How Google Changed the Internet

How Google Changed the Internet Trying to find something on the internet used to be a challenge many years ago, today Google dominates the search engine world. Google has changed not only the way the United States uses the internet, but also how the world does. The search engine market on the internet is competitive; Google leads the way with the most accurate search results, and other online tools for users to use (Alexa). Google allow users not only to search but to organize their life, find directions, and share content with other users. Google didn’t begin as Google.

Founders Larry Page and Sergey met at Stanford University (Stross). Sergey was assigned to show Larry around the school, according to some reports the two disagreed on almost everything. The two reconvened in 1996, and began their first search engine, “BackRub. ” The search engine become very popular and within a year outgrew the servers at Stanford (Stross). The two decided BackRub needed a new name, and a new location that could handle the demand. Brainstorming came up with the name Google, a play on the word googol a term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros.

The word was chosen because it reflects the mission to organize an infinite amount of information on the web (Corporate Information-Google Milestones). In 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a check for $100,000 to the new company. The new workspace location is set up in the garage of Susan Wojciki’s Melon Park, California home. Later Google filed for incorporation in California and were granted it. They then set up a bank account with the new name and deposited the check. Eventually Google moved to its current location at 1600 Ampatheater parkway.

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At this point Google has more than 800 employees (Corporate Information-Google Milestones). Google is the most popular search provider in the United States. In 2007 google. com became the most visited website surpassing Microsoft. com (Alexa). Google. com is the most visited site in the U. S. (Alexa). The term “Google it” has become very popular in the language of an average American (Stross) Google isn’t just the most used search provider in the U. S. but also in the world (Stross) Google. com is available in 28 languages, allowing users from all over the world to search in a language that is comfortable to them(Google Support).

Not every country provides all that Google Search has to offer. For example China strictly blocks the regular google. com because they can not control the results of a search done on that website. The only way Chinese people are able to search Google is by visiting Chinese Google google. cn. The Chinese government has the ability to filter search results (Wauters). Other countries have also blocked Google; a popular one that has recently been in the news is Iran (Finkle). Countries block Google so that their citizens won’t have free access to information that is not filtered by the government.

Google is most widely popular for their search feature. Their products list is very vast, offering services for the consumer and business. On the consumer side of products Google offers a very long list. The most popular being iGoogle, YouTube, Google Calendar, Google Sync, G-mail, and the list goes on. On the business side of thing Google offers companies AdWords, Google search appliance, and Google custom search. iGoogle allows users to create customized homepages. Users can add gadgets that come in all shapes and sizes.

For example a user could add their Gmail, CNN News, and Weather to their page and get all that information at once without having to leave to go to all the individual websites (Google Support). YouTube wasn’t created by Google, it was acquired. On October 9th 2006 Google announced its plans to acquire You Tube for $1. 65 billion (Google Press Center). YouTube is a video sharing website that allows users to upload videos, leave comments, and create video responses. YouTube is the third most visited website in the U. S. (Alexa). Google Calendar allows users to virtually create a calendar in the format that most people are familiar too.

Users are able to invite other users to view their calendar and vies-versa. SMS text messaging can also be set up so that a text message is sent out before an event on the calendar to remind the user (Google Support). Google Sync allows users to sync everything that is Google to their wireless device. This allows users to be able to have make changes on either device and appear on both, without ever having to plug their device into their computer (Google Support). G-mail is Google’s approach at web based e-mail. The layout is very minimalistic, and also allows users to customize their inbox page.

The site is ad supported by a small text ad at the top of the page, unlike many other free e-mail providers G-mail does not place a ad at the footers of the users sent e-mail. Each user is given up to one gigabyte of free storage, virtually making it so users do not have to delete anything if they don’t want to (Google Support). Google isn’t just all about marketing to consumers, but also to business of all sizes with a wide variety of products for business customers. The most popular product is Google AdWords(Stross). AdWords allows business to create all sorts of ads for their business.

The ads can vary from just text, text and picture, or full sized color ads. The ads are displayed on all sorts of Google services, the most popular is in search results, the ad would appear first if it had something to do with what the user was searching for. AdWords is a very cost effective way for business to promote online because it is pay for click, the business is only charged when their ad is clicked on (Google Business Solutions). The other very popular for business customers from Google is called Google search appliance (Stross).

The search appliance is a device that companies can connect to their network, the appliances then searches and indexes all files on the network making them easier to find. Users of the network can then just type in what they are looking for, and get instant results. The search appliance can be customized to fit business on the small to extremely large scale (Google Business Solutions). Google is not just available on the web, but also on the go. Google offers a large variety of products for the mobile users. The most popular are Google mobile, Android mobile operating system and Google Maps for mobile.

Google mobile allows users to quickly search for information using their phones. A full range of the Google family of products are available in the mobile addition, users simply point their mobile internet browser to google. com and Google recognizes that the request is coming from a mobile phone and automatically converts into the mobile version of Google (Google Support). If mobile users do not have access to the internet on their phone Google provides a short text number that users can send text messages to. Users simply text what they are looking for and Google text them back with the search results (Google Support).

Google Android is an operating system for mobile phones. It is more typically referred to just as Android. The operating system allows open development allowing users to fully customize their phones and to create application. Users can also purchase thousands of applications from the Android market to continue to customize their phone. Basic Google products come pre-installed on the phone (Google Support). Google maps for mobile allows mobile internet users to pull up full colored maps and driving directions (Google Support). Users on the go can quickly pull up directions if they become lost or searching for something along their route.

Users can also utilize street view on their mobile phones allowing users to see what something look likes as if they were even there (Google Support). The future looks good for Google. As the largest search provider in America what does this company have up its sleeve for the future? Google believes that the United States doesn’t have fast enough internet service compared to other developed countries in the world. Their latest project is to link all of the country together using fiber optic cable to create blazing fast internet. Many people have split views on these issues.

Ben Scott says “Google is showing the government that we can have super-fast opened broadband. ” According to Scott Cleland “this is mainly a P. R. stunt”. Google’s ultimate mission is to link rural areas with the large metropolitan community. Google plans to start testing this service later this year; the specific test markets have not been released (Helft). Overall Google is a vital part of the online community. Finding information on the internet is no longer a chore. Google truly has changed the way America searches, but also around the world.

In the coming years Google will most likely launch new products that will continue to allow it’s users to organize their life, find information, get directions, and share with other users.

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