https://www.google.com/|google.com}}
| website = {{URL|https://www.google.com/|google.com}}
| footnotes = <ref>{{Cite web |date=January 16, 2015 |title=Company – Google |url=https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/company/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150116073513/https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/company/ |archive-date=January 16, 2015 |access-date=September 13, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Claburn |first=Thomas |date=September 24, 2008 |title=Google Founded By Sergey Brin, Larry Page... And Hubert Chang?!? |url=https://www.informationweek.com/applications/google-founded-by-sergey-brin-larry-page-and-hubert-chang!/d/d-id/1072309 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628231125/http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/210603678 |archive-date=June 28, 2011 |access-date=January 22, 2017 |website=[[InformationWeek]] |publisher=[[UBM plc]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Locations— Google Jobs |url=https://www.google.com/about/jobs/locations/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930200600/http://www.google.com/about/jobs/locations/ |archive-date=September 30, 2013 |access-date=September 27, 2013}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
| footnotes = <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/company/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150116073513/https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/company/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 16, 2015 |title=Company – Google |date=January 16, 2015 |access-date=September 13, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Thomas |last=Claburn |title=Google Founded By Sergey Brin, Larry Page... And Hubert Chang?!? |url=https://www.informationweek.com/applications/google-founded-by-sergey-brin-larry-page-and-hubert-chang!/d/d-id/1072309 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628231125/http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/210603678 |website=[[InformationWeek]] |publisher=[[UBM plc]] |date=September 24, 2008 |archivedate=June 28, 2011 |accessdate=January 22, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.google.com/about/jobs/locations/ |title=Locations&nbsp;— Google Jobs |accessdate=September 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930200600/http://www.google.com/about/jobs/locations/ |archive-date=September 30, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="EmployeesAsOf2018Q4">{{cite press release |date=February 4, 2019 |title=Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter 2018 Results |url=https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2018Q4_alphabet_earnings_release.pdf |url-status=live |type=Press release |location=Mountain View, California |publisher=[[Alphabet Inc.]] |page=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204221316/https://abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2018Q4_alphabet_earnings_release.pdf |archive-date=February 4, 2019 |access-date=February 4, 2019 |quote=Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.&nbsp;[...] Q1 2018 financial highlights[:] The following summarizes our consolidated financial results for the quarters ended December 31, 2017 and 2018&nbsp;[...]:&nbsp;[...] Number of employees [as of] Three Months Ended December 31, 2018 [is] 98,771[.]}}</ref>
}}
}}
'''Google LLC''' is an American  [[multinational corporation]] from the [[United States]]. It is known for creating and running one of the largest [[search engine]]s on the [[World Wide Web]] (WWW). Every day more than a [[billion]] people use it. Google's [[headquarters]] (known as the "[[Googleplex]]") is in [[Mountain View, California]], part of [[Silicon Valley]]. The [[motto]] of Google is "Do the right thing".


[[File:Schmidt-Brin-Page-20080520.jpg|thumb|Then-CEO, and former Chairman of Google [[Eric Schmidt]] with cofounders [[Sergey Brin]] and [[Larry Page]] (left to right) in 2008|alt=Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page sitting together]]
Since September 2, 2015, Google has been owned by a [[holding company]] called [[Alphabet Inc.]]. That company has taken over some of Google's other projects, such as its [[driver]]less [[car]]s. It is a [[public company]] that [[Stock trading|trades]] on the [[NASDAQ]] under the ticker symbols GOOG and GOOGL.
 
