Google is one of the most influential companies that has ever been founded. It all began with a research project spearheaded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students from Stanford University, who set out to create a search engine with the mission of finding relevant search results based on a mathematical algorithm. This algorithm, known as PageRank, was developed to assess the importance of individual webpages by analyzing their cross-references. The name Google is an intentional misspelling of the word “googol” which refers to an incredibly large number followed by 100 zeros (10100).
Since its creation in 1998, Google has grown exponentially and diversified its business. In the early days, Google focused on building a search engine which allowed users to quickly find relevant information from the internet. While its search technology remains at the foundation of its operations today, Google has gone on to create numerous other products and services that are used around the world.
One notable achievement of Google is the creation of the Android operating system, released in 2008. This operating system competes with Apple’s iOS platform and powers millions of smartphones and tablets today. Google also has many other products such as web-based applications like Gmail, Chrome browser, maps and YouTube.
In addition to expanding its online presence, Google is increasingly investing in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing. The company invests heavily in researching cutting edge technologies which can be applied to a variety of industries from healthcare to transportation. Through these investments it intends to help shape our future world in various ways.
Today, over one billion people use Google every day across 190 countries worldwide for their different needs ranging from searching for information on the internet to watching videos or playing games on their smartphones. Looking into the future, it will be fascinating to see how far Google will go in terms of innovation and technological advancements.