Google: Short History

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 while both if they were pursuing Ph.D. at Stanford University, California. Google is an American Multinational company that focuses in Internet-related services and products which includes search, software, Hardware, Cloud computing and online advertising technology Larry Page and Sergey Brin own about 14 percent of its shares and controls 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through super-voting stock. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering(IPO) took place on August 19, 2004, and Google moved to its new headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. In August 2015, Google declared plans to restructure its various interests as a conglomerate called Alphabet Inc. Google, Alphabet’s leading subsidiary, will continue to be the umbrella company for Alphabet’s Internet interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed as the CEO of Google replacing Larry Page, who became CEO of Alphabet.

It offers services designed for work and productivity (Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides), email (Gmail/Inbox), scheduling and time management (Google Calendar), cloud storage (Google Drive), social networking (Google+), instant messaging and video chat (Google Allo/Duo/Hangouts), language translation (Google Translate), mapping and turn-by-turn navigation (Google Maps/Waze/Earth/Street View), video sharing (YouTube), notetaking (Google Keep), and photo organizing and editing (Google Photos). The company leads the development of the Android mobile operating system, the Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system based on the Chrome browser. Google has moved increasingly into hardware; from 2010 to 2015, it partnered with major electronics manufacturers in the production of its Nexus devices, and in October 2016, it released multiple hardware products (including the Google Pixel smartphone, Home smart speaker, Wifi mesh wireless router, and Daydream View virtual reality headset).