'''Google LLC''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-googol.ogg|ˈ|ɡ|uː|ɡ|ə|l|}}) is an American [[Multinational corporation|multinational]] [[technology company]] that focuses on [[artificial intelligence]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Condon |first=Stephanie |title=Google I/O: From 'AI first' to AI working for everyone |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-io-from-ai-first-to-ai-working-for-everyone/ |access-date=2022-04-02 |website=ZDNet |language=en}}</ref> [[Search Engine|search engine technology]], [[online advertising]], [[cloud computing]], [[software|computer software]], [[quantum computing]], [[e-commerce]], and [[Computer hardware|consumer electronics]]. It has been referred to as the "most powerful company in the world" and one of the world's most valuable brands due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the area of artificial intelligence.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-11-21 |title=Google - powerful and responsible? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-42060091 |access-date=2022-03-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=McCormick |first=Rich |date=2016-06-02 |title=Elon Musk: There's only one AI company that worries me |url=https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/2/11837566/elon-musk-one-ai-company-that-worries-me |access-date=2022-03-29 |website=The Verge |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-10-20 |title=Justice Department Sues Monopolist Google For Violating Antitrust Laws |url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-monopolist-google-violating-antitrust-laws |access-date=2022-03-29 |website=www.justice.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Land of the Giants: The Titans of Tech {{!}} CNN+ |url=https://plus.cnn.com/plus/title-2244411 |access-date=2022-04-18 |website=plus.cnn.com |language=en}}</ref> It is considered one of the [[Big Tech|Big Five]] American [[information technology]] companies, alongside [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]], [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], [[Meta Platforms|Meta]], and [[Microsoft]].
 
Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by [[Larry Page]] and [[Sergey Brin]] while they were [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] students at [[Stanford University]] in [[California]]. Together they own about 14% of its publicly listed shares and control 56% of the stockholder voting power through super-voting stock. The company went [[public company|public]] via an [[initial public offering]] (IPO) in 2004. In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of [[Alphabet Inc.|Alphabet Inc]]. Google is Alphabet's largest subsidiary and is a [[holding company]] for Alphabet's Internet properties and interests. [[Sundar Pichai]] was appointed CEO of Google on October 24, 2015, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet. On December 3, 2019, Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Feiner |first=Lauren |date=December 3, 2019 |title=Larry Page steps down as CEO of Alphabet, Sundar Pichai to take over |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/03/larry-page-steps-down-as-ceo-of-alphabet.html |access-date=June 16, 2021 |website=CNBC |language=en}}</ref>


The company has since rapidly grown to offer [[List of Google products|a multitude of products and services]] beyond [[Google Search]], many of which hold dominant market positions. These products address a wide range of use cases, including email ([[Gmail]]), navigation ([[Google Maps|Maps]]), cloud computing ([[Google Cloud Platform|Cloud]]), web browsing ([[Google Chrome|Chrome]]), video sharing ([[YouTube]]), productivity ([[Google Workspace|Workspace]]), operating systems ([[Android (operating system)|Android]]), cloud storage ([[Google Drive|Drive]]), language translation ([[Google Translate|Translate]]), photo storage ([[Google Photos|Photo]]), video calling ([[Google Meet|Meet]]), smart home ([[Google Nest|Nest]]), smartphones ([[Google Pixel|Pixel]]), wearable technology ([[Fitbit]]), gaming ([[Google Stadia|Stadia]]), music streaming ([[YouTube Music]]), video on demand ([[Google TV (service)|TV]]), artificial intelligence ([[Google Assistant|Assistant]]), machine learning APIs ([[TensorFlow]]), AI chips ([[Tensor Processing Unit|TPU]]), and more. [[List of Google products#Discontinued products and services|Discontinued Google products]] include <!-- Notable products only! -->[[Google Glass|Glass]], [[Google+]], [[Google Reader|Reader]], [[Google Play Music|Play Music]], [[Google Nexus|Nexus]], [[Google Hangouts|Hangouts]], and [[Inbox by Gmail]]<!-- Notable products only! -->.<ref>{{cite web | title= The Google Graveyard | first1= Heather | last1= Brady | first2= Chris | last2= Kirk | date= March 15, 2013 | url= http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/map_of_the_week/2013/03/google_reader_joins_graveyard_of_dead_google_products.html | magazine= [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] | access-date= March 16, 2013 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130316085610/http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/map_of_the_week/2013/03/google_reader_joins_graveyard_of_dead_google_products.html | archive-date= March 16, 2013 | url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title=Google Graveyard Does Exist| first1=Logan| last1=Booker| date=March 17, 2013| url=https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/03/google-graveyard-does-exist-you-can-even-place-flowers-on-your-deceased-favourites/| publisher=[[Gizmodo]]| access-date=May 17, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180518055717/https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/03/google-graveyard-does-exist-you-can-even-place-flowers-on-your-deceased-favourites/| archive-date=May 18, 2018| url-status=live}}</ref>
Google's search engine can find [[picture]]s, [[video]]s, [[news]], [[Usenet]] newsgroups, and things to [[Online shopping|buy online]]. By June 2004, Google had 4.28 billion [[web page]]s on its [[database]], 880 [[million]] pictures and 845 million Usenet messages — six billion things.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2004/feb/18/internationalnews.onlinesupplement|title=Google expands its search engine|last=Press|first=Associated|date=2004-02-18|website=the Guardian|language=en|access-date=2020-07-21}}</ref> Google's American [[website]] has an [[Alexa]] rank of 1, meaning it is the most widely visited website in the world. It is so widely known that people sometimes use the word "google" as a [[verb]] that means "to search for something on Google". Because more than half of people on the web use it, "google" has also been used to mean "to search the web".
 
