History and Leadership Changes
– Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
– In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.
– Sundar Pichai became the CEO of Google on October 24, 2015.
– Google announced plans to reorganize as Alphabet Inc. in 2015.
– Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google.
– Larry Page became CEO of Alphabet.
Products and Services
– Google offers a wide range of products and services beyond Google Search.
– Gmail, Waze & Maps, Cloud, Chrome, YouTube, Workspace, Android, Drive, Translate, Photos, Meet, Nest, Pixel, Pixel Watch & Fitbit, YouTube Music, YouTube TV, Google Assistant & Bard, TensorFlow, and TPU are among the products offered by Google.
– Discontinued Google products include Stadia, Glass, Google+, Reader, Play Music, Nexus, Hangouts, and Inbox by Gmail.
– Google develops the Android mobile operating system for smartphones, smartwatches, televisions, cars, and other smart devices.
– Google Chrome is a popular web browser developed by Google.
Market Dominance
– Google is referred to as the most powerful company in the world.
– It is one of the world’s most valuable brands.
– Google is one of the five Big Tech companies alongside Amazon, Apple Inc., Meta, and Microsoft.
– Google and YouTube are the two most visited websites worldwide.
– Google is the largest search engine, mapping and navigation application, email provider, office suite, video sharing platform, photo and cloud storage provider, mobile operating system, web browser, ML framework, and AI virtual assistant provider in the world.
Criticism and Issues
– Google has received significant criticism involving privacy concerns, tax avoidance, censorship, search neutrality, antitrust, and abuse of its monopoly position.
– The company has faced scrutiny for its data collection practices.
– Google has been involved in various legal battles related to its market dominance.
– Privacy advocates have raised concerns about Google’s handling of user data.
– Google has been accused of favoring its own services in search results.
Acquisitions and Expansions
– Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock in 2006.
– Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2008.
– Google acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in 2012.
– Google acquired Waze for $966 million in 2013.
– Google built 11 data centers around the world to handle increasing workload. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
