Partner Article

Google's Foundation

Google started out as a search engine, founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, that was ridiculed by many because it wasn’t the cluttered mess that was Yahoo. Instead it was simple and had a really great algorithm that worked. Now it’s a multi-billion dollar company that has its hands in the pockets of governments all over the world, completely dominates search, has its own browser, sprawling headquarters with armed guards, mobile phone platform and profitably advertising product.

It owns YouTube and a bunch of other companies. Its engineers are constantly releasing and working on new, innovative products while the Indiana Jones-villain esque former CEO Eric Schmidt sits back and cackles as every small business in the world must adapt to the whims of change in its algorithms. Google is the primary reason for the dark art of Search Engine Optimisation. In 2010 it was found to be harvesting data from its Street View mapping service which resulted in a lot of furrowed eyebrows, particularly the people who didn’t content to having their houses snapped by Googlecars anyway. It blamed the fiasco on a rogue engineer. Google is not very popular in China, but it’s working on it.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katherine Brown .