Google is known for its highly ambitious technological innovations aimed at solving humanity's biggest problems.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Inside X, Google's top-secret moonshot factory |language=en-GB |magazine=Wired UK |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ten-years-of-google-x |access-date=2022-04-02 |issn=1357-0978}}</ref> Some of these innovations include quantum computing ([[Sycamore processor|Sycamore]]), self-driving cars ([[Waymo]], formerly the Google self-driving project), smart cities ([[Sidewalk Labs]]), and transformer models ([[Google Brain]]).<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Inside X, Google's top-secret moonshot factory |language=en-GB |magazine=Wired UK |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ten-years-of-google-x |access-date=2022-05-17 |issn=1357-0978}}</ref>
 
Google and YouTube are the two [[List of most visited websites|most visited websites]] worldwide followed by Facebook and Twitter. Google is also the largest search engine, mapping and navigation application, email provider, office suite, video sharing platform, photo and cloud storage provider, mobile operating system, web browser, ML framework, and AI virtual assistant provider in the world as measured by market share. On the [[list of most valuable brands]], Google is ranked second by [[Forbes]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE WORLD'S VALUABLE BRANDS |url=https://www.forbes.com/the-worlds-most-valuable-brands/ |website=[[Forbes]]}}</ref> and fourth by Interbrand.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BEST GLOBAL BRANDS |url=https://interbrand.com/best-global-brands/ |publisher=Interbrand}}</ref> It has received significant [[Criticism of Google|criticism]] involving issues such as [[Privacy concerns regarding Google|privacy concerns]], [[#Tax avoidance strategies|tax avoidance]], [[Censorship by Google|censorship]], [[search neutrality]], [[antitrust]] and abuse of its [[monopoly]] position.


== History ==
== History ==
{{Main|History of Google|List of mergers and acquisitions by Alphabet}}
[[Larry Page]] and [[Sergey Brin]], two students at [[Stanford University]], USA, started BackRub in early 1996. They made it into a company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]], [[California]]. In February 1999, the company moved to 165 University Ave., [[Palo Alto, California]], and then moved to another place called the Googleplex.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Brin|first1=Sergey|author-link=Sergey Brin|last2=Page|first2=Lawrence|author-link2=Larry Page|year=1998|title=The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine|url=http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf|journal=Computer Networks and ISDN Systems|volume=30|issue=1–7|pages=107–117|citeseerx=10.1.1.115.5930|doi=10.1016/S0169-7552(98)00110-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barroso |first1=L.A. |last2=Dean |first2=J. |last3=Holzle |first3=U. |date=April 29, 2003 |title=Web search for a planet: the google cluster architecture |journal=IEEE Micro |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=22–28 |doi=10.1109/mm.2003.1196112 |s2cid=15886858 |quote=We believe that the best price/performance tradeoff for our applications comes from fashioning a reliable computing infrastructure from clusters of unreliable commodity PCs.|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/8db8e53c92af2f97974707119525aa089f6ed53a }}</ref>
{{See also|Alphabet Inc.}}


