What is Google: Definition and 250 Discussions

Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the big four Internet stocks along with Amazon, Facebook, and Apple.Google was founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. Together they own about 14% of its publicly-listed shares and control 56% of the 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.In 2021, the Alphabet Workers Union was founded, mainly composed of Google employees.The company's rapid growth since incorporation has included products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond Google's core search engine, (Google Search). It offers services designed for work and productivity (Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides), email (Gmail), scheduling and time management (Google Calendar), cloud storage (Google Drive), instant messaging and video chat (Google Duo, Google Chat, and Google Meet), language translation (Google Translate), mapping and navigation (Google Maps, Waze, Google Earth, and Street View), podcast hosting (Google Podcasts), video sharing (YouTube), blog publishing (Blogger), note-taking (Google Keep and Jamboard), 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, proprietary operating system based on the FOSS Chromium OS operating system). Google has moved increasingly into hardware; from 2010 to 2015, it partnered with major electronics manufacturers in the production of its Google Nexus devices, and it released multiple hardware products in 2016, including the Google Pixel line of smartphones, Google Home smart speaker, Google Wifi mesh wireless router. Google has also experimented with becoming an Internet carrier (Google Fiber and Google Fi).
Google.com is the most visited website worldwide. Several other Google-owned websites also are on the list of most popular websites, including YouTube and Blogger. On the list of most valuable brands, Google is ranked second by Forbes and fourth by Interbrand. It has received significant criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, censorship, search neutrality, antitrust and abuse of its monopoly position.

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  1. B

    Explore the Stars with Google Earth

    when you log into google Earth it seems to go generally above where i am. when i press the sky button on it does it show the sky-space directly above me? I'm very new to this as you might tell. very clear skies tonight though so i thought i'd try to get my bearings on a few stars. any tips also? tx
  2. Evo

    Internet Outages: Is PF the Only Website That Works?

    I can't reach them and I've been told a lot of their servers are down. They have DNS problems.
  3. P

    What is the significance of the August 14 Google Doodle?

    i've done my share of wire-wound nails
  4. N

    Anybody else having problems with Google Chrome?

    Hi guys, Is anybody else having this problem with Google Chrome browser? It was working very well before. Then I installed Symantec Antivirus and all of a sudden Chrome does not go to any webpages, giving me the error: Error 102 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED): Unknown error. I...
  5. C

    Google Chrome OS: Google's Challenge to Microsoft

    http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6665703.ece *mod edit: fixed for copyright compliance*
  6. S

    Referencing to google books in article

    If I want to refer to a book that I read on google books, should I reference to the book itself or to the internet page?
  7. A

    Google Trends: CS-related phrases at an all-time low

    When I took a look at Google Trends this morning, I found out that words such as "computer science," "software engineering," "programming," "c++/java" have been declining significantly over the years. Even "outsourcing" has been as well. Can anyone explain this pattern?
  8. Spinnor

    Has anyone not seen Google sky? What did you think?

    http://www.google.com/sky/
  9. E

    Google with a twist, funny stuff

    Anyone here been to this site? http://www.toadtastic.com" I've went through dozens of pictures already and laughed at almost all of them. Just refresh the site for a new pic. They may be pics you've already seen, but post them anyway!
  10. G

    Is Google Too Powerful? Should it Be Broken Up?

    Should it be broken up? GMail Search Engine Web browser Soon to be operating system Should 1 company control this much information? No one really knows if google sends information on users to the US government. Google tracks your IP address, browser information, and date/time for...
  11. J

    Explore the Night Sky with Google Sky

    http://www.google.com/sky/#latitude=-11.802834233547672&longitude=20.91796875&zoom=6&Spitzer=0.00&ChandraXO=0.00&Galex=0.00&IRAS=0.00&WMAP=0.00&Cassini=0.00&slide=2&mI=1&oI=0" as the title indicates what is that thing near moon?
  12. N

    Finding a Feed Reader for Google Reader Shared Items

    I'm currently using google reader as my feed reader, but due to a lack of some features (the biggest ones are nesting folders, and the ability to mark previously read items unread again) want a different reader. The only thing keeping me from switching so far, is the "shared items" in google...
  13. L

    Google Earth - Invasion of Privacy?

    http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2350771.ece Gee and my car is parked in my driveway on Google Earth too. Given that it is a snapshot of sorts at some rolling time, time not specified, it's hard to imagine that privacy is being violated, if people are parking cars on...
  14. M

    The algorithm used by Google Maps?

