Google: A Brief History and Overview

The most well-known and influential corporations in the world today include Google. How we work, interact, and consume information has been significantly impacted by its name, which has grown to be associated with an internet search and its goods and services. The history of Google, its ascent to fame, and its contemporary social influence will all be examined in this blog article.

HISTORY OF GOOGLE

Android Logo

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University, started Google in 1998. Their original search engine, BackRub, ranked online sites according to their relevance to a particular search query using a complicated algorithm. Both quickly saw the invention's potential and set out to make it commercially viable, dubbing it Google (a play on the word "googol," which refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros).

Because of its system's rapid reaction time and straightforward architecture, Google quickly gained popularity. Google's search space controlled most of the market around the early 2000s. Google raised 1.7 billion dollars in 2004 in one of history's most eagerly awaited initial public offerings.

In 2005, Google bought Android, a small business at the time. Android now has around 3 billion devices used worldwide. Sometime later, in 2015, Google decided to restructure its company and make it a subsidiary company. It would now be under a new holding company called Alphabet Inc. They would have Larry Page as CEO of Alphabet and Sundar Pichai as CEO of Google.

Now Google has a ton of other commodities that they provide, some being Gmail, Youtube, Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Home. These services bring in even more revenue for the company and give more consumer access.

IMPACT OF GOOGLE

Google is very popular and has immense reach. It's most famous for its search engine but also provides other products. Google has taken a big step into the world, allowing many people to experience its services. 

Google's Self-Driving Car

Some positive things they have done would be their advertising platform, mobile devices, and their work on artificial intelligence. Google was among the first to use algorithmic systems to determine what ads people would most likely click. They have also researched AI to the point where they have been working on self-driving vehicles and voice recognition technology. All these things have significantly impacted society and where technology will lead us.

When you run a business the size of Google, unfortunately, not everything always works so well. Due to privacy concerns, Google has received a lot of criticism. Some people feel that the collection of their data violates their constitutional rights. Because of these complaints, officials have fined Google millions of dollars.

There are even demeaning quotes from former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, where he says, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place," He also says, "If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines - including Google - do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities."

This shows that Google can see the information we may not want to show and use to sell and get money out of. This information is gathered through all their products, not just their search engine. Google's impact is both transformative for society and controversial in how they handle our privacy and information.