History of Google

Google was officially launched in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to market Google Search, which has become the most used web-based search engine. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students at Stanford University in California, developed a search algorithm first (1996) known as "BackRub", with the help of Scott Hassan and Alan Steremberg. The search engine soon proved successful, and the expanding company moved several times, finally settling at Mountain View in 2003. This marked a phase of rapid growth, with the company making its initial public offering in 2004 and quickly becoming one of the world's largest media companies. The company launched Google News in 2002, Gmail in 2004, Google Maps in 2005, Google Chrome in 2008, and the social network known as Google+ in 2011 (which was shut down in April 2019), in addition to many other products. In 2015, Google became the main subsidiary of the holding company Alphabet Inc.

The search engine went through many updates in attempts to eradicate search engine optimization.

Google has engaged in partnerships with NASA, AOL, Sun Microsystems, News Corporation, Sky UK, and others. The company set up a charitable offshoot, Google.org, in 2005.

The name Google is a misspelling of Googol, the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.

In August 2024, it was held that Google had an illegal monopoly over Internet search engines. In September 2024, it was held Google had an illegal monopoly in Europe with its shopping search.

History

File:Google page brin.jpg

File:The first Google computer at Stanford.jpg knock off bricks called Mega Bricks.[http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/0-4-Google.htm The Original GOOGLE Computer Storage (Page and Brin, 1996)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161028133317/http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/0-4-Google.htm |date=October 28, 2016 }} Stanford Computer Science Computer History Display{{Failed verification|date=April 2024|reason=Source does not cite this claim, and material in picture does not appear to be official Lego.}}]]

=Beginnings<span class="anchor" id="BackRub"></span>=

Google has its origins in "BackRub", a research project that was begun in 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in Stanford, California."[https://www.google.com/about/company/history/ Our history in Depth] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623193037/https://www.google.com/about/company/history/ |date=June 23, 2015 }}" Google, Retrieved on March 29, 2016 The project initially involved an unofficial "third founder", Scott Hassan, the 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;{{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 |access-date=23 August 2019 |website=Vanity Fair}}{{Cite magazine |last=McHugh |first=Josh |date=1 January 2003 |title=Google vs. Evil |url=https://www.wired.com/2003/01/google-10/ |magazine=Wired |access-date=24 August 2019}} Hassan went on to pursue a career in robotics and founded the company Willow Garage in 2006.{{Cite news |date=5 September 2014 |title=Willow Garage Founder Scott Hassan Aims To Build A Startup Village |work=IEEE Spectrum |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/willow-garage-founder-scott-hassan-aims-to-build-a-startup-village |access-date=1 September 2019}}{{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}} Craig Nevill-Manning was also invited to join Google at its formation but declined and then joined a little later on.{{Cite web|title = The clever Kiwi who was wooed by Google|url = https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/the-clever-kiwi-who-was-wooed-by-google/AHVOTOYKAUBAIMTODGYI2XV7OI/?ref=readmore|website = NZ Herald|date = 23 September 2007|accessdate = 2023-05-29}}

In the search of a dissertation theme, Larry Page had been considering among other things exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web, understanding its link structure as a huge graph.Battelle, John. "[https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/battelle.html The Birth of Google] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318175553/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/battelle.html |date=March 18, 2014 }}." Wired. August 2005. His supervisor, Terry Winograd, encouraged him to pick this idea (which Larry Page later recalled as "the best advice I ever got"[https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0804/gallery.bestadvice.fortune/2.html The best advice I ever got] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127150338/http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0804/gallery.bestadvice.fortune/2.html |date=November 27, 2013 }} (Fortune, April 2008)) and Larry Page focused on the problem of finding out which web pages link to a given page, based on the consideration that the number and nature of such backlinks was valuable information about that page (with the role of citations in academic publishing in mind). Page told his ideas to Hassan, who began writing the code to implement Page's ideas.

The research project was nicknamed "BackRub", and it was soon joined by Brin, who was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. The two had first met in the summer of 1995, when Page was part of a group of potential new students that Brin had volunteered to give a tour around the campus and nearby San Francisco. Both Brin and Page were working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). The SDLP's goal was "to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library" and it was funded through the National Science Foundation, among other federal agencies.{{Cite journal |last1=Brin |first1=Sergey |last2=Lawrence Page |year=1996 |title=The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine |journal=Computer Networks and ISDN Systems |volume=35 |issue=1–7 |page=3 |citeseerx=10.1.1.109.4049 |doi=10.1016/S0169-7552(98)00110-X|s2cid=7587743 }}{{Cite journal |last1=Brin |first1=Sergey |last2=Rajeev Motwani |last3=Terry Winograd |year=1998 |title=What can you do with a web in your pocket |journal=Data Engineering Bulletin |volume=21 |pages=37–47 |citeseerx=10.1.1.107.7614}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20090508033156/https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=9411306 The Stanford Integrated Digital Library Project], Award Abstract #9411306, September 1, 1994 through August 31, 1999 (Estimated), award amount $521,111,001{{Cite journal |last=Mervish |first=Jeffrey |date=January 2, 2009 |title=NSF Rethinks Its Digital Library |journal=Science |volume=323 |issue=5910 |pages=54–56 |doi=10.1126/science.323.5910.54 |pmid=19119211 |s2cid=45137596|doi-access=free }} Brin and Page were also part of a computer science research team at Stanford University that received funding from Massive Digital Data Systems (MDDS), a program managed for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) by large intelligence and military contractors.{{Cite web |last=Nesbit |first=Jeff |date=2017-12-08 |title=Google's true origin partly lies in CIA and NSA research grants for mass surveillance |url=https://qz.com/1145669/googles-true-origin-partly-lies-in-cia-and-nsa-research-grants-for-mass-surveillance/ |access-date=2021-08-26 |website=Quartz |language=en}}

Page's web crawler began exploring the web in March 1996, with Page's own Stanford home page serving as the only starting point. To convert the backlink data that is gathered for a given web page into a measure of importance, Brin and Page developed the PageRank algorithm. While analyzing BackRub's output which, for a given URL, consisted of a list of backlinks ranked by importance, the pair realized that a search engine based on PageRank would produce better results than existing techniques (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page).Page, Lawrence, Brin, Sergey, Motwani, Rajeev, Winograd, Terry. "[http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub/1999-66 The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080912112513/http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub/1999-66 |date=September 12, 2008 }}." November 11, 1999.

Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies and laid the foundation for their search engine.Google I/O Conference is a big upcoming in 2015.[http://www.technowonders.com/2015/02/google-io-2015.html Downloaded 11 – February 2009] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428160018/http://www.technowonders.com/2015/02/google-io-2015.html |date=April 28, 2016 }}. Google IO Conferences. Retrieved on February 22, 2015 The first version of Google was released in August 1996 on the Stanford website. It used nearly half of Stanford's entire network bandwidth.{{Cite news |title=A Brief History of Google - Part 1 - Sebo Marketing |language=en-US |work=Sebo Marketing |url=https://www.sebomarketing.com/brief-history-google/ |access-date=2018-05-24}}

{{blockquote|

Some Rough Statistics (from August 29, 1996)

Total indexable HTML urls: 75.2306 Million

Total content downloaded: 207.022 gigabytes

...

BackRub is written in Java and Python and runs on several Sun Ultras and Intel Pentiums running Linux. The primary database is kept on a Sun Ultra II with 28GB of disk. Scott Hassan and Alan Steremberg have provided a great deal of very talented implementation help. Sergey Brin has also been very involved and deserves many thanks.|Larry Page{{Cite web |title=Archive of Backrub homepage |url=http://backrub.stanford.edu/backrub.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19971210065425/http://backrub.stanford.edu/backrub.html |archive-date=December 10, 1997}}

}}

Scott Hassan and Alan Steremberg were cited by Page and Brin as being critical to the development of Google.{{Cite news |last=Wakabayashi |first=Daisuke |date=2021-08-20 |title=Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire's Divorce. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/20/technology/Scott-Hassan-Allison-Huynh-divorce.html |access-date=2021-08-20 |issn=0362-4331}} 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. While setting up the Google engine, Page and Brin used the garage in their friend Susan Wojcicki's Menlo Park home for $1,700 a month.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/10/business/susan-wojcicki-dead.html|title=Susan Wojcicki, Former Chief of YouTube, Dies at 56|first1=John|last1=Yoon|first2=Mike|last2=Isaac|work=The New York Times|date=August 10, 2024|access-date=August 10, 2024}}

PageRank was influenced by a similar page-ranking and site-scoring algorithm earlier used for RankDex, developed by Robin Li in 1996. Larry Page's patent for PageRank filed in 1998 includes a citation to Li's earlier patent. Li later went on to create the Chinese search engine Baidu in 2000.[http://www.rankdex.com/about.html "About: RankDex"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120002301/http://www.rankdex.com/about.html |date= 2012-01-20 }}, RankDex{{Cite web |last=Altucher |first=James |date=March 18, 2011 |title=10 Unusual Things About Google |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesaltucher/2011/03/18/10-unusual-things-about-google-also-the-worst-vc-decision-i-ever-made/ |access-date=16 June 2019 |website=Forbes}}{{Cite web |title=Method for node ranking in a linked database |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US6285999 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185034/http://www.google.com/patents/US6285999 |archive-date=15 October 2015 |access-date=19 October 2015 |publisher=Google Patents}}

=Late 1990s=

Originally the search engine used Stanford's website with the domains google.stanford.edu{{Cite web |title=Google! Search Engine |url=http://google.stanford.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981111183552/http://google.stanford.edu/ |archive-date=November 11, 1998 |access-date=October 12, 2010 |website=Stanford University}} and z.stanford.edu.{{Cite web |title=Google! Search Engine |url=http://z.stanford.edu/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981201235013/http://z.stanford.edu/ |archive-date=December 1, 1998 |access-date=August 14, 2012 |website=Stanford University}} The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally incorporated their company, Google, on September 4, 1998, in their friend Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park, California. Wojcicki eventually became an executive at Google and CEO at YouTube.

File:Google’s First Production Server.jpg

Both Brin and Page had been against using advertising pop-ups in a search engine, or an "advertising funded search engines" model, and they wrote a research paper in 1998 on the topic while still students. They changed their minds early on and allowed simple text ads.Stross, Randall, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xOk3EIUW9VgC Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521150920/https://books.google.com/books?id=xOk3EIUW9VgC&printsec=frontcover|date=May 21, 2016}}, New York : Free Press, September 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-4165-4691-7}} Cf. pp.3–4.

By the end of 1998, Google had an index of about 60 million pages.Scott Rosenberg: [http://www.salon.com/1998/12/21/straight_44/ Yes, there is a better search engine. While the portal sites fiddle, Google catches fire] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123201713/http://www.salon.com/1998/12/21/straight_44/ |date=November 23, 2016 }}. Salon.com, 21 December 1998 The home page was still marked "BETA", but an article in Salon.com already argued that Google's search results were better than those of competitors like Hotbot or Excite.com, and praised it for being more technologically innovative than the overloaded portal sites (like Yahoo!, Excite.com, Lycos, Netscape's Netcenter, AOL.com, Go.com and MSN.com) which, during the growing dot-com bubble, were seen as "the future of the Web", especially by stock market investors.

Early in 1999, Brin and Page decided they wanted to sell Google to Excite. They went to Excite CEO George Bell and offered to sell it to him for $1 million. He rejected the offer. Vinod Khosla, one of Excite's venture capitalists, talked the duo down to $750,000, but Bell still rejected it.{{Cite web |last=Siegler |first=MG |date=September 29, 2010 |title=When Google Wanted To Sell To Excite For Under $1 Million — And They Passed |url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/29/google-excite/ |access-date=November 29, 2016 |website=TechCrunch |publisher=AOL}}

In March 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups.Fried, Ian. "[http://www.cnet.com/news/a-building-blessed-with-tech-success/ A building blessed with tech success] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310084656/http://www.cnet.com/news/a-building-blessed-with-tech-success/ |date=March 10, 2016 }}." CNET. October 4, 2002. Retrieved on February 25, 2007. After quickly outgrowing two other sites, the company leased a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway from Silicon Graphics (SGI) in 2003.{{Cite web |title=Google's movin' on up |url=http://news.com.com/Googles%20movin%20on%20up/2110-1032_3-1025111.html |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070121021806/http://news.com.com/Googles%2Bmovin%2Bon%2Bup/2110-1032_3-1025111.html |archive-date=January 21, 2007 |access-date=2017-04-03 |df=mdy-all}} The company has remained at this location ever since, and the complex has since become known as the Googleplex (a play on the word googolplex, a number that is equal to 1 followed by a googol of zeros). In 2006, Google bought the property from SGI for US$319 million.Staff Writer. "[http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/06/19/newscolumn3.html Google to buy headquarters building from Silicon Graphics] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418071152/http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/06/19/newscolumn3.html |date=April 18, 2010 }}." Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal. June 16, 2006. Retrieved on February 24, 2007.

