What is Google? Your Ultimate Guide

What doesย Google mean?

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Google is the leading search engine provider, the results of a search being displayed through the use of a secret algorithm as well as many other factors. Google endeavours to display the best possible results to the user, and also provides other online tools such as payment processing solutions, pay per click advertising, an analytics platform, and product discovery tools.

GoogleGoogle Adwords and Google checkout are two of the most popular tools offered by Google, Google checkout giving online customers an easy way to pay for online purchases. Google Adwords has become a popular way to advertise with a low start-up cost, pay per click advertisement being typically text or banner ads. Adwords also happens to be Googleโ€™s largest source of revenue, which has led to some disagreements over whether Google is a search company with an advertising platform, or an advertising company with a search engine tool.

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were doctoral students at Stanford University at the time. In 2015 Google reorganized its various divisions under the umbrella of Alphabet Corp., with Google being the largest subsidiary of Alphabet.

Google is one of the fastest growing corporations in history, and as of 2017 was the worldโ€™s most valuable brand. From the humble beginnings as a search engine it has evolved to include the Chrome browser, the Android operation system, the YouTube video platform, a suite of applications for productivity (Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides), mapping (Google Maps, including Streetside), social networking (Google+), and many other areas of internet, including as a service provider with the Google Fiber and Google Station initiatives.

Googleโ€™s search engine is the most visited site in the world, and has been for some time. In addition, the brand name of Google has moved well into mainstream adoption, becoming a verb the means โ€œto search the internetโ€ as in โ€œWhy donโ€™t you Google that?โ€

Rebekah Carter

Rebekah Carter is an experienced content creator, news reporter, and blogger specializing in marketing, business development, and technology. Her expertise covers everything from artificial intelligence to email marketing software and extended reality devices. When sheโ€™s not writing, Rebekah spends most of her time reading, exploring the great outdoors, and gaming.