=== Early years ===
In September 2001, Google's rating system (PageRank, for saying which information is more helpful) got a U.S. [[Patent]]. The patent was to Stanford University, with Lawrence (Larry) Page as the [[inventor]] (the person who first had the idea).
[[File:Google page brin.jpg|thumb|[[Larry Page]] and [[Sergey Brin]] in 2003|alt=|left]]
Google began in January 1996 as a research project by [[Larry Page]] and [[Sergey Brin]] when they were both PhD students at [[Stanford University]] in [[California]].<ref name="howwestarted">{{Cite web |title=How we started and where we are today – Google |url=https://about.google/our-story/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200422134018/https://about.google/our-story/ |archive-date=April 22, 2020 |access-date=April 24, 2021 |website=about.google |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Coronabook">{{Cite book |last=Brezina |first=Corona |title=Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Google |publisher=Rosen Publishing Group |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4488-6911-4 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=18 |lccn=2011039480}}</ref><ref name="milestones">{{Cite web |title=Our history in depth |url=https://www.google.com/about/company/history/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401005940/http://www.google.com/about/company/history/ |archive-date=April 1, 2012 |access-date=July 15, 2017 |website=Google Company}}</ref> The project initially involved an unofficial "third founder", [[Scott Hassan]], the original lead programmer who wrote much of the code for the original [[Google Search]] engine, but he left before Google was officially founded as a company;<ref name="vanityfair">{{Cite web |last=Fisher |first=Adam |date=July 10, 2018 |title=Brin, Page, and Mayer on the Accidental Birth of the Company that Changed Everything |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/valley-of-genius-excerpt-google |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190704184309/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/valley-of-genius-excerpt-google |archive-date=July 4, 2019 |access-date=August 23, 2019 |website=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=McHugh |first=Josh |date=January 1, 2003 |title=Google vs. Evil |url=https://www.wired.com/2003/01/google-10/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602064540/https://www.wired.com/2003/01/google-10/ |archive-date=June 2, 2019 |access-date=August 24, 2019 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]}}</ref> Hassan went on to pursue a career in [[robotics]] and founded the company [[Willow Garage]] in 2006.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 5, 2014 |title=Willow Garage Founder Scott Hassan Aims To Build A Startup Village |work=[[IEEE Spectrum]] |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/start-ups/willow-garage-founder-scott-hassan-aims-to-build-a-startup-village |url-status=live |access-date=September 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824075356/https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/start-ups/willow-garage-founder-scott-hassan-aims-to-build-a-startup-village |archive-date=August 24, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=D'Onfro |first=Jillian |date=February 13, 2016 |title=How a billionaire who wrote Google's original code created a robot revolution |work=[[Business Insider]] |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/a-look-back-at-willow-garage-2016-2 |url-status=live |access-date=August 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824075346/https://www.businessinsider.com/a-look-back-at-willow-garage-2016-2 |archive-date=August 24, 2019}}</ref>


While conventional search engines ranked results by counting how many times the search terms appeared on the page, they theorized about a better system that analyzed the relationships among websites.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Page |first1=Lawrence |author-link=Larry Page |last2=Brin |first2=Sergey |author-link2=Sergey Brin |last3=Motwani |first3=Rajeev |last4=Winograd |first4=Terry |date=November 11, 1999 |title=The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web |url=http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091118014915/http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/ |archive-date=November 18, 2009 |website=Stanford University}}</ref> They called this algorithm [[PageRank]]; it determined a website's [[Relevance (information retrieval)|relevance]] by the number of pages, and the importance of those pages that linked back to the original site.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helpful products. For everyone. |url=https://about.google/products/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100210175913/http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html |archive-date=February 10, 2010 |website=Google, Inc.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Page |first=Larry |author-link=Larry Page |date=August 18, 1997 |title=PageRank: Bringing Order to the Web |url=http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020506051802/http://www-diglib.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/WP/get/SIDL-WP-1997-0072?1 |archive-date=May 6, 2002 |access-date=November 27, 2010 |website=Stanford Digital Library Project}}</ref> Page told his ideas to Hassan, who began writing the code to implement Page's ideas.<ref name="vanityfair" />
Google makes a percentage of its money through [[America Online]] and InterActiveCorp. It has a special group known as the Partner Solutions Organization (PSO) which helps make [[contract]]s, helps to make accounts better and gives engineering help.


