Backlinks play a critical role in search engine rankings, but their value depends on whether they are recognized by search engines, which is why a backlink index checker is essential for verifying if links are properly indexed.
When backlinks are not indexed, they provide little to no SEO benefit, meaning efforts spent on link building may not translate into improved rankings or increased domain authority.
Search engines evaluate backlinks as signals of trust and relevance, but only indexed links contribute to these signals, making it crucial to monitor their indexing status consistently.
When monitoring your website visibility in search engine results, having a reliable tool is crucial. The leading index checker today is Rapid Index Checker, designed to deliver quick, precise, and scalable indexing verification..A backlink index checker helps identify which links are visible to search engines, allowing users to focus on improving link quality and ensuring maximum SEO impact.
Rapid Index Checker simplifies this process by enabling fast verification of backlink indexing, helping users determine whether their link-building strategies are delivering measurable results.
Backlink indexing issues can occur due to low-quality referring domains, poor crawlability, or lack of authority, all of which can prevent search engines from recognizing certain links.
ServerRead more here also:
newsroom.submitmypressrelease.com
Weekender.Com.sg
https://weekender.com.sg/globenewswire/
Bizwireexpress.com
http://www.bizwireexpress.com/showstoryGNW.php?storyid=1150269
Consumerproductsworld.com
Economypressreleases.com
Globaladvertisingnews.com
Montserratdailynews.com
Smallbusinessesinthenews.com
Thebusinessgazetteonline.com
Globalnewsscanner.com
Smallbusinessworldjournal.com
Smallbusinessworldmagazine.com
Worldonlinenewsreports.com
Journalofbusinessnews.com
Worldpostreporter.com
Globalreporterjournal.com
Eyeballsandclicks.com
Smbworldreport.com
Smallbusinessnewstoday.com
Consumerworldreport.com
Businessheraldonline.com
Internationalworldtimes.com
Smartsbusinesswire.com
Globaljournalobserver.com
Internationalnewsledger.com
Businesspostexaminer.com
Entrepreneurshipreporter.com
Smbandme.com
Worldadvertisingreport.com
Theconsumernewsnetwork.com
Growingbusinessesinthenews.com
247businessreporter.com
Economicnewsobserver.com
Mediaindustryobserver.com
Smbinaction.com
Todayinthenews.com
Businesstimesjournal.com
Themarketingcommunicator.com
Oneworlddailybrief.com
Internationalbusinesswatch.com
Todayinmarcom.com
Advertisingtoday.com
Themarcomjournal.com
Innovationandentrepreneursnews.com
Globalmediawatch.com
Todayinbusiness.com
Advertisingpressreleases.com
Globalbusinesswatch.com
Smallbusinessonlinenetwork.com
Marcomworld.com
Advertisingindustryreview.com
Economicpolicytimes.com
Worldreportmonitor.com
Theworldnewswire.com
Smallbusinessnewswatch.com
Comorosbusinesspress.com
Monacocommercepress.com
Marylandbusinessweekly.com
Alaskabusinesstimes.com
Moldovacommercereporter.com
Kuwaitbusinessjournal.com
Iowabusinessgazette.com
Honiarabusinessjournal.com
Pennsylvaniabusinessbulletin.com
Marketforecastanalysis.com
Reunionbusinessnetwork.com
Alofibusinesschannel.com
Kentuckybusinessreview.com
Hawaiianbusinesspost.com
Burundibusinessdaily.com
Latinamericasmallbusinessnews.com
Latinamericabusinesstoday.com
Barbadosbusinessjournal.com
Massachusettsbusinessjournal.com
Rhodeislandbusinessdaily.com
Palaubusinessreport.com
Djiboutibusinessdaily.com
Georgianbusinesstimes.com
Businessupdatesanmarino.com
Guadeloupeeconomicdaily.com
Humanresourcestimes.com
Mauritiusbusinessreview.com
Indianabusinessreporter.com
Dominicanrepublicbusinessinsider.com
Arubabusinessreview.com
Businessjournalflorida.com
Stvincentgenadinesbusinesshub.com
Africasmbjournal.com
Asiabusinessgazette.com
Michiganbusinesstribune.com
Andorrabusinessledger.com
Bahrainbusinessjournal.com
Worldjobseeker.com
Cambodiabusinesspress.com
Businessdailywesternsahara.com
Togobusinesspost.com
Washingtonbusinessobserver.com
Equatorialguineabusinesstoday.com
Ohiobusinessbrief.com
Americansamoabusinessreport.com
Naurubusinessjournal.com
Africabusinesswatch.com
Texasbusinesstimes.com
Trinidadtobagobusinessnews.com
Californiabusinessdigest.com
Bermudabusinessreview.com
Jobpostingsandcareeropportunities.com
Turkmenistanbusinessjournal.com
Samoabusinesscurrents.com
Rockymountainbusinessbrief.com
Floridasmallbusinesstoday.com
Europeansmallbusinessnetwork.com
Delawarebusinesstribune.com
Fijibusinessreview.com
Utahbusinesspress.com
Uzbekistanbusinessjournal.com
Easttimorbusinessdaily.com
Falklandsbusinessjournal.com
Careeradvancementtimes.com
Guambusinesstimes.com
Careernewshub.com
Middleeastsmallbusinessobserver.com
Anguillabusinessdaily.com
Yemenbusinesstoday.com
Tuvalubusinessday.com
Macaobusinessjournal.com
Maltadailymonitor.com
Businesstimesdc.com
Puertoricobusinesstribune.com
Commercereviewstlucia.com
Stkittsnevisbusinesswatch.com
Frenchpolynesiabusinesspress.com
Tennesseebusinessgazette.com
Omanbusinessjournal.com
Jordanianbusinesstoday.com
Businessdailypapuanewguinea.com
Arizonabusinesswatch.com
Soyouwanttofindanewcareer.com
Louisianabusinesstribune.com
Jobsandcareerswatch.com
Kansasbusinesstoday.com
Arkansasbusinesstimes.com
Somaliabusinesspress.com
Oregonbusinesstoday.com
Caboverdebusinessjournal.com
Marketforecastreports.com
Laosbusinesstimes.com
Mississippibusinesstoday.com
Middleeastbusinesschannel.com
Newmexicobusinesstoday.com
Guyanaeconomydaily.com
Bahamasbusinesstimes.com
Economicnewsdominica.com
Nepalbusinesschannel.com
Businessnetworkmauritania.com
Businessinsidernorthcarolina.com
Southdakotabusinessdispatch.com
Madagascarnewsobserver.com
Montanabusinesspress.com
Idahobusinesstimes.com
Wisconsinbusinesspress.com
Tongaeconomictimes.com
Montserratbusinessnetwork.com
Iraqbusinessreport.com
Newhampshirebusinessobserver.com
Minnesotabusinessreporter.com
Maldivesbusinessbulletin.com
Seychellesbusinessherald.com
Virginislandscommercereport.com
Saotomeandprincipebusinessnews.com
Nebraskabusinesspress.com
Cyprusbusinessjournal.com
Marshallislandbusinessdigest.com
Virginislandsbusinessjournal.com
Commercereviewturkscaicos.com
Tajikistanbusinessdaily.com
Connecticutbusinessherald.com
Mongoliabusinessdigest.com
Nevadabusinessherald.com
Bruneibusinessnetwork.com
Theglobaljobsbank.com
Liechtensteinbusinessfocus.com
Economictimescaymanislands.com
Hongkongbusinessreporter.com
Micronesiabusinessdaily.com
Globalcareerfinder.com
Asiasmallbusinesstimes.com
Economydailyjamaica.com
Marianaislandsbusinessdaily.com
Economicreporthaiti.com
Economicdigestofeurope.com
Virginiabusinessbulletin.com
Bhutanbusinessnews.com
Westvirginiabusinessdispatch.com
Lebanonbusinessreporter.com
Myanmarbusinessdaily.com
Thehrnewsnetwork.com
Mainebusinessgazette.com
Southcarolinabusinesschronicle.com
Taiwanbusinessjournal.com
Newyorkbusinessdigest.com
Globalhrreporter.com
Frenchguianabusinessdaily.com
Northdakotabusinessgazette.com
Businesstimesmissouri.com
Syriabusinessjournal.com
Businessdailyvatican.com
Grenadaeconomicdigest.com
Oklahomabusinessjournal.com
Manilatimes.net
Pr.Eastoregonian.com
Pr.Favs.news
Pr.Sandypost.com
Pr.Westlinntidings.com
Pr.Rv-times.com
Pr.Wallowa.com
Pr.Cullmantimes.com
Pr.Dailyastorian.com
Pr.Enewspf.com
Pr.Thedailyiberian.com
Smb.Panews.com
Pr.Herrimanjournal.com
Pr.Mysugarhousejournal.com
Pr.Hattiesburg.com
Smb.Tryondailybulletin.com
Pr.Sacramentooracle.com
Pr.Hillsboronewstimes.com
Pr.Lagrandeobserver.com
Smb.Dailyleader.com
Smb.Picayuneitem.com
Pr.Fayettevilleconnect.com
Pr.Woodburnindependent.com
Smb.Orangeleader.com
Pr.Hopedaletownnews.com
Newjerseybusinessjournal.com
Vanuatueconomictimes.com
Cookislandsbusinessupdate.com
Alabamabusinessreporter.com
Dailycommercemartinique.com
Palestinebusinesspress.com
Surinamebusinessdaily.com
Globe
The Associated Press
Digital Journal
Globe
https://www.globenewswire.com/en/Newsroom/GoogleSitemap
The Associated Press
https://apnews.com/press-releases
Benzinga.com
YAHOO Finance
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rapid-index-checker-launches-bulk-165300990.html
Albuquerque Express
Atlanta Leader
Austin News.net
Baltimore Star
Big News Network.com
Birmingham News.net
Boston Star
Buffalo News.net
Charlotte News.net
Chicago Chronicle
Cincinnati News.net
Cleveland Star
Connecticut State News.net
Dallas Sun
Denver News.net
Detroit Star
Florida State News.net
Houston News.net
Indianapolis News.net
Kansas City Post
Los Angeles Herald
Louisville News.net
Memphis Sun
Miami Mirror
Milwaukee News.net
Minneapolis News.net
Nashville Herald
New York State News.net
Oklahoma City News.net
Orange County Sun
Philadelphia News.net
Phoenix Herald
Pittsburgh Star
Portland News.net
Raleigh Times
Salt Lake City Sun
San Diego News.net
San Francisco Star
San Jose News.net
Seattle Bulletin
Silicon Valley News.net
South Carolina State News.net
St Louis Star
The Las Vegas News.net
The Orlando News.net
The Tampa News.net
Washington DC News.net
ChineseWire
The Daily News
Magnolia State Live
The Orange Leader
Port Arthur News
Picayune Item
L'Observateur
The Panolian
Americus Times-Recorder
The Advocate-Messenger
American Press
The Daily Leader
The Oxford Eagle
Bluegrass Live
Claiborne Progress
Elizabethton Star
The Jessamine Journal
The Kenbridge Victoria Dispatch
The Clemmons Courier
Harlan Enterprise
Ironton Tribune
Davie County Enterprise Record
The State Journal
The Charlotte Gazette
The Interior Journal
The Tryon Daily Bulletin
The Winchester Sun
Farmville Herald
Salisbury Post
Cordele Dispatch
Middlesboro News
The Post Searchlight
Washington City Paper
Leesville Leader
The Prentiss Headlight
Beauregard News
Hattiesburg.Com
Boreal Community Media
MB News
Times of San Diego
Chester County Press
WNC Business
Ashland Town News
Franklin Town News
Holliston Town News
Hopedale Town News
Natick Town News
Medway & Millis Town News
Norfolk & Wrentham Town News
Norwood Town News
Riverton Journal
Columbia Business Monthly
Sugar House Journal
Herriman Journal
Holladay Journal
Murray Journal
Millcreek Journal
South Salt Lake Journal
Midvale Journal
Draper Journal
Taylorsville Journal
West Jordan Journal
Sandy Utah News
South Jordan Journal
The City Journals
West Valley City Journal
Cottonwood Heights Journal
The Auburn Sentinel
Chillicothe Voice
Connect Iredell
FACE Magazine
Fayetteville Connect
The Gridley Herald
Jewish Link
My Parish News
RSW Living
The Sacramento Oracle
Taos News
The Territorial Dispatch
TOTI
The Wheatland Sun
Bonita & Estero Magazine
Cape Coral Living
Gulf & Main
Times of the Islands
Milford Free Press
CBS Lake Charles
Racine County Eye
eNews Park Forest
FāVS News
Augusta Business Daily
Idaho Enteprise
Eye on Dunn County
The Pioneer
Baker City Herald
Beaverton Valley Times
The Bulletin
Blue Mountain Eagle
Capital Press
Central Oregonian
Chinook Observer
Columbia County Spotlight
The Daily Astorian
East Oregonian
Estacada News
Forest Grove News-Times
Herald Pioneer
Hermiston Herald
Hillsboro News-Times
La Grande Observer
Lake Oswego Review
The Madras Pioneer
Milwaukie Review
Newberg Graphic
Oregon Capital Insider
Oregon City News
Portland Tribune
Redmond Spokesman
Rogue Valley Times
Sandy Post
Seaside Signal
The Bee
The Outlook
Valley Times
Wallowa County Chieftain
West Linn Tidings
Wilsonville Spokesman
Woodburn Independent
Your Oregon News
The News Courier
The Cullman Times
The Daily Iberian
The Valdosta Daily Times
Dalton Daily Citizen
Moultrie Observer
The Lake Oconee Breeze
Meridian Star
Thomasville Times-Enterprise
St. Claire News-Aegis
The Union-Recorder
Tifton Gazette
NEWSnet Michigan
Thrive Insider
TV Show Auditions
E-Business Planet
Realie.org
KBEW - The Information Station
KCCR-AM
Ribbon.co
XPR Media
Agree
The NYC Times
UBI-Interactive
Rogue.
