Difference between revisions of "Google"

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google.com

"Google" Site Type E-Commerce Cloud Based Storage Software Developer Hardware Developer Launch Date September 4, 1998 Status Active Product Line Search Engine Gmail Android Platform Cloud Service Website www.google.com

Google is a worldwide search, advertising, and service-based corporation. The largest U.S. based web company, Google has distinguished itself from other companies by adopting the catch-all mantra "don't be evil", and by avoiding the "corporate" feel that tech start-ups tend to fall into after experiencing massive growth.^[1]. However, Google has come under harsh criticism for their data mining and targeted advertising practices, which was a catalyst for an increased amount of debate surrounding the ethical implications of privacy online.

Mantra

"Don't be evil." ^[2]

This mantra was established by Paul Buchheit and Amit Patel, both Google employees. Google claims that at the core of their company, "Don't be evil" encapsulates the values Google and their employees have. People have questioned at certain times. In 2006 when Google struck a deal with China to censor parts of Google, Steve Jobs made it public that he felt Google was not staying true to their mantra^[3] .

History

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Page graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering. Brin, originally born in Russia, graduated from the University of Maryland, with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and mathematics. Both Page and Brin later attend Stanford University to complete their Master of Science degrees in Human Computer Interaction.

Google began as a research project at Standford, but quickly became a project worth pursuing, which Page and Brin decided to to run full time.^[4]. Google was founded on September 4th, 1998 in Menlo Park, California and have since moved their headquarters to Mountain View, California.^[5][6]

Their intention was to create a product to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful".^[7] Since then, the company has rapidly expanded and produced a suite of products far beyond the initial search engine. Google acquires companies on a regular basis and has entered into many different markets.^[8] It also leads the production of the Android operating system, the Chrome browser, and Google+, among other things.

After some Initial Financing, Google's initial public offering occurred on August 19, 2004 for $85 at 18,605,052 shares. With a starting market cap of $23 billion, the world began to realize that Google had potential. As of 2010, the company has 31,353 employees and total assets of $57.851 billion.^[5]

Acquisitions

Since 2001, Google has acquired over 100 companies. Some of the most influential acquisitions include: Keyhole, Inc, Android, YouTube, DoubleClick, and GrandCentral. Many of these acquisitions eventually became key aspects of Google's platform, including Google Groups, GoogleEarth, and Google Sites. They also have partnerships with companies like NASA Ames Research Center, Sun Microsystems, AOL, Time Warner, Microsoft, Nokia, and Ericsson.

Data Centers

As of 2012, Google owns and operates seven data centers in the United States, three in Asia, and three in Europe. It is well known for keeping the exact details of its data center internals secret ^[9]. In 2009, an engineer revealed that google has used custom in-house server designs to fill its data centers since 2005 ^[9]. The custom servers included a number of features that increase efficiency as means to decrease the costs of each search query because google's revenue per search query is very low^[9]. The differences included built-in batteries to circumvent the cost of monolithic battery backup systems as well as a unique power supply voltage of 12V to exploit both the differing costs of power supply hardware and the fact that copper wire transmits electricity more efficiently at 12V than the standard 5V. ^[9]. Google data centers were also composed of interchangeable modules in the form of standard shipping containers^[9].

Google also started designing custom networking equipment in their datacenters in 2005. ^[10] Although the transition was partly motivated by the limitations of commercially available hardware, it was also motivated by the fact that google could further decrease operational costs by ordering production runs of custom hardware from the same factories that equipment vendors use to outsource manufacturing. ^[10] A shipment of "Pluto" brand network switches determined to belong to Google was accidentally delivered to the wrong destination in February of 2012 ^[11] The recipients posted pictures of the hardware and some of the console output that resulted from attempting to interact with it to a thread on networking-forum.com. ^[11][12] They confirmed that google is still using custom hardware and that since users could not identify some of the plugs on the hardware, google is using esoteric or possibly proprietary cable standards on the hardware.^[11][12]

