• Google is the world's dominant online search engine, but also offers email, online word processing, and other services.

  On June 1, 2009, Google announced that it would start selling eBooks directly to the public. The move, which is expected before the end of 2009, would make Google a competitor with Amazon, eBooks.com, iTunes and other eBook retailers.InformationWeek: Google To Sell E-Books (June 1, 2009)

• Fast Facts

  1. Stock Symbol: GOOG (NASDAQ)
  2. Annual revenue (2007): $16.594 billion (United States)
  3. Founders: Sergey Brin and Larry Page
  4. Year established: 1998
  5. Phone: (650) 330-0100
  6. Fax: (650) 618-1499
  7. HQ: Mountain View, California
  8. CEO: Eric E. Schmidt
  9. CFO: George Reyes
  10. Staff: 19,156
  11. Products: Desktop, Mobile, Web and Hardware Computer products
  12. Google named in a 2009 Time Magazine article as one of ten U.S. companies not likely to experience layoffsTime Magazine: Ten American Companies That Won't Cut Jobs (February 20, 2009)
  13. On February 4, 2009, Google introduced Google Latitude, an add-on feature to Google Maps that uses GPS tracking to allow users to see where their contacts are on a map via a smartphoneCBS News: Google Offers "Latitude" To Track People (February 4, 2009)
  14. On February 24, 2009, Google launched a new tool bar for Internet Explorer that allows the user to search without opening the browserCNET: New Google toolbar for IE includes desktop search (February 24, 2009)

• News Timeline Tool

  On April 20, 2009, Google Labs held a press event where the company unveiled the Google News Timeline, a product that allows users to receive their search result in a graphical timeline format. The tool renders its search results via Google News, YouTube and Google News Archives.Editors Weblog.org: Google News Timeline: a new way... (April 21, 2009)

• Google Layoffs

  On January 14, 2009, reports said Google planned to lay off 100 full-time recruiters in the wake of a "broad advertising slowdown." The company also said it would close three engineering offices.Valleywag: Google's Loss of Innocence: 100 Jobs Cut (January 14, 2009) Los Angeles Times: Google to lay off 100 recruiters, close engineering offices (January 15, 2009)

• Key Dates

  • 1996: Page and Brin begin to collaborate on a search engine called BackRub
  • 1998: Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 check to Page and Brin to finance their start-up
  • 1999: Attained first round of funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
  • 2000: Google and [[Yahoo!]] announced a partnership
  • 2002: Developed AdWords
  • 2004: Google IPO's on NASDAQ

• April Fools Jokes

  Google began a tradition of Aprils Fools jokes in 2000 with the pseudo-release of its MentalPlex technology, which would reportedly read the user's brainwaves and eliminate the need to even type in the search request. Most of the jokes are laughable implausible applications or services based partly on real capabilities but poking fun at Google's leadership role in online search. The 2009 edition of the Google April Fools joke centered around an algorithmic persona known as "CADIE" that could be used to automate realistic responses to user's email within the Gmail application.

• Brief History

  Google was founded by two Stanford University PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They began Google as a research project in early 1996, calling it BackRub since its function was to check the number of links to a site (called backlinks) to rank it. The search engine was first set up at Stanford under the domain google.stanford.edu. On September 15, 1997, Google Inc. was founded.

• Google To Acquire Digg

  On July 22, 2008, TechCrunch reported that Google was in final negotiations to buy Digg, an online community site where users post and rank articles, blogs, and other media. The acquisition price was reportedly "around $200 Million."TechCrunch: Google in Final Negotiations To Acquire Digg for "Around $200 Million" (July 22, 2008) The sale never went through because Google reportedly decided not to go through with the sale.Washington Post: Google Walks Away From Digg Deal (July 26, 2008)

• Google in China

  Google came under fire from the Chinese government in January 2009 for not removing pornographic content from its search results in China. Distribution of pornography is forbidden in China and the government launched a campaign in 2009 to remove such content from the Internet. Google apologized for not immediately removing pornographic links after an order from the Chinese government. Several other search engines were also criticized.Times of India: China begins blocking websites after shaming MSN, Google over porn distribution (January 11, 2009)

• Google Searches and the Environment

  In January 2009, The Times of London published an article that criticized Google for the effect its searches has on the environment. According to the article, two searches on Google uses as much carbon dioxide as the bottling of water for tea.The Times of London: Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches (January 11, 2009) Google responded with a statement on its official blog which said that the estimates in the article were too high and gave Google's own statistics.The official Google blog: Powering a Google Search (January 11, 2009) The following day, TechCrunch reported that the Times article misrepresented statements made by physicist Alex Wissner-Gross. Wissner-Gross reported that he did not say that two searches on Google used as much carbon dioxide as the bottling of water for tea, but rather made more vague statements about the energy Google and other search engine companies used.TechCrunch: Revealed: The Times Made Up That Stuff About Google... (January 12, 2009)

• Google Voice

  On March 12, 2009, Google launched the service Google Voice, which is an improved version of the online voicemail and call management system GrandCentral, acquired by Google in 2007. While still providing many of GrandCentral's features, Google Voice will also improve the way users access their phones, allowing them to acquire voicemail transcripts, make cheaper calls internationally and archive and search through all existing text messages.Official Google Blog: Here Comes Google Voice (March 11, 2009)

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