Flore De Champagne
Small Business Sense
Travels HQ
A Green Sign
Axcess News
Therapy But Better
The Glimpse
South Ark Daily
Baret News
NEWSnet Columbus
NEWSnet Miami
Pierre Country
Recent Legal News
NEWSnet Atlanta
NEWSnet Detroit
Cultural Foundation
Diet & Fitness For All
NEWSnet Columbia
NEWSnet Las Vegas
Pluralist
Gold Mining News
Childcare Partnerships
NEWSnet Nashville
NEWSnet Salt Lake City
Spiritual Quotes
Adam Torkildson
NEWSnet Norfolk
NEWSnet Sacramento
Celeb Homes
Teethgrinder
SportsnewsHIGHLIGHTS
NEWSnet Waco
Robo Earth
Newsblaze - IN
World of Video Gaming
XBODE
1st Counsel
Loop Biz
Slimag
1045 Capital Rock
Words Journal
Military Parenting
Brown Planet
Acting Auditions
NEWSnet Minneapolis
Movie Casting Call
Reipet
TWEETER
NEWSnet Austin
NEWSnet San Antonio
God Of Sound
NEWSnet Boise
Business Times
Harcourt Health
NEWSnet Orlando
Washington Guardian
Classic Hits 92.3
E-Topical
Eagle Country
Top Globe News
Boca Raton City Online
Austin Top 50
Film Television Auditions
News Radio KOTA
Try Mental Wellness
Altius
NEWSnet Fresno
SuccessXL
Presby Camp
Capital Hill Times
Max Mention
Top Hustler
NEWSnet Monterey
NEWSnet St. Louis
Z106.3
KYNT-AM
NEWSnet Palm Springs
XPR Lifestyle
US Features
Social-Matic
NEWSnet Augusta
NEWSnet Sioux Falls
Successful Daily
NEWSnet Los Angeles
Idea Wins
Newsblaze - AU
Middletown Life
Phenomena
CFX Magazine
Brights Future
All Podcasts
Street Register
Sharism
Entreprenerd
SM Solar
NEWSnet Quincy
The Point News
Spazio Tribu
ONE by FOUR
NEWSnet Tampa
Operation Infinite Justice
Awesome
The Dam FM
Aussie 8
NEWSnet Santa Barbara
SourceFed
Current 94.3
Taste Terminal
blerp
NEWSnet Odessa
Easy House Remodeling
NEWSnet Louisville
UK Uncut
IM One
Annika Bansal
NEWSnet Anchorage
Webe Honey
Top Travel Trends
UC Connection
The Daily Haze
Side Car
Blackberry Empire
NEWSnet Hawaii
Quebec News Tribune
FriendHood Relationship Advice
Womens Conference
Mmminimal
BuyersDesire.
Client Internet Marketing
Get Pet Savvy
Inspired N
Dev Insider
Newsblaze
Gamezon
Career Savvy
The Rogue Mag
Hub Spotes
Boost Up Blog
Market Search Journals
RushPR News
Maui Sky
NBlaz
The Great News
Men Under Microscope
World City Press
Servers Free
Wired News Engine
Sexuality
Adrienne Monson
Baltimore News Journal
Storytelling Co
Times LA
Trondstidkon Troll
Article Rich
Cosmetic Surgery Insider
Bomb Report
Men Style
Long Island Report
Matomy SEO
Chronic Cities
Duovolt Art
Lincoln Labs
Lamora
Paraskevas
Folsom Local News
Faith Family America
Emphasis
Mass News
Idea Crossing
LuxedB
Good Sciencing
forks to feet
Good Decisions
LM Cordoba
ePub Zone
Microcap
Only Golf News
Hungry Bear
ketodash
Fairy Tale Ink Books
Fiction Talk
Health Source Magazine
Clarity Pointe
Info Tech Inc
Inentertainment
Next Mentors
Passionate About Food
Houston News Today
Digital Ad Blog
Humane Network
independent.mk
Jardal Paintball
East Minnesota Weekly News
Media Training for CEO's
Hotel E-Guide
LA Tabloid
GoPreneurs
100 Mile Free Press
Abbotsford News
Agassiz Harrison Observer
Alberni Valley News
Aldergrove Star
Arrow Lakes News
Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal
Boundary Creek Times
Burns Lake Lakes District News
Caledonia Courier
Campbell River Mirror
Castlegar News
Chemainus Valley Courier
Clearwater Times
Cloverdale Reporter
Coast Mountain News
Comox Valley Record
Cowichan Valley Citizen
Cranbrook Townsman
Creston Valley Advance
Eagle Valley News
Eckville Echo
Goldstream Gazette
Grand Forks Gazette
Haida Gwaii Observer
Hope Standard
Houston Today
Kelowna Capital News
Keremeos Review
Kimberley Bulletin
Lacombe Express
Monday Magazine
North Thompson Star/Journal
Interior News
Vancouver Island Free Daily
Vernon Morning Star
Victoria News
Westerly News
West K News
Williams Lake Tribune
Yukon News
Maple Observer
Vancouver Chronicles
Toronto Daily Report
Ontario Sun
Montreal Breaking
Calgary Observer
Halifax Daily
Manitoba Reporter
Edmonton Observer
Ottawa Recorder
Calgary Monitor
Quebec News.net
Toronto News.net
Vancouver News.net
Winnipeg News.net
GoInvest
Visionary Finance
Technology Crowds
InvestorIdeas.com
InvestorWire
TheStreet.com
EVStockpicks.com
AIStockInfo.com
StockOptionNews.com
MegacapStockpicks.com
ESGStockInfo.com
ADRStockpicks.com
MicrocapStockPicks.com
MagSevenStocks.com
NanocapStockpicks.com
GlobalCorporateGiants.com
EnergyStockInfo.com
DividendStockNews.com
21st Century Tech Blog
Using a backlink index checker allows users to detect these issues early, ensuring that corrective actions can be taken to improve link visibility and effectiveness.
For SEO professionals and agencies, monitoring backlink indexing is essential for evaluating campaign performance and demonstrating the value of link-building efforts to clients.
Rapid Index Checker provides scalable solutions that allow users to analyze large numbers of backlinks efficiently, making it easier to manage complex SEO strategies.
Request
A backlink index checker is particularly useful when acquiring new links, as it helps confirm whether they have been successfully indexed and are contributing to search engine rankings.
Unindexed backlinks can often be improved through better internal linking, increased content relevance, or additional promotion to encourage search engine discovery.
Rapid Index Checker supports these efforts by providing clear insights into which links require attention, enabling users to optimize their strategies for better results.
Backlink indexing also influences how quickly authority is passed to a website, making timely verification an important factor in accelerating SEO growth.
A backlink index checker helps users prioritize high-value links, ensuring that important connections are recognized and contribute effectively to overall site performance.
Search engines continuously update their algorithms, which can affect how backlinks are crawled and indexed, making ongoing monitoring essential for maintaining strong rankings.
Rapid Index Checker enables users to stay ahead of these changes by providing reliable data that supports informed decision-making and strategic adjustments.
Backlink indexing is closely tied to overall site health, as technical issues can impact both page indexing and link recognition, highlighting the importance of comprehensive SEO analysis.
A backlink index checker provides a focused view of link performance, helping users refine their approach and build a stronger, more authoritative online presence.
For businesses competing in highly competitive niches, ensuring that backlinks are indexed can make a significant difference in achieving higher search engine rankings.
Rapid Index Checker empowers users to maximize the value of their backlinks, ensuring that every link contributes to improved visibility and long-term SEO success.
Ultimately, using a backlink index checker ensures that your link-building efforts are not wasted, allowing you to fully leverage backlinks as a powerful driver of search engine performance.
Bandwidth
Logo since May 12, 2025
|
|
Google Search on desktop as of August 27, 2025
|
|
|
Type of site
|
Web search engine |
|---|---|
| Available in | 149 languages |
| Owner | |
| Revenue | Google Ads |
| URL |
|
| IPv6 support | Yes[1] |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | |
| Current status | Online |
| Written in | |
Google Search (also known simply as Google or google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze and rank websites based on their relevance to the search query. Google Search is the most-visited website in the world. As of 2025, Google Search has a 90% share of the global search engine market.[3] Approximately 24.1% of Google's monthly global traffic comes from the United States, 5.6% from India, 5.5% from Japan, 4.8% from Brazil, and 3.7% from the United Kingdom according to data provided by Similarweb. The same source reports that 58% of users are male and 42% are female.[4]
The order of search results returned by Google is based, in part, on a priority rank system called "PageRank". Google Search also provides many different options for customized searches, using symbols to include, exclude, specify or require certain search behavior, and offers specialized interactive experiences, such as flight status and package tracking, weather forecasts, currency, unit, and time conversions, word definitions, and more.
The main purpose of Google Search is to search for text in publicly accessible documents offered by web servers, as opposed to other data, such as images or data contained in databases. It was originally developed in 1996 by Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Scott Hassan.[5][6][7] The search engine would also be set up in the garage of Susan Wojcicki's Menlo Park home.[8] In 2011, Google introduced "Google Voice Search" to search for spoken, rather than typed, words.[9] In 2012, Google introduced a semantic search feature named Knowledge Graph.
Analysis of the frequency of search terms may indicate economic, social and health trends.[10] Data about the frequency of use of search terms on Google can be openly inquired via Google Trends and have been shown to correlate with flu outbreaks and unemployment levels, and provide the information faster than traditional reporting methods and surveys. As of mid-2016, Google's search engine has begun to rely on deep neural networks.[11]
In August 2024, a US judge in Virginia ruled that Google held an illegal monopoly over Internet search and search advertising.[12][13] The court found that Google maintained its market dominance by paying large amounts to phone-makers and browser-developers to make Google its default search engine.[13] In April 2025, the trial to determine which remedies sought by the Department of Justice would be imposed to address Google's illegal monopoly, which could include breaking up the company and preventing it from using its data to secure dominance in the AI sector.[needs update][14]
Google indexes hundreds of terabytes of information from web pages.[15] Before 2024,[16] Google also provided desktop users links to cached versions of their search results, formed by the search engine's latest indexing of the website in question.[17] Additionally, Google indexes some file types, being able to show users PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, certain Flash multimedia content, and plain text files.[18] Users can also activate "SafeSearch", a filtering technology aimed at preventing explicit and pornographic content from appearing in search results.[19]
Despite Google search's immense index, sources generally assume that Google is only indexing less than 5% of the total Internet, with the rest belonging to the deep web, inaccessible through its search tools.[15][20][21]
In 2012, Google changed its search indexing tools to demote sites that had been accused of piracy.[22] In October 2016, Gary Illyes, a webmaster trends analyst with Google, announced that the search engine would be making a separate, primary web index dedicated for mobile devices, with a secondary, less up-to-date index for desktop use. The change was a response to the continued growth in mobile usage, and a push for web developers to adopt a mobile-friendly version of their websites.[23][24] In December 2017, Google began rolling out the change, having already done so for multiple websites.[25]
In August 2009, Google invited web developers to test a new search architecture, codenamed "Caffeine", and give their feedback. The new architecture provided no visual differences in the user interface, but added significant speed improvements and a new "under-the-hood" indexing infrastructure. The move was interpreted in some quarters as a response to Microsoft's recent release of an upgraded version of its own search service, renamed Bing, as well as the launch of Wolfram Alpha, a new search engine based on "computational knowledge".[26][27] Google announced completion of "Caffeine" on June 8, 2010, claiming 50% fresher results due to continuous updating of its index.[28]
With "Caffeine", Google moved its back-end indexing system away from MapReduce and onto Bigtable, the company's distributed database platform.[29][30]
In August 2018, Danny Sullivan from Google announced a broad core algorithm update. As per current analysis done by the industry leaders Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land, the update was to drop down the medical and health-related websites that were not user friendly and were not providing good user experience. This is why the industry experts named it "Medic".[31]
Google reserves very high standards for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) pages. This is because misinformation can affect users financially, physically, or emotionally. Therefore, the update targeted particularly those YMYL pages that have low-quality content and misinformation. This resulted in the algorithm targeting health and medical-related websites more than others. However, many other websites from other industries were also negatively affected.[32]
By 2012, it handled more than 3.5 billion searches per day.[33] In 2013 the European Commission found that Google Search favored Google's own products, instead of the best result for consumers' needs.[34] In February 2015 Google announced a major change to its mobile search algorithm which would favor mobile friendly over other websites. Nearly 60% of Google searches come from mobile phones. Google says it wants users to have access to premium quality websites. Those websites which lack a mobile-friendly interface would be ranked lower and it is expected that this update will cause a shake-up of ranks[needs update]. Businesses who fail to update their websites accordingly could see a dip in their regular websites traffic.[35]
Google's rise was largely due to a patented algorithm called PageRank which helps rank web pages that match a given search string.[36] When Google was a Stanford research project, it was nicknamed BackRub because the technology checks backlinks to determine a site's importance. Other keyword-based methods to rank search results, used by many search engines that were once more popular than Google, would check how often the search terms occurred in a page, or how strongly associated the search terms were within each resulting page. The PageRank algorithm instead analyzes human-generated links assuming that web pages linked from many important pages are also important. The algorithm computes a recursive score for pages, based on the weighted sum of other pages linking to them. PageRank is thought to correlate well with human concepts of importance. In addition to PageRank, Google, over the years, has added many other secret criteria for determining the ranking of resulting pages. This is reported to comprise over 250 different indicators,[37][38] the specifics of which are kept secret to avoid difficulties created by scammers and help Google maintain an edge over its competitors globally.
