What is Google?
Google is an American technology company that is best known for its search engine, but also offers a variety of other services including cloud computing, mobile phones, advertising and software. The company has become one of the most important forces in the development of the internet as we know it, to the point where the phrase ‘google something’ is used to mean searching for information online.
Founded in 1998, Google is currently owned by the parent company Alphabet Inc and handles over 70% of worldwide online searches. Its name derives from the mathematical term googol, which is 1 followed by 100 zeroes. The company has grown from a startup to the largest tech corporation in the world, and is often referred to as “the search engine that rules the world.”
When Google first launched, it was primarily a search engine that would return results based on keywords entered into a search bar. Over time, the company began to expand its offerings to include more and more services. In 2004, it started offering free web-based email through Gmail. It also introduced Google Earth, Google Maps and a video search tool called Google Videos. In 2011, it launched voice search which allows users to speak queries instead of typing them. The company has also made several significant algorithm updates over the years, such as a shift from counting links to ranking pages based on how useful they are, and other changes intended to reduce search spam.
Today, Google has become a household name thanks to the massive number of people using its services on a daily basis. The word ‘google’ has even entered the lexicon as a verb, meaning to search for something on the internet. The company’s headquarters are located in Mountain View, California.
Unlike some other tech companies, which are often privately owned by the founding team or investors, Google is publicly traded and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2004. This has led to an increase in the value of the company’s shares and has made founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page instant billionaires.
The company is constantly expanding its offerings, with over 40 products and services as of April 2022. Some of its most popular offerings include Google Search, Gmail, YouTube and Google Calendar. It also has a variety of vertical search engines that provide results for specific types of content, such as images and news stories.
Google has numerous hidden features within its search and other products, known as Easter eggs. These are features that the company intentionally includes to surprise and delight users. Some examples include displaying search results in leet language (Google H4x0r) or Klingon, or showing search results as if they were written in Pig Latin. These are fun ways to show off the creativity of the Google engineering team. It has also created a way for users to get more personalized results by using the Advanced Search feature.