=2000s=

The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design.Thompson, Bill. "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3334531.stm Is Google good for you?] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090125130328/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3334531.stm |date=January 25, 2009 }}" BBC News. December 19, 2003. Retrieved on February 25, 2007. In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords. The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and click-throughs, with bidding starting at $.05 per click. This model of selling keyword advertising was first pioneered by Goto.com, an Idealab spin-off created by Bill Gross.{{Cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Danny |date=July 1, 1998 |title=GoTo Going Strong |url=http://searchenginewatch.com/2166331 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014204451/http://searchenginewatch.com/2166331 |archive-date=October 14, 2009 |access-date=February 18, 2010 |website=SearchEngineWatch}}{{Cite news |last=Pelline |first=Jeff |date=February 19, 1998 |title=Pay-for-placement gets another shot |work=CNET |publisher=CBS Interactive |url=http://news.cnet.com/Pay-for-placement-gets-another-shot/2100-1023_3-208309.html |access-date=February 18, 2010}} When the company changed names to Overture Services, it sued Google over alleged infringements of the company's pay-per-click and bidding patents. Overture Services would later be bought by Yahoo! and renamed Yahoo! Search Marketing. The case was then settled out of court; Google agreed to issue shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license.{{Cite news |last=Olsen |first=Stephanie |date=August 9, 2004 |title=Google, Yahoo bury the legal hatchet |work=CNET |publisher=CBS Interactive |url=http://news.cnet.com/Google,-Yahoo-bury-the-legal-hatchet/2100-1024_3-5302421.html |access-date=February 18, 2010}}Sullivan, Danny. "[http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2166331 GoTo Going Strong] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021112602/http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2166331 |date=October 21, 2006 }}." The Search Engine Report. July 1, 1998.Pelline, Jeff. "[http://www.cnet.com/news/pay-for-placement-gets-another-shot/ Pay-for-placement gets another shot] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529155943/http://www.cnet.com/news/pay-for-placement-gets-another-shot/ |date=May 29, 2016 }}." CNET. February 19, 1998.Glaser, Ken. "Who Will GoTo.com?" [http://www.onlinepress.com/ OnlinePress.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161003045631/http://www.onlinepress.com/ |date=October 3, 2016 }}. February 20, 1998. While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.

Google's declared code of conduct is "Don't be evil", a phrase which they went so far as to include in their prospectus (aka "S-1") for their 2004 IPO, noting that "We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and in all other ways—by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains."{{Cite news |last=Ovide |first=Shira |date=June 23, 2011 |title=What Would 2004 Google Say About Antitrust Probe? |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/06/23/what-would-2004-google-say-about-antitrust-probe/}}

In February 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, owner of the Blogger website. The acquisition secured the company's competitive ability to use information gleaned from blog postings to improve the speed and relevance of articles contained in a companion product to the search engine Google News.

In February 2004, Yahoo! dropped its partnership with Google, providing an independent search engine of its own. This cost Google some market share, yet Yahoo!'s move highlighted Google's own distinctiveness. The verb "to google" has entered a number of languages (first as a slang verb and now as a standard word), meaning "to perform a web search" (a possible indication of "Google" becoming a genericized trademark).{{Cite web |title=How Google Became a Verb |url=http://www.thelinguafile.com/2013/02/how-google-became-verb.html |access-date=2013-11-22 |publisher=The Lingua File - The Language Blog}}

File:Google Baidu and Yahoo.JPG

After the IPO, Google's stock market capitalization rose greatly and the stock price more than quadrupled. On August 19, 2004, the number of shares outstanding was 172.85 million while the "free float" was 19.60 million (which makes 89% held by insiders). Google has a dual-class stock structure in which each Class B share gets ten votes compared to each Class A share getting one. Page said in the prospectus that Google has "a dual-class structure that is biased toward stability and independence and that requires investors to bet on the team, especially Sergey and me."

In June 2005, Google was valued at nearly $52 billion, making it one of the world's biggest media companies by stock market value."Google Shares Rise on New Price Target". Los Angeles Times. June 1, 2005.

On August 18, 2005 (one year after the initial IPO), Google announced that it would sell 14,159,265 (another mathematical reference as π ≈ 3.14159265) more shares of its stock to raise money. The move would double Google's cash stockpile to $7 billion. Google said it would use the money for "acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets".Gonsalves, Antone. "[http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=169400356 Google Seeks Second Stock Offering] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011222935/http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=169400356 |date=October 11, 2007 }}." Information Week. August 18, 2005.

With Google's increased size came more competition from large mainstream technology companies. One such example is the rivalry between Microsoft and Google.Dvorak, John C. "[https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1706872,00.asp A Google-Microsoft War] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206020043/http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C1759%2C1706872%2C00.asp |date=December 6, 2008 }}". PC Magazine. November 16, 2004. Microsoft had been touting its Bing search engine to counter Google's competitive position. Furthermore, the two companies are increasingly offering overlapping services, such as webmail (Gmail vs. Hotmail), search (both online and local desktop searching), and other applications (for example, Microsoft's Windows Live Local competes with Google Earth). In addition to an Internet Explorer replacement, Google designed its own Linux-based operating system called ChromeOS to directly compete with Microsoft Windows. There were also rumors of a Google web browser, fueled much by the fact that Google was the owner of the domain name "gbrowser.com".{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}} These were later proven when Google released Google Chrome. This corporate feud boiled over into the courts when Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice-president of Microsoft, quit Microsoft to work for Google. Microsoft sued to stop his move by citing Lee's non-compete contract (he had access to much sensitive information regarding Microsoft's plans in China). Google and Microsoft reached a settlement out of court on December 22, 2005, the terms of which are confidential.Vise, David A. "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301860.html Microsoft, Google Both Claim Victory] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229065715/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301860.html |date=December 29, 2016 }}". The Washington Post. September 14, 2005, p. D05.

Click fraud also became a growing problem for Google's business strategy. Google's CFO George Reyes said in a December 2004 investor conference that "something has to be done about this really, really quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business model."Crawford, Krysten. "[https://money.cnn.com/2004/12/02/technology/google_fraud/?cnn=yes Google CFO: Fraud a big threat] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421115727/http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/02/technology/google_fraud/?cnn=yes |date=April 21, 2016 }}". CNN. December 2, 2004.

While the company's primary market is in the web content arena, Google has experimented with other markets, such as radio and print publications. On January 17, 2006, Google announced that it had purchased the radio advertising company dMarc, which provides an automated system that allows companies to advertise on the radio.Levingston, Steven. "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/17/AR2006011701333.html Google Buys Company To Expand Into Radio] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228182006/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/17/AR2006011701333.html |date=December 28, 2016 }}". The Washington Post. January 18, 2006. Google also began an experiment in selling advertisements from its advertisers in offline newspapers and magazines, with select advertisements in the Chicago Sun-Times.Gonsalves, Antone. "[http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175803378 Google Confirms Testing Ads in Sun-Times Newspaper] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080226053026/http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175803378 |date=February 26, 2008 }}". Information Week. January 10, 2006.