PageRank was influenced by a similar page-ranking and site-scoring algorithm earlier used for RankDex, developed by Robin Li in 1996. Larry Page's patent for PageRank filed in 1998 includes a citation to Li's earlier patent. Li later went on to create the Chinese search engine Baidu in 2000.[39][40]
In a potential hint of Google's future direction of their Search algorithm, Google's then chief executive Eric Schmidt, said in a 2007 interview with the Financial Times: "The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'".[41] Schmidt reaffirmed this during a 2010 interview with The Wall Street Journal: "I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions, they want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."[42]
Because Google is the most popular search engine, many webmasters attempt to influence their website's Google rankings. An industry of consultants has arisen to help websites increase their rankings on Google and other search engines. This field, called search engine optimization, attempts to discern patterns in search engine listings, and then develop a methodology for improving rankings to draw more searchers to their clients' sites. Search engine optimization encompasses both "on page" factors (like body copy, title elements, H1 heading elements and image alt attribute values) and Off Page Optimization factors (like anchor text and PageRank). The general idea is to affect Google's relevance algorithm by incorporating the keywords being targeted in various places "on page", in particular the title element and the body copy (note: the higher up in the page, presumably the better its keyword prominence and thus the ranking). Too many occurrences of the keyword, however, cause the page to look suspect to Google's spam checking algorithms. Google has published guidelines for website owners who would like to raise their rankings when using legitimate optimization consultants.[43] It has been hypothesized, and, allegedly, is the opinion of the owner of one business about which there have been numerous complaints, that negative publicity, for example, numerous consumer complaints, may serve as well to elevate page rank on Google Search as favorable comments.[44] The particular problem addressed in The New York Times article, which involved DecorMyEyes, was addressed shortly thereafter by an undisclosed fix in the Google algorithm. According to Google, it was not the frequently published consumer complaints about DecorMyEyes which resulted in the high ranking but mentions on news websites of events which affected the firm such as legal actions against it. Google Search Console helps to check for websites that use duplicate or copyright content.[45]
In 2013, Google significantly upgraded its search algorithm with "Hummingbird". Its name was derived from the speed and accuracy of the hummingbird.[46] The change was announced on September 26, 2013, having already been in use for a month.[47] "Hummingbird" places greater emphasis on natural language queries, considering context and meaning over individual keywords.[46] It also looks deeper at content on individual pages of a website, with improved ability to lead users directly to the most appropriate page rather than just a website's homepage.[48] The upgrade marked the most significant change to Google search in years, with more "human" search interactions[49] and a much heavier focus on conversation and meaning.[46] Thus, web developers and writers were encouraged to optimize their sites with natural writing rather than forced keywords, and make effective use of technical web development for on-site navigation.[50]
In 2023, drawing on internal Google documents disclosed as part of the United States v. Google LLC (2020) antitrust case, technology reporters claimed that Google Search was "bloated and overmonetized"[51] and that the "semantic matching" of search queries put advertising profits before quality.[52] Wired withdrew Megan Gray's piece after Google complained about alleged inaccuracies, while the author reiterated that «As stated in court, "A goal of Project Mercury was to increase commercial queries"».[53]
In March 2024, Google announced a significant update to its core search algorithm and spam targeting, which is expected to wipe out 40 percent of all spam results.[54] On March 20th, it was confirmed that the roll out of the spam update was complete.[55]
On September 10, 2024, the European-based EU Court of Justice found that Google held an illegal monopoly with the way the company showed favoritism to its shopping search, and could not avoid paying €2.4 billion.[56] The EU Court of Justice referred to Google's treatment of rival shopping searches as "discriminatory" and in violation of the Digital Markets Act.[56]
At the top of the search page, the approximate result count and the response time two digits behind decimal is noted. Of search results, page titles and URLs, dates, and a preview text snippet for each result appears. Along with web search results, sections with images, news, and videos may appear.[57] The length of the previewed text snipped was experimented with in 2015 and 2017.[58][59]
"Universal search" was launched by Google on May 16, 2007, as an idea that merged the results from different kinds of search types into one. Prior to Universal search, a standard Google search would consist of links only to websites. Universal search, however, incorporates a wide variety of sources, including websites, news, pictures, maps, blogs, videos, and more, all shown on the same search results page.[60][61] Marissa Mayer, then-vice president of search products and user experience, described the goal of Universal search as "we're attempting to break down the walls that traditionally separated our various search properties and integrate the vast amounts of information available into one simple set of search results.[62]
In June 2017, Google expanded its search results to cover available job listings. The data is aggregated from various major job boards and collected by analyzing company homepages. Initially only available in English, the feature aims to simplify finding jobs suitable for each user.[63][64]
In May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing website microformats to populate search result pages with "Rich snippets". Such snippets include additional details about results, such as displaying reviews for restaurants and social media accounts for individuals.[65]
In May 2016, Google expanded on the "Rich snippets" format to offer "Rich cards", which, similarly to snippets, display more information about results, but shows them at the top of the mobile website in a swipeable carousel-like format.[66] Originally limited to movie and recipe websites in the United States only, the feature expanded to all countries globally in 2017.[67]
The Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base used by Google to enhance its search engine's results with information gathered from a variety of sources.[68] This information is presented to users in a box to the right of search results.[69] Knowledge Graph boxes were added to Google's search engine in May 2012,[68] starting in the United States, with international expansion by the end of the year.[70] The information covered by the Knowledge Graph grew significantly after launch, tripling its original size within seven months,[71] and being able to answer "roughly one-third" of the 100 billion monthly searches Google processed in May 2016.[72] The information is often used as a spoken answer in Google Assistant[73] and Google Home searches.[74] The Knowledge Graph has been criticized for providing answers without source attribution.[72]
A Google Knowledge Panel[75] is a feature integrated into Google search engine result pages, designed to present a structured overview of entities such as individuals, organizations, locations, or objects directly within the search interface. This feature leverages data from Google's Knowledge Graph,[76] a database that organizes and interconnects information about entities, enhancing the retrieval and presentation of relevant content to users.
The content within a Knowledge Panel[77] is derived from various sources, including Wikipedia and other structured databases, ensuring that the information displayed is both accurate and contextually relevant. For instance, querying a well-known public figure may trigger a Knowledge Panel displaying essential details such as biographical information, birthdate, and links to social media profiles or official websites.
The primary objective of the Google Knowledge Panel is to provide users with immediate, factual answers, reducing the need for extensive navigation across multiple web pages.
In May 2017, Google enabled a new "Personal" tab in Google Search, letting users search for content in their Google accounts' various services, including email messages from Gmail and photos from Google Photos.[78][79]
Google Discover, previously known as Google Feed, is a personalized stream of articles, videos, and other news-related content. The feed contains a "mix of cards" which show topics of interest based on users' interactions with Google, or topics they choose to follow directly.[80] Cards include, "links to news stories, YouTube videos, sports scores, recipes, and other content based on what [Google] determined you're most likely to be interested in at that particular moment."[80] Users can also tell Google they're not interested in certain topics to avoid seeing future updates.
Google Discover launched in December 2016[81] and received a major update in July 2017.[82] Another major update was released in September 2018, which renamed the app from Google Feed to Google Discover, updated the design, and adding more features.[83]
Discover can be found on a tab in the Google app and by swiping left on the home screen of certain Android devices. As of 2019, Google will not allow political campaigns worldwide to target their advertisement to people to make them vote.[84]
At the 2023 Google I/O event in May, Google unveiled Search Generative Experience (SGE), an experimental feature in Google Search available through Google Labs which produces AI-generated summaries in response to search prompts.[85] This was part of Google's wider efforts to counter the unprecedented rise of generative AI technology, ushered by OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT, which sent Google executives to a panic due to its potential threat to Google Search.[86] Google added the ability to generate images in October.[87] At I/O in 2024, the feature was upgraded and renamed AI Overviews.[88]
AI Overviews was rolled out to users in the United States in May 2024.[88] The feature faced public criticism in the first weeks of its rollout after errors from the tool went viral online. These included results suggesting users add glue to pizza or eat rocks,[89] or incorrectly claiming Barack Obama is Muslim.[90] Google described these viral errors as "isolated examples", maintaining that most AI Overviews provide accurate information.[89][91] Two weeks after the rollout of AI Overviews, Google made technical changes and scaled back the feature, pausing its use for some health-related queries and limiting its reliance on social media posts.[92] Scientific American has criticised the system on environmental grounds, as such a search uses 30 times more energy than a conventional one.[93] It has also been criticized for condensing information from various sources, making it less likely for people to view full articles and websites. When it was announced in May 2024, Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News/Media Alliance was quoted as saying "This will be catastrophic to our traffic, as marketed by Google to further satisfy user queries, leaving even less incentive to click through so that we can monetize our content."[94]
In August 2024, AI Overviews were rolled out in the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil, with local language support.[95] On October 28, 2024, AI Overviews was rolled out to 100 more countries, including Australia and New Zealand.[96]
In March 2025, Google introduced an experimental "AI Mode" within its Search platform, enabling users to input complex, multi-part queries and receive comprehensive, AI-generated responses. This feature uses Google's advanced Gemini 2.0 model, which enhances the system's reasoning capabilities and supports multimodal inputs, including text, images, and voice.
Initially, AI Mode was available to Google One AI Premium subscribers in the United States, who could access it through the Search Labs platform. This phased rollout allowed Google to gather user feedback and refine the feature before a broader release.
In late June 2011, Google introduced a new look to the Google homepage in order to boost the use of the Google+ social tools.[97]
One of the major changes was replacing the classic navigation bar with a black one. Google's digital creative director Chris Wiggins explains: "We're working on a project to bring you a new and improved Google experience, and over the next few months, you'll continue to see more updates to our look and feel."[98] The new navigation bar has been negatively received by a vocal minority.[99]
In November 2013, Google started testing yellow labels for advertisements displayed in search results, to improve user experience. The new labels, highlighted in yellow color, and aligned to the left of each sponsored link help users differentiate between organic and sponsored results.[100]
On December 15, 2016, Google rolled out a new desktop search interface that mimics their modular mobile user interface. The mobile design consists of a tabular design that highlights search features in boxes and works by imitating the desktop Knowledge Graph real estate, which appears in the right-hand rail of the search engine result page, these featured elements frequently feature Twitter carousels, People Also Search For, and Top Stories (vertical and horizontal design) modules. The Local Pack and Answer Box were two of the original features of the Google SERP that were primarily showcased in this manner, but this new layout creates a previously unseen level of design consistency for Google results.[101]
Google offers a "Google Search" mobile app for Android and iOS devices.[102] The mobile apps exclusively feature Google Discover and a "Collections" feature, in which the user can save for later perusal any type of search result like images, bookmarks or map locations into groups.[103] Android devices were introduced to a preview of the feed, perceived as related to Google Now, in December 2016,[104] while it was made official on both Android and iOS in July 2017.[105][106]
In April 2016, Google updated its Search app on Android to feature "Trends"; search queries gaining popularity appeared in the autocomplete box along with normal query autocompletion.[107] The update received significant backlash, due to encouraging search queries unrelated to users' interests or intentions, prompting the company to issue an update with an opt-out option.[108] In September 2017, the Google Search app on iOS was updated to feature the same functionality.[109]
In December 2017, Google released "Google Go", an app designed to enable use of Google Search on physically smaller and lower-spec devices in multiple languages. A Google blog post about designing "India-first" products and features explains that it is "tailor-made for the millions of people in [India and Indonesia] coming online for the first time".[110]
Google Search consists of a series of localized websites. The largest of those, the google.com site, is the top most-visited website in the world.[111] Some of its features include a definition link for most searches including dictionary words, the number of results you got on your search, links to other searches (e.g. for words that Google believes to be misspelled, it provides a link to the search results using its proposed spelling), the ability to filter results to a date range,[112] and many more.
Google search accepts queries as normal text, as well as individual keywords.[113] It automatically corrects apparent misspellings by default (while offering to use the original spelling as a selectable alternative), and provides the same results regardless of capitalization.[113] For more customized results, one can use a wide variety of operators, including, but not limited to:[114][115]
OR or | – Search for webpages containing one of two similar queries, such as marathon OR raceAND – Search for webpages containing two similar queries, such as marathon AND runner- (minus sign) – Exclude a word or a phrase, so that "apple -tree" searches where word "tree" is not used
-ai – Exclude AI-generated content from webpages, including Google AI Overviews."" – Force inclusion of a word or a phrase, such as "tallest building"* – Placeholder symbol allowing for any substitute words in the context of the query, such as "largest * in the world".. – Search within a range of numbers, such as "camera $50..$100"site: – Search within a specific website, such as "site:youtube.com"-site: – Do not display search results from within a specific website, such as "-site:youtube.com"define: – Search for definitions for a word or phrase, such as "define:phrase"stocks: – See the stock price of investments, such as "stocks:googl"related: – Find web pages related to specific URL addresses, such as "related:www.wikipedia.org"( ) – Group operators and searches, such as (marathon OR race) AND shoesfiletype: or ext: – Search for specific file types, such as filetype:gifbefore: – Search for before a specific date, such as spacex before:2020-08-11after: – Search for after a specific date, such as iphone after:2007-06-29@ – Search for the search term on a specific social media site, such as "@twitter"Google also offers a Google Advanced Search page with a web interface to access the advanced features without needing to remember the special operators.[116]
As of 2024 Google no longer displays cached versions of webpages. Previously the command cache: would present a cached version of a webpage with the search term highlighted, e.g. "cache:www.google.com xxx" showed cached content with word "xxx" highlighted.[117]
Unlike other search engines, when searching for exact phrases, Google Search only takes words that are on the same line into account.