Page and Brin originally nicknamed the new search engine "[[BackRub (search engine)|BackRub]]", because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site.<ref name="howwestarted" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Battelle |first=John |date=August 2005 |title=The Birth of Google |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/battelle.html |url-status=live |access-date=October 12, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107160749/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/battelle.html?tw=wn_tophead_4 |archive-date=November 7, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Backrub search engine at Stanford University |url=http://huron.stanford.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961224105215/http://huron.stanford.edu/ |archive-date=December 24, 1996 |access-date=March 12, 2011}}</ref> Hassan as well as Alan Steremberg were cited by Page and Brin as being critical to the development of Google. [[Rajeev Motwani]] and [[Terry Winograd]] later co-authored with Page and Brin the first paper about the project, describing PageRank and the initial prototype of the Google search engine, published in 1998. [[Héctor García-Molina]] and [[Jeff Ullman]] were also cited as contributors to the project.<ref name="originalpaper" /> PageRank was influenced by a similar page-ranking and site-scoring algorithm earlier used for [[RankDex]], developed by [[Robin Li]] in 1996, with Larry Page's PageRank patent including a citation to Li's earlier RankDex patent; Li later went on to create the Chinese search engine [[Baidu]].<ref>{{Cite web |title="About: RankDex" |url=http://www.rankdex.com/about.html |access-date=September 29, 2010 |archive-date=January 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120002301/http://www.rankdex.com/about.html |url-status=dead }}, ''[[RankDex]]''</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Method for node ranking in a linked database |url=https://www.google.com/patents/US6285999 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185034/http://www.google.com/patents/US6285999 |archive-date=October 15, 2015 |access-date=October 19, 2015 |publisher=Google Patents}}</ref>
== Advertising ==
Google makes money by [[advertising]]. People or companies who want people to buy their product, service, or ideas give Google money, and Google shows an advertisement to people Google thinks will click on the advertisement. Google only gets money when people click on the link, so it tries to know as much about people as possible to only show the advertisement to the "right people". It does this with Google Analytics, which sends data back to Google whenever someone visits a website. From this and other data, Google makes a profile about the person and then uses this profile to figure out which advertisements to show.


Eventually, they changed the name to ''Google''; the name of the search engine was a play on the word ''[[googol]],''<ref name="howwestarted" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Koller |first=David |date=January 2004 |title=Origin of the name "Google" |url=http://graphics.stanford.edu/~dk/google_name_origin.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627081942/http://graphics.stanford.edu/~dk/google_name_origin.html |archive-date=June 27, 2012 |website=Stanford University}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hanley |first=Rachael |date=February 12, 2003 |title=From Googol to Google |work=The Stanford Daily |publisher=Stanford University |url=http://www.stanforddaily.com/2003/02/12/from-googol-to-google |access-date=February 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327141327/http://www.stanforddaily.com/2003/02/12/from-googol-to-google |archive-date=March 27, 2010}}</ref> a very [[large number]] written '''10<sup>100</sup>''' (1 followed by 100 zeros), picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Google! Beta website |url=https://www.google.com/company.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990221202430/https://www.google.com/company.html |archive-date=February 21, 1999 |access-date=October 12, 2010 |website=Google, Inc.}}</ref>
== Branding ==
The name "Google" is a misspelling of the word ''[[googol]]''.<ref>Koller, David. "[http://graphics.stanford.edu/~dk/google_name_origin.html Origin of the name, "Google."] ''[[Stanford University]].'' January, 2004.</ref><ref name=hiw >{{citation|title=Google revolution|publisher=Imagine Publishing|newspaper=How it Works|pages=40–43|issue=37|date=2012-08-09}}</ref> [[Milton Sirotta]], nephew of U.S. mathematician [[Edward Kasner]], made this word in 1937, for the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes (10<sup>100</sup>). Google uses this word because the company wants to make lots of stuff on the Web easy to find and use. Andy Bechtolsheim thought of the name.


