Google, Inc. provides Web search and online advertising services on the Internet. It offers advertising solutions and global Internet search solutions through its Web site, and Intranet solutions through an enterprise search appliance. The company’s products and services include Google.com, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, and Google Search Appliance. In addition, the company provides email services through Gmail, which offers a gigabyte of free storage for each user along with email search capabilities and relevant advertising.
Global Access: The company provides its services to everyone in the world. Users from around the world visit its destination sites at Google.com and its international domains, such as Google.ba, Google.dm, Google.nr, Google.co.jp and Google.ca. The Google interface is available in 116 languages. Through Google News, the company offers an automated collection of frequently updated news stories in 11 languages tailored to 34 international audiences. The company also offers automatic translation of content between various languages and provides localized versions of Google in many developing countries.
Products and Services
Google.com—Search and Personalization
The company offers its services and products through its Web sites. These products and services include:
Google WebSearch: In addition to providing easy access to billions of Web pages, it has integrated special features into Google WebSearch to help people find exactly what they are looking for on the Web. The Google.com search experience also includes: Advanced Search Functionality; Integrated Tools; Search by Number; Cached Links; Movie, Music and Weather Information; and News, Finance, Maps, Image, Book and Groups Information.
The company also displays results from other Google products including Google News, Google Finance, Google Maps, Google Image Search, Google Book Search and Google Groups.
Google Image Search: Google Image Search is the company's searchable index of images found across the Web. To extend the usefulness of Google Image Search, the company offers features, such as searching by image size, format and coloration and restricting searches to specific Web sites or domains.
Google Book Search: Google Book Search lets users search the text of a library-sized collection of books to discover books of interest and to learn where to buy or borrow them. Through this program, publishers can host their content and show their publications at the top of its search results. The company also works with participating libraries to digitize all or part of their collections to create a full-text searchable online card catalog. Google Book Search links bring users to pages containing bibliographic information and various sentences of the search term in context, sample book pages, or text, depending on author and publisher permissions and book copyright status.
Google Scholar: Google Scholar provides a simple way to do a search for relevant scholarly literature including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts, and articles. Content in Google Scholar is taken from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities, and other scholarly organizations.
Google Base: Google Base lets content owners submit content that they want to share on Google Web sites. Content owners can describe and assign attributes to the information they submit and Google uses this descriptive content to better target search results to what users are looking for.
Google Finance: Google Finance provides a user interface to navigate complex financial information in an intuitive manner, including linking together different data sources, such as correlating stock price movements to news events.
Google News: Google News gathers information from thousands of news sources worldwide and presents news stories in a searchable format within minutes of their publication on the Web. The stories are presented as headlines on the user-customizable Google News home page. These headlines are selected for display entirely by a computer algorithm, without regard to political viewpoint or ideology.
Personalized Homepage and Search: The company's Google.com personalized homepage gives its users a way to add the information they care about most to their own version of the Google homepage. Personalized homepages bring together content from across the Web and other Google properties, such as Gmail and Google News, in ways that are useful to its users. Users can also view and manage their history of past searches and the results they have clicked on and create bookmarks with labels and notes.
Google Co-op and Custom Search: Google Co-op extends the power of Google’s search technology by combining its algorithms with the context, knowledge and expertise of individuals. Google Custom Search allows communities of users who know a lot about particular topics to build customized search engines. These customized search engines allow them to help improves the quality of search results by labeling and annotating relevant Web pages or by creating specialized, subscribed links for users to get more detailed information about a particular topic.
Google Video and YouTube: Google Video and YouTube let users find, upload, view and share video content worldwide.
Communication, Collaboration and Communities
The company develops tools for its users to create, share and communicate any information generated by the user, thus making the information more useful and manageable. Its products include:
Google Docs & Spreadsheets: Google Docs & Spreadsheets allows its users to create, view and edit documents and spreadsheets from anywhere using a browser. These documents are useful to its users as they are accessible anywhere user has access to the Internet, manageable as they are stored within its servers and automatically backed up, and shareable in that they allow real time editing with co-workers and friends through the Internet.
Google Calendar: Google Calendar is a free online sharable calendar service that allows its users to keep track of the important events, appointments and special occasions in their lives and share this information with anyone they choose. In addition, Web sites and groups with an online presence can use Google Calendar to create public calendars, which are automatically indexed and searchable on Google. Google Calendar uses open calendar standards so the product co-operates with other calendar applications and devices.
