Google LLC
 Logo since 2015[update] | |
.jpg) Google's headquarters, the Googleplex | |
| Formerly | Google Inc. (1998–2017) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary (LLC) |
| Industry | |
| Founded | September 4, 1998[a] in Menlo Park, California, United States |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters |
|
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
| Products | List of products |
| Parent | Alphabet Inc. |
| Website | google.com |
| Footnotes / references [6][7][8][9] | |
Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big Five technology companies in the U.S. information technology industry, alongside Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.[10][11][12]
Google was founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. Together they own about 14 percent of its shares and control 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a California privately held company on September 4, 1998. Google was then reincorporated in Delaware on October 22, 2002.[13] An initial public offering (IPO) took place on August 19, 2004, and Google moved to its headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. In August 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate called Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's leading subsidiary and will continue to be the umbrella company for Alphabet's Internet interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet. In 2021, the Alphabet Workers Union was founded, mainly composed of Google employees.[14]
The company's rapid growth since incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond Google's core search engine (Google Search). It offers services designed for work and productivity (Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides), email (Gmail), scheduling and time management (Google Calendar), cloud storage (Google Drive), instant messaging and video chat (Duo, Hangouts, Chat, and Meet), language translation (Google Translate), mapping and navigation (Google Maps, Waze, Google Earth, and Street View), podcast hosting (Google Podcasts), video sharing (YouTube), blog publishing (Blogger), note-taking (Google Keep and Google Jamboard), and photo organizing and editing (Google Photos). The company leads the development of the Android mobile operating system, the Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system based on the Chrome browser. Google has moved increasingly into hardware; from 2010 to 2015, it partnered with major electronics manufacturers in the production of its Nexus devices, and it released multiple hardware products in October 2016, including the Google Pixel line of smartphones, Google Home smart speaker, Google Wifi mesh wireless router, and Google Daydream virtual reality headset. Google has also experimented with becoming an Internet carrier (Google Fiber, Google Fi, and Google Station).[15]
Google.com is the most visited website worldwide. Several other Google-owned websites also are on the list of most popular websites, including YouTube and Blogger.[16]
Google was the most valuable brand in the world in 2017 (surpassed by Amazon),[17] but has received significant criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, antitrust, censorship, and search neutrality.
- ^ Fitzpatrick, Alex (September 4, 2014). "Google Used to Be the Company That Did 'Nothing But Search'". Time.
- ^ Telegraph Reporters (September 27, 2019). "When is Google's birthday – and why are people confused?". The Telegraph.
- ^ Griffin, Andrew (September 27, 2019). "Google birthday: The one big problem with the company's celebratory doodle". The Independent.
- ^ Wray, Richard (September 5, 2008). "Happy birthday Google". The Guardian.
- ^ "Singapore". Google. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
As our Asia-Pacific headquarters, our Singapore office plays a pivotal role in our global strategy to reach millions of users around the region.
- ^ "Company – Google". January 16, 2015. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
- ^ Claburn, Thomas (September 24, 2008). "Google Founded By Sergey Brin, Larry Page... And Hubert Chang?!?". InformationWeek. UBM plc. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
- ^ "Locations — Google Jobs". Archived from the original on September 30, 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:0was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Rivas, Teresa. "Ranking The Big Four Tech Stocks: Google Is No. 1, Apple Comes In Last". www.barrons.com. Archived from the original on December 28, 2018. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
- ^ Ritholtz, Barry (October 31, 2017). "The Big Four of Technology". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2018.
- ^ "What is GAFA (the big four)? - Definition from WhatIs.com". WhatIs.com. Retrieved March 5, 2020.
- ^ "Business Entity Filing". Business Search. October 7, 2002. Archived from the original on August 14, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
- ^ "Google employees are forming a union". Android Police. January 4, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
- ^ Byford, Sam (September 27, 2016). "Google Station is a new platform that aims to make public Wi-Fi better". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 3, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
- ^ "The top 500 sites on the web". Alexa Internet.
- ^ "Google is now the world's most valuable brand". The Independent. February 1, 2017. Archived from the original on August 31, 2017. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
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