   #copyright

Google

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Websites and the Internet

   Google Inc.
       Type     Public ( NASDAQ: GOOG), ( LSE: GGEA)
     Founded    Menlo Park, California (September 27, 1998)
   Headquarters United States Mountain View, California, USA
    Key people  Eric E. Schmidt, CEO/Director
                Sergey Brin, Technology President
                Larry E. Page, Products President
                George Reyes, CFO
     Industry   Internet
     Products   See list of Google products
     Revenue    $7.14 Billion USD (2006)
    Net income  $1.47 Billion USD (2005)
    Employees   9,378 ( September 30, 2006)
     Website    www.google.com

   Google, Inc. ( NASDAQ: GOOG and LSE: GGEA) is an American public
   corporation and search engine, first incorporated as a privately held
   company on 7 September 1998. The company had 9,378 full-time employees
   as of September 30, 2006 and is based in Mountain View, California.
   Eric Schmidt, former chief executive officer of Novell, is Google's
   CEO, after co-founder Larry Page stepped down.

   The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of " googol," which
   refers to 10^100 (a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros).The verb " google"
   was added to both the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the
   Oxford English Dictionary, meaning "to use the Google search engine to
   obtain information on the Internet."

History

   Google.com in 1998
   Enlarge
   Google.com in 1998

   Google began as a research project in January, 1996 by Larry Page and
   Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, California.
   They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships
   between websites would produce better results than existing techniques
   (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results
   according to how many times the search term appeared on a page). It was
   originally nicknamed "BackRub" because the system checked backlinks to
   estimate a site's importance. A small search engine called RankDex was
   already exploring a similar strategy.

   Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly
   relevant web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the
   search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and
   laid the foundation for their search engine. Originally the search
   engine used the Stanford University website with the domain
   google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on September
   14, 1997, and the company was incorporated as Google Inc. on September
   7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. The total
   initial investment raised for the new company eventually amounted to
   almost US$1.1 million, including a $100,000 check by Andy Bechtolsheim,
   one of the founders of Sun Microsystems.

   In March, 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue
   in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology
   startups. After quickly outgrowing two other sites, the company settled
   into their current home in a complex of buildings in Mountain View at
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, also in 1999. The complex has since become
   known as the Googleplex (a play on the word googolplex, a 1 followed by
   a googol of zeros). Silicon Graphics leased the buildings to Google.

   The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing
   number of Internet users. They were attracted to its simple,
   uncluttered, clean design — a competitive advantage to attract users
   who did not wish to enter searches on web pages filled with visual
   distractions. This appearance imitated AltaVista's, but incorporated
   Google's unique search capabilities. In 2000, Google began selling
   advertisements associated with search keywords. This strategy was
   important for increasing advertising revenue, which is based upon the
   number of hits users make upon ads. The ads were text-based in order to
   maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed.
   Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and
   clickthroughs, with bidding starting at $.05 per click. This model of
   selling keyword advertising was pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed
   Overture, then Yahoo! Search Marketing). While many of its dot-com
   rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in
   stature while generating revenue.

   U.S. Patent 6,285,999 describing part of Google's ranking mechanism (
   PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001. The patent was officially
   assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the
   inventor.

Growth

   With Google's increased size comes more competition from large
   mainstream technology companies. One such example is the rivalry
   between Microsoft and Google. Microsoft has been touting its MSN Search
   engine, and more recently its Windows Live search in February, 2006, to
   counter Google's competitive position. Furthermore, the two companies
   are increasingly offering overlapping services, such as webmail (Gmail
   vs. Hotmail), search (both online and local desktop searching), and
   other applications (for example, Microsoft's Windows Live Local
   competes with Google Maps).

   Click fraud has also become a growing problem for Google's business
   strategy. Google's CFO George Reyes said in a December 2004 investor
   conference that "something has to be done about this really, really
   quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business
   model." Some have suggested that Google is not doing enough to combat
   click fraud. Jessie Stricchiola, president of Alchemist Media, called
   Google, "the most stubborn and the least willing to cooperate with
   advertisers," when it comes to click fraud.