During the third quarter of 2005 Google Conference Call, Eric Schmidt said, "We don't do the same thing as everyone else does. And so if you try to predict our product strategy by simply saying well so and so has this and Google will do the same thing, it's almost always the wrong answer. We look at markets as they exist and we assume they are pretty well served by their existing players. We try to see new problems and new markets using the technology that others use and we build."

After months of speculation, Google was added to the Standard & Poor's 500 index (S&P 500) on March 31, 2006.Staff Writer. "[https://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2006-03-23-google-sp500_x.htm Google shares up on joining S&P 500 index] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070109033434/http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2006-03-23-google-sp500_x.htm |date=January 9, 2007 }}". Associated Press. March 23, 2006. Google replaced Burlington Resources, a major oil producer based in Houston that had been acquired by ConocoPhillips.Francisco, Bambi."[http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BAF6E7E59-82BB-445E-B415-6F6FEC819CAE%7D Google to be added to S&P 500 Index] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012181019/http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BAF6E7E59-82BB-445E-B415-6F6FEC819CAE%7D |date=October 12, 2007 }}". MarketWatch. March 23, 2006. The day after the announcement Google's share price rose by 7%.Mercury News Wire Services. "[http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/14180235.htm Closing bell: Tech stocks advance; Google surges 7 percent]{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}". San Jose Mercury News. March 24, 2006.

In 2008, Google launched Knol, their own equivalent of Wikipedia,{{Cite news |last=Frederick |first=Lane |date=2007-12-14 |title=Death Knell Sounds for Wikipedia, About.com |work=NewsFactor Network |url=http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Death-Knell-for-Wikipedia--About-com/story.xhtml?story_id=032002XVHH8G |url-status=dead |access-date=October 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080224055504/http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Death-Knell-for-Wikipedia--About-com/story.xhtml?story_id=032002XVHH8G |archive-date=February 24, 2008 |df=mdy-all}} which failed four years later.{{Cite web |date=21 October 2013 |title=15 amazing Google projects that failed |url=http://www.rediff.com/money/slide-show/slide-show-13-fifteen-amazing-google-projects-that-failed/20131021.htm |website=Rediff}}

== Use of cookies ==

Although Google was already deriving the vast majority of its income from advertising at the time of its 2004 IPO,{{Cite web |title=Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288776/000119312505065298/d10k.htm |website=www.sec.gov}} it did not use any HTTP cookie-based web tracking until 2007.{{Cite web |last=Vascellaro |first=Jessica E. |date=10 August 2010 |title=Google Agonizes on Privacy as Ad World Vaults Ahead |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703309704575413553851854026 |website=The Wall Street Journal}} By 2006, Google's Ad revenue was already facing signs of decline, as "a growing number of advertisers were refusing to buy display ads from Google." The Great Recession led Google to institute a hiring freeze.

In 2007, Google agreed to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, marking the start of its use of cookie-based tracking. Even with the purchase, Google only ended up with a 3% revenue in the second quarter of 2009, in the depth of the recession.{{Cite web |last=Ray |first=Tiernan |title=How Would Ad-Dependent Alphabet, Facebook Handle Another Recession? |url=https://www.thestreet.com/technology/what-happens-to-google-and-facebook-revenue-in-a-recession-15006494 |website=TheStreet |date=June 30, 2019 |language=en-us}}

Google initially separated the browsing habits collected from AD tracking from data collected by its other services by default. Google removed this last layer of protection in 2016, making its tracking personally-identifiable.{{Cite web |last=Angwin |first=Julia |author-link=Julia Angwin |title=Google Has Quietly Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable Web Tracking |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/google-has-quietly-dropped-ban-on-personally-identifiable-web-tracking |website=ProPublica |date=October 21, 2016 |language=en}}

=2010s=

In 2011, the company launched Google+, its fourth foray into social networking, following Google Buzz (launched 2010, retired in 2011), Google Friend Connect (launched 2008, retired by March 1, 2012), and Orkut (launched in 2004, retired in September 2014{{Cite web |date=June 30, 2014 |title=Tchau Orkut |url=http://en.blog.orkut.com/2014/06/tchau-orkut.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140723220408/http://en.blog.orkut.com/2014/06/tchau-orkut.html |archive-date=July 23, 2014 |website=Orkut Blog |df=mdy-all}})

As of November 2014, Google operated over 70 offices in more than 41 countries.{{Cite web |date=November 2014 |title=Google locations |url=https://www.google.com/about/company/facts/locations/ |access-date=16 November 2014 |website=Google Company |publisher=Google, Inc}}

In 2015, Google reorganized its interests as a holding company, Alphabet Inc., with Google as its leading subsidiary. Google continued to serve as the umbrella for Alphabet's Internet interests.{{Cite web |last=Womack |first=Brian |date=August 10, 2015 |title=Google Rises After Creating Holding Company Called Alphabet |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-10/google-to-adopt-new-holding-structure-under-name-alphabet- |access-date=November 22, 2016 |publisher=Bloomberg L.P.}}{{Cite news |last1=Barr |first1=Alistair |last2=Winkler |first2=Rolf |date=August 10, 2015 |title=Google Creates Parent Company Called Alphabet in Restructuring |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-creates-new-company-alphabet-1439240645 |access-date=November 22, 2016}}{{Cite web |last=Dougherty |first=Conor |date=August 10, 2015 |title=Google to Reorganize as Alphabet to Keep Its Lead as an Innovator |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/technology/google-alphabet-restructuring.html |access-date=November 22, 2016 |website=The New York Times}} On September 1, 2017, Google Inc. announced its plans of restructuring as a limited liability company, Google LLC, as a wholly owned subsidiary of XXVI Holdings, Inc., which is formed as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. to hold the equity of its other subsidiaries, including Google LLC and other bets.{{Cite news |date=September 1, 2017 |title=Alphabet Finishes Reorganization With New XXVI Company |publisher=Bloomberg L.P. |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-01/alphabet-wraps-up-reorganization-with-a-new-company-called-xxvi |access-date=September 2, 2017}}

