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 Five technology companies in the U.S. information technology industry, alongside Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.[9][10][11]
Google LLC Each letter of "Google" is colored (from left to right) in blue, red, yellow, blue, green, and red. Logo since 2015 Googleplex HQ (cropped).jpg Google's headquarters, the Googleplex Formerly Google Inc. (1998–2017) Type Subsidiary (LLC) Industry Internet Cloud computing Computer software Computer hardware Artificial intelligence Advertising Founded September 4, 1998; 22 years ago[a] in Menlo Park, California, U.S. Founders Larry Page Sergey Brin Headquarters 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California, U.S. Area served Worldwide Key people Sundar Pichai (CEO) Ruth Porat (CFO) Products List of products Revenue 66,001,000,000 United States dollar (2014) Operating income 16,496,000,000 United States dollar (2014) Net income 14,444,000,000 United States dollar (2014) Total assets 131,133,000,000 United States dollar (2014) Number of employees 114,096 (Q3 2019) Parent Alphabet Inc. Website google.com Footnotes / references [5][6][7][8] 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 percent of its shares and control 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a California privately held company on September 4, 1998, in California. Google was then reincorporated in Delaware on October 22, 2002.[12] An initial public offering (IPO) took place on August 19, 2004, and Google moved to its headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. In August 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate called Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's leading subsidiary and will continue to be the umbrella company for Alphabet's Internet interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet.
The company's rapid growth since incorporation has triggered a chain of 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 (Duo, Hangouts, Chat, and 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 Google 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 operating system based on the Chrome browser. Google has moved increasingly into hardware; from 2010 to 2015, it partnered with major electronics manufacturers in the production of its Nexus devices, and it released multiple hardware products in October 2016, including the Google Pixel line of smartphones, Google Home smart speaker, Google Wifi mesh wireless router, and Google Daydream virtual reality headset. Google has also experimented with becoming an Internet carrier (Google Fiber, Google Fi, and Google Station).[13]
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.[14]
Google was the most valuable brand in the world in 2017 (surpassed by Amazon),[15] but has received significant criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, antitrust, censorship, and search neutrality.