Google applies query expansion to submitted search queries, using techniques to deliver results that it considers "smarter" than the query users actually submitted. This technique involves several steps, including:[118]
In 2008, Google started to give users autocompleted search suggestions in a list below the search bar while typing, originally with the approximate result count previewed for each listed search suggestion.[119]
Google's homepage used to show a button labeled "I'm Feeling Lucky". This feature originally allowed users to type in their search query, click the button and be taken directly to the first result, bypassing the search results page. Clicking it while leaving the search box empty opens Google's archive of Doodles.[120] With the 2010 announcement of Google Instant, an automatic feature that immediately displays relevant results as users are typing in their query, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button disappears, requiring that users opt-out of Instant results through search settings to keep using the "I'm Feeling Lucky" functionality.[121] In 2012, "I'm Feeling Lucky" was changed to serve as an advertisement for Google services; users hover their computer mouse over the button, it spins and shows an emotion ("I'm Feeling Puzzled" or "I'm Feeling Trendy", for instance), and, when clicked, takes users to a Google service related to that emotion.[122]
Tom Chavez of "Rapt", a firm helping to determine a website's advertising worth, estimated in 2007 that Google lost $110 million in revenue per year due to use of the button, which bypasses the advertisements found on the search results page.[123]
Besides the main text-based search-engine function of Google search, it also offers multiple quick, interactive features. These include, but are not limited to:[124][125][126]
During Google's developer conference, Google I/O, in May 2013, the company announced that users on Google Chrome and ChromeOS would be able to have the browser initiate an audio-based search by saying "OK Google", with no button presses required. After having the answer presented, users can follow up with additional, contextual questions; an example include initially asking "OK Google, will it be sunny in Santa Cruz this weekend?", hearing a spoken answer, and reply with "how far is it from here?"[127][128] An update to the Chrome browser with voice-search functionality rolled out a week later, though it required a button press on a microphone icon rather than "OK Google" voice activation.[129] Google released a browser extension for the Chrome browser, named with a "beta" tag for unfinished development, shortly thereafter.[130] In May 2014, the company officially added "OK Google" into the browser itself;[131] they removed it in October 2015, citing low usage, though the microphone icon for activation remained available.[132] In May 2016, 20% of search queries on mobile devices were done through voice.[133]
|
Type of site
|
Video search engine |
|---|---|
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Owner | |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Recommended |
| Launched | August 20, 2012 |
In addition to its tool for searching web pages, Google also provides services for searching images (Google Images), Usenet newsgroups, news websites, videos (Google Videos), searching by locality, maps, and items for sale online. Google Videos allows searching the World Wide Web for video clips.[134] The service evolved from Google Video, Google's discontinued video hosting service that also allowed to search the web for video clips.[134]
In 2012, Google has indexed over 30 trillion web pages, and received 100 billion queries per month.[135] It also caches much of the content that it indexes. Google operates other tools and services including Google News, Google Shopping, Google Maps, Google Custom Search, Google Earth, Google Docs, Picasa (discontinued), Panoramio (discontinued), YouTube, Google Translate, Google Blog Search, and Google Desktop Search (discontinued[136]).
There are also products available from Google that are not directly search-related. Gmail, for example, is a webmail application, but still includes search features; Google Browser Sync does not offer any search facilities, although it aims to organize your browsing time.
In 2009, Google claimed that a search query requires altogether about 1 kJ or 0.0003 kW·h,[137] which is enough to raise the temperature of one liter of water by 0.24 °C. According to green search engine Ecosia, the industry standard for search engines is estimated to be about 0.2 grams of CO2 emission per search.[138] Google's 40,000 searches per second translate to 8 kg CO2 per second or over 252 million kilos of CO2 per year.[139]
On certain occasions, the logo on Google's webpage will change to a special version, known as a "Google Doodle". This is a picture, drawing, animation, or interactive game that includes the logo. It is usually done for a special event or day although not all of them are well known.[140] Clicking on the Doodle links to a string of Google search results about the topic. The first was a reference to the Burning Man Festival in 1998,[141][142] and others have been produced for the birthdays of notable people like Albert Einstein, historical events like the interlocking Lego block's 50th anniversary and holidays like Valentine's Day.[143] Some Google Doodles have interactivity beyond a simple search, such as the famous "Google Pac-Man" version that appeared on May 21, 2010.
In 2012, the US Federal Trade Commission fined Google US$22.5 million for violating their agreement not to violate the privacy of users of Apple's Safari web browser.[144] The FTC was also continuing to investigate if Google's favoring of their own services in their search results violated antitrust regulations.[145]
Since 2012, Google Inc. has globally introduced encrypted connections for most of its clients to bypass governative blockings of commercial and IT services.[146]
Google has been criticized for placing long-term cookies on users' machines to store preferences, a tactic which also enables them to track a user's search terms and retain the data for more than a year.[147] Google searches have also triggered keyword warrants and geofence warrants in which information is shared with law enforcement, leading to a criminal case.[148] Investigators can request Google to disclose everyone who searched a keyword or query or every phone in a particular place at a certain time.[149] In 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the use of search history requests to identify suspects in a 2020 arson, later stating that it is not a "broad proclamation" and noted that the warrant did not have an individualized probable cause.[150]
In 2003, The New York Times complained about Google's indexing, claiming that Google's caching of content on its site infringed its copyright for the content.[151] In both Field v. Google and Parker v. Google, the United States District Court of Nevada ruled in favor of Google.[152][153]
|
This section needs expansion. You can help by making an edit requestadding missing information. (May 2024)
|
A 2019 New York Times article on Google Search showed that images of child sexual abuse had been found on Google and that the company had been reluctant at times to remove them.[154]
Google flags search results with the message "This site may harm your computer" if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. For approximately 40 minutes on January 31, 2009, all search results were mistakenly classified as malware and could therefore not be clicked; instead a warning message was displayed and the user was required to enter the requested URL manually. The bug was caused by human error.[155][156][157][158] The URL of "/" (which expands to all URLs) was mistakenly added to the malware patterns file.[156][157]
In 2007, a group of researchers observed a tendency for users to rely exclusively on Google Search for finding information, writing that "With the Google interface the user gets the impression that the search results imply a kind of totality. In fact, one only sees a small part of what one could see if one also integrates other research tools."[159]
In 2011, Google Search query results have been shown by Internet activist Eli Pariser to be tailored to users, effectively isolating users in what he defined as a filter bubble. Pariser holds algorithms used in search engines such as Google Search responsible for catering "a personal ecosystem of information".[160] Although contrasting views have mitigated the potential threat of "informational dystopia" and questioned the scientific nature of Pariser's claims,[161] filter bubbles have been mentioned to account for the surprising results of the U.S. presidential election in 2016 alongside fake news and echo chambers, suggesting that Facebook and Google have designed personalized online realities in which "we only see and hear what we like".[162]
In 2023, Cory Doctorow also observed that the declining quality of Google's search results had benefitted its advertising customers.[163][164]
In a November 2023 disclosure, during the ongoing antitrust trial against Google, an economics professor at the University of Chicago revealed that Google pays Apple 36% of all search advertising revenue generated when users access Google through the Safari browser. This revelation reportedly caused Google's lead attorney to cringe visibly.[165] The revenue generated from Safari users has been kept confidential, but the 36% figure suggests that it is likely in the tens of billions of dollars.
Both Apple and Google have argued that disclosing the specific terms of their search default agreement would harm their competitive positions. However, the court ruled that the information was relevant to the antitrust case and ordered its disclosure. This revelation has raised concerns about the dominance of Google in the search engine market and the potential anticompetitive effects of its agreements with Apple.[166]
Google search engine robots are programmed to use algorithms that understand and predict human behavior. The book, Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code[167] by Ruha Benjamin talks about human bias as a behavior that the Google search engine can recognize. In 2016, some users Google searched "three Black teenagers" and images of criminal mugshots of young African American teenagers came up. Then, the users searched "three White teenagers" and were presented with photos of smiling, happy teenagers. They also searched for "three Asian teenagers", and very revealing photos of Asian girls and women appeared. Benjamin concluded that these results reflect human prejudice and views on different ethnic groups. A group of analysts explained the concept of a racist computer program: "The idea here is that computers, unlike people, can't be racist but we're increasingly learning that they do in fact take after their makers ... Some experts believe that this problem might stem from the hidden biases in the massive piles of data that the algorithms process as they learn to recognize patterns ... reproducing our worst values".[167]
On August 5, 2024, Google lost a lawsuit which started in 2020 in D.C. Circuit Court, with Judge Amit Mehta finding that the company had an illegal monopoly over Internet search.[168] This monopoly was held to be in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.[169] Google has said it will appeal the ruling,[170] though they did propose to loosen search deals with Apple and others requiring them to set Google as the default search engine.[171]
As people talk about "googling" rather than searching, the company has taken some steps to defend its trademark, in an effort to prevent it from becoming a generic trademark.[172][173] This has led to lawsuits, threats of lawsuits, and the use of euphemisms, such as calling Google Search a famous web search engine.[174]
Until May 2013, Google Search had offered a feature to translate search queries into other languages. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that "Removing features is always tough, but we do think very hard about each decision and its implications for our users. Unfortunately, this feature never saw much pick up".[175]
Instant search was announced in September 2010 as a feature that displayed suggested results while the user typed in their search query, initially only in select countries or to registered users.[176] The primary advantage of the new system was its ability to save time, with Marissa Mayer, then-vice president of search products and user experience, proclaiming that the feature would save 2–5 seconds per search, elaborating that "That may not seem like a lot at first, but it adds up. With Google Instant, we estimate that we'll save our users 11 hours with each passing second!"[177] Matt Van Wagner of Search Engine Land wrote that "Personally, I kind of like Google Instant and I think it represents a natural evolution in the way search works", and also praised Google's efforts in public relations, writing that "With just a press conference and a few well-placed interviews, Google has parlayed this relatively minor speed improvement into an attention-grabbing front-page news story".[178] The upgrade also became notable for the company switching Google Search's underlying technology from HTML to AJAX.[179]
Instant Search could be disabled via Google's "preferences" menu for those who didn't want its functionality.[180]
The publication 2600: The Hacker Quarterly compiled a list of words that Google Instant did not show suggested results for, with a Google spokesperson giving the following statement to Mashable:[181]
There are several reasons you may not be seeing search queries for a particular topic. Among other things, we apply a narrow set of removal policies for pornography, violence, and hate speech. It's important to note that removing queries from Autocomplete is a hard problem, and not as simple as blacklisting particular terms and phrases.
In search, we get more than one billion searches each day. Because of this, we take an algorithmic approach to removals, and just like our search algorithms, these are imperfect. We will continue to work to improve our approach to removals in Autocomplete, and are listening carefully to feedback from our users.
Our algorithms look not only at specific words, but compound queries based on those words, and across all languages. So, for example, if there's a bad word in Russian, we may remove a compound word including the transliteration of the Russian word into English. We also look at the search results themselves for given queries. So, for example, if the results for a particular query seem pornographic, our algorithms may remove that query from Autocomplete, even if the query itself wouldn't otherwise violate our policies. This system is neither perfect nor instantaneous, and we will continue to work to make it better.
PC Magazine discussed the inconsistency in how some forms of the same topic are allowed; for instance, "lesbian" was blocked, while "gay" was not, and "cocaine" was blocked, while "crack" and "heroin" were not. The report further stated that seemingly normal words were also blocked due to pornographic innuendos, most notably "scat", likely due to having two completely separate contextual meanings, one for music and one for a sexual practice.[182]
On July 26, 2017, Google removed Instant results, due to a growing number of searches on mobile devices, where interaction with search, as well as screen sizes, differ significantly from a computer.[183][184]
Instant previews[edit]
"Instant previews" allowed previewing screenshots of search results' web pages without having to open them. Clicking on the magnifying glass beside the search-result links will show a screenshot of the web page and highlight the image's relevant text. Google said that the feature "helps people find information faster by showing a visual preview of each result." The snapshots of web pages are stored on Google's servers.[185] The feature was introduced in November 2010 to the desktop website and removed in April 2013, citing low usage.[185][186]
Various search engines provide encrypted Web search facilities. In May 2010 Google rolled out SSL-encrypted web search.[187] The encrypted search was accessed at encrypted.google.com[188] However, the web search is encrypted via Transport Layer Security (TLS) by default today, thus every search request should be automatically encrypted if TLS is supported by the web browser.[189] On its support website, Google announced that the address encrypted.google.com would be turned off April 30, 2018, stating that all Google products and most new browsers use HTTPS connections as the reason for the discontinuation.[190]
Google Real-Time Search was a feature of Google Search in which search results also sometimes included real-time information from sources such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and news websites.[191] The feature was introduced on December 7, 2009,[192] and went offline on July 2, 2011, after the deal with Twitter expired.[193] Real-Time Search included Facebook status updates beginning on February 24, 2010.[194] A feature similar to Real-Time Search was already available on Microsoft's Bing search engine, which showed results from Twitter and Facebook.[195] The interface for the engine showed a live, descending "river" of posts in the main region (which could be paused or resumed), while a bar chart metric of the frequency of posts containing a certain search term or hashtag was located on the right hand corner of the page above a list of most frequently reposted posts and outgoing links. Hashtag search links were also supported, as were "promoted" tweets hosted by Twitter (located persistently on top of the river) and thumbnails of retweeted image or video links.
In January 2011, geolocation links of posts were made available alongside results in Real-Time Search. In addition, posts containing syndicated or attached shortened links were made searchable by the link: query option. In July 2011, Real-Time Search became inaccessible, with the Real-Time link in the Google sidebar disappearing and a custom 404 error page generated by Google returned at its former URL. Google originally suggested that the interruption was temporary and related to the launch of Google+;[196] they subsequently announced that it was due to the expiry of a commercial arrangement with Twitter to provide access to tweets.[197]
This onscreen Google slide had to do with a "semantic matching" overhaul to its SERP algorithm. When you enter a query, you might expect a search engine to incorporate synonyms into the algorithm as well as text phrase pairings in natural language processing. But this overhaul went further, actually altering queries to generate more commercial results.
