Blog: Google

ByRajesh kumar

Introduction to

A company built on search……!!!!

Google began as a research project in 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were both PhD students at Stanford University. They thought that a search engine that could analyze the relationships between websites would product better results than other search engines. They called their new creation "BackRub", because it checked the backlinks to estimate a site's importance (by the way, this method is still used today in the infamous Google PageRank algorithm, which rates sites on a 1 to 10 basis based on backlinks, and several other variables, such as site layout, and keywords. Page and Brin would test their thesis as part of their studies at Stanford, and would later house their newly created engine at google.stanford.edu. The logo they had then was much different from today's logo, and the name was changed n September 7, 1998, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin bought the domain Google.com, and officially changed the name to Google - A play on the world Googol, (The number one followed by one-hundred zeros). Perhaps this was because Google has endless sites indexed (almost 800 trillion), or has endless possibilities to expand as it has into the internet dominating search engine and company.

A company built on search

Our mission:-

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible

and useful. As a first step

fulfilling this mission, Google’s

founders Larry Page and

Sergey Brin developed a new

approach to online search that

took root in a Stanford

University dorm room and quickly spread to information seekers around the globe.

The Google search engine is an easy-to-use, free service that consistently returns relevant results in a

fraction of a second.

What we do:-

Google is more than a search engine. We also offer Gmail, maps, personal blogging, and web-based

word processing products to name just a few. YouTube, the popular online video service, is part of

Google as well.

Most of Google’s services are free, so how do we make

money? Much of Google’s revenue comes through our

AdWords advertising program, which allows businesses to

place small “sponsored links” alongside our search

results. Prices for these ads are set by competitive

auctions for every search term where advertisers want their

ads to appear. We don’t sell placement in the search

results themselves, or allow people to pay for a higher

ranking there.

In addition, website managers and publishers take

advantage of our AdSense advertising program to deliver

ads on their sites. This program generates billions of

dollars in revenue each year for hundreds of thousands of

websites, and is a major source of funding for the free content available across the web.

Google also offers enterprise versions of our consumer products for businesses, organizations, and

government entities. These productivity tools include email, search, and geospatial products.

As of December 31, 2008, Google employed 20,222 people full-time, more than two thirds of whom

work across our more than 20 U.S. locations.

Driving economic growth

Google products and online advertising offerings create economic opportunity

for businesses large and small.

AdWords:-

It’s generally understood that Google’s free products like search,

Gmail, and many others are supported by advertising. What is not

as well known is that, in addition to providing useful products to

our users, Google is a platform for and a partner to American

businesses of all sizes.

Google AdWords enables small businesses of all kinds to place ads for their products and services next

to Google search results, giving them access to millions of our users around the world. Small

businesses can set their own ad budgets and can arrange to pay only when users click on an ad. As a

result, these businesses are able to find and connect with new customers more efficiently and costeffectively.

Google’s ad prices are set by competitive auction, ensuring that prices are always fair and driven by

customers – not set by Google.

AdSense:-

Google AdSense allows entrepreneurs, educators,

bloggers, and many others to generate revenue by

placing relevant advertising on their websites. In

many cases, these individuals are able to dedicate

themselves full-time to their publications because of

the support they receive from our advertising

programs.

The impact of Google’s technology on the small

business economy is significant. In 2008, we paid a

total of $5.28 billion to AdSense partners who use

our ads to earn money from their websites.

Supporting content owners:-

Google collaborates with hundreds of content owners to make their

content available online and monetize it in new ways. On

YouTube and Google Book Search, we not only give rightsholders a

way to control access to their works, but also provide them with

tools to reach and profit from a wide audience.

 Promoting innovation and competition

 Google products are built on the principle of openness and are designed to

foster innovation and creativity across the web.

Giving users control over their data:-

We think users should have the ability to move their personal data

to competing services, and we provide data export tools in most of

our products to avoid trapping users. From Gmail and Google

Reader, to Search History and Google Docs, we allow users to

Export their data, using open formats, to other programs. We

strive to earn our users’ loyalty by building good products and

constantly improving them, not by locking in users artificially.

