What You Need to Know About Google Products and Services
Billions of people around the world use google products and services every day. The tech company’s wildly successful search engine is so widely used that its name has become a verb (“Just Google it,” for example). The internet giant also operates one of the most popular social media sites, an email service, a maps system, and more. Google’s stated mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
The company started as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D students at Stanford University. The pair aimed to develop an algorithm that would rank web pages based on the quality of their content and the number of other websites that linked to them. This would allow them to return more relevant search results than traditional engines that focused only on keywords. They initially gave their new service the working title “BackRub,” but eventually discarded it in favor of the current Google name—which is a play on words with the word googol, a mathematical term for a number that is larger than one billion.
Google grew rapidly after its creation, and the company moved several times before settling in Mountain View, California, in 1998. Its founders embraced an unconventional approach to business, using Lego bricks to build their first server and naming the company’s early logo after a Yoshka doll, a Russian toy that symbolizes good luck. Their guiding philosophy—don’t be evil—has become the core of Google’s culture and its approach to products and services.
The company specializes in online advertising technologies and search tools, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, and more. Its most well-known product is the Google Search engine, which generates most of the firm’s revenue. Its parent company is Alphabet, which was created in 2015 to better manage the vast array of the company’s interests.
Among the most famous Google products and services are:
Many of Google’s products have been discontinued over time, including Google Chromecast, which was replaced by Google TV. Other services that have been shut down include Google Voice, which was replaced by Hangouts, and Google Video, which was transitioned to YouTube Music. Other products that have been retired include Google Alerts, a service for creating alert text messages, and Google Toolbar, an add-on for early Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers that enabled users to access Google features. The company’s current flagship e-mail service is Gmail, and its Google Assistant digital personal assistant service is available in smartphones and smart home devices. Other services that Google offers include Google Maps, Google Play Music, and Google Fonts.