Between 2018 and 2019, tensions between the company's leadership and its workers escalated as staff protested company decisions on internal sexual harassment, Dragonfly, a censored Chinese search engine, and Project Maven, a military drone artificial intelligence, which had been seen as areas of revenue growth for the company.{{Cite news |last=Bergen |first=Mark |date=November 22, 2019 |title=Google Workers Protest Company's 'Brute Force Intimidation' |language=en |work=Bloomberg.com |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-22/google-workers-protest-company-s-brute-force-intimidation}}{{Cite web |last=Hollister |first=Sean |date=November 25, 2019 |title=Google is accused of union busting after firing four employees |url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/25/20983053/google-fires-four-employees-memo-rebecca-rivers-laurence-berland-union-busting-accusation-walkout |access-date=November 26, 2019 |website=The Verge |language=en}} On 25 October 2018, The New York Times published an exposé, "How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the 'Father of Android'". The company subsequently announced that "48 employees have been fired over the last two years" for sexual misconduct.{{Cite web |last=Welch |first=Chris |date=25 October 2018 |title=Google says 48 people have been fired for sexual harassment in the last two years |url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/25/18024486/google-sexual-harassment-people-fired-rubin-2-years-ceo |access-date=31 October 2018 |website=The Verge}} On 1 November 2018, Google employees staged a global walk-out to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment complaints, including the golden parachute exit of former executive Andy Rubin;{{Cite web |last=Hamilton |first=Isobel Asher |display-authors=etal |date=1 November 2018 |title=PHOTOS: Google employees all over the world left their desk and walked out in protest over sexual misconduct |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/google-walkout-live-pictures-of-protesting-google-workers-2018-11 |access-date=6 November 2018 |website=Business Insider}} more than 20,000 employees and contractors participated.{{Cite news |last=Segarra |first=Lisa Marie |date=3 November 2018 |title=More Than 20,000 Google Employees Participated in Walkout Over Sexual Harassment Policy |publisher=Fortune |url=http://fortune.com/2018/11/03/google-employees-walkout-demands/ |access-date=6 November 2018}} CEO Sundar Pichai was reported to be in support of the protests.{{Cite news |last=Liedtke |first=Michael |date=1 November 2018 |title=Google workers walk out to protest sexual misconduct |publisher=Akron Beacon/Journal |agency=The Associated Press |location=San Francisco, Calf. Also in this year google home an artificial intelligence was developed. |url=https://www.ohio.com/news/20181101/google-workers-walk-out-to-protest-sexual-misconduct |access-date=6 November 2018}}

On March 19, 2019, Google announced that it would enter the video game market, launching a cloud gaming platform called Google Stadia.{{Cite web |last=Warren |first=Tom |date=March 19, 2019 |title=Google unveils Stadia cloud gaming service, launches in 2019 |url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/18271702/google-stadia-cloud-gaming-service-announcement-gdc-2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190319173136/https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/18271702/google-stadia-cloud-gaming-service-announcement-gdc-2019 |archive-date=March 19, 2019 |access-date=April 8, 2019 |website=The Verge}}

On June 3, 2019, the United States Department of Justice reported that it would investigate Google for antitrust violations.{{Cite web |title=Google shares take a dive with reports of US DoJ 'competition' probe |url=https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/03/google_shares_take_a_dive_on_doj_reports/ |website=www.theregister.com}} This led to the filing of an antitrust lawsuit in October 2020, on the grounds the company had abused a monopoly position in the search and search advertising markets.{{Cite web |title=U.S. Files Antitrust Suit Against Google |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/10/20/925895658/u-s-files-antitrust-suit-against-google |website=NPR}}

In December 2019, former PayPal chief operating officer Bill Ready became Google's new commerce chief. Ready's role will not be directly involved with Google Pay.{{Cite web |last=Perez |first=Sarah |date=December 11, 2019 |title=PayPal's exiting COO Bill Ready to join Google as its new president of Commerce |url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/11/paypals-exiting-coo-bill-ready-to-join-google-as-its-new-president-of-commerce/ |website=TechCrunch}}

= 2020s =

In April 2020, Google announced several cost-cutting measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such measures included slowing down hiring for the remainder of 2020, except for a small number of strategic areas, recalibrating the focus and pace of investments in areas like data centers and machines, and non-business essential marketing and travel.{{Cite web |date=April 15, 2020 |title=Bloomberg - Google to Slow Hiring for Rest of 2020, CEO Tells Staff |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-15/google-to-slow-hiring-for-rest-of-2020-ceo-pichai-tells-staff |access-date=April 16, 2020 |website=Bloomberg}}

Google and Apple collaborated on the development of smartphone-based contact tracing solutions to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Prominent examples of government initiatives in this field include Singapore's TraceTogether and Australia's COVIDSafe apps. TraceTogether was notably the first national Bluetooth contact tracing app to be launched globally, debuting in March 2020.{{Cite web |title=Behind COVID-19 Contact Trace Apps: The Google–Apple Partnership |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9117186 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240411190140/https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9117186/ |archive-date=2024-04-11 |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=ieeexplore.ieee.org |language=en-US}}

The 2020 Google services outages disrupted Google services: one in August that affected Google Drive among others, another in November affecting YouTube, and a third in December affecting the entire suite of Google applications. All three outages were resolved within hours.{{Cite web |title=Google services including Gmail hit by serious disruption |url=https://news.sky.com/story/google-services-including-gmail-hit-by-serious-disruption-12052892 |website=Sky News}}{{Cite web |last=Li |first=Abner |date=November 12, 2020 |title=YouTube is currently down amid widespread outage |url=https://9to5google.com/2020/11/11/youtube-tv-down-2/}}{{Cite web |date=December 14, 2020 |title=YouTube back online, all services restored as Google apologizes for 'system outage' | TechRadar |url=https://www.techradar.com/news/google-suite-youtube-and-other-services-are-down |website=www.techradar.com}}

In January 2021, the Australian Government proposed legislation that would require Google and Facebook to pay media companies for the right to use their content. In response, Google threatened to close off access to its search engine in Australia.{{Cite news |last=Jose |first=Renju |date=January 22, 2021 |title=Google says to block search engine in Australia if forced to pay for news |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-media-google-idUSKBN29R04O |access-date=January 22, 2021}}

In March 2021, Google reportedly paid $20 million for Ubisoft ports on Google Stadia.{{Cite web |title=Google reportedly paid $20m for Ubisoft ports on Stadia |url=https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-03-01-google-reportedly-paid-usd20m-for-ubisoft-ports-on-stadia |access-date=March 1, 2021 |website=GamesIndustry.biz |date=March 2021 |language=en}} Google spent "tens of millions of dollars" on getting major publishers such as Ubisoft and Take-Two to bring some of their biggest games to Stadia.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

In April 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google ran a years-long program called 'Project Bernanke' that used data from past advertising bids to gain an advantage over competing ad services. This was revealed in documents concerning the antitrust lawsuit filed by ten US states against Google in December.{{Cite web |date=April 11, 2021 |title=Google's Secret 'Project Bernanke' Revealed in Texas Antitrust Case |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/googles-secret-project-bernanke-revealed-in-texas-antitrust-case-11618097760 |access-date=April 13, 2021 |website=The Wall Street Journal |language=en}}

In June 2023, Google stated it would remove Canadian news links from its services throughout the country due to legislation from the Canadian government (Bill C-11) that would require Google and other online platforms such as Facebook to pay for news articles being shown on their platforms.{{Cite web |last=Government of Canada |first=Department of Justice |date=2022-05-22 |title=Department of Justice - Statement of Potential Charter Impacts |url=https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/pl/charter-charte/c18_1.html |access-date=2023-07-09 |website=www.justice.gc.ca}}{{Cite web |date=2023-06-29 |title=Google to remove Canadian news links from searches in the country |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/google-canada-law-online-news-c-18-bill-news-links-rcna91882 |access-date=2023-07-09 |website=NBC News}}

In September 2024, Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc. were fined 2.42 billion euros by the European Commission for an antitrust case surrounding Google's shopping service. The decision was later upheld by both the General Court (European Union) and the European Court of Justice.

