"A Journey Through Google's History: From a Dorm Room Project to Tech Giant"
Google is a multinational technology company that specializes in internet-related products and services. It was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Google's most well-known product is its search engine, which allows users to find information on the internet by entering keywords or phrases.
Some of Google's most popular products include Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Chrome. Google has become one of the most valuable and influential companies in the world, with a market capitalization of over $1 trillion as of 2023.
History :
Larry Page and Sergey Brin two have Ph.D students of Stanford University founded Google in 1998. It was a research project that started as a company to come up with a better way in search of the internet.
In 1996, Page and Brin thought of a new algorithm for the ranking of web pages on the basis of their relevance to a user’s search query. Based upon this algorithm is a search engine that was called PageRank and is based on this book is the Google search engine.
Not soon thereafter, the company quickly grew popular for its speedy and right search outcomes, and in 2000 it launched its adWord advertising platform that let the businesses to promote in the business of search outcomes. At this point, this became a major money maker for the company and they went public in 2004 with a $1.67 billion initial public offering (IPO).
But over the years, Google has shifted from search and advertising toward other products and services: Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive, YouTube and more. The company has also bought quite a few other companies, Android becoming the most popular mobile operating system in the world.
As of today Google is one of the worlds most valuable company with a market capitalization exceeding $1 trillion. Not only has it become one of the biggest players in a new generation of industries, such as smartphones, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, but it has also become very large and very successful.
Top 10 interesting facts about Google:
1. Larry Page and Sergey Brin were in their Ph.D. at Stanford University when they founded Google, in September 1998. They first called it 'Backrub,' then came up with the name 'Google,' taken from 'googol,' the name for the number 1 with 100 zeroes after it.
2. The LEGO bricks that were used to build the first Google server. These fashionable building blocks were used by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to store the ten 4GB hard drives they used to test their PageRank algorithm.
3. The motto of Google’s company is 'Don’t be evil'. An article of the company's 2004 IPO prospectus, it defined the essence of the company's philosophy and was built into the corporate culture. But in 2018, Google took the phrase out of its official code of conduct, substituting 'Do the right thing.'
4. There’s 3.5 billion searches per day on the Google search engine. All of this search queries adds up to almost a trillion searches per year.
5. Mountain View is home to Google’s headquarters, the Googleplex. As famous for its unique perks as its company’s campus is (free meals, recreational facilities and even a slide for employees to use to move between floors), there’s also a history of different managers and cultures.
6. From YouTube, Android, and Waze, Google acquired a lot of companies over the years. The acquisitions have helped Google grow futher and market further though they have been spreading their services to a wider base.
7. Google came out with gmail, free web based email in 2004. It was first run as an invitation only but picked up in popularity and opened to the public in 2007.
8. Over 200 countries and territories — covering millions of miles of road — are included in Google Street View, which includes maps and panoramas of streets, landmarks, interiors and natural wonders.
9. Google’s search algorithm changes constantly and hundreds of times a year. Which is why some of the biggest algorithm updates like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird have had pretty big impacts on the search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.
10. Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, was set up in 2015 as part of a corporate restructure. Google functions as a subsidiary within Alphabet alongside the other entities it operates, including Waymo (self-driving cars), Verily (life sciences) and DeepMind (artificial intelligence research).
The early days of google:
There were the early days of Google: rapid growth, rapid innovation. For its clean interface and simple search engine, which popped up earlier (circa 1997), quick and accurate searches, and an equally fast, effective advertising platform called AdWords, search engine rose to the top. In AdWords, businesses would show targeted ads in search results.
By the early 2000s Google was the leading search engine and popularity surged. The stock for Google went public in 2004, and its shares started trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange. That IPO made Larry Page and Sergey Brin billionaires, while taking Google from a little company to a multidentonational corporation.
Later on, Google’s services which are not limited to search include Google Map, Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar. In addition, it bought several companies, including YouTube in 2006.
On today Google is one of the biggest technology companies on the world and presents a large variety of product and service. It continues to innovate in all manner of things, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and autonomous cars, and will continue to do so in upcoming years.
The products and services of Google:
Google has a lot of things to offer in its products and services. Over the years, these offerings have grown and matured to fill the ever changing needs of users. Here are some of the major products and services provided by Google:
1. Search Engine: Google’s central product is its search engine, which enables people to get to the information on the internet quickly and easily. Now it has developed further for more accurate results, featuring instant answers, rich snippet and personalized recommendation.
2. Advertising: Google Ads is the platform used by Google to let businesses create and manage online advertising campaigns. An authoritative resource that enables advertisers to reach their target audience wherever they find Google's search engine, websites orGoogle's partner networks.
3. Gmail: Google provide Gmail email service. Users get a full featured interface, lots of storage, sophisticated search capabilities, and integration with other Google services.
4. Google Maps: They have some very useful Google Maps services, such as detailed mapping and navigation, showing you directions, or telling you where you are, and even street level imagery if you’d like to. And features like satellite imagery, indoor maps, and integration with other services, all have been added to it.
5. YouTube: YouTube platform is a video sharing platform where users are permitted to upload videos. This has become a huge cultural phenomenon and has a lot of content – music, education videos, vlogs, entertainment and so on.
6. Google Drive: Cloud storage and file synchronization is what Google Drive is. Users can save and access files, work together on documents and content sharing. It also works with other google productivity tools such as Documents, Sheets, and slides.
7. Google Photos: Google Photos is a new way for users to organize, store and share their photos and videos. Automatic backup, intelligent search and powerful editing tools are among its nice features.
8. Google Chrome: The web browser Google Chrome is one of the more well known across the world, it is fast, it is secure, and it is user friendly. Extensions are supported, and it syncs across devices.
9. Google Play: Google Play is the online marketplace for Android apps, games, movies, music, books and more. The primary distribution platform for Android users, it is used.
10. Google Assistant: Google assistant is that virtual assistant using artificial intelligence to interact and get ability to do and answer questions, set reminders, control smart devices and more.
11. Google Cloud Platform: Google Cloud Platform (GCP) provides cloud computing services, including storage, databases, virtual machines, machine learning and analytics tools so organisations can build and deploy applications.
Google kept up with its products and services over the years. It has rolled out new features, tweaked easy user interfaces and integrated machine learning and artificial intelligence technology in its offerings. Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Chrome, and Google Assistant are among the most popular Google products and services, and are now essential to many users' digital lives.