    I was using at Google Earth, and used it to look at some directions when I noticed that program recommended that I take a right and drive down this road, then take a u-turn and drive past from where I turned originally, when I could've just simply taken a left instead. Does anyone know how...
  15. B

    Question that I was looking up on Google

    The following reaction was monitored as a function of time: AB---> A + B A plot of 1/[AB] versus time yields a straight line with slope 5.2×10−2 M \s. If the initial concentration of AB} is 0.210 M, and the reaction mixture initially contains no products, what are the concentrations of {A}...
  16. P

    Google Chrome Review: Hear What Others Think

    Has anyone actually used Google Chrome? I have a limited monthly bandwidth allowance so I'd prefer not to download it purely for test purposes, but would like to know what you guys think of it. Please compare it with whatever other browsers you've used/are using. Thanks! phyz
  17. S

    Why is My Newly Created Forum Not Showing Up in Google Search Results?

    I created a forum recently and I found that it does not come as a search result when I search for it in Google. What do I do? Sriram
  18. marcus

    Google calculator impact on basic cosmo explanations

    If you like to calculate, it can help you learn cosmo basics. Partly just by making it fun. Partly because it gives a hands-on dimension to what you are learning. If you don't find calculating basic cosmo numbers fun, then this thread is not for you. There are other less number-crunchy...
  19. Astronuc

    Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin

    from http://www.google.org/about.html Searching for solutions http://www.google.org/index.html As of September 2008, Google.org has committed over $100 million in grants and investments to further our five initiatives. http://www.google.org/projects.html Other institutions...
  20. Ivan Seeking

    Explore Ancient Rome with Google Earth

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7725560.stm
  21. B

    Rho Symbol for Density: Using in Google Docs

    My physics teacher is using some sort of squiggly symbol that he's calling rho for density. It looks sort of like a backwards g. What is this symbol? How can I include it in my Google Docs reports/notes?
  22. N

    LaTeX White Backgrounds on LaTeX in Math: DE's on Google Chrome

    A minor bug: I'm using Google Chrome browser, I just posted a thread in Math: DE's and all the latex are showing up with white backgrounds, instead of clear. Not a serious issue, just letting you know it's there.
  23. H

    Head First Physics - view book via Safari trial or Google

    "Head First Physics" - view book via Safari trial or Google O'Reilly Books have recently released Head First Physics, which is an algebra-based introduction to the mechanics and experimental topics in the AP Physics B and A Level Physics courses. The book works from the ground up, using...
  24. Astronuc

    Google Grants - Help the world

    Got an idea to help the world? Here's $10 million http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/biztech/09/24/google.project/index.html http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html There are a lot of smart people at PF. Go for it! :smile:
  25. T

    Finding the Bird's Nest: Google Earth Edition

    Okay, I was screwing around with Google Earth and I can't find the Bird's Nest from the olympics. where is it?
  26. E

    Recently this website has turned up on a lot of my google searches

    Recently this website has turned up on a lot of my google searches. They have articles about almost everything under the sun: health, technology, parenting, entertainment, ... Here is how they describe themselves: I am particularly interested in nutrition and healthy lifestyle choices and...
  27. rootX

    PF interest from Google insights

    http://google.com/insights/search/#cat=&q=physics%20forum&geo=&date=&clp=&cmpt=q India seem to beat everyone else. I thought US would be at 1. 1. India 100 2. Canada 84 :biggrin: 3. Australia 71 4. United States 70 5. United Kingdom 66 6. Germany
  28. R

    What are some cool and secret Google Earth images?

    I was sitting with my girlfriend yesterday and we were looking at videos of comets and meteorites because I wanted to show her the schumacher levy 9 impacts, that she had never heard of! :bugeye: :cry: Then we kind of did some link following which went a little like this: Comets, meteorites...
  29. P

    What happened to the pictures on google earth?

    Ever since I updated the last edition of google Earth (which must have been a while ago now that I think of it) all those nice pictures that people have taken of places and put on panoramio that tag a location on the maps in google Earth aren't there anymore. I turn on all the different...
  30. jal

    Page on google search get it deleted?

    page on "google search" get it deleted? Can someone who does not want your page on "google search" get it deleted?
  31. humanino

    Can Google Health be a game-changer for online healthcare?

    What do you guys think about this new service ? Will you consider using it ?
  32. E

    Is Google Advertising Really Free?

