Google's first cheap, hairy server
It has become difficult to function on the internet without resorting to Google in someway. This is the world's largest and most popular internet search engine whose mission is to 'organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful'. You can check your email, stock quotes, maps, news headlines, search billions of images, and even create a blog like this one. In my view, Google has become the most powerful technological force on the internet.
According to google.com, company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin first met as Stanford University computer science graduate students in 1995. They created a new kind of server environment that used low-end PC's. Impressed by their technology, Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, wrote them a $100,000 cheque. After scrambling for money, they were able to muster $25 million from venture capital funding, family, friends, and acquaintances. With this money, the founders incorporated their company and called it Google on September 7, 1998 in Menlo Park, California.
Google has powerful search technology. But another reason why it attracts so many users is its simple, uncluttered, and clean design, as opposed to Yahoo and MSN's cluttered home pages. When the year 2000 came, Google began selling advertisements associated with keywords searched by the user. This strategy was important for increasing revenue, which was based on the number of "hits" per ad. In 2001, they were backed by major corporate sites such as Vodafone, Proctor & Gamble, and the top three portals in Japan. They became the first profit making search engine in the world. All of this, including their increased language offerings, gave Google a bigger share of the market. Currently, Google's home base is "The GooglePlex" in Santa Clara County, California.
Google product and service offerings are almost endless. Here is a condensed list of the most popular ones:
- YouTube (aquisition)
- Google News
- Google Video
- Google Maps
- Google Scholar
- Google Groups
- Gmail
- Blogger
- Froogle
- Picasa
- AdWords
- Adsense
Here are some Google stats:
Number of human machines: 10,000+
2008 Sales: $21 billion
Search Engine Market Share: 54%
Revenue Generation: 99% from advertising
Number of Servers: 450,000
In 2004, Google formed a for-profit philanthropic wing and named it google.org. They had $1 billion to start it off. Its mission was to create awareness about climate change, global public health, and global poverty.
Nevertheless, Google has been hit hard with much controversy on various issues.
Copyright: Kazaa, the Church of Scientology, The New York Times, The Authors Guild, Viacom, FA Premier League, Scottish Premier Leage, and others have filed lawsuits against Google for its breach of copyright laws.
Energy Consumption: Google has been criticized for the high amount of energy necessary to maintain its servers.
Pornography: Google was criticized for providing porn links to countries which render porno illegal.
Censoring: Google has been in a continuous battle with the Chinese government over censoring anti-government websites.
And many, many more...
Note: Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are estimated to be worth $18.5 billion each.