Since Dec. 4, 2009, Google has been personalized for everyone. So when I had two friends this spring Google 'BP,' one of them got a set of links that was about investment opportunities in BP. The other one got information about the oil spill
The global village that was once the internet ... digital islands of isolation that are drifting further apart each day ... your experience online grows increasingly personalized
cite news: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)Google Instant only works for searchers in the US or who are logged in to a Google account in selected countries outside the US
cite web: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
The Google logo used since 2015
|
|
Google's headquarters, the Googleplex
|
|
| Formerly | Google Inc. (1998–2017) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | |
| Founded | September 4, 1998[a] in Menlo Park, California, United States |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Googleplex,
,
U.S.
|
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
|
| Products | |
|
Number of employees
|
187,000 (2022) |
| Parent | Alphabet Inc. |
| Subsidiaries | |
| ASN | |
| Website | about |
| Footnotes / references [5][6][7][8] |
|
Google LLC (/ˈɡuː.ɡəl/ ⓘ, GOO-gəl) is an American multinational technology corporation focused on information technology, online advertising, search engine technology, email, cloud computing, software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI).[9] It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" by the BBC,[10] and is one of the world's most valuable brands.[11][12][13] Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. has been described as a Big Tech company.
Google was founded in 1998 by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Together, they own about 14% of its publicly listed shares and control 56% of its stockholder voting power through super-voting stock. The company went public via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2004. In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet's internet properties and interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google in 2015, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet. In 2019, Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet.[14]
After the success of its original service, Google Search (often known simply as "Google"), the company has rapidly grown to offer a multitude of products and services. These products address a wide range of use cases, including email (Gmail), navigation and mapping (Waze, Maps, and Earth), cloud computing (Cloud), web navigation (Chrome), video sharing (YouTube), productivity (Workspace), operating systems (Android and ChromeOS), cloud storage (Drive), language translation (Translate), photo storage (Photos), videotelephony (Meet), smart home (Nest), smartphones (Pixel), wearable technology (Pixel Watch and Fitbit), music streaming (YouTube Music), video on demand (YouTube TV), AI (Google Assistant and Gemini), machine learning APIs (TensorFlow), AI chips (TPU), and more. Many of these products and services are dominant in their respective industries, as is Google Search. Discontinued Google products include gaming (Stadia),[15] Glass, Google+, Reader, Play Music, Nexus, Hangouts, and Inbox by Gmail.[16][17] Google's other ventures outside of internet services and consumer electronics include quantum computing (Willow, Google Quantum AI), self-driving cars (Waymo), and transformer models (Google DeepMind).[18]
Google Search and YouTube are the two most-visited websites worldwide, followed by Facebook, Instagram, and ChatGPT. Google is the largest provider of search engines, mapping and navigation applications, email services, office suites, online video platforms, photo and cloud storage, mobile operating systems, web browsers, machine learning frameworks, and AI virtual assistants in the world as measured by market share.[19] On the list of the most valuable brands, Google is ranked second by Forbes as of January 2022,[20] and fourth by Interbrand as of February 2022.[21] The company has received criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, censorship, search neutrality, antitrust, and abuse of its monopoly position.[22]
Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California, United States.[23][24][25] The project initially involved an unofficial "third founder", Scott Hassan, the original lead programmer who wrote much of the code for the original Google Search engine, but he left before Google was officially founded as a company;[26][27] Hassan went on to pursue a career in robotics and founded the company Willow Garage in 2006.[28][29]
While conventional search engines ranked results by counting how many times the search terms appeared on the page, they theorized about a better system that analyzed the relationships among websites.[30] They called this algorithm PageRank; it determined a website's relevance by the number of pages, and the importance of those pages that linked back to the original site.[31][30] Page told his ideas to Hassan, who began writing the code to implement Page's ideas.[26] Page and Brin would also use their friend Susan Wojcicki's garage as their office when the search engine was set up in 1998.[32]
Page and Brin originally nicknamed the new search engine "BackRub" because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site.[23][33][34] Hassan, as well as Alan Steremberg were cited by Page and Brin as being critical to the development of Google. 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. Héctor García-Molina and Jeffrey Ullman were also cited as contributors to the project.[35] PageRank was influenced by a similar page-ranking and site-scoring algorithm earlier used for RankDex, developed by Robin Li in 1996, with Page's PageRank patent including a citation to Li's earlier RankDex patent; Li later went on to create the Chinese search engine Baidu.[36][37]
Eventually, they changed the name to Google; the name of the search engine was a misspelling of the word googol,[23][38][39] a very large number written 10100 (1 followed by 100 zeros), picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.[40] Google was initially funded by an August 1998 investment of $100,000 from Andy Bechtolsheim,[23] co-founder of Sun Microsystems. This initial investment served as a motivation to incorporate the company to be able to use the funds.[41][42] Page and Brin initially approached David Cheriton for advice because he had a nearby office in Stanford, and they knew he had startup experience, having recently sold the company he co-founded, Granite Systems, to Cisco for $220 million. David arranged a meeting with Page and Brin and his Granite co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim. The meeting was set for 8 a.m. at the front porch of David's home in Palo Alto and it had to be brief because Andy had another meeting at Cisco, where he now worked after the acquisition, at 9 a.m. Andy briefly tested a demo of the website, liked what he saw, and then went back to his car to grab the check. David Cheriton later also joined in with around $200,000 investment.[43][44]
Google received money from two other angel investors in 1998, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and entrepreneur Ram Shriram.[46] Page and Brin had first approached Shriram, who was a venture capitalist, for funding and counsel, and Shriram invested $250,000 in Google in February 1998. Shriram knew Bezos because Amazon had acquired Junglee, at which Shriram was the president. It was Shriram who told Bezos about Google. Bezos asked Shriram to meet Google's founders and they met six months after Shriram had made his investment when Bezos and his wife were on a vacation trip to the Bay Area. Google's initial funding round had already formally closed but Bezos' status as CEO of Amazon was enough to persuade Page and Brin to extend the round and accept his investment.[47][48] Between these initial investors, friends, and family, Google raised around $1,000,000, which is what allowed them to open up their original shop in Menlo Park, California.[49] Craig Silverstein, a fellow PhD student at Stanford, was hired as the first employee.[25][50][51]
After some additional small investments through the end of 1998 to early 1999,[46] a new $25 million round of funding was announced on June 7, 1999,[52] with major investors including the venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital.[42] Both firms were initially hesitant about investing jointly in Google, as each wanted to retain a larger percentage of control over the company to themselves. Page and Brin insisted on taking investments from both. Both venture companies finally agreed to investing jointly $12.5 million each due to their belief in Google's great potential and through the mediation of earlier angel investors Ron Conway and Shriram who had contacts in the venture companies.[53] In 1998, Page and Brin proposed to sell Google to Yahoo for $1 million, but Yahoo refused.[54] A more significant opportunity for Yahoo to acquire Google came in 2002. 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. After Yahoo refused to raise its offer, the deal fell through, a move that would later be considered a major strategic misstep for Yahoo.[55]
In March 1999, the company moved its offices to Palo Alto, California,[57] which is home to several prominent Silicon Valley technology start-ups.[58] The next year, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords against Page and Brin's initial opposition toward an advertising-funded search engine.[59][25] To maintain an uncluttered page design, advertisements were solely text-based.[60] In June 2000, it was announced that Google would become the default search engine provider for Yahoo!, one of the most popular websites at the time, replacing Inktomi.[61][62]
In 2001, Google's investors felt the need to have a strong internal management, and they agreed to hire Eric Schmidt as the chairman and CEO of Google.[49] Schmidt was proposed by John Doerr from Kleiner Perkins. 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. Michael Moritz from Sequoia Capital at one point even menaced requesting Google to immediately pay back Sequoia's $12.5m investment if they did not fulfill their promise to hire a chief executive officer, which had been made verbally during investment negotiations. 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. As part of him joining, Schmidt agreed to buy $1 million of Google preferred stocks as a way to show his commitment and to provide funds Google needed.[63]
In 2003, after outgrowing two other locations, the company leased an office complex from Silicon Graphics, at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.[64] The complex became known as the Googleplex, a play on the word googolplex, the number one followed by a googol of zeroes. Three years later, Google bought the property from SGI for $319 million.[65] By that time, the name "Google" had found its way into everyday language, causing the verb "google" to be added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, denoted as: "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet".[66][67] The first use of the verb on television appeared in an October 2002 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[68]
On August 19, 2004, Google became a public company via an initial public offering. At that time Page, Brin and Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for 20 years, until the year 2024.[69] The company opened on the NASDAQ National Market under the five-letter ticker symbol GOOGL with an offering of 19,605,052 shares at a price of $85 per share.[70][71] Shares were sold in an online auction format using a system built by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, underwriters for the deal.[72][73] The sale of $1.67 billion gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion.[74]
On October 9, 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock,[75][76][77][78] On July 20, 2007, Google bids $4.6 billion for the wireless-spectrum auction by the FCC.[79] On March 11, 2008, Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, transferring to Google valuable relationships that DoubleClick had with Web publishers and advertising agencies.[80][81] By 2011, Google was handling approximately 3 billion searches per day. To handle this workload, Google built 11 data centers around the world with several thousand servers in each. These data centers allowed Google to handle the ever-changing workload more efficiently.[49]
In May 2011, the number of monthly unique visitors to Google surpassed one billion for the first time.[82][83] In May 2012, Google acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, in its largest acquisition to date.[84][85][86] This purchase was made in part to help Google gain Motorola's considerable patent portfolio on mobile phones and wireless technologies, to help protect Google in its ongoing patent disputes with other companies,[87] mainly Apple and Microsoft,[88] and to allow it to continue to freely offer Android.[89]
In June 2013, Google acquired Waze for $966 million.[90] While Waze would remain an independent entity, its social features, such as its crowdsourced location platform, were reportedly valuable integrations between Waze and Google Maps, Google's own mapping service.[91] Google announced the launch of a new company, called Calico, on September 19, 2013, to be led by Apple Inc. chairman Arthur Levinson. In the official public statement, Page explained that the "health and well-being" company would focus on "the challenge of ageing and associated diseases".[92]
On January 26, 2014, Google announced it had agreed to acquire DeepMind Technologies, a privately held AI company from London.[93] Technology news website Recode reported that the company was purchased for $400 million, yet the source of the information was not disclosed. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the price.[94][95] The purchase of DeepMind aids in Google's recent growth in the AI and robotics community.[96] In 2015, DeepMind's AlphaGo became the first computer program to defeat a top human pro at the game of Go. According to Interbrand's annual Best Global Brands report, Google has been the second most valuable brand in the world (behind Apple Inc.) in 2013,[97] 2014,[98] 2015,[99] and 2016, with a valuation of $133 billion.[100]
On August 10, 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate named Alphabet Inc. Google became Alphabet's largest subsidiary and the umbrella company for Alphabet's Internet interests. Upon completion of the restructuring, Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google, replacing Page, who became CEO of Alphabet.[101][102][103] On August 8, 2017, Google fired employee James Damore after he distributed a memo throughout the company that argued bias and "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber" clouded their thinking about diversity and inclusion, and that it is also biological factors, not discrimination alone, that cause the average woman to be less interested than men in technical positions.[104] Google CEO Sundar Pichai accused Damore of violating company policy by "advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace", and he was fired on the same day.[105][106][107]
Between 2018 and 2019, tensions between the company's leadership and its workers escalated as staff protested company decisions on internal sexual harassment, Dragonfly, a censored Chinese search engine, and Project Maven, a military drone artificial intelligence, which had been seen as areas of revenue growth for the company.[108][109] On October 25, 2018, The New York Times published the exposé, "How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the 'Father of Android'". The company subsequently announced that "48 employees have been fired over the last two years" for sexual misconduct.[110] 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.[111][112] CEO Sundar Pichai was reported to be in support of the protests.[113] Later in 2019, some workers accused the company of retaliating against internal activists.[109]
On March 19, 2019, Google announced that it would enter the video game market, launching a cloud gaming platform called Google Stadia.[114] On June 3, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that it would investigate Google for antitrust violations.[115] This led to the filing of an antitrust lawsuit in October 2020, on the grounds the company had abused a monopoly position in the search and search advertising markets.[116] In December 2019, former PayPal chief operating officer Bill Ready became Google's new commerce chief. Ready's role will not be directly involved with Google Pay.[117] In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Google announced several cost-cutting measures. Such measures included slowing down hiring for the remainder of 2020, except for a small number of strategic areas, recalibrating the focus and pace of investments in areas like data centers and machines, and non-business essential marketing and travel.[118] Most employees were also working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the success of it even led to Google announcing that they would be permanently converting some of their jobs to work from home [119]
