Introduction
Google LLC is an American multinational technology corporation that is focused on Internet-related products and services. These products and services include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is acknowledged as one of the top four technology organisations, alongside Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. Google was founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page while they studied Ph.D. at Stanford University in California together. They consolidated Google as a privately held firm on September 4, 1998. Google moved its headquarters to Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex at an initial public offering (IPO) that took place on August 19, 2004.
Products and Services from Google
Anyone may think of Google as a Web search Company only, but Google CEO Sundar Pichai does not. He believes that Google’s mission is to recognise any human problem that can be solved with technology only and then come up with the technologies that solve these problems. It’s a pretty broad mission.
Here’s a list of some products and services available and underdevelopment from Google:
- An Internet search engine.
- Web email.
- A news aggregator.
- Calendar software.
- Cloud storage for consumers.
- Cloud storage for businesses.
- A website for watching Internet videos.
- A web browser.
- A smartphone operating system.
- A thermostat.
- Unknown life-extending technologies.
- Computerized contact lenses.
- Robot assistants.
- Self-driving cars.
- A home video monitoring system.
- High-speed Internet service.
- Laptop computers.
- Desktop computers.
- Balloons that broadcast Internet signal.
- Drones that deliver products to homes.
- Computers you wear like glasses.
- Airborne wind turbines.
- A digital collection of all the world’s books.
- A social network.
- Software for creating and maintaining blogs.
- An online video rental store.
- An online software store.
- A live-updating database of equities and financial news.
- A service that allows you to pay for things with your phone.
- A language translation service.
- A phone number replacement service.
- Video-conferencing software.
Some of the products on this list are certainly related to Google’s core business i.e Web search. Chrome and Android assure that a Google search is never far from almost all web users. But it’s a pretty wild and varied list. Who knew that Google made a spoon? Yes, it’s True! Google made a spoon designed to make life easier for people with diseases such as Parkinson’s. So far, shareholders are not punishing the CEO for a lack of focus. Obviously, that’s not because of the robots or the contact lenses Google is working on. It’s because Google has the world’s most profitable Internet marketing pumping the place full of cash: search advertising. There is little reason to worry that search advertising will go away any time soon. Nowadays, people are using the Internet on their phones more than on their computers. And, when people use the Internet on their mobile devices, they are increasingly using apps instead of the Web.
There are many other products Google is working on to make them better day by day. Some of them are briefed below:
- Admob – Legalize and promote your mobile apps with advertisements.
- Android – Android is a software suite for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware, and key applications.
- Android Wear – Android Wear devices let you follow your fitness, view your alerts & messages, and ask Google assistant for help right on your wrist.
- DoubleClick – An advertisement technology to transact, create and manage digital advertising for the global sellers, buyers and creators.
- Google.org – Google.org develops technologies to help discuss global challenges and finances innovative partners through grants, investments, and in-kind resources.
- Google Ad Planner – A free media planning medium that can assist you to distinguish websites your audience is likely to visit so you can make better-informed advertising decisions.
- Google Bookmarks – Google Bookmarks is an online service that lets you save your favourite sites and attach labels and comments. Also check out, Bookmark Manager.
- Google Chromium – The Chromium projects include Chromium OS and Chromium itself. These are the open-source projects behind the Google Chrome OS and Google Chrome browser respectively.
- Google Custom Search Engine & Google Subscribed Links – With Google Custom Search Engine and Subscribed Links, you can create a search engine designed for your needs that lets you generate custom search results that users can add to their Google search pages.
- Google Fi – Project Fi is a mobile virtual network operator owned by Google, providing wireless phone and data services using Wi-Fi and cellular networks belonging to Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Three.
- Google Home – Google Home is a great speaker and voice Assistant which can play your music, call your friends, ask it questions, or even control your home. It’s your own Google, always ready to help.
- Google Voice – Google Voice gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail as easy as email, free US long distance, low rates on international calls, and more. Tip: The first minute of calls to phone numbers in twenty-five different countries is now free with Hangouts.
- Cameos – Cameos on Google lets you be the authority on you. Record video answers to the most asked questions on Google and then post them right to Google. Now, when folks search for you, they’ll get answers directly from you.
- Motion Stills – Motion Stills is an app from Google Research that utilizes excellent stabilization and rendering to turn your Live Photos and videos into GIFs that loop forever or edit them collectively into epic movies.
Closing Thoughts
It’s no surprise that Google commanded the internet post the dot-com bubble. And it was becoming more and more popular when several other big dot-com companies were struggling (including the Yahoos and the AOLs of the web). Google never had to look back as it enjoyed a monopoly in the search engine market (just like Microsoft monopolized the operating systems market in the 1990s and 2000s). The best thing about Google (from the user point of view) is that they have launched a large number of other products & services (apart from a search engine) and gave away all of them for free. Because they were able to subsidize all its cost via their highly profitable advertising business.
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