Google also decreases operating costs by using unconventional cooling methods for their data centers. ^[13] Instead of air conditioning the rooms holding servers, google simply allows the hardware to run at higher temperatures and suspending any work that demands physical presence in any areas with unsafe temeperatures. ^[13] Google also takes advantage of existing cooling infrastructure by buying properties that include it and transforming them into new data centers. ^[13] Recently, Google began to offer inside looks into their data centers, capitalizing on the Google Street View technology.^[14]

Advertising

Advertising is the number one revenue source for Google; 99% of their total revenue comes from advertising. Google helped to engineer a new type of competitive advertising that ensures the highest bidder pays only 1 cent above the second place bidder. Additionally, the company helped popularize the Pay Per Click (ppm) model now used by the majority of online advertisers.

Adwords

Adwords is a Google campaign that allows advertisers to rent out space and pay on a cost per click (CPC) basis. Before Adwords, sites were allowed to choose their own "keywords" - the words used by Google to determine the appropriate search results. But Larry Page, in developing his famous "Page Rank" system, decided that advertisers should have to do less work and developed an algorithm that mitigated users gaming the system.

Google Products

Google has an extensive list of products.

Some of Google Cloud Apps

Web

• Web Search Google is the most-used search engine on the web. Google uses a "PageRank" algorithm, named after Google founder Larry Page, to rank pages that show up in Google's results. The PageRank's main function is to search for text, on webpages in order to determine the relevancy to a user's search. Users also have the ability to filter their search result by category, including images, news, and books.^[15] Google's web search was the initial function of the website. Other features were added later, as the company expanded. Google web search also includes more specified databases that a user can use to more easily extract and find the information of the particular category they are looking for. Two specific examples of these types of searchable databases include Google Scholar and Google Trends which can be used to find academic journal articles backed with scholarly research or trends discovered under experimental condition respectively.

• Google Chrome is Google's web browser. It has built in malware and phishing protection, and auto updates to ensure the latest security fixes. Google Chrome also has Google search embedded in the navigation bar, making searching fast and easy.^[16]

• I'm Feeling Lucky Feature - In addition to the standard Web search features, Google offers users the opportunity to click an "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, where it essentially predicts what a user is aiming to seek information about. Recently, Google has added other features that operate in the same way as the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, only utilizing other emotions. For example, Google has added similar buttons such as "I'm Feeling Wonderful, Artistic, Playful, Hungry, etc.." which can be found and used by scrolling over the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on the main search screen. The "I'm Feeling Hungry" feature will bring up a list of local restaurants with one click of the button. This, "I'm Feeling ________" feature is fun for users as long as aesthetically appealing. ^[17]

Mobile

• Android Google's mobile platform, Android is the world's most popular mobile platform. Android allows users to utilize Google Apps, in addition to the 600,000 apps available on Google Play.^[18]

Media

• Google Books allows users to search for books, and in some cases, see a preview or view the entire book. If a book is in the public domain, users are also able to download a PDF copy.

• Google Play originally called Google Music, Google Play allows users to upload their music and other documents so that they can be accessed on other devices. Google Play syncs automatically, and can also be set to enable offline use.

• Google Images is Google's specific search engine for photos.

• Google News is similar to Google images, Google News filter search results to only display news articles.

• Picasa has been integrated into Google+, allowing users to easily share their images with their Circles on the social networking site.^[19]

• Picnik After being acquired by Google in 2010, Picnik worked to create photo editing software for Google+. Though the site no longer exists, many of Picnik's features can be found in the Creative Kit in Google+.^[20]

• Videos Google Videos is Google's search engine for video content.