The 2020 Google services outages disrupted Google services: one in August that affected Google Drive among others, another in November affecting YouTube, and a third in December affecting the entire suite of Google applications. All three outages were resolved within hours.[120][121][122] In 2021, the Alphabet Workers Union was founded, composed mostly of Google employees.[123] In January 2021, the Australian Government proposed legislation that would require Google and Facebook to pay media companies for the right to use their content. In response, Google threatened to close off access to its search engine in Australia.[124] In March 2021, Google reportedly paid $20 million for Ubisoft ports on Google Stadia.[125] Google spent "tens of millions of dollars" on getting major publishers such as Ubisoft and Take-Two to bring some of their biggest games to Stadia.[126] In April 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google ran a years-long program called "Project Bernanke" that used data from past advertising bids to gain an advantage over competing for ad services. This was revealed in documents concerning the antitrust lawsuit filed by ten US states against Google in December.[127] In September 2021, the Australian government announced plans to curb Google's capability to sell targeted ads, claiming that the company has a monopoly on the market harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers.[128]
In 2022, Google began accepting requests for the removal of phone numbers, physical addresses and email addresses from its search results. 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. Even with the new policy, Google may remove information from only certain but not all search queries. It would not remove content that is "broadly useful", such as news articles, or already part of the public record.[129] In May 2022, Google announced that the company had acquired California based, MicroLED display technology development and manufacturing Start-up company Raxium. Raxium is set to join Google's Devices and Services team to aid in the development of micro-optics, monolithic integration, and system integration.[130][131] In December 2022, Google debuted OSV-Scanner,[132][133] 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. Following the success of ChatGPT and concerns that Google was falling behind in the AI race, Google's senior management issued a "code red"[134] and a "directive that all of its most important products—those with more than a billion users—must incorporate generative AI within months".[135] In March 2023, in direct response to the rapid rise of ChatGPT, Google released Bard (now Gemini), a generative artificial intelligence chatbot.[136]
In early May 2023, Google announced its plans to build two additional data centers in Ohio. 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.[137] 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.[138] D.C. Circuit Court Judge Amit Mehta held that this monopoly was in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act.[139] In September 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU), based in Luxembourg, also found that Google held an illegal monopoly, in this case with regards to its shopping search, and could not avoid paying a €2.4 billion fine.[140] 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.[140] In October 2024, Google was fined by a local Russian court a symbolic 2.5 decillion dollars for allegedly blocking pro-Kremlin propaganda. No payment was made.[141]
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. This AI hub is projected to contribute up to $71 billion to Saudi Arabia's economy by advancing AI-driven solutions tailored to the region's specific needs and training local talent.[142] The partnership between Google and Saudi Arabia includes collaboration with key stakeholders, such as the Public Investment Fund (PIF), to develop AI applications that will benefit sectors like healthcare, finance, oil and gas, and logistics. The initiative focuses on creating localized AI technologies, with an emphasis on integrating Arabic language capabilities and enabling widespread cloud adoption.[143]
In March 2025, Google agreed to acquire Wiz, a New York-based cybersecurity startup focusing on cloud computing, for US$32 billion. This cash deal would be Google's biggest ever, as well as it currently being the most expensive deal of 2025. Alphabet reportedly tried to close a deal for only $23 billion in 2024, but this fell apart after concerns about regulatory hurdles, among other issues. Wiz, a company located in the U.S. and Israel, was cofounded in 2020 by Assaf Rappaport. The company is backed by a number of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, as well as notably being partnered with Amazon and Microsoft, as listed in their website. Google reportedly said "the deal would help artificial-intelligence companies get better security and use more than one cloud service."[144] In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Google had received a $200 million contract for AI in the military, along with Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI.[145] In September 2025, federal judge Amit Mehta in the United States ruled that Google will not be required to divest Chrome or the Android operating system;[146] however, the ruling barred Google from having exclusive contracts for Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant and Gemini app products, and ruled Google must share search data with competitors.[147]
In March 2026, Google signed an energy pledge at the White House which required them to bear the cost of new electricity generation to power their data centers.[148]
Google indexes billions of web pages to allow users to search for the information they desire through the use of keywords and operators.[149] 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%.[150] In May 2017, Google enabled a new "Personal" tab in Google Search, letting users search for content in their Google accounts' various services, including email messages from Gmail and photos from Google Photos.[151][152]
Google launched its Google News service in 2002, an automated service which summarizes news articles from various websites.[153] Google also hosts Google Books, which allows users to search books in its database and shows limited previews, or the full book when allowed.[154] Google expanded its search services to include shopping (launched originally as Froogle in 2002),[155] finance (launched 2006),[156] and flights (launched 2011).[157]
Google generates most of its revenues from advertising. This includes sales of apps, purchases made in-app, digital content products on Google and YouTube, Android and licensing and service fees, including fees received for Google Cloud offerings. Forty-six percent of this profit was from clicks (cost per clicks), amounting to US$109,652 million in 2017. This includes three principal methods, namely AdMob, AdSense (such as AdSense for Content, AdSense for Search, etc.) and DoubleClick AdExchange.[158] In addition to its own algorithms for understanding search requests, Google uses technology from its acquisition of DoubleClick, to project user interest and target advertising to the search context and the user history.[159][160] In 2007, Google launched "AdSense for Mobile", taking advantage of the emerging mobile advertising market.[161]
Google Analytics allows website owners to track where and how people use their website, for example by examining click rates for all the links on a page.[162] Google advertisements can be placed on third-party websites in a two-part program. Google Ads allows advertisers to display their advertisements in the Google content network, through a cost-per-click scheme.[163] The sister service, Google AdSense, allows website owners to display these advertisements on their website and earn money every time ads are clicked.[164] One of the criticisms of this program is the possibility of click fraud, which occurs when a person or automated script clicks on advertisements without being interested in the product, causing the advertiser to pay money to Google unduly. Industry reports in 2006 claimed that approximately 14 to 20 percent of clicks were fraudulent or invalid.[165] Google Search Console (rebranded from Google Webmaster Tools in May 2015) allows webmasters to check the sitemap, crawl rate, and for security issues of their websites, as well as optimize their website's visibility.
Google had previously used virtual assistants and chatbots, such as Google Bard, prior to the announcement of Gemini in March 2024. None of them had been seen as legitimate competitors to ChatGPT, unlike Gemini.[166] An AI training program for Google employees was also introduced in April 2024.[167] Google has created the text-to-image model Imagen,[168] and the text-to-video model Veo.[169] Google integrated AI Overviews into Google Search, and added an AI mode where the search results page is AI-generated.[170] In 2025, Google announced SynthID Detector, a tool that uses watermarking to identify whether content such as text, images, audio, or video was generated using Google products.[171] In 2023, Google released NotebookLM, an online tool for synthesizing documents using Gemini. In September 2024, it gained attention for its "Audio Overview" feature, which generates podcast-like summaries of documents.[172][173] Google also developed LearnLM, a family of language models serving as personal AI tutors.[174]
Google offers Gmail for email,[175] Google Calendar for time-management and scheduling,[176] Google Maps and Google Earth for mapping, navigation and satellite imagery,[177] Google Drive for cloud storage of files,[178] Google Docs, Sheets and Slides for productivity,[178] Google Photos for photo storage and sharing,[179] Google Keep for note-taking,[180] Google Translate for language translation,[181] YouTube for video viewing and sharing,[182] Google My Business for managing public business information,[183] Google Classroom for managing assignments and communication in education,[184] and Duo for social interaction.[185] A job search product has also existed since before 2017,[186][187][188] Google for Jobs is an enhanced search feature that aggregates listings from job boards and career sites.[189] 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.[190]
Google develops the Android mobile operating system,[191] as well as its smartwatch,[192] television,[193] car,[194] and Internet of things-enabled smart devices variations.[195] It also develops the Google Chrome web browser,[196] ChromeOS, an operating system based on Chrome,[197] and the AI-powered integrated development environment Google Antigravity.[198][199]
In January 2010, Google released Nexus One, the first Android phone under its own brand.[200] It spawned a number of phones and tablets under the "Nexus" branding[201] until its eventual discontinuation in 2016, replaced by a new brand called Pixel.[202] In 2011, the Chromebook was introduced, which runs on ChromeOS.[203] In July 2013, Google introduced the Chromecast dongle, which allows users to stream content from their smartphones to televisions.[204][205] In June 2014, Google announced Google Cardboard, a simple cardboard viewer that lets the user place their smartphone in a special front compartment to view virtual reality (VR) media.[206] 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.[207][208]
Other hardware products include:
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite until October 2020[211]) is a monthly subscription offering for organizations and businesses to get access to a collection of Google's services, including Gmail, Google Drive and Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides, with additional administrative tools, unique domain names, and 24/7 support.[212] On September 24, 2012,[213] Google launched Google for Entrepreneurs, a largely not-for-profit business incubator providing startups with co-working spaces known as Campuses, with assistance to startup founders that may include workshops, conferences, and mentorships.[214] There are seven Campus locations: Berlin, London, Madrid, Seoul, São Paulo, Tel Aviv, and Warsaw. On March 15, 2016, Google announced the introduction of Google Analytics 360 Suite, "a set of integrated data and marketing analytics products, designed specifically for the needs of enterprise-class marketers" which can be integrated with BigQuery on the Google Cloud Platform. Among other things, the suite is designed to help "enterprise class marketers" "see the complete customer journey", generate "useful insights", and "deliver engaging experiences to the right people".[215] Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the suite competes with existing marketing cloud offerings by companies including Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce, and IBM.[216]
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.[217][218] Following Google's corporate restructure to make Alphabet Inc. its parent company, Google Fiber was moved to Alphabet's Access division.[219][220] In April 2015, Google announced Project Fi, a mobile virtual network operator, that combines Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different telecommunication providers in an effort to enable seamless connectivity and fast Internet signal.[221][222]
In August 2023, Google became the first major tech company to join the OpenWallet Foundation, launched earlier in the year, whose goal was creating open-source software for interoperable digital wallets.[223]
From the financial year of 2015, figures are published for Alphabet Inc. Until 2014, the key trends of Google were as follows (as at the financial year ending December 31):[224][225]
| FY | Revenue | Net income | Employees [226][227] |
References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in million USD | ||||
| 1999 | 0.22 | −6.0 | [228] | |
| 2000 | 19.1 | −14.6 | [229] | |
| 2001 | 86.4 | 6.9 | 284 | [229] |
| 2002 | 439 | 99.6 | 682 | [229] |
| in billion USD | ||||
| 2003 | 1.4 | 0.10 | 1,628 | [229] |
| 2004 | 3.1 | 0.39 | 3,021 | [229] |
| 2005 | 6.1 | 1.4 | 5,680 | |
| 2006 | 10.6 | 3.0 | 10,674 | |
| 2007 | 16.5 | 4.2 | 16,805 | |
| 2008 | 21.8 | 4.2 | 20,222 | |
| 2009 | 23.6 | 6.5 | 19,835 | |
| 2010 | 29,3 | 8.5 | 24,400 | |
| 2011 | 37.9 | 9.7 | 32,467 | |
| 2012 | 46.0 | 10.7 | 53,861 | |
| 2013 | 55.5 | 12.7 | 47,756 | |
| 2014 | 66.0 | 14.1 | 53,600 | |
Google's initial public offering (IPO) took place on August 19, 2004. At IPO, the company offered 19,605,052 shares at a price of $85 per share.[70][71] The sale of $1.67 billion gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion.[74] The stock performed well after the IPO, with shares hitting $350 for the first time on October 31, 2007,[230] primarily because of strong sales and earnings in the online advertising market.[231] The surge in stock price was fueled mainly by individual investors, as opposed to large institutional investors and mutual funds.[231] GOOG shares split into GOOG class C shares and GOOGL class A shares.[232] The company is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbols GOOGL and GOOG, and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GGQ1. These ticker symbols now refer to Alphabet Inc., Google's holding company, since the fourth quarter of 2015.[update][233]
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.[234][235][236] For the 2006 fiscal year, the company reported $10.492 billion in total advertising revenues and only $112 million in licensing and other revenues.[237] In 2011, 96% of Google's revenue was derived from its advertising programs.[238] Google generated $50 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 2012, generating $38 billion the previous year. In January 2013, then-CEO Larry Page commented, "We ended 2012 with a strong quarter ... Revenues were up 36% year-on-year, and 8% quarter-on-quarter. And we hit $50 billion in revenues for the first time last year – not a bad achievement in just a decade and a half."[239] Google's consolidated revenue for the third quarter of 2013 was reported in mid-October 2013 as $14.89 billion, a 12 percent increase compared to the previous quarter.[240] Google's Internet business was responsible for $10.8 billion of this total, with an increase in the number of users' clicks on advertisements.[241] By January 2014, Google's market capitalization had grown to $397 billion.[242]
Google uses various tax avoidance strategies. On the list of largest technology companies by revenue, it pays the lowest taxes to the countries of origin of its revenues. Google between 2007 and 2010 saved $3.1 billion in taxes by shuttling non-U.S. profits through Ireland and the Netherlands and then to Bermuda. Such techniques lower its non-U.S. tax rate to 2.3 per cent, while normally the corporate tax rate in, for instance, the UK is 28 per cent.[243] This reportedly sparked a French investigation into Google's transfer pricing practices in 2012.[244]
In 2020, Google said it had overhauled its controversial global tax structure and consolidated all of its intellectual property holdings back to the U.S.[245] Google Vice-president Matt Brittin testified to the Public Accounts Committee of the UK House of Commons that his UK sales team made no sales and hence owed no sales taxes to the UK.[246] In January 2016, Google reached a settlement with the UK to pay £130m in back taxes plus higher taxes in future.[247] In 2017, Google channeled $22.7 billion from the Netherlands to Bermuda to reduce its tax bill.[248] In 2013, Google ranked 5th in lobbying spending, up from 213th in 2003. In 2012, the company ranked 2nd in campaign donations of technology and Internet sections.[249]
The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol",[250][39] which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros. Page and Brin write in their original paper on PageRank:[35] "We chose our system name, Google, because it is a common spelling of googol, or 10100[,] and fits well with our goal of building very large-scale search engines." Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb "google" was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet."[251][67] Google's mission statement, from the outset, was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful",[252] and its unofficial slogan is "Don't be evil".[253] In October 2015, a related motto was adopted in the Alphabet corporate code of conduct by the phrase: "Do the right thing".[254] The original motto was retained in the code of conduct of Google, now a subsidiary of Alphabet.