   While the company's primary market is in the web content arena, Google
   has also recently begun to experiment with other markets, such as radio
   and print publications. On January 17, 2006, Google announced that it
   had purchased the radio advertising company dMarc, which provides an
   automated system that allows companies to advertise on the radio. This
   will allow Google to combine two niche advertising media -- the
   Internet and radio -- with Google's ability to laser-focus on the
   tastes of consumers. Google has also begun an experiment in selling
   advertisements from its advertisers in offline newspapers and
   magazines, with select advertisements in the Chicago Sun-Times. They
   have been filling unsold space in the newspaper that would have
   normally been used for in-house advertisements.

   Google was added to the S&P 500 index on March 31, 2006. Google
   replaced Burlington Resources, a major oil producer based in Houston
   which was acquired by ConocoPhillips.

   According to the Nielsen cabinet, Google is the most used search engine
   on the web with a 54% market share, ahead of Yahoo! (23%) and MSN
   (13%). However, independent estimates from popular sites indicate that
   more than 80% of search referrals come from Google, with Yahoo! a
   distant second and MSN occupying barely 5%. The Google search engine
   receives about a billion search requests per day.

Acquisitions and partnerships

   Since 2001, Google has acquired several small start-up companies, often
   consisting of innovative teams and products. One of the earlier
   companies that Google bought was Pyra Labs. They were the creators of
   Blogger, a weblog publishing platform, first launched in 1999. This
   acquisition lead to many premium features becoming free. Pyra Labs was
   originally formed by Evan Williams, yet he left Google in 2004. In
   early 2006, Google acquired Upstartle, a company responsible for the
   online word processor, Writely. The technology in this product was used
   by Google to eventually create Google Docs & Spreadsheets. In late
   2006, Google bought online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion in
   stock.

   Google has also worked with large companies to improve production and
   services, including a long-term research partnership with NASA in a
   variety of areas, and a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share
   and distribute each other's technologies. Recently, Google entered into
   partnerships with Time Warner's America Online, to enhance each other's
   video search services, and with News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media to
   provide search and advertising on the popular social networking site,
   MySpace.

Criticism and controversy

   As it has grown, Google has found itself the focus of various
   controversies related to its business practices and services. For
   example, Google Book Search's effort to digitize millions of books and
   make the full text searchable has led to copyright disputes with the
   Authors Guild. Google's cooperation with the governments of China,
   France and Germany to filter search results in accordance to regional
   laws and regulations has led to claims of censorship. Google's
   persistent cookie and other information collection practices have led
   to concerns over user privacy. A number of governments have raised
   concerns about the security risks posed by geographic details provided
   by Google Earth's satellite imaging. Moreover, Google advertisers have
   filed several lawsuits against the company in 2006, claiming that up to
   14-20% of the clicks on the bills were in fact fraudulent or invalid.

Corporate affairs and culture

   A license plate seen in the Googleplex parking lot
   Enlarge
   A license plate seen in the Googleplex parking lot

   Google is particularly known for its relaxed corporate culture,
   reminiscent of the Dot-com boom. Google's corporate philosophy is based
   on many casual principles including, "You can make money without doing
   evil", "You can be serious without a suit" and, "Work should be
   challenging and the challenge should be fun." A complete list of
   corporate fundamentals is available on Google's website. Google's
   relaxed corporate culture can also be seen externally through their
   holiday variations of the Google logo.

   Google's hiring policy is aggressively non-discriminatory and favors
   ability over experience. The result is a staff that reflects the global
   audience the search engine serves. However, the hiring process can be
   quite daunting and arduous for prospective candidates.