In November 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) urged a federal court to impose significant changes on Google to address its monopoly in online search. The proposed measures included forcing Google to sell its Chrome browser, sharing data and search results with competitors, and implementing various other restrictions. The DoJ also sought to prohibit Google from re-entering the browser market for five years, selling its Android OS if needed, and halting investments in rival search engines or AI. It also pushed to end exclusive deals where Google paid device makers like Apple to set its search engine as the default. Google called these measures excessive and harmful for consumers, vowing to appeal and a trial was set for April 2025.{{cite news|title=Google must sell Chrome to end search monopoly, justice department argues in court filing |date=21 November 2024 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/21/google-sell-chrome-us-court-filing-demand-competition-laws |website=The Guardian |access-date=21 November 2024}}

In early February 2025, Google announced it was ending its targets for minority recruitment and reevaluating other diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.{{cite web | last=Fried | first=Ina | title=Google rolls back diversity efforts, citing government contractor rules | website=Axios | date=2025-02-05 | url=https://www.axios.com/2025/02/05/google-ends-minority-recruitment | access-date=2025-02-07}}

Financing and initial public offering

The first funding for Google as a company was secured in August 1998 in the form of a US$100,000 contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, given to a corporation which did not yet exist.Kopytoff, Verne, Fost, Dan. "[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/29/MNGLD6CFND34.DTL For early Googlers, key word is $$$] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090919030812/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F2004%2F04%2F29%2FMNGLD6CFND34.DTL |date=September 19, 2009 }}". San Francisco Chronicle. April 29, 2004. Retrieved on February 25, 2007.

On June 7, 1999, a round of equity funding totalling $25 million was announced,{{Cite press release |title=Google Receives $25 Million in Equity Funding |date=June 7, 1999 |url=https://googlepress.blogspot.com/1999/06/google-receives-25-million-in-equity.html |access-date=August 1, 2014}} the major investors being rival venture capital firms Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. While Google still needed more funding for their further expansion, Brin and Page were hesitant to take the company public, despite their financial issues. They were not ready to give up control over Google.

Following the closing of the $25 million financing round, Sequoia encouraged Brin and Page to hire a CEO. Brin and Page ultimately acquiesced and hired Eric Schmidt as Google's first CEO in August 2001.Eppel, Thomas. Google. PowerPoint presentation. Management 10. University of California, Irvine. Irvine, CA. February 2, 2011.

In October 2003, while discussing a possible initial public offering of shares (IPO), Microsoft approached the company about a possible partnership or merger.Fisher, Ken.[https://archive.today/20120707012006/http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2003/10/3050.ars Microsoft and Google had "merger" talks"]. Ars Technica. October 31, 2003. Retrieved on May 17, 2011. The deal never materialized. In January 2004, Google announced the hiring of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group to arrange an IPO. The IPO was projected to raise as much as $4 billion.

Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004.{{Cite news |last=Edmonston |first=Peter |date=August 19, 2009 |title=Google's I.P.O., Five Years Later |work=The New York Times |url=https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/googles-ipo-5-years-later/}} A total of 19,605,052 shares were offered at a price of $85 per share.Elgin, Ben. "[http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2004/tc20040819_6843_tc120.htm Google: Whiz Kids or Naughty Boys?] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111103924/http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2004/tc20040819_6843_tc120.htm |date=January 11, 2010 }}" Business Week. August 19, 2004. Retrieved on February 25, 2007. Of that, 14,142,135 (another mathematical reference as Square root of two ≈ 1.4142135) were floated by Google and 5,462,917 by selling stockholders. The sale raised US$1.67 billion, and gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion.Webb, Cynthia L. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070808031101/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14939-2004Aug19.html Google's IPO: Grate Expectations]." The Washington Post. August 19, 2004. Retrieved on February 25, 2007. Many of Google's employees became instant paper millionaires. Yahoo!, a competitor of Google, also benefited from the IPO because it owned 2.7 million shares of Google.Kuchinskas, Susan. "[http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3392781 Yahoo and Google Settle] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227194254/http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3392781 |date=December 27, 2016 }}". [http://www.internetnews.com/ internetnews.com] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229140554/http://www.internetnews.com/ |date=December 29, 2016 }}. August 9, 2004. Retrieved on February 25, 2007.

Following the company's IPO in 2004, founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt requested that their base salary be cut to $1. Subsequent offers by the company to increase their salaries were turned down, primarily because their main compensation continues to come from owning stock in Google. Before 2004, Schmidt made $250,000 per year, and Page and Brin each received an annual salary of $150,000.{{Cite web |last=La Monica |first=Paul R. |date=March 31, 2006 |title=Google leaders stick with $1 salary |url=https://money.cnn.com/2006/03/31/technology/google/index.htm |access-date=April 25, 2017 |website=CNN Money |publisher=CNN}}

There were concerns that Google's IPO would lead to changes in company culture. Reasons ranged from shareholder pressure for employee benefit reductions to the fact that many company executives would become instant paper millionaires.{{Cite magazine |date=April 28, 2004 |title=Quirky Google Culture Endangered? |magazine=Wired |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2004/04/63241 |url-status=dead |access-date=November 27, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100814174333/http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2004/04/63241 |archive-date=August 14, 2010}} As a reply to this concern, co-founders Brin and Page promised in a report to potential investors that the IPO would not change the company's culture.{{Cite news |last1=Olsen |first1=Stefanie |last2=Kawamoto |first2=Dawn |date=April 30, 2004 |title=Google IPO at $2.7 billion |work=CNET |publisher=CBS Interactive |url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1024-5201978.html |access-date=November 27, 2010}}

The company was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol GOOG. When Alphabet was created as Google's parent company, it retained Google's stock price history and ticker symbol.

Name

The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol",Koller, David. "[http://graphics.stanford.edu/~dk/google_name_origin.html Origin of the name, "Google."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120627081942/http://graphics.stanford.edu/~dk/google_name_origin.html |date=2012-06-27 }} Stanford University. January, 2004.Hanley, Rachael. "[http://www.stanforddaily.com/2003/02/12/from-googol-to-google/ From Googol to Google: Co-founder returns] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100330004631/http://www.stanforddaily.com/2003/02/12/from-googol-to-google/ |date=March 30, 2010 }}." The Stanford Daily. February 12, 2003. Retrieved on August 26, 2010. which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros. Page and Brin write in their first paper on PageRank:{{Cite journal |last1=Brin |first1=S. |author-link=Sergey Brin |last2=Page |first2=L. |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 |s2cid=7587743 |issn=0169-7552}} "We chose our systems name, Google, because it is a common spelling of googol, or 10¹⁰⁰ and fits well with our goal of building very large-scale search engines."