[[File:Google1998.png|thumb|upright=1.15|Google's original homepage had a simple design because the company founders had little experience in [[HTML]], the [[markup language]] used for designing web pages.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williamson |first=Alan |date=January 12, 2005 |title=An evening with Google's Marissa Mayer |url=http://alan.blog-city.com/an_evening_with_googles_marissa_mayer.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930021302/http://alan.blog-city.com/an_evening_with_googles_marissa_mayer.htm |archive-date=September 30, 2011 |access-date=July 5, 2010 |website=Alan Williamson}}</ref>|alt=Google's homepage in 1998]]
The name for Google's main office, the "Googleplex," is a play on a different, even bigger number, the "[[googolplex]]", which is 1 followed by one googol of zeroes 10<sup>10<sup>100</sup></sup>.


The domain name <code>www.google.com</code> was registered on September 15, 1997,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Google.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools |url=https://whois.domaintools.com/google.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314084453/http://whois.domaintools.com/google.com |archive-date=March 14, 2016 |url-status=live |website=[[WHOIS]]}}</ref> and the company was incorporated on September 4, 1998. It was based in the garage of [[Susan Wojcicki]]<ref name="milestones" /> in [[Menlo Park, California]]. [[Craig Silverstein]], a fellow PhD student at Stanford, was hired as the first employee.<ref name="milestones" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Craig Silverstein's website |url=http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~csilvers/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991002122809/http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~csilvers/ |archive-date=October 2, 1999 |access-date=October 12, 2010 |website=Stanford University}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kopytoff |first=Verne |date=September 7, 2008 |title=Craig Silverstein grew a decade with Google |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |publisher=Hearst Communications, Inc. |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Craig-Silverstein-grew-a-decade-with-Google-3270079.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107075029/http://www.sfgate.com
== Products ==
* [[Android (operating system)|'''Android''']]''' '''is an [


== References ==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
 
'''Notes'''
== Further reading ==
<references group="lower-alpha"/>
* {{Cite book |last=Saylor |first=Michael |title=The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything |publisher=Perseus Books/Vanguard Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-59315-720-3 |ref=none |author-link=Michael J. Saylor}}
*Vaidhyanathan, Siya. 2011. ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pn9z8 The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry)]''. University of California Press.


== External links ==
== External links ==
{{sisterlinks|n=Category:Google|s=no|b=Google Services And Products|voy=no|species=no|d=Q95|m=Google}}
{{sisterlinks|Google}}
* {{Official website}}
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* [https://www.google.com The search engine]
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[[Category:Google| ]]
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[[Category:American corporate subsidiaries]]

Latest revision as of 15:44, 27 October 2022

Google LLC (google.com)
Formerly
Backrub (1995-1997)
Google Inc. (1997–2017)
Industry
Founded1995 (first prototype)
1997 (second prototype)
September 4, 1998; 27 years ago (1998-09-04) (final launch) [lower-alpha 1] in Menlo Park, California, U.S.
Founder(s)s
Headquarters1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, ,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
ProductsList of Google products
Number of employees
114,096 (Q3 2019)
ParentIndependent (1997-2015)
Alphabet Inc. (2015–present)
SubsidiariesList of subsidiaries
Websitegoogle.com
Footnotes / references
[5][6][7][8]

Google LLC is an American multinational corporation from the United States. It is known for creating and running one of the largest search engines on the World Wide Web (WWW). Every day more than a billion people use it. Google's headquarters (known as the "Googleplex") is in Mountain View, California, part of Silicon Valley. The motto of Google is "Do the right thing".

Since September 2, 2015, Google has been owned by a holding company called Alphabet Inc.. That company has taken over some of Google's other projects, such as its driverless cars. It is a public company that trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbols GOOG and GOOGL.

Google's search engine can find pictures, videos, news, Usenet newsgroups, and things to buy online. By June 2004, Google had 4.28 billion web pages on its database, 880 million pictures and 845 million Usenet messages — six billion things.[9] Google's American website has an Alexa rank of 1, meaning it is the most widely visited website in the world. It is so widely known that people sometimes use the word "google" as a verb that means "to search for something on Google". Because more than half of people on the web use it, "google" has also been used to mean "to search the web".

