Google

About

Google is an American multinational internet and software corporation invested in internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. It is best known for a number of Internet-based services and applications, including its search engine.

History

Google was created as part of a student research project^[1] out of Stanford University in California in January 1996. The creators, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, wanted a search engine that would look at relationships between websites. This algorithm, called PageRank^[2], assigns a numerical weight to every element of a website based on the number of pages about a topic and their relevance. Originally named BackRub for the site’s investigation into backlinks, the Google domain name was purchased on September 15th, 1997 and launched the next year.

By 2006, the world “Google” had become so synonymous with searching the web that it was added as a verb to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.^[3]

Traffic

Google is ranked #1 both globally and in the US on Alexa^[4], Compete^[5], and Quantcast^[6], averaging over 5 billion visits per month.

Features

Search Experience

Google has implemented special features^[7] to make searching easier over the years, making things like weather, stock quotes, movie times, definitions, and flight tracking available within the search results so users do not have to click through to another page to see them. They make searching faster with the addition of Google Instant, which delivers instant results while you type instead of the usual type then click. It also speeds up search times by 2-5 seconds.

Products

Though initially just a search engine site, Google has expanded to include other products^[8] such as a document creating and sharing system, e-mail, full text book search, maps, a scholarly paper depository, a translation service, and their own web browser, Google Chrome.^[9] The browser has had enormous success in its own sector, surpassing competitor Mozilla Firefox as the number 2 most used web browser in December of 2011.^[10] In June 2011, they also released a social networking service, Google+.^[11]

In 2006, Google announced that it would be purchasing the popular video sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion in a stock-for stock transaction.^[12] Although YouTube still operates independently of Google, it is now part of Google’s services and is able to be used by anyone with a Google account.

Privacy

On January 24th, 2012, Google announced^[24] a change to their privacy policies^[25] that would go into effect on March 1st. stating that they were replacing the sites over 60 different policies with one overarching document to cover all of their products and brands. The goal of the consolidation is create a better user experience by taking information from all of its platforms, including email, search, and calendars, to help deliver more refined search results and alert users to things they might miss.^[26] Users will not be able to opt-out of this change.^[27]

The new policy was heavily critiqued^[28] for compiling cross-site data to create a better composite of its users. Most services like Gmail, Calendar, and Documents are already connected, but the new policy condenses the process, in addition to inclusion of YouTube and incorporating personal data into search tasks.^[29] Many critics see the inclusion of Google Plus into the search algorithm, announced a few weeks previous, as an invasion of privacy.^[30]

US Representative Ed Markey and Senator Richard Blumenthal both criticized^[32] the inability to opt-out and the US Federal Trade Commission is expanding its antitrust probe^[33] to investigate into Google+ as well. Across the globe, Ireland’s Data Protection Agency and France’s National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties both announced^[31] that they would be looking into the legality of the new policies in their respective countries.

Highlights

Google is known for “Google Doodles,” when the official logo on the homepage changes to something timely for 24 hours. This was first done during 1998’s Burning Man Festival^[13] as a way for Page and Brin to notify their users that they were away for the weekend in case of a server crash. Since then, these have evolved from just pictures into interactive pieces ranging from a guitar to YouTube videos.

Google has also consistently done April Fool’s Day pranks^[14] yearly from 2004 on. They also have several easter eggs hidden throughout their products.

Google Doodles

On occasion, Google will replace its logo on the Google homepage with an artistic version of itself to mark a special occasion, usually a holiday or the birthday of a famous scientist, artist, or leader. Although originally produced only sparingly, 2011 saw an increase in production of doodles, such as one on September 27 to celebrate Google’s 13th birthday.^[20] Google also keeps a list^[21] of all its doodles from 1998 on. That year saw the first doodle, in celebration of the Burning Man Festival, notifying Google users of Brin and Page’s absence in case of server crash.^[22]

Google Doodles later became interactive by the use of HTML5. The first instance of a interactive Google Doodle was “Google Instant Launch” on September 6, 2010. The Doodle was the Google logo made up of circular particles that, when the cursor was moved around on it, would spread the particles across the home screen.

On Tuesday, January 18, 2012, Google censored their logo with a black box in protest of SOPA and PIPA.^[34] Clicking the censored logo would lead the user to a page where you can sign a petition to stop SOPA and PIPA from passing congress. The page was later changed to thank the seven million Americans and the congress for standing up against SOPA and PIPA.

Search Engine Easter Eggs

Google is also noted for easter eggs^[19] embedded within certain search criteria. For instance, Googling “Tilt” or “Askew” will cause the page to load at an angle, or Googling “Do a barrel roll” will cause the page to spin 360˚ around. When you search for anagram, it will ask if you meant nag a ram. In addition, when certain phrases are searched, pop culture references will be added into the results, such as a line of text reading “the answer to life the universe and everything = 42” when “the answer to life the universe and everything” is searched.

Zeitgeist

Starting in December 2001^[15], Google publishes an annual zeitgeist, “the spirit of the times,” showing how search on their site represents the general cultural and intellectual climate of that year. In their premiere collection^[16], Google took the information from 150 million searches per day and made a timeline^[17] of that year’s search highlights and 12 top-ten lists in categories ranging from people and movies to brands and news resources.

For 2011, Google launched a separate website^[18] for that year’s data, with interactive charts where users could compare topics to each other and visualize the data broken down into weekly and monthly charts. Google also published a video of that year’s top events.

Search Interest

Search for Google has been consistently on the rise, with a major peak in September 2005. This could be due to the major database expansion^[23] put into place that month in celebration of the site’s seventh birthday. This expansion made the index 1000 times its previous size and three times larger than any competing search engines at the time.

External References