   Originally, typical salaries at Google were considered to be quite low
   by industry standards. For example, some system administrators earned
   no more than $33,000 — $40,000 per year; at that time it was considered
   to be low for the Bay Area job market. Nevertheless, Google's excellent
   stock performance following the IPO has enabled these early employees
   to be competitively compensated by participation in the corporation's
   remarkable equity growth. In 2005, Google has implemented other
   employee incentives such as the Google Founders' Award, in addition to
   offering higher salaries to new employees. Google's workplace
   amenities, culture, global popularity, and strong brand recognition
   have also attracted potential applicants.

   After the company's IPO in August 2004, it was reported that Founders
   Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as CEO Eric Schmidt, have accepted
   a base salary of $1.00. They have all declined recent offers of bonuses
   and increases in compensation by Google's board of directors. In a 2006
   report of the United States's richest people, Forbes reported that
   Sergey Brin was #12 with a net worth of $14.1 billion, and Larry Page
   was #13 with a net worth of $14.0 billion.

Googleplex

   The Googleplex
   Enlarge
   The Googleplex

   As a further play on Google's name, its headquarters, located in
   California, are referred to as "the Googleplex" — a googolplex being 1
   followed by a googol of zeros, and the HQ being a complex of buildings
   (cf. multiplex, cineplex, etc). The lobby is decorated with a piano,
   lava lamps, old server clusters, and a projection of search queries on
   the wall. The hallways are full of exercise balls and bicycles. Each
   employee has access to the corporate recreation centre. Recreational
   amenities are scattered throughout the campus, and include a workout
   room with weights and rowing machines, locker rooms, washers and
   dryers, a massage room, assorted video games, Foosball, a baby grand
   piano, a pool table, and ping pong. In addition to the rec room, there
   are snack rooms stocked with various cereals, gummy bears, toffee,
   licorice, cashews, yogurt, carrots, fresh fruit, and dozens of
   different drinks including fresh juice, soda, and make your own
   cappuccino. In October, 2006, the company announced plans to install
   thousands of solar panels to provide up to 1.6 megawatts of
   electricity, enough to satisfy approximately 30% of the campus' energy
   needs. The system will be the largest solar power system constructed on
   a U.S. corporate campus and one of the largest on any corporate site in
   the world.

   In 2006, Google moved into 311,000 square feet of office space in the
   second-largest building in New York City, at 111 Eighth Ave. in
   Manhattan. The office was specially designed and built for Google, and
   houses its largest advertising sales team, which has been instrumental
   in securing large partnerships, most recently deals with MySpace and
   AOL. In 2003, they added an engineering staff in New York City, which
   has been responsible for more than 100 engineering projects, including
   Google Maps, Google Spreadsheets, and others. It is estimated that the
   building costs Google $10 million per year to rent, and is similar in
   design and functionality to its Mountain View headquarters, including
   Foosball, air hockey, and ping-pong tables, as well as a video game
   area.

"Twenty percent" time

   All Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20 percent (20%) of their
   work time on projects that interest them. Some of Google's newer
   services, such as Gmail, Google News and orkut, originated from these
   independent endeavors. In a talk at Stanford University, Marissa Mayer,
   Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, stated
   that her analysis showed that half of new product launches originated
   from 20% time.

April Fool's Day jokes

   Google has a tradition of creating April Fool's Day jokes - such as
   Google MentalPlex, which allegedly featured the use of mental power to
   search the web. In 2002, they claimed that pigeons were the secret
   behind their growing search engine. In 2004, they featured Google Lunar
   (which claimed to feature jobs on the moon) and in 2005, a fictitious
   brain-boosting drink, termed Google Gulp was announced. In 2006 they
   came up with Google Romance.

   One can find other pranks hidden in amongst Google's pages; for
   instance, in the languages list one can find a Bork! Bork! Bork!
   version of the site (imitating the Muppet Show's Swedish Chef), and
   they also offer versions in Pig Latin, " Elmer Fudd", Hacker ("
   H4X0R"), and Klingon. Another prank is Google's answer to life, the
   universe, and everything.