Google welcomes competition because it stimulates innovation, makes us all work harder, and provides

users with more choice.

Android:-

Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile

devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface, and

applications – all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without

the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation. We

developed Android in cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance,

which consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders

including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile. Through

partnerships with carriers, device manufacturers, developers, and

others, we hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by

creating a standard, open mobile software platform. We think the

result will ultimately lead to a better and faster pace for innovation

that will give mobile customers unforeseen applications and capabilities. The first Android offering, TMobile’s

G-1 device, is currently on the market.

Chrome:-

Chrome, Google’s open source web browser, was designed to create a

better web experience for users around the world. Available in beta in

more than 40 languages, Google Chrome is a new approach to the

browser that’s based on the simplicity and power needed to run the web

applications of tomorrow. To further advance the openness of the web,

Google Chrome was released as an open source project. The intent is to

make future browsers better by contributing the underlying technology in

Google Chrome to the market, while continuing to develop additional

features.

 Increasing productivity and efficiency

 Cloud computing products like Google Apps are helping government,

businesses, and organizations save money and collaborate more effectively.

Cloud Computing :-

Cloud computing applications allow users and

organizations to host their files and applications

remotely in managed datacenters and access them

over the Internet. This means that users can reach

their email, documents, photos, and calendar from

wherever they are and from whatever device they

are using.

“The cloud” allows users to collaborate on

documents in real time, save their data on secure

servers instead of vulnerable personal devices, and

access their information wherever they are. Cloud

computing also saves money. Reducing traditional

costs and labor associated with deploying,

maintaining, and upgrading business technology,

IT departments are increasingly becoming free to

devote their limited resources to projects more

strategic to their business.

Google Apps:-

The Google Apps suite provides organizations,

businesses, and home users with web-based

email, word processing, spreadsheets, calendar,

and more. As maintaining user trust is core to

our business, Google goes to great lengths to

protect the data and intellectual property on

servers that host user data. These facilities are

protected around the clock and we have a

dedicated security operations team who focuses

specifically on maintaining the security of our

environment. The controls, processes, and

policies that protect these data have successfully

completed an independent audit.

 Promoting government openness

 From Congressional YouTube channels to polling place locators, Google

products are making government more transparent and responsive.

We’re working hard to strengthen democracy and informed participation in the political process by

equipping voters with useful information and helping policymakers and organizations use online tools

to reach citizens. We believe more information means more choice, more freedom, and ultimately more

power for people – and that’s what our mission is all about.

Tools for voters and campaigns:-

Our YouChoose ’08 site helped candidates use video to

communicate directly with voters through personalized YouTube

campaign channels. YouTube also hosted two presidential primary

debates with CNN, primary campaign trail and conventions video

projects, candidate spotlights, and an election day transparency

initiative with PBS.

Google worked with election officials to centralize official voting

information online and allowed voters to find their polling place,

registration information, and more with a simple one-box search.

Empowering government participation:-

The 2008 elections demonstrated how Internet technology can increase political participation. Now

Google is empowering citizens and their government officials to use this technology to make

government more open, accountable, and participatory.

For the first time ever, the President is posting his weekly national address on YouTube. Congressional

YouTube channels allow Members to communicate with their constituents in a whole new way. And

President Obama is using Google Moderator on whitehouse.gov to field and respond directly to

questions from people from across the country.

Google wants to help government agencies

make their data accessible to the public. We

have been working with government agencies

to implement the Sitemaps protocol, which

makes it easy for webmasters to make their

public pages searchable by all search

engines. Recently the state governments of

Arizona, California, Utah, and Virginia all implemented Sitemaps.

 Protecting user privacy and safety

 User privacy and safety are fundamental to every one of our products.