The original Google logo was designed by Sergey Brin.[255] Since 1998,[update] Google has been designing special, temporary alternate logos to place on their homepage intended to celebrate holidays, events, achievements and people. The first Google Doodle was in honor of the Burning Man Festival of 1998.[256][257] The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. Subsequent Google Doodles were designed by an outside contractor, until Larry and Sergey asked then-intern Dennis Hwang to design a logo for Bastille Day in 2000. From that point onward, Doodles have been organized and created by a team of employees termed "Doodlers".[258]
Google has a tradition of creating April Fools' Day jokes. Its first on April 1, 2000, was Google MentalPlex which allegedly featured the use of mental power to search the web.[259] In 2007, Google announced a free Internet service called TiSP, or Toilet Internet Service Provider, where one obtained a connection by flushing one end of a fiber-optic cable down their toilet.[260] Google's services contain easter eggs, such as the Swedish Chef's "Bork bork bork", Pig Latin, "Hacker" or leetspeak, Elmer Fudd, Pirate, and Klingon as language selections for its search engine.[261] When searching for the word "anagram", meaning a rearrangement of letters from one word to form other valid words, Google's suggestion feature displays "Did you mean: nag a ram?"[262] Since 2019, Google runs free online courses to help engineers learn how to plan and author technical documentation better.[263]
On Fortune magazine's list of the best companies to work for, Google ranked first in 2007, 2008 and 2012,[264][265][266] and fourth in 2009 and 2010.[267][268] Google was also nominated in 2010 to be the world's most attractive employer to graduating students in the Universum Communications talent attraction index.[269] Google's corporate philosophy includes principles such as "you can make money without doing evil", "you can be serious without a suit", and "work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun".[270]
As of September 30, 2020,[update] Alphabet Inc. had 132,121 employees,[271] of which more than 100,000 worked for Google.[8] Google's 2020[update] diversity report states that 32 percent of its workforce are women and 68 percent are men, with the ethnicity of its workforce being predominantly white (51.7%) and Asian (41.9%).[272] Within tech roles, 23.6 percent were women; and 26.7 percent of leadership roles were held by women.[273] In addition to its 100,000+ full-time employees, Google used about 121,000 temporary workers and contractors, as of March 2019.[update][8]
Google's employees are hired based on a hierarchical system. 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".[274] 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. Some of Google's services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense, originated from these independent endeavors.[275] In a talk at Stanford University, Marissa Mayer, Google's vice-president of Search Products and User Experience until July 2012, showed that half of all new product launches in the second half of 2005 had originated from the Innovation Time Off.[276]
In 2005, articles in The New York Times[277] and other sources began suggesting that Google had lost its anti-corporate, no evil philosophy.[278][279][280] In an effort to maintain the company's unique culture, Google designated a Chief Culture Officer whose purpose was to develop and maintain the culture and work on ways to keep true to the core values that the company was founded on.[281] Google has also faced allegations of sexism and ageism from former employees.[282][283] 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.[284] 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".[285]
On January 25, 2020, the formation of an international workers union of Google employees, Alpha Global, was announced.[286] The coalition is made up of "13 different unions representing workers in 10 countries, including the United States, [the] United Kingdom, and Switzerland".[287] The group is affiliated with the UNI Global Union, which represents nearly 20 million international workers from various unions and federations. The formation of the union is in response to persistent allegations of mistreatment of Google employees and a toxic workplace culture.[287][288][285] Google had previously been accused of surveilling and firing employees who were suspected of organizing a workers union.[289] In 2021, court documents revealed that between 2018 and 2020, Google ran an anti-union campaign called Project Vivian to "convince them (employees) that unions suck".[290] In February 2025, Google dropped their commitment to make "diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] part of everything we do" from their annual investor report. This action followed Meta, Amazon, Pepsi, McDonald's, Walmart, and others who all have rolled back their DEI programmes.[291]
Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California is referred to as "the Googleplex", a play on words on the number googolplex and the headquarters itself being a complex of buildings. Internationally, Google has over 78 offices in more than 50 countries.[292]
In 2006, Google moved into about 300,000 square feet (27,900 m2) of office space at 111 Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. The office houses its largest advertising sales team.[293] In 2010, Google bought the building housing the headquarters, in a deal that valued the property at around $1.9 billion.[294][295] In March 2018, Google's parent company Alphabet bought the nearby Chelsea Market building for $2.4 billion. The sale is touted as one of the most expensive real estate transactions for a single building in the history of New York.[296][297][298][299] In November 2018, Google announced its plan to expand its New York City office to a capacity of 12,000 employees.[300] The same December, it was announced that a $1 billion, 1,700,000-square-foot (160,000 m2) headquarters for Google would be built in Manhattan's Hudson Square neighborhood.[301][302] Called Google Hudson Square, the new campus is projected to more than double the number of Google employees working in New York City.[303]
By late 2006, Google established a new headquarters for its AdWords division in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[304] In November 2006, Google opened offices on Carnegie Mellon's campus in Pittsburgh, focusing on shopping-related advertisement coding and smartphone applications and programs.[305][306] Other office locations in the U.S. include Atlanta; Austin; Boulder, Colorado; Cambridge, Massachusetts; San Francisco; Seattle and Kirkland, Washington; Birmingham, Michigan; Reston, Virginia, Washington, D.C.,[307] and Madison, Wisconsin.[308]
It also has product research and development operations in cities around the world, namely Sydney (birthplace location of Google Maps)[309] and London (part of Android development).[310] In November 2013, Google announced plans for a new London headquarter, a 1 million square foot office able to accommodate 4,500 employees. Recognized as one of the biggest ever commercial property acquisitions at the time of the deal's announcement in January,[311] Google submitted plans for the new headquarter to the Camden Council in June 2017.[312][313]
In May 2015, Google announced its intention to create its own campus in Hyderabad, India. The new campus, reported to be the company's largest outside the United States, will accommodate 13,000 employees.[314][315] In September 2025 Google opened their £735m AI Centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire and announced their plans for £5 bn investment in AI research, in the same month that Alphabet reached market capitalisation of $3 trillion.[316][317]
Google's Global Offices sum a total of 86 locations worldwide,[318] with 32 offices in North America, three of them in Canada and 29 in the United States, California being the state with the most Google's offices with 9 in total including the Googleplex. Google counts 6 offices in the Latin America region and 24 in Europe, 3 of them in United Kingdom. The Asia-Pacific region counts with 26 offices principally five in India and three in Australia, and three in China, while the Africa and Middle East region counts five offices.
| SN | City | Country or U.S. state |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ann Arbor | |
| 2. | Atlanta | |
| 3. | Austin | |
| 4. | Boulder | |
| 5. | Boulder – Pearl Place | |
| 6. | Boulder – Walnut | |
| 7. | Cambridge | |
| 8. | Chapel Hill | |
| 9. | Chicago – Carpenter | |
| 10. | Chicago – Fulton Market | |
| 11. | Chicago – Loop (2026)[319] | |
| 12. | Detroit | |
| 13. | Irvine | |
| 14. | Kirkland | |
| 15. | Kitchener | |
| 16. | Los Angeles | |
| 17. | Madison | |
| 18. | Miami | |
| 19. | Montreal | |
| 20. | Mountain View – HQ | |
| 21. | New York | |
| 22. | Pittsburgh | |
| 23. | Playa Vista | |
| 24. | Portland | |
| 25. | Redwood City | |
| 26. | Reston | |
| 27. | San Bruno | |
| 28. | San Diego | |
| 29. | San Francisco | |
| 30. | Seattle | |
| 31. | Sunnyvale | |
| 32. | Toronto | |
| 33. | Washington DC |
| SN | City | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Belo Horizonte | |
| 2. | Bogotá | |
| 3. | Buenos Aires | |
| 4. | Mexico City | |
| 5. | San Salvador | |
| 6. | Santiago | |
| 7. | São Paulo |
| SN | City | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Aarhus | |
| 2. | Amsterdam | |
| 3. | Athens | |
| 4. | Berlin | |
| 5. | Brussels | |
| 6. | Bucharest | |
| 7. | Copenhagen | |
| 8. | Dublin | |
| 9. | Hamburg | |
| 10. | Kraków | |
| 11. | Lisbon | |
| 12. | London – 6PS | |
| 13. | London – BEL | |
| 14. | London – CSG | |
| 15. | Madrid | |
| 16. | Milan | |
| 17. | Munich | |
| 18. | Oslo | |
| 19. | Paris | |
| 20. | Prague | |
| 21. | Stockholm | |
| 22. | Vienna | |
| 23. | Vilnius | |
| 24. | Warsaw | |
| 25. | Wrocław | |
| 26. | Zürich – BRA | |
| 27. | Zürich – EUR |
| SN | City | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Auckland | |
| 2. | Bangkok | |
| 3. | Beijing | |
| 4. | Bengaluru – Kyoto Campus | |
| 5. | Bengaluru – OMR | |
| 6. | Gurgaon | |
| 7. | Ho Chi Minh City | |
| 8. | Hong Kong | |
| 9. | Hyderabad | |
| 10. | Jakarta | |
| 11. | Kuala Lumpur | |
| 12. | Manila | |
| 13. | Melbourne | |
| 14. | Mumbai | |
| 15. | New Taipei City | |
| 16. | Pune | |
| 17. | Seoul | |
| 18. | Shanghai | |
| 19. | Shenzhen | |
| 20. | Singapore | |
| 21. | Sydney – ODR | |
| 22. | Sydney – PIR | |
| 23. | Taipei | |
| 24. | Tokyo – RPG | |
| 25. | Tokyo – STRM | |
| 26. | Zhubei |
| SN | City | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Accra | |
| 2. | Doha | |
| 3. | Dubai | |
| 4. | Haifa | |
| 5. | Istanbul | |
| 6. | Johannesburg | |
| 7. | Lagos | |
| 8. | Tel Aviv |
Google has data centers in North and South America, Asia, and Europe.[320] There is no official data on the number of servers in Google data centers; however, research and advisory firm Gartner estimated in a July 2016 report that Google at the time had 2.5 million servers.[321] Traditionally, Google relied on parallel computing on commodity hardware like mainstream x86 computers (similar to home PCs) to keep costs per query low.[322][323][324] In 2005, it started developing its own designs, which were only revealed in 2009.[324]
Google has built its own private submarine communications cables. The first cable, named Curie, connects California with Chile and was completed on November 15, 2019.[325][326] The second fully Google-owned undersea cable, named Dunant, connects the United States with France and is planned to begin operation in 2020.[327] Google's third subsea cable, Equiano, will connect Lisbon (Portugal) with Lagos (Nigeria) and Cape Town (South Africa).[328] The company's fourth cable, named Grace Hopper, connects landing points in New York (US), Bude (UK) and Bilbao (Spain), and is expected to become operational in 2022.[329]
In October 2006, the company announced plans to install thousands of solar panels on its Mountain View campus to provide up to 1.6 Megawatt of electricity, enough to satisfy approximately 30% of the campus' energy needs.[330][331] The system is the largest rooftop photovoltaic power station constructed on a U.S. corporate campus and one of the largest on any corporate site in the world.[330] Since 2007,[update] Google has aimed for carbon neutrality in regard to its operations.[332] In Spring 2009, Google hired a herd of 200 goats for a week from California Grazing to mow their lawn. It was apparently more eco-friendly.[333]
Google disclosed in September 2011 that it "continuously uses enough electricity to power 200,000 homes", almost 260 million watts or about a quarter of the output of a nuclear power plant. 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. Google said that 25 percent of its energy was supplied by renewable fuels in 2010. 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.[334]
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.[335] In February 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Google an authorization to buy and sell energy at market rates.[336] The corporation exercised this authorization in September 2013 when it announced it would purchase all the electricity produced by the not-yet-built 240-megawatt Happy Hereford wind farm.[337] In July 2010, Google signed an agreement with an Iowa wind farm to buy 114 megawatts of power for 20 years.[338]
In December 2016, Google announced that—starting in 2017—it would purchase enough renewable energy to match 100% of the energy usage of its data centers and offices. The commitment will make Google "the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable power, with commitments reaching 2.6 gigawatts (2,600 megawatts) of wind and solar energy".[339][340][341] In November 2017, Google bought 536 megawatts of wind power. The purchase made the firm reach 100% renewable energy. The wind energy comes from two power plants in South Dakota, one in Iowa and one in Oklahoma.[342] In September 2019, Google's chief executive announced plans for a $2 billion wind and solar investment, the biggest renewable energy deal in corporate history. This will grow their green energy profile by 40%, giving them an extra 1.6 gigawatt of clean energy, the company said.[343]
In September 2020, Google announced it had retroactively offset all of its carbon emissions since the company's foundation in 1998.[344] It also stated that it is committed to operating its data centers and offices using only carbon-free energy by 2030.[345] In October 2020, the company pledged to make the packaging for its hardware products 100% plastic-free and 100% recyclable by 2025. It also said that all its final assembly manufacturing sites will achieve a UL 2799 Zero Waste to Landfill certification by 2022 by ensuring that the vast majority of waste from the manufacturing process is recycled instead of ending up in a landfill.[346] In 2023 Google consumed 24 TWh of electricity, more than countries such as Iceland, Ghana, the Dominican Republic, or Tunisia.[347]
Google donates to climate change denial political groups including the State Policy Network and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.[348][349] The company also actively funds and profits from climate disinformation by monetizing ad spaces on most of the largest climate disinformation sites.[350] Google continued to monetize and profit from sites propagating climate disinformation even after the company updated their policy to prohibit placing their ads on similar sites.[351]
In 2004, Google formed the not-for-profit philanthropic Google.org, with a start-up fund of $1 billion.[352] The mission of the organization is to create awareness about climate change, global public health, and global poverty. One of its first projects was to develop a viable plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that can attain 100 miles per gallon. Google hired Larry Brilliant as the program's executive director in 2004[353] and Megan Smith has since[update] replaced him as director.[354]
In March 2007, in partnership with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), Google hosted the first Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival at its headquarters in Mountain View.[355] In 2011, Google donated €1 million to International Mathematical Olympiad to support the next five annual International Mathematical Olympiads (2011–2015).[356][357] In July 2012, Google launched a "Legalize Love" campaign in support of gay rights.[358]
In 2008, Google announced its "project 10100", which accepted ideas for how to help the community and then allowed Google users to vote on their favorites.[359] After two years of no update, during which many wondered what had happened to the program,[360] Google revealed the winners of the project, giving a total of ten million dollars to various ideas ranging from non-profit organizations that promote education to a website that intends to make all legal documents public and online.[361] Responding to the humanitarian crisis after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google announced a $15 million donation to support Ukrainian citizens.[362] The company also decided to transform its office in Warsaw into a help center for refugees.[363] Also in February 2022, Google announced a $100 million fund to expand skills training and job placement for low-income Americans, in conjunction with non-profits Year Up, Social Finance, and Merit America.[364]
In 2025, Google was one of the donors who funded the White House's East Wing demolition, and planned building of a ballroom.[365]