   Some thought the announcement of Gmail in 2004 around April Fool's Day
   (as well as the doubling of Gmail's storage space to two gigabytes in
   2005) was a joke, though it turned out (in both cases) to be a genuine
   announcement. In 2005 a comedic graph depicting Google's goal of
   "infinity plus one" GB of storage was featured on the Gmail homepage.

IPO and culture

   Many people speculated that Google's IPO would inevitably lead to
   changes in the company's culture, because of shareholder pressure for
   employee benefit reductions and short-term advances, or because a large
   number of the company's employees would suddenly become millionaires on
   paper. In a report given to potential investors, co-founders Sergey
   Brin and Larry Page promised that the IPO would not change the
   company's culture. Later Mr. Page said, "We think a lot about how to
   maintain our culture and the fun elements."

   As Google grows, many analysts are finding that the company is becoming
   more "corporate". In 2005, articles in The New York Times and other
   sources began suggesting that Google had lost its anti-corporate, no
   evil philosophy.

Production

Technology

   Google's services are run on several server farms, each consisting of
   thousands of low-cost commodity computers running stripped-down
   versions of Linux. While the company does not provide detailed
   information about its hardware, a 2006 estimate consisted of over
   450,000 servers, racked up in clusters located in data centers around
   the world.

Services

   Google's core business model revolves around its Internet search
   engines. Google has several products that are search-oriented,
   including Web Search, Image Search and Google News. Google has also
   introduced Froogle, Google Groups and Google Scholar, which search
   shopping sites, Usenet archives and scholarly literature, respectively.
   Also, with the rise in popularity of blogging in 2005, Google created
   Blog Search, which allows the user to search frequently-indexed feeds,
   containing news and other features.

   Google Maps provides an interactive mapping interface, where users can
   search for local businesses, or select a destination to drive to.
   Satellite images are also available. It is growing in power and
   popularity, and Google has made several other products, based on the
   same technology. These include Google Moon, Google Mars, Google Ride
   Finder and Google Transit.

   In 2004, Google and Keyhole provided Google Earth, a downloadable
   program that allows the user to zoom into nearly any spot on the earth,
   close enough to make out cars, and in some cases, people. The
   technology comes with hundreds of add-ons, like "Crime rate", to see
   the crime rate of the city you are zoomed in on, or "3D buildings", to
   create 3D models of the towers and buildings of larger cities. There
   are three available versions, "free edition", "plus", and "pro". The
   cost of plus as of October 2006 is $20.00US and Pro for $400.

   In 2004, Google launched its own free web-based email service, known as
   Gmail. Gmail features improved spam filtering technology, combined with
   the capability to use Google search technology on individual email
   messages. Gmail shook up the free, web-based email market by initially
   offering 1 GB of email storage, prompting competitors Yahoo! and
   Hotmail to increase their storage quotas considerably. Google has since
   expanded Gmail's mail quota (and continues to expand it); as of
   November, 2006, the quota was over 2.78 GB. The service generates
   revenue by displaying advertisements from the AdWords service that are
   tailored to the content of the email messages displayed on screen. This
   feature has proven controversial, with some privacy advocates
   expressing concern that the company was reading individual emails.
   Google maintains, however, that the process is fully automated and that
   no humans read the content of users' messages.

   Google also branched out into the instant messaging market in August
   2005, by introducing Google Talk, a Jabber-based instant messaging
   service.

   In early 2006, the company launched Google Video, which not only allows
   users to search and view freely available videos, but also offers users
   and media publishers to publish their content, including television
   shows on CBS, NBA basketball games, and music videos. Videos offered
   via this service are protected using Google's own Digital rights
   management system.

   Google has also targeted organizations and educational institutions, by
   bundling several Google products, namely Gmail, Google Talk, Google
   Calendar and Google Page Creator, into a service that can be
   implemented on a custom top-level domain.

   Over the years since Google first began, they have launched over 70
   products, several of which are experimental. Smaller Google projects
   are contained on the Google Labs website.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