• YouTube, a video sharing site, was purchased by Google for 1.65 billion USD in November 2006.^[21]

Geo

• Earth was originally created by Keyhole, Inc., a company funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. On October 27, 2004, Google acquired Keyhole, Inc. thus gaining the technology to begin the Google Earth platform. ^[22] Google Earth is a virtual globe incorporating many of Google's other platforms, including Google Street View to allow users access to view many parts of the world. In recent years, much of the focus has been in incorporating three dimensional views into Google Earth's capabilities. Users can submit their own 3D structures by modeling them on SketchUp.
  • Sky, an expansion of Earth, is an online sky viewer, collaborating images from multiple astronomical observatories.
  • Google Street View allows users to explore streets around the world in a 360-degree panoramic view. In Google Earth and Google Maps, the street view comes after the map has been zoomed in as far as possible.
• Maps is a mapping system that allows map viewing and route planning, by car, foot, or public transportation.
  • Google Street View allows users to explore streets around the world in a 360-degree panoramic view. In Google Earth and Google Maps, the street view comes after the map has been zoomed in as far as possible.
• Latitude is a mobile app allowing users to record their locations on Google Maps. Latitude was created from the software acquired from Dodgeball in 2005. The creators of Dodgeball eventually left Google to pursue the creation of Latitude competitor Foursquare. ^[23]
• Panoramio combines both photo sharing and location by allowing users to post pictures of given areas. This allows others to see user-generated images from sites.
• SketchUp is a program allowing for 3D models to be created and shared among users. SketchUp is the basis for user generated 3D content within Google Earth.

Home & Office

• Calendar is a web-based system allowing Google account holders to manage time virtually. Advantages include being able to access the calendar from anywhere with internet access.
• Drive allows users to access and edit files from anywhere by storing files on an external server rather than on one's computer drive. It is an expansion on the original Google Docs platform. Drive allows for collaborative editing on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in addition to other features, such as creating forms.
• Gmail is Google's e-mail platform. It offers Google searching abilities within mail, sorting capabilities, and the ability to link other google applications to e-mail. As of June 2012, it is the most used e-mail platform in the world. ^[24]
• Google Wallet was launched in September of 2011. It allows users to store their credit/debit cards and store the information to pay online and in person, using one's mobile device.
• Google Offers is a comprehensive search engine for online offers in discounted services and products. Google Offers is able to search through local, national, and internet retailers.
• Sites is a component of Google that allows a user to create his or her own websites. Google Sites has an extensive list of "How to" pages to give any user the proper instruction to add content, create feeds, create advanced designs and coding, and limit who has access to the website.
• Talk is a downloadable application that allows users to text chat other users in real time and make free PC-to-PC voice calls with other Google users in the U.S.
• Translate gives users the ability to translate words and phrases into over 50 different languages.
• Voice is a phone managing service that lets users create a "Google number" that can be linked and managed from their Google mail account. This Google number can be chosen by the user and can also be used to link several devices together. For example, one number can ring a home, work, and cell phone.
  • In addition, Google voice is directly integrated into one's e-mail enabling users to check their e-mail, call other phones, and text through their e-mail, all free of charge. Google voice can also manage voice mails, and maintain contact lists for specific phones. A new feature of Google Voice called "ListenIn" also lets users listen to an incoming caller's voice mail without having to answer the phone.
• Google Cloud Print is a new service by Google that allow users to print documents from any printer that has a internet connection. Google Cloud Print can manage multiple printers and also lets users create a list of other users who are allowed to have access to those printers.

Social

• Blogger is a Google component that allows users to create and manage blogs through their Google account. Blogger also lets users subscribe to other bloggers within Google Blogger so they can follow posts.
• Google+ is a web community service that was created with a model very similar to Facebook. In addition to many of the same features of Facebook, users have the ability to group friends into various categories and give them unique access to their profile. Users can also create "Hangouts." "Hangouts" lets users create an event that can occur online or offline to communicate with other users through text, webcams, or in person.
• Groups is a Google component that host forums that users can read, post, and reply to. Users can select specific categories or specific regions to find forums on specific topics.
• Knol was a website for creating and managing written semi-professional documents through Google. The project was started in 2007, but was phased out as of April 2012 and replaced by another site called "Annotum."^[25]
• Orkut Is a social networking site that is very similar to Myspace and Facebook. Orkut was created in 2004 and currently is very popular in Brazil and India. Orkut does not have a real presence in the U.S. due to sites such as Facebook and Myspace.
• Reader is a site that allows users to subscribe to and read news feeds. Google Reader also gives users to search for and subscribe to specific subjects, websites, companies, celebrities, sports teams, etc.