Google has had criticism over issues such as aggressive tax avoidance,[366] search neutrality, copyright, censorship of search results and content,[367] and privacy.[368][369] Other criticisms are alleged misuse and manipulation of search results, its use of other people's intellectual property, concerns that its compilation of data may violate Internet privacy, and the energy consumption of its servers, as well as concerns over traditional business issues such as monopoly, restraint of trade, anti-competitive practices, and patent infringement. When Google's parent company Alphabet announced in September 2025 that it would reinstate YouTube creators that were banned for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 U.S. presidential election,[370] it was criticized for prioritizing "free expression" over "facts" and placed within the context of the company's shift dating back to 2023.[371]
In a 2022 National Labor Relations Board ruling, court documents suggested that Google sponsored a secretive project—Project Vivian—to counsel its employees and to discourage them from forming unions.[290]
On May 1, 2023, Google placed an ad against the Brazilian Congressional Bill No. 2630, an anti-disinformation law that was about to be approved, on its search homepage in Brazil, calling on its users to ask congressional representatives to oppose the legislation. The country's government and judiciary accused the company of undue interference in the congressional debate, saying it could amount to abuse of economic power and ordering the company to change the ad within two hours of notification or face fines of R$1 million (2023) (US$ 185,528.76) per non-compliance hour. The company then promptly removed the ad.[372][373]
Google has a US$1.2 billion artificial intelligence and surveillance contract with the Israeli military known as Project Nimbus. According to Google employees, the Israeli military could use this technology to expand its surveillance of Palestinians living in the occupied territories.[374] Google relocated an outspoken employee overseas, and the employee claimed it was a "retaliation for publicly criticizing the contract".[375] Other Palestinian employees have described an "institutionalised bias" within the company.[376]
In 2021, Google and Amazon engaged in negotiations for a substantial cloud computing agreement valued at $1.2 billion, during which Israel insisted on the inclusion of a confidential code referred to as the "blink mechanism". This stipulation compelled Google and Amazon to essentially disregard legal responsibilities in various nations. Israel expressed apprehension that the data transferred to the cloud services of these global corporations might be accessible to foreign law enforcement agencies. As per documents disclosed to The Guardian, both Google and Amazon consented to the blink mechanism in order to finalize the profitable agreement.[377]
During 2025, Google engaged in a $45 million, six-month contract with Israel to run advertising campaigns. Some Youtube ads aimed to cast doubt on the existence of a famine in Gaza. Many complaints were filed against Israel's videos, but Google maintained that the ads did not violate its content policies.[378]
On October 31, 2024, the Russian government imposed a "symbolic" fine of $20 decillion on Google for blocking pro-Russian YouTube channels. In 2022, during the invasion of Ukraine, a Russian court had ordered Google to restore the channels, with penalties doubling every week according to TASS.[379] This comes alongside other large fines against social media companies accused of hosting content critical of the Kremlin or supportive of Ukraine.[380]
In July 2018, Mozilla program manager Chris Peterson accused Google of intentionally slowing down YouTube performance on Firefox.[381][382] In April 2019, former Mozilla executive Jonathan Nightingale accused Google of intentionally and systematically sabotaging the Firefox browser over the past decade in order to boost adoption of Google Chrome.[382] In 2019, a hub for critics of Google dedicated to abstaining from using Google products coalesced in the Reddit online community /r/degoogle.[383] The DeGoogle grassroots campaign continues to grow as privacy activists highlight information about Google products, and the associated incursion on personal privacy rights by the company. Google reportedly paid Apple $22 billion in 2022 to maintain its position as the default search engine on Safari. It marks one of the largest payments between two tech giants in recent years.[384]
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".[385] On July 18, 2018, the European Commissioner for Competition fined Google €4.34 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. The abuse of dominants position has been referred to as Google's constraint applied to Android device manufacturers and network operators to ensure that traffic on Android devices goes to the Google search engine.[386] On October 9, 2018, Google confirmed that it had appealed the fine to the General Court of the EU.[387][388]
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. EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google had violated EU antitrust rules by "imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites" that required them to exclude search results from Google's rivals.[389][390] On September 14, 2022, Google lost the appeal of a €4.125 billion (£3.5 billion) fine, which was ruled to be paid after it was proved by the European Commission that Google forced Android phone-makers to carry Google's search and web browser apps. Since the initial accusations, Google has changed its policy.[391]
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.[392] Ding had allegedly stolen over 500 files from the company over the course of 5 years, having been hired in 2019.[393] 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.[394] On September 10, 2024, Europe's top court imposed a €2.4 billion fine on Google for abusing its dominance in the shopping comparison market, marking the conclusion of a case that began in 2009 with a complaint from British firm Foundem.[395]
On September 18, 2024, Alphabet's Google won a €1.49 billion ($1.7 billion) antitrust fine from the EU, while Qualcomm's efforts to repeal a penalty were unsuccessful. The General Court agreed with many of the European Commission's findings but annulled the Google fine, stating that the Commission failed to consider all relevant factors and did not demonstrate harm to innovation or consumers. Google noted that it had already changed its contract practices in 2016. Meanwhile, Qualcomm saw its fine reduced slightly but failed to overturn the ruling regarding its predatory pricing against Icera. Both companies have options to appeal further.[396] On September 5, 2025, the European Commission fined Google €2.95 billion ($3.47 billion), for breaching EU antitrust rules. Regulators say Google abused its dominance by giving preferential treatment to its ad exchange within its publisher ad server and ad-buying tools.[397]
After U.S. Congressional hearings in July 2020,[398] and a report from the U.S. House of Representatives' Antitrust Subcommittee released in early October,[399] the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on October 20, 2020, asserting that it has illegally maintained its monopoly position in web search and search advertising.[400][401] The lawsuit alleged that Google engaged in anticompetitive behavior by paying Apple between $8 billion and $12 billion to be the default search engine on iPhones.[402] Later that month, both Facebook and Alphabet agreed to "cooperate and assist one another" in the face of investigation into their online advertising practices.[403][404] Another suit was brought against Google in 2023 for illegally monopolizing the advertising technology market.[405] In August 2024, District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google held a monopoly in online search and text advertising in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.[406][407]
On October 8, 2024, The U.S. government suggested it could request Google to divest parts of its business, such as the Chrome browser and Android, due to its alleged monopoly in online search. The Justice Department aimed to limit Google's growing dominance in areas like AI. Google, which intended to appeal, argued that the proposals were too extreme, while also dealing with other antitrust cases involving its app store and advertising operations.[408] In November 2024, the Justice Department proposed major changes to curb Google's online search monopoly, including forcing the company to sell its Chrome browser, share search data with competitors, and end exclusive agreements that make Google the default search engine on devices like iPhones. 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. Google called these proposals excessive and harmful to consumers, pledging to appeal. A trial on the case was scheduled for April 2025, though the incoming administration and new DoJ leadership could potentially alter the course of the proceedings.[409]
In September 2024, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) provisionally found that Google engaged in anti-competitive practices in the online advertising technology market, potentially harming thousands of UK publishers and advertisers. The investigation claimed Google used its market power to prevent rivals from competing fairly, affecting billions spent on digital ads. Google rejected the findings as flawed, stating that its ad tech benefits businesses. If found guilty, Google could face penalties of up to 10% of its global turnover. Similar investigations are ongoing in the U.S. and EU, where regulators have suggested that Google may need to sell part of its ad-tech business.[410] It was ruled in 2025 by the Justice Department alongside 17 other states that Google operates a monopoly in online advertising technology. The case will now move to a remedies stage which may lead to Alphabet, the owner of Google, being broken up.[411]
In 2017, three women sued Google, accusing the company of violating California's Equal Pay Act by underpaying its female employees. The lawsuit cited the wage gap was around $17,000 and that Google locked women into lower career tracks, leading to smaller salaries and bonuses. In June 2022, Google agreed to pay a $118 million settlement to 15,550 female employees working in California since 2013. As a part of the settlement, Google also agreed to hire a third party to analyze its hiring and compensation practices.[412][413][414]
According to Ryan Gallagher of The Intercept in August 2018, Google was developing for the People's Republic of China a censored version of its search engine (known as Dragonfly) "that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest".[415] Google was grilled at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on the project one month later.[416][417] The project was canceled in December following the backlash it garnered both externally and internally within the company.[418][419]
In May 2024, a misconfiguration in Google Cloud led to the accidental deletion of UniSuper's $135 billion Australian pension fund account, affecting over half a million members who were unable to access their accounts for a week. The outage, attributed to a cloud service error and not a cyberattack, prompted a joint apology from UniSuper and Google Cloud executives, who assured members that no personal data was compromised and restoration efforts were underway.[420]
On October 8, 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed against Google and Alphabet due to "non-public" Google+ account data being exposed as a result of a bug that allowed app developers to gain access to the private information of users. The litigation was settled in July 2020 for $7.5 million with a payout to claimants of at least $5 each, with a maximum of $12 each.[421][422][423] On January 21, 2019, French data regulator CNIL imposed a record €50 million fine on Google for breaching the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. The judgment claimed Google had failed to sufficiently inform users of its methods for collecting data to personalize advertising. Google issued a statement saying it was "deeply committed" to transparency and was "studying the decision" before determining its response.[424] In November 2019, the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services began investigation into Project Nightingale, to assess whether the "mass collection of individuals' medical records" complied with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.[425] According to The Wall Street Journal, Google secretively began the project in 2018, with St. Louis-based healthcare company Ascension.[426]
In early June 2020, a $5 billion class-action lawsuit was filed against Google by a group of consumers, alleging that Chrome's Incognito browsing mode still collects their user history.[427][428] The lawsuit became known in March 2021 when a federal judge denied Google's request to dismiss the case, ruling that they must face the group's charges.[429][430] Reuters reported that the lawsuit alleged that Google's CEO Sundar Pichai sought to keep the users unaware of this issue.[431] In April 2024, it was announced that Google agreed to settle this lawsuit. Under the terms of the settlement Google agreed to destroy billions of data records to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of people who thought they were browsing privately.[432] On January 6, 2022, France's data privacy regulatory body CNIL fined Alphabet's Google 150 million euros (US$169 million) for not allowing its Internet users an easy refusal of cookies along with Facebook.[433]
In August 2024, Google sent an email to users informing them of its legal obligation to disclose certain confidential information to U.S. government authorities. The company stated that when it receives valid requests from government agencies to produce documents without redacting confidential customer information, it may produce such documents even if they are confidential to users; however, it will request confidential treatment of such information from the government.[434] In January 2025, U.S. federal judge Richard Seeborg rejected Google's motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit claims Google collected data from users who had specifically opted out of tracking.[435] In September 2025, a federal jury decided that Google must pay $425 million. Google said it would appeal the decision.[436]
Google has been criticized for continuing to collect location data from users who had turned off location-sharing settings.[437] In 2020, the FBI used a geofence warrant to request data from Google about Android devices near the Seattle Police Officers Guild building following an arson attempt during Black Lives Matter protests. Google provided anonymized location data from devices in the area, which raised privacy concerns due to the potential inclusion of unrelated protesters.[438]
On March 20, 2024, Google was fined approximately $270 million by French regulators for using content from news outlets in France without proper disclosure to train its AI, Bard, now renamed Gemini, violating a previous commitment to negotiate content use transparently and fairly.[439]
Following media reports about PRISM, the NSA's massive electronic surveillance program, in June 2013, several technology companies were identified as participants, including Google.[440] According to unnamed sources, Google joined the PRISM program in 2009, as YouTube in 2010.[441] Google has worked with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) on drone software through the 2017 Project Maven that could be used to improve the accuracy of drone strikes.[442] In April 2018, thousands of Google employees, including senior engineers, signed a letter urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to end this controversial contract with the Pentagon.[443] Google ultimately decided not to renew this DoD contract, which was set to expire in 2019.[444] In 2022 Google shared a $9 billion contract from the Pentagon for cloud computing with Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle.[445]
In February 2019, a privacy incident involving the Google Nest Guard system went public. The controversy stemmed from the fact that Nest Guard, a security device that was part of the Nest Secure system, contained a hidden microphone that was not disclosed in any product specifications. It resulted in a public relations failure.[446]
On September 7, 1998, the day Google officially incorporated, he [Shriram] wrote out a check for just over $250,000, one of four of this size the founders received.
cite web: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Google moved 19.9 billion euros ($22.7 billion) through a Dutch shell company to Bermuda in 2017, as part of an arrangement that allows it to reduce its foreign tax bill
Fifty percent of what Google launched in the second half of 2005 actually got built out of 20% time.
We believe that the best price/performance tradeoff for our applications comes from fashioning a reliable computing infrastructure from clusters of unreliable commodity PCs.
Mainstream servers with x86 processors were the only option, he added. "Ten years ago...it was clear the only way to make (search) work as free product was to run on relatively cheap hardware. You can't run it on a mainframe. The margins just don't work out," he said.
Opponents of the deal worry the Israeli military could use the technology to expand surveillance of Palestinians living in occupied territories and violate human rights.
Leaks about the plan and the extraordinary backlash that ensued both internally and externally appear to have forced company executives to shelve it at least in the short term, two sources familiar with the project said.