Privacy is important to our users and to our business:-

Privacy is fundamental to Google’s business. We know that if we lose our users’ trust, our competition

is only one click away. To ensure that privacy is a focus for everyone working on our products, Google

takes a holistic approach to privacy in which every Googler — from engineer to executive — is

responsible for protecting our users’ privacy. As a result, effective privacy policies and features are

built into our products according to three global

design principles: transparency, choice, and

security.

To ensure transparency, we provide layered privacy policy formats, clear and timely notices and privacy

options written in plain language, and videos for users describing our privacy features and policies. To

promote user choice, we provide granular and meaningful privacy options. And to secure our users’

data, we have in place state-of-the-art security and dedicated security teams.

We make sure that our information practices are user-centric, and that our products put our users in

control of their information. In fact, most of our products — including Google search — can be

personalized by registering for a Google account but can also be used without registration. We also

ensure strong restrictions on the transfer of personal information to third parties to further protect our

users’ privacy interests.

For more information about Google’s approach to privacy, please visit our Privacy Center, which is one

click away from the Google.com homepage.

Keeping families safe online:-

Google is deeply committed to protecting children on the Internet and to

providing all of our users with a safe experience. Our approach has three

primary elements: (1) powerful tools to empower families to control their

activity online; (2) cooperation with law enforcement and industry partners to stop illegal content and

activity online; and (3) educational efforts to increase awareness about online safety. Using this

approach we do the following and much more:

• Provide parents with SafeSearch features, employ digital hashing technologies on YouTube, and

build products that empower the community to report inappropriate content and behavior

• Cooperate with local and federal child safety investigations with a legal team devoted to these

efforts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

• Quickly remove child pornography and report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited

Children (NCMEC), and provide hardware and software to NCMEC to improve their ability to

manage incoming reports

• Work with several non-profit organizations including NCMEC, ConnectSafely.org, Common Sense

Media, iKeepSafe, and Net Family News to provide online public service announcements that

promote access to resources about Internet safety

 Searching for solutions at Google.org

 Google.org uses the power of information and technology to address the global

challenges of our age.

In 2004, when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wrote to prospective shareholders about

their vision for the company, they outlined a commitment to contribute significant resources, including

1% of Google’s equity and profits in some form, as well as employee time, to address some of the

world’s most urgent problems. That commitment became Google.org. Google.org works closely with a

broad range of “Googlers” on projects that make the most of Google’s strengths in technology and

information. Google also established the Google Foundation in 2005, which is a separate 501(c)(3)

private foundation. The Google Foundation is managed by Google.org and supports our mission and

core initiatives as one of our sources of funds for grant making.

Plugging into a smarter, greener grid:-

Google engineers are developing free software called Google PowerMeter that

when supplied with energy consumption information from a smart meter, or a

consumer-installed home energy management device, will empower consumers

to understand and make informed decisions about their electricity use. Our

Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C) project is working to develop

electricity from renewable energy sources that is cheaper than electricity

produced from coal. The goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy

capacity – enough renewable energy to power a city the size of San Francisco

– in years, not decades. As part of this effort, Google.org is making strategic

investments and grants, advancing key public policies, and has an internal

engineering team working on developing renewable energy technologies.

Predict and Prevent:-

Rapid ecological and social changes are increasing the risk of

emerging threats, from infectious diseases to drought and other

environmental disasters. Google.org uses information and technology

to help predict and prevent emerging threats – such as infectious

disease outbreaks – before they become local or global crises. We

support efforts to identify hot spots where diseases may emerge,

detect new pathogens and outbreaks earlier, and respond quickly.

Inform and Empower:-

Google.org believes that providing meaningful, easily accessible information to citizens and

communities, service providers, and policymakers is a key part of creating home-grown solutions to

improve the quality of public services. Better information can help governments and other providers

spend scarce resources wisely. And, empowered by information, citizens and communities can demand

better services from providers or develop new solutions to meet their own needs. We will work with

public, private, and civil society partners to address each side of this problem.