#google Google's history began in 1996 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford University graduate students, started working on a search engine called "Backrub." This search engine analyzed the relationships between websites to determine a site's relevance. In 1997, they renamed it "Google," a play on the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.
In 1998, Google was officially launched, and it quickly gained popularity due to its superior search results compared to other search engines at the time. Google's PageRank algorithm, which ranked search results based on relevance, quality, and popularity, was a key factor in its success.
Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Google expanded its services, introducing products such as Google News, Google Images, and Google Maps. In 2004, the company went public with its initial public offering (IPO), raising $1.67 billion and solidifying its position as a major player in the tech industry.
Google continued to innovate and diversify its offerings, acquiring companies like YouTube in 2006 and Android Inc. in 2005, which led to the development of the Android operating system for smartphones.
In 2008, Google launched its web browser, Google Chrome, which quickly became one of the most popular browsers worldwide. The company also entered the hardware market with products like the Google Pixel smartphone, Google Home smart speaker, and Google Nest smart home devices.
In 2015, Google underwent a major restructuring, creating a new parent company called Alphabet Inc., with Google becoming a subsidiary. This restructuring allowed Google to focus on its core businesses while other ventures were separated under Alphabet.
Today, Google is one of the largest and most influential technology companies globally, offering a wide range of products and services, including search, advertising, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and more. Its mission remains to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
