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Google — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Overview

Google LLC is an American multinational technology company focusing on artificial intelligence, online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, and consumer electronics. It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" and as one of the world's most valuable brands due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the field of artificial intelligence. Alongside Amazon, Apple Inc., Meta Platforms, and Microsoft, Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. is one of the five Big Tech companies. Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were PhD students at Stanford University in California. Together they own about 14% of its publicly listed shares and control 56% of its stockholder voting power through super-voting stock. The company went public via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2004. In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet's internet properties and interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google on October 24, 2015, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet. On December 3, 2019, Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet. The company has since rapidly grown to offer a multitude of products and services beyond Google Search, many of which hold dominant market positions. These products address a wide range of use cases, including email (Gmail), navigation (Waze & Maps), cloud computing (Cloud), web browsing (Chrome), video sharing (YouTube), productivity (Workspace), operating systems (Android), cloud storage (Drive), language translation (Translate), photo storage (Photos), video calling (Meet), smart home (Nest), smartphones (Pixel), wearable technology (Pixel Watch & Fitbit), music streaming (YouTube Music), video on demand (YouTube TV), artificial intelligence (Google Assistant), machine learning APIs (TensorFlow), AI chips (TPU), and more. Discontinued Google products include gaming (Stadia), Glass, Google+, Reader, Play Music, Nexus, Hangouts, and Inbox by Gmail. Google's other ventures outside of Internet services and consumer electronics include quantum computing (Sycamore), self-driving cars (Waymo, formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project), smart cities (Sidewalk Labs), and transformer models (Google Deepmind).

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“Google Analytics is a measurement product that helps businesses better understand their web and app performance. Any data in Google Analytics is obfuscated, meaning it is not tied back to an individual and our policies prohibit customers from sending us data that could be used to identify a user. Additionally, Google has strict policies against advertising to people based on sensitive information.”
— Google spokesperson in "Meta Has Been Lapping Up User’s Financial Info Sent Directly from Tax Filing Sites", by Kyle Barr, (November 22, 2022)
“We also have clear policies that prohibit videos promoting medically unsubstantiated methods to prevent the coronavirus in place of seeking medical treatment, and we quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged to us.”
— YouTube spokesperson in "Youtube moves to limit spread of false coronavirus 5G theory", by Alex Hern, The Guardian, (April 5, 2020)
“We're agreed that child sexual imagery is a case apart, it's illegal everywhere in the world, there's a consensus on that. It's absolutely right that we identify this stuff, we remove it and we report it to the authorities.”
— Peter Barron quoted on BBC News, "Google and Microsoft agree steps to block abuse images", (November 18, 2013).
“Supporting Wikipedia is [...] a shrewd business decision that will likely benefit Google for years to come.”
— Louise Matsakis in “Google Gives Wikimedia Millions—Plus Machine Learning Tools”, Wired: Business, (22 January 2019)
“Google's vision of the future is pure atom-age 1960s Jetsons fantasy, bubble-dwelling spiritless sexists above a ruined earth.”
— Julian Assange quoting Eric Schmidt's The New Digital Age "Julian Assange Says "Apolitical Futurism of Star Trek" Fits Google", by Matt Novak, Gizmodo, (September 15, 2014)
“Google will make us more informed. The smartest person in the world could well be behind a plow in China or India. Providing universal access to information will allow such people to realize their full potential, providing benefits to the entire world.”
— Hal Varian "The structure of the Internet", a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.