There are uses of the name going back at least as far as the creation of the comic strip character Barney Google in 1919. British children's author Enid Blyton used the phrase "Google Bun" in The Magic Faraway Tree (published 1941) and The Folk of the Faraway Tree (published 1946),The Enid Blyton Society. "[http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/faraway-tree.php The Enchanted Forest and Folk of the Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216052522/http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/faraway-tree.php |date=December 16, 2016 }} Retrieved on May 17, 2011 and called a clown character "Google" in Circus Days Again (published 1942).The Enid Blyton Society."[http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=237 Circus Days Again by Enid Blyton] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807152831/http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=237 |date=August 7, 2016 }} Retrieved on May 17, 2011 In April 1953 Clifford D Simaks short story "Retrograde Evolution" was published in Science Fiction Plus magazine wherein an alien race called "Googles" evolves from savages to geniuses overnight. There is also the Googleplex Star Thinker from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In March 1996, a business called Groove Track Productions applied for a United States trademark for "Google" for various products including several categories of clothing, stuffed toys, board games, and candy. The firm abandoned its application in July 1997.{{Cite web |title=GOOGLE - Trademark Details |url=https://trademarks.justia.com/750/71/google-75071072.html |access-date=2016-12-20 |publisher=JUSTIA}}

Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb "google" was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the internet."Harris, Scott D. "Dictionary adds verb: to google]." San Jose Mercury News. July 7, 2006. {{Cite web |title=MercuryNews.com | 07/07/2006 | Dictionary adds verb: To google |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14985574.htm |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206065348/http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14985574.htm |archive-date=February 6, 2007 |access-date=2006-07-07 |df=mdy-all}}Bylund, Anders. "[http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13720643/ To Google or Not to Google] {{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20060707062623/http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13720643/ |date=July 7, 2006 }}." The Motley Fool via MSNBC. July 5, 2006. Retrieved on July 7, 2006. The use of the term itself reflects their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web. The first use of "Google" as a verb in pop culture happened on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in 2002.{{Cite news |last=Meyer |first=Robinson |title=The First Use of 'to Google' on Television? Buffy the Vampire Slayer |language=en-US |work=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/the-first-use-of-the-verb-to-google-on-television-buffy-the-vampire-slayer/373599/ |access-date=September 28, 2016}} In November 2009, the Global Language Monitor named "Google" No. 7 on its Top Words of the Decade list.[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/19/top-words-of-the-decade-2_n_363554.html Top Words of the Decade] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515143111/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/19/top-words-of-the-decade-2_n_363554.html |date=May 15, 2016 }} In December 2009 the BBC highlighted Google in their "Portrait of the Decade (Words)" series."[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8409040.stm A portrait of the decade] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228002630/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8409040.stm |date=December 28, 2016 }}." BBC. December 14, 2009. Retrieved on April 15, 2011. In May 2012, David Elliott filed a complaint against Google, Inc. claiming that Google's once distinctive mark GOOGLE® has become generic and lacks trademark significance due to its common use as a transitive verb. After losing to Google in UDRP proceedings involving many "Google-related" domain name registrations that he owns, Elliott later sought a declaratory judgment that his domain names are rightfully his, that they do not infringe any trademark rights Google may own, and that all Google's registered GOOGLE® marks should be cancelled since "Google" is now a common generic word worldwide that means "to search the internet."{{Cite web |date=2012-06-14 |title=Is It Proper To Say You Google On GOOGLE®? |url=http://www.natlawreview.com/article/it-proper-to-say-you-google-google |access-date=2012-06-20 |website=The National Law Review |publisher=Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, P.C.}}

Partnerships

Google has worked with several corporations, in order to improve production and services.

On September 28, 2005, Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a {{convert|1,000000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center. NASA and Google are planning to work together on a variety of areas, including large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry. The new building would also include labs, offices, and housing for Google engineers.Lewis, Laura; Fox, Lynn. "[http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2005/05_50AR.html NASA Takes Google on Journey into Space] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160318184559/http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2005/05_50AR.html |date=March 18, 2016 }}." National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Press Release. September 28, 2005. In October 2006, Google formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help the open source office program OpenOffice.org.Brown, James. {{Cite web |title=Sun partners with Google |url=http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2143242/sun-partners-google |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930195540/http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2143242/sun-partners-google |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |access-date=2006-05-13 |df=mdy-all}}. vnunet.com. October 5, 2005.

Time Warner's AOL unit and Google unveiled an expanded partnership on December 21, 2005, including an enhanced global advertising partnership and a US$1 billion investment by Google for a 5% stake in AOL.Rosenbush, Steve. "[http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051221_533090.htm AOL-Google: Who Gets What] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060523153503/http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051221_533090.htm |date=May 23, 2006 }}?" BusinessWeek. December 21, 2005. As part of the collaboration, Google plans to work with AOL on video search and offer AOL's premium video service within Google Video. This did not allow users of Google Video to search for AOL's premium-video services. Display advertising throughout the Google network will also increase.

In August 2006, Google signed a $900 million offer with News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit to provide search and advertising on MySpace and other News Corp. websites including IGN, AmericanIdol.com, Fox.com, and Rotten Tomatoes, although Fox Sports is not included as a deal already exists between News Corp. and MSN.Staff Writer. "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5254642.stm Google signs $900m News Corp deal] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228061910/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5254642.stm |date=December 28, 2016 }}". BBC News. August 7, 2006. Retrieved on August 8, 2006."[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207370,00.html Google, News Corp. Ink Deal Over MySpace.com Ads] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426055629/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C207370%2C00.html |date=April 26, 2011 }}". Fox News. August 8, 2006.

On December 6, 2006, British Sky Broadcasting released details of a Sky and Google alliance.{{Cite web |date=December 6, 2006 |title=Sky and Google unveil broadband alliance |url=http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=104016&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=939641 |access-date=February 8, 2007 |publisher=British Sky Broadcasting}}{{dead link|date=June 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} This includes a feature where Gmail will link with Sky and host a mail service for Sky, incorporating the email domain "@sky.com".

