What is Google?
Google is an American multinational corporation and technology company focused on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, and consumer electronics. Its headquarters are in Mountain View, California. Google is also known for its other product lines, such as Gmail, Android operating system, Chrome OS, and Google TV. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Google was founded in 1998 by Stanford University graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Their first meeting took place in 1995 at Stanford when Brin was considering grad school and Page visited to show him around. The pair quickly became friends and began working together. They developed a search engine that used links to determine the importance of websites, a concept later referred to as PageRank. This system placed websites higher in search results based on the number of other pages that linked to them.
By 2001, Google had grown so rapidly that investors felt it needed an experienced manager at the helm. They hired Eric Schmidt, who had been a top executive at the software company Novell Inc. Schmidt’s business experience complemented Page and Brin’s technological impulses, and the trio ran Google as a triumvirate until Page took over as CEO in 2011.
Since its inception, the Google brand has expanded to include a wide range of products and services. Many of these are search-related, but some—such as Gmail and ChromeOS—are not. The Google Chrome web browser, for example, features a built-in translation tool that translates webpages in 52 languages.
The Google logo often appears in a stylized form as a special “Google Doodle” on its homepage to celebrate important events and holidays. These doodles can be drawings, animations, interactive games, or simply images that include the Google logo. A click on the Google Doodle displays a string of search results related to the celebration or holiday.
In addition to the Google homepage, the logo is also featured in other official Google products and in a variety of other places on the Internet, including social media sites, mobile devices, and Google-branded apps. The logo is the primary symbol of Google’s brand identity and is recognized around the world as a mark of quality.
The name “Google” derives from the Googol (pronounced goog-OL) number, which is 1 followed by 100 zeros, representing the infinite amount of information available on the Internet. The founders chose the name to emphasize the company’s goal of organizing a vast quantity of information and making it useful. It also reflects the playful spirit of the company’s early days, when employees ate pizza in the garage and brought their pet dog to work. The company has since moved to larger offices in Mountain View, California, and has added a cafe, play areas, and a sculpture garden to its campus.