History[edit | edit source]

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University, USA, started BackRub in early 1996. They made it into a company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. In February 1999, the company moved to 165 University Ave., Palo Alto, California, and then moved to another place called the Googleplex.[10][11]

In September 2001, Google's rating system (PageRank, for saying which information is more helpful) got a U.S. Patent. The patent was to Stanford University, with Lawrence (Larry) Page as the inventor (the person who first had the idea).

Google makes a percentage of its money through America Online and InterActiveCorp. It has a special group known as the Partner Solutions Organization (PSO) which helps make contracts, helps to make accounts better and gives engineering help.

Advertising[edit | edit source]

Google makes money by advertising. People or companies who want people to buy their product, service, or ideas give Google money, and Google shows an advertisement to people Google thinks will click on the advertisement. Google only gets money when people click on the link, so it tries to know as much about people as possible to only show the advertisement to the "right people". It does this with Google Analytics, which sends data back to Google whenever someone visits a website. From this and other data, Google makes a profile about the person and then uses this profile to figure out which advertisements to show.

Branding[edit | edit source]

The name "Google" is a misspelling of the word googol.[12][13] Milton Sirotta, nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner, made this word in 1937, for the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes (10100). Google uses this word because the company wants to make lots of stuff on the Web easy to find and use. Andy Bechtolsheim thought of the name.

The name for Google's main office, the "Googleplex," is a play on a different, even bigger number, the "googolplex", which is 1 followed by one googol of zeroes 1010100.

Products[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. Fitzpatrick, Alex (September 4, 2014). "Google Used to Be the Company That Did 'Nothing But Search'". Time.
  2. Telegraph Reporters (September 27, 2019). "When is Google's birthday – and why are people confused?". The Telegraph.
  3. Griffin, Andrew (September 27, 2019). "Google birthday: The one big problem with the company's celebratory doodle". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  4. Wray, Richard (September 5, 2008). "Happy birthday Google". The Guardian.
  5. "Company – Google". January 16, 2015. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  6. Claburn, Thomas (September 24, 2008). "Google Founded By Sergey Brin, Larry Page... And Hubert Chang?!?". InformationWeek. UBM plc. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  7. "Locations — Google Jobs". Archived from the original on September 30, 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  8. "Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter 2018 Results" (PDF) (Press release). Mountain View, California: Alphabet Inc. February 4, 2019. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2019. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2018. [...] Q1 2018 financial highlights[:] The following summarizes our consolidated financial results for the quarters ended December 31, 2017 and 2018 [...]: [...] Number of employees [as of] Three Months Ended December 31, 2018 [is] 98,771[.]
  9. Press, Associated (2004-02-18). "Google expands its search engine". the Guardian. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  10. Brin, Sergey; Page, Lawrence (1998). "The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine" (PDF). Computer Networks and ISDN Systems. 30 (1–7): 107–117. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.115.5930. doi:10.1016/S0169-7552(98)00110-X.
  11. Barroso, L.A.; Dean, J.; Holzle, U. (April 29, 2003). "Web search for a planet: the google cluster architecture". IEEE Micro. 23 (2): 22–28. doi:10.1109/mm.2003.1196112. S2CID 15886858. We believe that the best price/performance tradeoff for our applications comes from fashioning a reliable computing infrastructure from clusters of unreliable commodity PCs.
  12. Koller, David. "Origin of the name, "Google." Stanford University. January, 2004.
  13. "Google revolution", How it Works, no. 37, Imagine Publishing, pp. 40–43, 2012-08-09
  14. "Deja News - Fanlore".
  15. "Google Play". Retrieved 2018-11-23.
  16. Zochodne, Geoff (6 June 2019). "Order of Canada architect, Silicon Valley investor call for rethink of Sidewalk Labs' Toronto waterfront project". Financial Post.

Notes

  1. Google was originally incorporated on September 4, 1998, however, since 2002, the company has celebrated its anniversaries on various days in September, most frequently on September 27.[1][2][3] The shift in dates reportedly happened to celebrate index-size milestones in tandem with the birthday.[4]

External links[edit | edit source]