Innovation

• Google Drive is a file creating, sharing, and managing system that is completely hosted through Google. The applications below are the main components of Google Drive. All of them are free to download and use.
  • Fusion Tables - used for created and combining multiple tables of data
  • Drawings - used to modify and enhance documents with graphs, charts, pictures, etc.
  • Forms - used to create and distribute online surveys
  • App Scripts - used to create and collaborate code with other Google users through Google's servers to enhance or create applications.
• PageRank is an algorithm created by Google that ranks pages on the internet that appear in Google's search engine by the number of links that are connected to the site. A number of sites have created applications that will check a page's rank for you automatically.
• Self-driving Cars is a project that Google has been actively researching since 2005. The Google driverless car is supposed to completely navigate itself safely on the road with little to no control from the user. As of 2011, Google driverless cars have become legal to operate in Nevada and California. This link will give a better idea of what the capablities of the Google driverless car could be:A look inside Google's "Driverless Car" The car has yet to get into an accident at Google's expense, and has driven thousands of miles with minimal interruptions. There is a growing concern for the artificial intelligence software that Google is using for the project, leaving many to worry whose fault an accident would be, the designer or the car itself.
• Google Glass or better known as "Project Glass," is a new Google innovation on augmented reality. The Google Glasses are minicomputers in the form of a pair of glasses that will give a user the ability to search, manage, and create data through the glasses seamlessly. Google Glass will be built around the existing Google Now and is currently in beta testing.

Google TV

• Google Labs existed from 2006 to 2011. It allowed developers to beta test new features on certain users, who could optionally choose to try the capabilities.

Google TV

Introduced in 2010, it is the first fully integrated web and TV platform that is expected to have a major impact in the internet TV market. Google TV is based on the Android operating system, the Chrome web browser and an Intel chipset. Google TV lets users surf the internet, download, and run Android apps full-screen or in a picture-in-picture window while watching TV. Viewers can even use their Android phones as remote controls. The service is available in two forms: Box buddy and integrated TV. Box buddy is a small box that sits between your existing cable (or satellite) receiver and the TV, that can connect to the internet through Wi-Fi. It also comes with a remote to control your cable box, TV, and stereo. The integrated TV setup is built right into specific TV models, such as many Vizio and Sony brand TVs.

Google TV's launch was immensely hyped, however it's since fallen flat after Google failed to secure content deals with major media distributors before releasing the Google TV. Other issues included the hardware not being fully ready for release and the operating system inside the Google TV being almost at a beta level in it's completeness^[26]. However, a second generation of Google TV products has shown more promise, as issues that plagued the previous generation have since been fixed ^[27]

Specialized Search

• Blog Search - used to find blogs on particular topics
• Patent Search - used to find text of all U.S. patents
• Finance - useful for finding business information, news, current event charts
• Alerts - used to get email updates on the topics of a user's choice
• Custom Search - used to create a customized search experience for a certain community
• Google Shopping - used to commercial uses to find products to buy
• Scholar - used for academic research purposes to find scholarly articles
• Trends - used for exploring past and present search trends

Ethical Implications

Search Engine

Google is the most popular search engine, controlling 65.5% of the search engine market. By using the company's search engine, billions of users are providing Google with data about their personal preferences, which Google claims is used to show advertisements more relevant to its users. This information can be used to create a detailed personal image of a user. However, Google has many privacy features that allow user to search/use their products anonymously, such as Google Chrome's anonymous browsing mode, Incognito. To combat some of these criticisms, Google also provides many tools to opt-out of having your data collected.^{[28][29] [30]}

There are also concerns about the algorithms Google uses to rank pages - many accuse the system of being biased, and favoring certain pages over others.

Additionally The Google search bar is programmed to auto complete while a user is typing, which can influence user searches. Some people argue that this allows Google to think for users by influencing them to search for certain things.

