Google facts for kids
The Google logo used since 2015
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Google's headquarters, the Googleplex
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Google Inc. (1998–2017) | ||
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| Traded as | NASDAQ: GOOGL, GOOG | ||
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| Founded | September 4, 1998 in Menlo Park, California, United States | ||
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| Headquarters | Googleplex,
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| Parent | Alphabet Inc. | ||
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Google LLC is a huge American technology company. It focuses on things like online advertising, search engines, cloud computing, computer software, and artificial intelligence (AI). Many people call it "the most powerful company in the world." This is because it's so popular and good at new technology, especially AI.
Google is part of a bigger company called Alphabet Inc.. Alphabet is one of the five biggest tech companies, along with Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
Google was started on September 4, 1998. It was created by two American computer scientists, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They were both students at Stanford University in California.
Contents
The Story of Google
Google began as a research project in January 1996. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were PhD students at Stanford University, started it. They had a friend, Scott Hassan, who helped write a lot of the first search engine code. But Scott left before Google officially became a company.
Google got its first big investment in August 1998. Andy Bechtolsheim, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, invested $100,000. This helped them officially start the company. Other early investors included Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. With money from friends and family, Google raised about $1,000,000. This allowed them to open their first office in Menlo Park, California. Their first employee was Craig Silverstein, another Stanford student.
In March 1999, Google moved its offices to Palo Alto, California. This area is famous for many tech companies. The next year, Google started selling ads linked to search words. Larry and Sergey didn't want ads at first. But they decided to keep the ads simple and text-only. In June 2000, Google became the main search engine for Yahoo!, which was a very popular website back then.
On August 19, 2004, Google became a public company. This means its shares could be bought and sold by anyone. The company offered over 19 million shares at $85 each. This made Google worth more than $23 billion.
Google bought YouTube in November 2006 for $1.65 billion. In May 2011, more than one billion people visited Google each month. This was a first for the company.
In May 2012, Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. This was Google's biggest purchase at the time. They bought Motorola to get its many patents for mobile phones. This helped Google protect its Android system from lawsuits by companies like Apple and Microsoft.
Google's Growth from 2012
In June 2013, Google bought Waze for $966 million. Waze is a popular navigation app. Its features, like crowd-sourced traffic info, helped improve Google Maps. Google also started a new company called Calico in September 2013. This company focuses on "health and well-being" and studying aging.
In January 2014, Google bought DeepMind Technologies. This is an artificial intelligence company from London. This purchase helped Google grow in the AI and robotics fields. In 2015, DeepMind's AlphaGo computer program beat a top human player at the game of Go.
Google has been one of the most valuable brands in the world. It was ranked second (after Apple) from 2013 to 2016.
On August 10, 2015, Google changed how it was organized. It became the biggest part of a new parent company called Alphabet Inc.. After this change, Sundar Pichai became the CEO of Google. Larry Page became the CEO of Alphabet.
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In March 2019, Google announced it would enter the video game market. They launched a cloud gaming platform called Google Stadia.
In October 2020, the United States Department of Justice sued Google. They said Google had too much control over the search and advertising markets.
In April 2020, Google made some changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They slowed down hiring and reduced spending in some areas. Many employees also started working from home. Some jobs even became permanently remote.
In 2021, the Alphabet Workers Union was formed. Most of its members are Google employees.
In January 2021, the Australian Government suggested a law. It would make Google and Facebook pay media companies for using their content. Google said it might stop its search engine in Australia because of this.
In 2022, Google started letting people ask to remove their phone numbers, addresses, and emails from search results. Before, they only removed very private data like bank account numbers.
In early 2023, Google decided to focus heavily on AI. This was after the success of ChatGPT. Google wanted all its major products to use generative AI within months.
In May 2023, Google announced plans to build two more data centers in Ohio. These centers will help power Google's tools, including its AI technology.
What Google Offers
Search and Information
Google's search engine looks through billions of web pages. This helps users find information using keywords. Google Search is the most popular search engine in the United States.
Google also has Google News, which summarizes news articles. Google Books lets you search inside books and read parts of them. Google also offers search services for shopping, finance, and flights.
Advertising Services
Google makes most of its money from advertising. This includes ads on Google and YouTube. It also comes from app sales and licensing fees for things like Google Cloud. Google uses special technology to show ads that might interest you. These ads are based on your searches and what you've looked at before.
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Google Analytics helps website owners see how people use their websites. Google Ads lets businesses show their ads on Google's network. Google AdSense lets website owners display these ads and earn money when people click them.
Artificial Intelligence
Google has used virtual assistants and chatbots for a while. In March 2024, they announced a new AI called Gemini. Many see Gemini as a strong competitor to other AI like ChatGPT. Google also started an AI training program for its employees in April 2024.
Services for Everyone
Online Tools
Google offers many online tools for everyday use. These include Gmail for email and Google Maps for directions. There's also Google Drive for storing files online. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are for schoolwork or projects. You can use Google Photos for pictures and YouTube for videos. Google Translate helps with different languages.