    I don't understand how google can possibly afford to supply me with 6656 MB for e-mails for free, provide me with super-fast searches of the entire internet and tons of other amenities just on add money. I have never clicked on a google add (okay maybe once or twice by accident) and it is easy...
  33. M

    Anyone get interviewed by google?

    Hello everyone. I was going to apply to google (in a Intern Software Engineering position) and I was just wondering if anyone knew what types of questions they experienced in person or over the phone interviews. Thanks! -Cory
  34. R

    Are yahoo, google, and msn reading our emails?

    It has been a while since that story came out... "The role of the US Internet firm Yahoo in helping Chinese security officials to finger a journalist sentenced to 10 years for e-mailing "state secrets" is filtering into mainland China" one link to an article can be found here (but there...
  35. Ivan Seeking

    Odyssey Moon: Making History with Google Moon Prize

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7131937.stm
  36. robphy

    Is Google Street View a Privacy Concern?

    Google Maps... "Street View" Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=washington+square+n&sll=40.738007,-73.99646&sspn=0.006991,0.012252&ie=UTF8&om=0&layer=c&cbll=40.73141,-73.99697&cbp=1,213.000080125058,0.5,0&ll=40.735243,-73.996761&spn=0.007479,0.014591&z=16" In the embedded...
  37. R

    Wikipedia & Google: Free Schooling?

    Does anyone here think that wikipedia and google are some sort of free schooling?
  38. mattmns

    Google offering free wireless broadband

    http://www.google.com/tisp/ :cool:
  39. Z

    Is Microsoft's Online Library Check Worth $1 Billion?

    Anyone used this so far? what do you think?
  40. L

    Calculators What Can Google Calculator Do?

    Google Smart Calculator Want to add up a list of numbers, convert from miles to kilometers, or evaluate some other mathematical expression? Instead of using a piece of paper, your calculator, or a computer math software program, you can now solve mathematical problems with this AJAX JavaScript...
  41. Ivan Seeking

    NASA Google & NASA: A New Partnership

    http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/12/18/google.nasa.ap/index.html
  42. K

    What's the story behind Google and Munch on google.com?

    What's happened to google.com!? I'm shocked to see the famous painting Scream (Skrik) by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in the heading.
  43. arivero

    Arxiv & Google Trends: Is There Other Trend Tool?

    Is there any other "trend tool" available in altavista or yahoo? This one is pretty fuzzy. Looking in google trends http://www.google.com/trends?q=arxiv%2C+%22physical+review%22%2C+%22prola%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all you can see an increase of searches for the arxiv...
  44. P

    Fast ODE Solver in Pure C: A Google Search

    does anyone know of a fast ode solver in pure C? a google search yields many solvers, but mostly in fortran...
  45. A

    My Home on Google | Admire Kerala's Lush Greenery

    Here's a picture of my home, sweet home and neighbourhood as taken from a satellite used by the Google Earth software. It's the one with the red circle around it. http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n44/arunbg/myhome.jpg Admire the lush greenery of God's Own Country, Kerala :approve: I agree...
  46. R

    Pigs are flying Google crashed

    There's some horrible server errors with gmail [google mail] - it's been down for hours! It already shows up on google Trends! http://www.google.com/trends?q=error+704 Does anyone remember the last time google messed up so horribly? I don't! Must have been many eons and epochs ago. :eek:
  47. Ivan Seeking

    Uncovering an Odd Google Result: Searching with Name & "Harley Davidson

    Sometimes I find it easiest to search for a thread by Googling my name + something that I remember posting. For some reason this seems to work better than using the thread title sometimes. Quite some time ago...at least months, and I am quite certain that this was on my old computer, I...
  48. larkspur

    Google Spell Checker Toolbar for Forms & Forums

    I thought i wood try the Google FireFox toolbar spell checker for forms. Let's sea if it works on forums to. I used too copy and paste into ant email then spell check it. Maybe I know longer need to do that...:biggrin:
  49. R

    Google does calculators too

    http://www.google.com/search?hs=2FS&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial_s&q=55mpg+in+hectares%5E-1&btnG=Search Very useful!
  50. Pengwuino

    Google Outage: What Just Happened?

    THE INTERNET IS COLLAPSING THE INTERNET IS COLLAPSING THE INTERNET IS COLLAPSING Mark this moment my friends, 4:27 AM PST, 12:27 GMT. Google's services are unvailable. Ok and as of 12:29, they are back up. Man if my old computer was like google...
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