What is Google?
Google is one of the world’s most popular search engines. Its software and services have been fundamental to the internet as we know it – so much so that ‘googling’ is now synonymous with conducting a search on the internet. Although search remains the company’s core business, Google operates in many other areas including hardware, cloud computing and advertising.
Google sifts through billions of web pages in just a fraction of a second when you search for something online. Then it decides what to show you based on what it thinks you’re looking for. It takes into account your location, the language you’re using and what device you’re searching from. The company constantly tweaks its algorithms to improve how it works.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded the company in 1998 while they were Ph.D students at Stanford University, California. They began with a simple idea of creating a search engine that could rank websites based on relevance, and it quickly became a success. Today, the firm is a multibillion-dollar corporation that provides a range of software and products from email and photo storage to productivity suites like Google Docs and Chrome browser, as well as mobile operating systems like Android, Chrome laptops and Pixel phones.
Google also offers tools and services that allow people to connect all their devices and make them work together. For example, you can use your phone to unlock your Chromebook or control your TV with Google Assistant and Wear OS. You can also store all your files in one place, access them from anywhere and share them with others. Google Home is a smart speaker that allows you to talk to, listen to and interact with your home. It can play music, provide information on the weather and traffic, control your lights and more.
Other Google services include the Google Maps service that lets you view and navigate maps on your computer, smartphone or tablet, as well as find local businesses and restaurants. You can even get directions and see what the road looks like before you drive down it, thanks to Google Street View. Google Translate enables you to translate text, web pages or speech into another language. And finally, the Google Play Store is an app store that features over a million apps for everything from gaming to news and entertainment.
Google also owns a number of other companies that aren’t part of its main Google product line, such as the Android smartphone operating system, video game maker Nexus and the self-driving car project Waymo. These other ventures are grouped under parent company Alphabet, which was formed in 2015 during a restructuring of the giant corporation. Other subsidiaries include health company Calico, tech industry private equity firm CapitalG and “moonshot” technology developer X Development.