In 2007, Google displaced America Online as a key partner and sponsor of the NORAD Tracks Santa program.{{Cite web |title=For more than 50 years, NORAD is Tracking Santa, December 14, 2007 by Glenn Letham |url=http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/13492/ |access-date=December 31, 2009 |publisher=GISUser.com}}{{Cite web |date=December 2007 |title=Tracking Santa: NORAD & Google Team Up For Christmas, December 1, 2007, Danny Sullivan |url=http://searchengineland.com/tracking-santa-norad-google-team-up-for-christmas-12817 |access-date=December 31, 2009 |publisher=Search Engine Land}}{{Cite web |title=Tracking Santa, Then and Now, November 30, 2007, by Carrie Farrell, Veteran Santa Tracker |url=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/tracking-santa-then-and-now.html |access-date=December 31, 2009}} Google Earth was used for the first time to give visitors to the website the impression that they were following Santa Claus' progress in 3-D.{{Cite web |last=Daniel Terdiman |date=Dec 21, 2009 |title=Behind the scenes: NORAD's Santa tracker |url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10418101-52.html |access-date=December 31, 2009 |website=CNET}} The program also made its presence known on YouTube in 2007 as part of its partnership with Google.{{Cite web |date=2007-12-24 |title=Instructions On Tracking Santa With NORAD & Google: The 2007 Edition, December 24, 2007, Danny Sullivan |url=http://searchengineland.com/instructions-on-tracking-santa-with-norad-google-the-2007-edition-13001 |access-date=December 31, 2009 |publisher=Search Engine Land}}

In 2008, Google developed a partnership with GeoEye to launch a satellite providing Google with high-resolution (0.41 m monochrome, 1.65 m color) imagery for Google Earth. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on September 6, 2008.{{Cite news |last=Shalal-Esa |first=Andrea |date=September 6, 2008 |title=GeoEye launches high-resolution satellite |work=Reuters |location=Washington |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-geoeye-idUSN0633403420080906 |access-date=February 26, 2010}} Google also announced in 2008 that it was hosting an archive of Life Magazine{{'}}s photographs.{{Cite news |date=November 20, 2008 |title=Google gives online life to Life mag's photos |agency=Associated Press |location=Mountain View, California |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27802744 |access-date=February 25, 2010 |quote=Google Inc. has opened an online photo gallery that will include millions of images from Life magazine's archives that have never been seen by the public before}}{{Cite web |last=Stirling |first=Greg |date=November 18, 2008 |title=Google Hosting Time-Life Photo Archive, 10 Million Unpublished Images Now Live |url=http://searchengineland.com/google-to-host-10-million-time-life-unpublished-images-15513 |access-date=July 5, 2010 |website=Search Engine Land}}

In January 2009, Google announced a partnership with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, allowing the Pope to have his own channel on YouTube.Krause, Flavia. (January 23, 2009) [https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEQisYuHdkSs&refer=home Pope Benedict Debuts on YouTube to Reach Out to Catholics] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613163056/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEQisYuHdkSs&refer=home |date=June 13, 2010 }}. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved on May 29, 2011.

In January 2013, Google announced a partnership with Kia Motors and Hyundai. The partnership integrates Google Maps and Place into new car models to be released later in 2013.{{Cite news |title=Google partners with Hyundai and Kia Motors to integrate Google Maps and Places into new car models |work=The Next Web |url=https://thenextweb.com/google/2013/01/02/google-partners-with-kia-motors-to-integrate-google-maps-and-places-into-new-car-models/?fromcat=all |access-date=January 2, 2013}}

The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) was launched in October 2013; Google is part of the coalition of public and private organizations that also includes Facebook, Intel, and Microsoft. Led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world, where only 31% of people are online. Google will help to decrease Internet access prices so they fall below the UN Broadband Commission's worldwide target of 5% of monthly income.{{Cite web |last=Gibbs |first=Samuel |date=October 7, 2013 |title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Google lead coalition for cheaper internet |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/07/google-berners-lee-alliance-broadband-africa |access-date=March 15, 2017 |website=The Guardian }}

On September 21, 2017, HTC announced a "cooperation agreement" in which it would sell non-exclusive rights to certain intellectual property, as well as smartphone talent, to Google for $1.1 billion.{{Cite news |last=Balakrishnan |first=Saheli Roy Choudhury, Anita |date=September 20, 2017 |title=Google agrees to buy part of HTC for $1.1 billion |work=CNBC |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/20/google-htc-sign-cooperation-agreement.html |access-date=September 21, 2017}}{{Cite news |title=Google is buying part of HTC's smartphone team for $1.1 billion |work=The Verge |url=https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/20/16340108/google-htc-smartphone-team-acquisition-announced |access-date=September 21, 2017}}{{Cite news |date=September 21, 2017 |title=Google signs agreement with HTC, continuing our big bet on hardware |language=en |work=Google |url=https://www.blog.google/topics/hardware/google-signs-agreement-htc-continuing-our-big-bet-hardware/ |access-date=September 21, 2017}}

On August 5, 2024, Google would lose a lawsuit which started in 2020 in D.C. Circuit Court, with Judge Amit Mehta finding that the company had an illegal monopoly over Internet search.{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/article/google-antitrust-search-engine-verdict-apple-319a61f20fb11510097845a30abaefd8|title=Google illegally maintains monopoly over internet search, judge rules|first1=Matthew|last1=Barakat|first2=Michale|last2=Liedtke|publisher=Associated Press|date=August 5, 2024|access-date=August 6, 2024}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/6/24214641/google-us-monopoly-ruling-what-happens|title=Now that Google is a monopolist, what's next? / Reaching a decision on what to do about Google Search could take a very long time.|first=Jay|last=Peters|publisher=The Verge|date=August 6, 2024|access-date=August 6, 2024}} This monopoly was held to be in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.{{cite news|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Business/google-violated-antitrust-laws-maintain-dominance-online-search/story?id=112591120|title=Google violated antitrust laws to maintain dominance over online search, judge says|first=Alexander|last=Mallin|work=ABC News|date=August 5, 2024|access-date=August 6, 2024}} On September 10, 2024, the EU Court of Justice, based in Europe, found that Google held an illegal monopoly, in this case with regards to its shopping search, and could not avoid paying €2.4 billion.{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.eu/article/google-loses-court-battle-over-first-eu-antitrust-fine/|title=Google loses EU court battle over €2.4B antitrust fine|first=Edith|last=Hancock|publisher=Politico|date=September 10, 2024|access-date=September 10, 2024}} The EU Court of Justice referred to Google's treatment of rival shopping searches as "discriminatory" and in violation of the Digital Markets Act.

References

External links

{{external media| float = right|video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?289705-1/qa-ken-auletta Q&A interview with Auletta on Googled, October 29, 2009], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?290222-1/googled-end-world-it Presentation by Auletta on Googled, November 11, 2009], C-SPAN| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?296481-1/distance-learning-class-ken-auletta Interview with Auletta on Googled, November 11, 2010], C-SPAN}}

[https://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html Google Corporate History (official)]
David Hart: [https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100660&org=NSF On the Origins of Google] National Science Foundation, August 17, 2004

Category:History of Silicon Valley

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