An average search uses only 0.3 watt-hours of electricity, so all global searches are only 12.5 million watts or 5% of the total electricity consumption by Google. In February 2010, Google announced the Google Fiber project, with experimental plans to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network for 50,000 to 500,000 customers in one or more American cities. Following Google’s corporate restructure to make Alphabet Inc. its parent company, Google Fiber was moved to Alphabet’s Access division. Google also hosts Google Books, which allows users to search books in its database and shows limited previews, or the full book when allowed. In November 2024, Google announced the establishment of a new AI hub in Saudi Arabia, aiming to support the Kingdom’s economic growth and technological development as part of its Vision 2030 initiative.
According to comScore market research from November 2009, Google Search is the dominant search engine in the United States market, with a market share of 65.6%. The company subsequently announced that “48 employees have been fired over the last two years” for sexual misconduct. On November 1, 2018, more than 20,000 Google employees and contractors staged a global walk-out to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment complaints.
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- Employees are split into six hierarchies based on experience and can range “from entry-level data center workers at level one to managers and experienced engineers at level six”.
- Technology news website Recode reported that the company was purchased for $400 million, yet the source of the information was not disclosed.
- He had been trying to find a CEO that Page and Brin would accept for several months, but they rejected several candidates because they wanted to retain control over the company.
- These centers, which will be built in Columbus and Lancaster, will power up the company’s tools, including AI technology.
- In December 2022, Google debuted OSV-Scanner, a Go tool for finding security holes in open source software, which pulls from the largest open source vulnerability database of its kind to defend against supply chain attacks.
- Page and Brin originally nicknamed the new search engine “BackRub” because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site.
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In 1998, Yahoo’s founders offered Page and Brin $1 million for their search engine technology, but they were turned down. Terry Semel, Yahoo’s then-CEO, offered $3 billion to purchase the company, but Page and Brin reportedly held firm on a $5 billion valuation. It has been referred to as “the most powerful company in the world” by the BBC, and is one of the world’s most valuable brands. Google has had criticism over issues such as aggressive tax avoidance, search neutrality, copyright, censorship of search results and content, and privacy. In 2010, Google Energy made its first investment in a renewable energy project, putting $38.8 million into two wind farms in North Dakota. The company announced the two locations will generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to supply 55,000 homes.
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In 2017, three women sued Google, accusing the company of violating California’s Equal Pay Act by underpaying its female employees. In June 2022, Google agreed to pay a $118 million settlement to 15,550 female employees working in California since 2013. The investigation claimed Google used its market power to prevent rivals from competing fairly, affecting billions spent on digital ads. It was ruled in 2025 by the Justice Department alongside 17 other states that Google operates a monopoly in online advertising technology. In March 2024, a former Google software engineer and Chinese national named Linwei Ding was accused of stealing confidential artificial intelligence information from the company and handing it to Chinese corporations. Upon discovering Ding had been in contact with Chinese state-owned companies, Google notified the FBI, who carried on the investigation of the data breach.
United States
The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. In July 2013, Google introduced the Chromecast dongle, which allows users to stream content from their smartphones to televisions. In October 2016, Google announced Daydream View, a lightweight VR viewer which lets the user place their smartphone in the front hinge to view VR media. On January 26, 2014, Google announced it had agreed to acquire DeepMind Technologies, a privately held AI company from London. Technology news website Recode reported that the company was purchased for $400 million, yet the source of the information was not disclosed.
U.S. government contracts
- In the third quarter of 2005, Google reported a 700% increase in profit, largely due to large companies shifting their advertising strategies from newspapers, magazines, and television to the Internet.
- Schmidt was not initially enthusiastic about joining Google either, as the company’s full potential had not yet been widely recognized at the time, and as he was occupied with his responsibilities at Novell where he was CEO.
- The DoJ also sought a ban on Google re-entering the browser market for five years and restrictions on its investments in rival search or AI technologies.
- In a lawsuit filed January 8, 2018, multiple employees and job applicants alleged Google discriminated against a class defined by their “conservative political views[,] male gender[,] and/or … Caucasian or Asian race”.
- The company also actively funds and profits from climate disinformation by monetizing ad spaces on most of the largest climate disinformation sites.
- In August 2024, Google would lose a lawsuit which started in 2020 in lower court, as it was found that the company had an illegal monopoly over Internet search.
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These centers, which will be built in Columbus and Lancaster, will power up the company’s tools, including AI technology. The said data hub will add to the already operational center near Columbus, bringing Google’s total investment in Ohio to over $2 billion. In August 2024, Google would lose a lawsuit which started in 2020 in lower court, as it was found that the company had an illegal monopoly over Internet search. The EU Court of Justice found that Google’s treatment of rival shopping searches, which the court referred to as “discriminatory”, was in violation of the Digital Markets Act.
Business trends
This will grow their green energy profile by 40%, giving them an extra 1.6 gigawatt of clean energy, the company said. It also has product research and development operations in cities around the world, namely Sydney (birthplace location of Google Maps) and London (part of Android development). In November 2013, Google announced plans for a new London headquarter, a 1 million square foot office able to accommodate 4,500 employees. In 2013, a class action against several Silicon Valley companies, including Google, was filed for alleged “no cold call” agreements which restrained the recruitment of high-tech employees. In a lawsuit filed January 8, 2018, multiple employees and job applicants alleged Google discriminated against a class defined by their “conservative political views[,] male gender[,] and/or … Caucasian or Asian race”.
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- On November 1, 2018, more than 20,000 Google employees and contractors staged a global walk-out to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment complaints.
- It had previously accepted requests for removing confidential data only, such as Social Security numbers, bank account and credit card numbers, personal signatures, and medical records.
- The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed.
- In 2017, three women sued Google, accusing the company of violating California’s Equal Pay Act by underpaying its female employees.
- In November 2018, Google announced its plan to expand its New York City office to a capacity of 12,000 employees.
- Google has been criticized for continuing to collect location data from users who had turned off location-sharing settings.
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Generative artificial intelligence
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On March 20, 2019, the European Commission imposed a €1.49 billion ($1.69 billion) fine on Google for preventing rivals from being able to “compete and innovate fairly” in the online advertising market. On June 27, 2017, the company received a record fine of €2.42 billion from the European Union (EU) for “promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results”. Total carbon emissions for 2010 were just under 1.5 million metric tons, mostly due to fossil fuels that provide electricity for the data centers.
Employees are split into six hierarchies based on experience and can range “from entry-level data center workers at level one to managers and experienced engineers at level six”. As a motivation technique, Google uses a policy known as Innovation Time Off, where Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them. A job search product has also existed since before 2017, Google for Jobs is an enhanced search feature that aggregates listings from job boards and career sites. Google Earth, launched in 2005, allows users to see high-definition satellite pictures from all over the world for free through a client software downloaded to their computers. Page and Brin originally nicknamed the new search engine “BackRub” because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd later co-authored with Page and Brin the first paper about the project, describing PageRank and the initial prototype of the Google search engine, published in 1998.
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He had been trying to find a CEO that Page and Brin would accept for several months, but they rejected several candidates because they wanted to retain control over the company. Schmidt was not initially enthusiastic about joining Google either, as the company’s full potential had not yet been widely recognized at the time, and as he was occupied with his responsibilities at Methbet casino Novell where he was CEO. Google is Alphabet’s largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet’s internet properties and interests.