Google Translate

Google Translate

There are also ethical implications associated with Google Translate. Google translate often translates things literally, meaning that things get lost in the translation. This can relate to plagiarism in an academic environment, where students often use Google Translate to cheat for foreign language assignments and projects. Google translate should only be used as a reference for academic preparation, and should not serve as the sole way to translate a language as often teachers and professors can detect when such translators are over-used (implying plagiarism on the student's behalf).

Google Street View

Main Article: Google Street View

There have been growing concerns regarding Google Street View; privacy advocates are worried about appearing in Google Street View when they did not give permission for Google to do so, arguing that it is not ethical to capture these pictures without the consent of those who may appear in them. Furthermore, people not only worry about themselves appearing in Google Street View images, but also worry that personal information such as vehicle license plate numbers, their residences, their children, and their pets may be visible on Google Street View images. As of 2010 and 2011, countries such as India, Australia, and Germany have had cases of Google Street View being temporarily shut down, or no new images being updated on the website.^[31] It is possible for users to report or flag images that they deem as inappropriate, for Google to review.^[32]

Google+

Google+ creates similar ethical concerns to other social media sites, like Facebook. Privacy, ownership and censorship are three of the most prominent. However, Google's social media platform is still relatively young and is still improving, meaning that some of these concerns may be addressed in updates to the site.

The first privacy issue with Google + is that as of July 31, 2011 it is mandatory that all profiles are public on Google+. While you can choose what you wish to be public information, Google+ is mandating that a person's gender is publicly displayed on their profile (unlike Facebook which does not require genders to be posted publicly on a person's profile page). ^[33] Another privacy issues with Google+ is that comments are as public as the post they belong to, so if a person comments on a post that is public then they're comment will be publicly available even if they have privacy settings that make their comments private, this is because the person whose post they commented on has their privacy settings set to public. This also leads to another privacy concern, that people you share with can re-share with their own circles (which also may be public and not private, even if you yourself have your settings marked as private). ^[34]

Google Now

Google premiered their own version of a virtual personal assistant called Google Now, with the latest update to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) for their Android phones. It uses natural language to help respond user questions, integrated with other Google/Android products to provide accurate results. This directly rivals with the iPhone's Siri, Apple's virtual assistant. It simplifies many phone functions to a simple voice command. It raises some ethical concerns such as GPS data being logged by default and calculates how far one walks and bikes each month. ^[35] Google Now can use GPS data to also pull up local businesses around you, based on your previous searches. User default privacy settings on such items are not very clear at the moment.

Copyright

Google, specifically Google Books and YouTube have been accused numerous times of breaching copyright law. Particularly with YouTube, issues arise as content is user-uploaded. Google does not have internal moderating systems to search for copyrighted works, thus depends on other users to report this content. This issue was heightened with the proposal of the Stop Online Piracy Act. This would cause YouTube to no longer exist. YouTube does not prevent one from uploading copyright videos, however it will take down videos if a complaint is filed from the copyright holder. YouTube will then, if need be, ban the user if they repeat the infringements.

Nymwars

Nymwars refers to the ongoing dispute of requiring internet service users to use their real names when using a particular service. When Google+ launched in summer 2011, Google mandated users supply their real names; however, when users supplied a nickname instead, Google expelled them from the site. This ignited a conflict within the blogging community, revolving around the idea of a right to anonymity online. Google chairman, Eric Schmidt, responded to angry bloggers, explaining that Google+ was intended to be an identity service, and therefore, the usage of real names is imperative.^[36] Recently, Google has encouraged YouTube users to supply their real name.^[37]

China

On March 22, 2010 Google China shut down due to disputes over censorship. It re-routed all mainland attempts from China to Hong-Kong's uncensored version of the site. This move by Google represented moral objections to repeated attacks from Chinese hackers on Google accounts. However, Google has maintained many of its Chinese operations and has not pulled out of the country completely. It's redirection of users was a step towards stopping internet censorship, though the Chinese government has clearly stated that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.