Gmail: Gmail is Google’s free Webmail service that comes with built-in Google search technology for searching emails and approximately 2,800 megabytes of storage so user can keep all important messages, files and pictures. In addition, the company has integrated its instant messaging product into the email experience. The company serves small text ads that are relevant to user messages in Gmail instead of pop-ups or untargeted banner ads.
Google Groups: Google Groups is a free service that helps groups of people connect to information and people that interest them. Users can discuss topics by posting messages to a group, where other people can then read and respond. Google Groups contains approximately one billion messages from Usenet Internet discussion groups dating back to 1981. The discussions in these groups provide a comprehensive look at evolving viewpoints, debate and advice on many subjects.
Orkut: orkut enables users to search and connect to other users through networks of trusted friends. Users can create, join or manage online communities, personal mailboxes, photos, and a profile.
Blogger: Blogger is a Web-based publishing tool that lets people publishes to the Web instantly using Weblogs, or ‘blogs’. Blogs are Web pages usually made up of short, informal and frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically. Blogs can facilitate communications among small groups or to a worldwide audience in a way that is simpler and easier to follow than traditional email or discussion forums. Blogger features improved spam protection and is available in nine languages.
Downloadable applications
Google Desktop: Google Desktop lets people perform a full-text search on the contents of their own computer, including email, files, instant messenger chats and Web browser history. Users can view Web pages they have visited even when they are not online. Google Desktop also includes an enhanced, customizable Sidebar that can include modules for weather, stock tickers and news.
Google Pack: Google Pack is a free collection of safe, useful software programs from Google and other companies that improves the user experience online and on the desktop. It includes programs that help users browse the Web faster, removes spyware and viruses and organizes their photos.
Google Toolbar: Google Toolbar is a free download that adds a Google search box to Web browsers (Internet Explorer and Firefox) and improves people’s Web experience through features such as a pop-up blocker that blocks pop-up advertising, an autofill feature that completes Web forms with information saved on a user’s computer and customizable buttons that let users search their favorite Web sites and stay updated on their favorite feeds.
Google GEO—Maps, Earth and Local
Google Earth: Google Earth lets users see and explores the world from their desktop. Users can fly virtually to a specific location and learn about that area through detailed satellite and aerial images, 3D topography, street maps and millions of data points describing the location of businesses, schools, parks and other points of interest around the globe.
Google Maps: Google Maps helps people navigate map information. Users can look up addresses, search for businesses, and get point-to-point driving directions—all plotted on an interactive street map or on satellite imagery. Google Maps provides a search experience by combining yellow-pages listings with ratings and reviews and other business information. The company displays relevant targeted ads for searches done through Google Maps.
Google Sketchup and Sketchup Pro: Google Sketchup is a free 3D modeling tool that is particularly efficient for modelling 3D buildings and can be used as a tool for populating Google Earth with architectural content. The Pro version of this tool is sold to professional designers and includes additional features.
Google Checkout
Google Checkout is a service that the company provides to its users, advertisers and participating merchants that is intended to make online shopping faster, more convenient and more secure by providing a single login for buying online and by helping users find convenient and secure places to shop when they search.
Google Mobile
Google Mobile: Google Mobile lets people search and views both the ‘mobile Web’, consisting of pages created specifically for wireless devices, and the entire Google index, including products like Image Search. Users can also access a variety of information using Google SMS by typing a query to the Google shortcode, and check their email using Gmail Mobile. Google Mobile is available through many wireless and mobile phone services worldwide.
Google Maps for Mobile: Google Maps for Mobile is a free downloadable Java client application that lets users view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses and get driving directions on mobile devices. Maps for Mobile offers many of the same functions as Google Maps, such as draggable maps combined with satellite imagery.
Blogger for Mobile: With Blogger for mobile devices, users can take pictures with their camera phones and then post their pictures and text comments to their blog using MMS or email.
Google Gmail, News and Personalized Home for Mobile: The company's services, such as Gmail, News and Personalized Home are also available as mobile applications, giving its users feature-rich experiences optimized for handheld devices.
Google Labs
Google Labs is the company's testbed for its engineers and for adventurous Google users. On Google Labs, the company posts product prototypes and solicit feedback on how the technology would be used or improved. Google Labs include: Google Reader, a Web-based feed reader with enhanced support for photo feeds and podcasts that aims to make information more relevant and useful to users by combining Google functionality with personalized content, and Google Web Accelerator, a downloadable client application that uses its global computer network to improve user Web experience by enabling faster loading of Web pages.