In March 2019, Google launched Stadia, a cloud gaming service. Google also has a job search tool called Google for Jobs. Google Earth, launched in 2005, lets you see satellite pictures of places around the world.
Software You Can Use
Google makes the Android mobile operating system. This is used on many smartphones. They also make software for smartwatches (Wear OS), TVs (Android TV), and cars (Android Auto). Google also develops the Google Chrome web browser. And they make ChromeOS, an operating system for laptops called Chromebooks.
Google's Own Devices
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In January 2010, Google released the Nexus One. This was their first Android phone under their own brand. Later, they launched the Pixel phone series.
In 2011, the Chromebook was introduced. These laptops run on Google's ChromeOS.
In July 2013, Google released the Chromecast. This small device lets you stream videos from your phone to your TV.
In June 2014, Google announced Google Cardboard. It's a simple cardboard viewer that turns your smartphone into a virtual reality (VR) device.
Other hardware products include:
- Nest smart speakers: These speakers have a voice assistant. You can ask them questions, play music, and control smart home devices.
- Nest Wifi: This system helps make your home Wi-Fi faster and cover more areas.
Services for Businesses
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) is a service for businesses. It gives them access to Google tools like Gmail and Google Drive. It also includes special tools for managing a business.
Google also has Google for Entrepreneurs. This program helps new companies by giving them shared office spaces. It also offers workshops and advice. There are Campuses in cities like Berlin, London, and Seoul.
Google's Culture and Offices
Sergey Brin designed the first Google logo. Since 1998, Google has made special, temporary logos for its homepage. These are called Google Doodles. They celebrate holidays, events, and important people.
Google Doodles
The very first Google Doodle was for the Burning Man Festival in 1998. Larry Page and Sergey Brin made it to show they were away. Later, an intern named Dennis Hwang started designing them. Now, a team of employees called "Doodlers" creates them.
Working at Google
Google has often been named one of the best companies to work for. Their company ideas include "you can make money without doing evil." They also believe "work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun."
As of late 2020, Google had over 100,000 employees. Google encourages its engineers to spend 20% of their work time on projects they are interested in. Some popular Google services, like Gmail and Google News, started from these projects.
Google has a Chief Culture Officer. This person helps make sure the company keeps its unique values.
Google Offices Around the World
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Google has many offices all over the world. They have 85 locations in total. This includes 32 offices in North America, 24 in Europe, and 18 in the Asia Pacific region. Their main headquarters is called "the Googleplex." It's in Mountain View, California. The name is a play on the word "googolplex," which is a very large number.
Fun Facts About Google
- Google and YouTube are the two most visited websites in the world.
- Google is the biggest search engine. It's also the largest mapping, email, and online video platform. It's also the top mobile operating system and web browser.
- Google is ranked as one of the most valuable brands globally.
- Google was first called "BackRub." This was because it checked "backlinks" to see how important a website was.
- The name "Google" comes from a misspelling of "googol." A googol is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. This name was chosen to show that the search engine could provide a huge amount of information.
- The word "google" was added to dictionaries in 2006. It means "to use the Google search engine to find information on the Internet."
- Google often creates April Fools' Day jokes. In 2000, they announced "Google MentalPlex." It supposedly let you search the web using your mind.
- Google's services have "easter eggs." These are hidden jokes or features. For example, you can change the search engine language to Swedish Chef's "Bork bork bork."
- If you search for "anagram," Google's suggestion is "Did you mean: nag a ram?" This is a clever play on words.
- Google has data centers in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe.
Google's Giving Back
In 2004, Google started a non-profit group called Google.org. They gave it $1 billion to start. This group works to raise awareness about climate change, global health, and poverty. One of their first projects was to create a car that could get 100 miles per gallon.
In March 2007, Google hosted the first Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival. This event was at their headquarters in Mountain View. In 2011, Google gave 1 million euros to support the International Mathematical Olympiad.
In July 2012, Google started a "Legalize Love" campaign. This campaign supported gay rights.
In 2008, Google announced "project 10100." They asked for ideas to help the community. Then, Google users voted on their favorites. Google gave a total of ten million dollars to the winning ideas. These ideas included groups that promote education.
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google donated $15 million. This was to help Ukrainian citizens. They also turned their office in Warsaw into a help center for refugees.
In February 2022, Google also announced a $100 million fund. This fund helps low-income Americans get job training and find jobs.
Images for kids
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Google's original homepage had a simple design because the company founders had little experience in HTML, the markup language used for designing web pages
See also
In Spanish: Google para niños
- Outline of Google
- History of Google
- Criticism of Google
- List of Google products
- Google China
- Google logo
- Googlization
- Google.org
- Google ATAP
- List of mergers and acquisitions by Alphabet
- Surveillance Capitalism