• Initial Censorship of Search Results: In 2006, Google made the decision to censor search results for the Chinese version of their search service, located at Google China. Multiple groups spoke out about the company's decision, but Google responded to the negative feedback by stating that they felt they could make a more positive contribution in China by maintaining operations. They also stated that providing some results rather than none fit better with their company mission.^[38]
• Cyberattack and Removal of Censorship: Google was a target of a cyberattack on January 12, 2010. The company reported that it was one of many targets, across multiple industries and that the attack had originated in China. Human rights activists interested in the well-being of those in China seemed to be the primary targets, according to Google. These attacks resulted in theft of intellectual property. Shortly after the event, Google threatened to leave China if the cyberattacks and intrusions did not stop.^[39][40] In March of 2010, Google announced that they were going to redirect all Google.cn traffic to Google.hk, the domain for Google in Hong Kong. Doing so essentially removed all censorship that Chinese users were affected by prior to this change.^[41] This seems to have been in response to continued cyberattacks after Google's warning.

See Also

• Android
• Censorship
• Cloud Computing
• Data Aggregation Online
• Data Mining
• Google Books
• Google Street View
• Information Transparency
• Larry Page
• Nymwars
• Social Networking
• Social Networking Services
• Stop Online Piracy Act
• Targeted Advertising

External Links

• Google

References

1. ↑ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-15/facebook-passes-ebay-in-value-becoming-no-3-u-s-web-company.html
2. ↑ Telecom Circle Google: Don’t be Evil
3. ↑ http://www.telecomcircle.com/2010/08/google-dont-be-evil/
4. ↑ Google, 1995-1997
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Google Our history in depth
6. ↑ Google, 2004
7. ↑ Google, Company
8. ↑ Scores, Google
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4} Google uncloaks once-secret server, [1]
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Exclusive: Google, Amazon, and Microsoft Swarm China for Network Gear, [2]
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1 11.2} Mystery Google Device Appears in Small-Town Iowa, [3]
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} http://www.networking-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=29803
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2} Google Reincarnates Dead Paper Mill as Data Center of Future, [4]
14. ↑ Google Data Centers, [5]
15. ↑ Wikipedia, Google Search
16. ↑ Google,Chrome
17. ↑ http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Im-feeling-lucky-new-emotions-hungry-wonderful,17169.html
18. ↑ http://www.android.com/about/
19. ↑ http://support.google.com/picasa/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=93773
20. ↑ http://www.picnik.com/home
21. ↑ Youtube | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube
22. ↑ Google Acquisitions [6]
23. ↑ Google Latitude [7]
24. ↑ Gmail Wikipedia [8]
25. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knol
26. ↑ Logitech's Google TV failure: Too much, too soon - Gigaom | http://gigaom.com/video/logitech-google-tv-failure/
27. ↑ Google TV will not fail again - Betanews | http://betanews.com/2012/07/09/google-tv-will-not-fail-again/
28. ↑ AlterNet, Conspiracy Researcher Says Google's No Good
29. ↑ Google on Wikipedia
30. ↑ http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/tools/
31. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Street_View#Privacy_issues
32. ↑ http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2007-06-01-google-maps-privacy_N.htm
33. ↑ http://googleplus.wonderhowto.com/inspiration/4-possible-privacy-issues-pay-attention-google-0128578/
34. ↑ http://googleplus.wonderhowto.com/inspiration/4-possible-privacy-issues-pay-attention-google-0128578/
35. ↑ http://phandroid.com/2012/11/01/google-now-now-tracks-the-distance-you-walk-bike-or-travel-in-a-month/
36. ↑ http://delivery.acm.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/10.1145/2250000/2240247/p29-boyd.pdf?ip=141.213.236.110&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=154975552&CFTOKEN=66670065&__acm__=1355097860_cf88c622f39395228608597fd879aad6
37. ↑ http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2012/06/choosing-how-youre-seen-on-youtube.html
38. ↑ BBC,Google censors itself for China
39. ↑ TechCrunch, Google Defends Against Large Scale Chinese Cyber Attack: May Cease Chinese Operations
40. ↑ NYT, [9] Google Shuts China Site in Dispute Over Censorship
41. ↑ BBC, Google stops censoring search results in China

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