Google AdWords
The company offers Google AdWords, an auction-based advertising program that lets advertisers deliver relevant ads targeted to search queries or Web content across Google sites and through the Google Network, which is it known to the network of third parties that use its advertising programs to deliver relevant ads on their Web sites. AdWords is accessible to advertisers in 41 different interface languages.
Google AdSense
The company's Google AdSense program enables Web sites that make up the Google Network to deliver AdWords ads that are relevant to the search results or content on their pages. It also allows offline media companies, such as newspaper and radio stations, to deliver print ads and audio ads to the content they provide.
Google AdSense for search: The company offers Google AdSense for search. Web sites use AdSense for search to generate additional revenue by serving relevant AdWords ads targeted to search results. It offers a hosted version of AdSense for search to Web sites that sign up with it online. It offers a more customizable premium offering to Websites with significant traffic.
Google AdSense for content: Google AdSense for content enables Web sites to generate revenue from advertising by serving relevant AdWords ads targeted to Web content. Its automated technology analyzes the meaning of Web content and serves relevant advertising, usually in a fraction of a second.
Google AdSense for domains and feeds: Google AdSense for domains allows owners of undeveloped domains which receive traffic from users typing generic terms into browsers or search to generate revenue from relevant advertising. AdSense for feeds is a free program that allows publishers to monetize their feeds—user-subscribable content streams containing structured data such as stock and financial information, web log posts, and weather reports—through text ads targeted to the content of the feed.
Google AdSense for Audio and Audio Ads: Google AdSense for Audio is a product for radio broadcasters that schedules and places advertising into radio programs. Google Audio Ads makes radio advertising easier for small and large businesses by providing an online interface for creating and launching radio advertising campaigns.
Google AdSense for Newspapers and Print Ads: Google AdSense for Newspapers is a product that lets newspaper publishers identify and manage available ad inventory and access bids submitted by advertisers who use Google Print Ads to create and launch their print campaigns. Google Print Ads makes it easier for advertisers to place advertisements in newspapers by simplifying the evaluation and selection of newspapers for print advertising campaigns, letting advertisers set their own prices and providing an online interface to create and upload ads and view electronic versions of published ads.
Google Enterprise
The company provides its search technology for use within enterprises through the Google Search Appliance and Google Mini. These search appliances are a software and hardware solution that companies can easily implement to extend Google’s search performance to their internal or external information.
Google Mini: The Google Mini is targeted at small-and medium-sized businesses who want to let employees and customers search designated documents, intranets and Web sites.
Google Search Appliance: The Google Search Appliance is similar to the Google Mini except that it can handle more documents and offers more advanced features. Some advanced features of the Google Search Appliance include integration with advanced corporate security protocols, integration with other enterprise applications, such as content management systems, portals and other systems, and real-time search of business applications. The Google Search Appliance is available in three models: the GB-1001, for mid-sized companies; the GB-5005, for high-priority search services such as customer-facing Web sites and company-wide intranet applications; and the GB-8008, for centralized deployments supporting global business units.
For companies, universities and government agencies, the company also offers the Google Toolbar for Enterprise and Google Desktop for Enterprise. Google Toolbar gives employees a search box right in the browser and the ability to create custom search buttons. Google Desktop for Enterprise indexes the contents of a user’s hard drive for easy search and retrieval of documents, email, IM chats and other items. Google Earth’s Enterprise offerings let business users view, modify and export their data in a geographic context.
Significant Events
Salesforce.com and Google, Inc. have formed a strategic global alliance to help businesses support the Internet to achieve success. The newest product resulting from this alliance, Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords, is an offering that combines the power of Salesforce on-demand CRM applications with the Google AdWords platform to achieve integrated sales and marketing success.
Sales and Marketing
The company maintains 32 sales offices in 19 countries, and it deploys specialized sales teams across 11 vertical markets. The company also leases additional research and development, sales and support offices in the United States in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Boston, Boulder, Chapel Hill, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Herndon, Irvine, Newport Beach, New York, Overland Park, Pittsburgh, Reston, San Bruno, Santa Monica, Seattle, Tempe and Washington D.C. The company also maintains leased facilities internationally in Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey. The company operates data centers in the United States, the European Union and Asia.
Customers
The company's major customer is America Online, Inc.
Competition
The company's primary competitors include Microsoft, and Yahoo.
History
Google, Inc. was incorporated in 1998.
