Google

Argument

I chose Google because I wanted to write about something relating to the Internet. A second reason was that I’m an internaut. But why Google, and not Microsoft, the largest software company in the world, or Yahoo!,a great competitor? Well I’ve chosen Google because is the dominant search engine, at this writing. A search engine is a type of software that creates indexes of databases or Internet sites based on the titles of files, keywords, or the full text of files. The search engine has an interface that allows you to type what you're looking for into a blank field. Google is the most popular search engine that indexes the greatest number of web pages. Google not only provide search engine results, but translation, news groups, news search, image search, paid ads, g mail etc, is a tool for finding resources on the World Wide Web. I think is remarcably how they could do such an admirable search engine. Searching on this engine you’ll find exactly the informations you want. In plus, is for free, you don’t have to pay money to use this engine,and you won’t be incomodate by ads when you search something.Is just great. Google "gives away" a great search engine, among other features. That's great. But if they don’t receive money from users, here comes the main question: „How Google does make money?” Well the answer is quite simple: „In a nutshell”: advertising revenue. Both on Google's site and on other sites. Google is a major player in the online advertising industry. Every time you search Google, you'll see ads displayed along with your results. Those ads are never "mixed in" with the results - there is no "pay to play" on Google which is one of the reasons Google became the most popular search engine in the first place. But the sponsored text-link ads above and to the right of the results generate a great deal of money for Google. These ads are known as "Google AdWords." You can make real money with this. Google already had a powerful system for selling and displaying ads in association with their own search engine. From there, it wasn't much of a jump to start displaying ads on other websites. Winner-Take-All: Google and the Third Age of Computing In 2007 Google has won both the online search and advertising markets. They hold a considerable technological lead, both with algorithms as well as their astonishing web-scale computing platform. Beyond this, however, network effects around their industry position and brand will prevent any competitor from capturing market share from them -- even if it were possible to match their technology platform.

Precis

My work is a documentary paper where is described entire history of Google and the way it succeeded to become one of the top search engine in the world. The paper is structured in two chapters:

- History and features of Google

- Criticism and issues

First chapter describes the history of Google, a project made some students using mathematical properties. Even the name “Google” was intelligently picked. Google's Motto," Don't be evil" is the informal corporate slogan,established by Gmail inventor Paul Buchheit. The current official Google logo was designed by Ruth Keda, and is a logotype based on the Catull typeface. Google is the most used search engine on the web with a 53.6% market share, ahead of Yahoo!(19.9%) and Live Search(12.9%). Google Apps is a service from Google for using custom domain names with several office products.It include several WQeb applications: Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs, Page Creator, and Sites. Google runs its services on several server farms. Servers are estimated(in 2006) to 450,000. In 2007 and 2008, Fortune Magazine placed Google at the top of its list of the hundred best places to work. The first funding for Google as a company was secured in the form of a $100,000USD contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, given to a corporation which did not yet exist. Some rumors suggested that in addition to an Internet Explorer replacement, Google is designing its own Linux-based operating system called Google OS to directly compete with Microsoft Windows. Since 2001, Google has acquired several small start-up companies, often consisting of innovative teams and products. On October 9, 2006, Google announced that it would buy the popular online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion. The deal was finalized in november. On September 28, 2005, Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1-million square foot R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center. In coordination with several other major corporations, including Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson, Google provided financial support in the launch of the mobile top level domain. Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from online and mobile advertising related to its Internet search, web-based e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google Toolbar is an Internet browser toolbar available for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox (with slightly different features). Scroogle is a web service that disguises the Internet address of users who want to run Google searches anonymously. A Googlebot is a search bot used by Google. It collects documents from the web to build a searchable index for the Google search engine. Google has a tradition of creating April Fool's Day jokes—such as Google MentalPlex, which allegedly featured the use of mental power to search the web.

The second chapter presents the problems Google had to combat until now. Like every large company, Google had to fight with racial and religion problems, copyright, with Environmental Protections, and not the last against other companies, for the supremacy of the Internet. In 2002 Google was found to have censored websites that provided information about Scientology, in compliance with the United States' DMCA legislation. On 21 September 2006 , it was reported that Google had 'delisted' Inquisition 21st Century , a website which claims to challenge moral authoritarian and sexually absolutist ideas in the United Kingdom. In early 2006 Google removed several news sites from its news search engine because complaints were received about various articles that were critical of Islam. Some products and actions by Google have been accused of contradicting the company's "Don't be evil" ethic; Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch strongly condemned Google's compliance with China's Golden Shield Project, calling it a form of self-censorship.