Monday, October 6, 2008

Google September 2008

Google update as it completed 10 years in September

1. POWER TIP
Google Moderator

Google Moderator is a new way to facilitate question-and-answer sessions during talks, presentations and events that involve large groups of people. Anyone can submit a question and then people can vote on the questions that they'd like answered.
http://moderator.appspot.com

2. NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES
Project 10^100
As part of our 10th birthday celebration, we launched Project 10100 (that's "ten to the hundredth"), a call for ideas that could help as many people as possible, and a program to bring the best of those ideas to life. We're committing $10 million to implement these projects, and while money may offer a jump-start, it really comes down to the great ideas that we know are out there. We're accepting submissions until October 20, 2008, and then we'll open up voting in
January.
http://www.project10tothe100.com
3.Updates to Picasa, Picasa Web Albums
There's a new version available of our photo editing software. Picasa 3.0 makes it even easier to share photos with friends and family, thanks to a new web sync feature that automatically keeps your web albums up-to-date with the photos on your PC. Picasa 3 also includes intuitive new editing tools, like a powerful retouching brush, text tool, movie maker and revamped photo collages. We've also updated Picasa Web Albums with "name tags" to help you automatically organize and share your photos by who's in each picture.
http://www.google..com/picasa
4.Google Chrome
This month we released a new open-source web browser. Google Chrome is fast, secure and lets you access your favorite Google services, such as Gmail, Google Maps and Google Docs, more easily than ever. There are some unique features too, like a single box for web addresses and
searches, a simplified download manager and an interface to maximize your browsing experience. (Windows-only at present.)
http://www.google.com/chrome

5.Google Maps for mobile with Street View
If you use Google Maps for mobile on your BlackBerry or Java-enabled phone, you can now access Street View while on the go. The new release incorporates Street View into business listings and directions... you'll be able to see a specific location before you get there. Other
new features include business reviews and walking directions.
http://www.google.com/gmm

6.Transit on Google Maps for New York
New York City has about a third of the country's public transportation volume, and now Google Maps includes public transit information for the entire metro region, making this the biggest Transit launch for Google Maps to date. You can find Transit coverage for more than 70
cities and countries; we'll keep you posted as we add more to the mix.
http://www.google.com/transit
6.MISCELLANY
September marked the first 10 years of Google, so we took a moment to reflect on the enormous impact the Internet has had on people's lives since our company's founding. The power of the Internet has changed the way we find, manage and share information -- and we believe it
will only continue to change the way we live. While we don't have a crystal ball to see exactly what the future holds, we asked a number of our in-house experts to share their thoughts on how this phenomenal technology will evolve in the next 10 years. You can read their
responses in a special blog series. We hope you're inspired by their ideas.
http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/ten-years-out.html

Friday, September 12, 2008

Google celebrates its 10th years of existance

1998: Garage days

Photo: William Mercer McLeod

Larry Page and Sergey Brin accept a $100,000 check from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim and incorporate Google Inc. on Sept. 7. The Stanford University graduate students work from a suburban garage (pictured right) in Menlo Park, Calif., for six months.

Did you know? Google hosted its first data center in a rented 7' x 8' room.

Employees: Less than 10



1999: VCs feel lucky

AltaVista, Excite, Lycos, and Yahoo dominate Internet search, but Google scores $25 million in its first round of venture capital funding, which values the startup at $100 million. Google moves out of its garage to an office building in nearby downtown Palo Alto.

Did you know? Google's original logo ended with an exclamation point.

Employees: Less than 50


2000: The word is AdWords

Google indexes more than a billion Web pages to become the world's largest search engine. In June, Yahoo inks a deal for Google to supply its search results for four years - a fateful move for Yahoo, which waits until 2002 before investing big on its own search technology. In October, Google launches AdWords, which sells text-based ads next to search results.

Did you know? Google makes its first foray into mobile by putting its search engine on Palm handhelds.

Employees: Less than 150

2001: Adult supervision

Eric Schmidt replaces co-founder Larry Page as chief executive in August. Schmidt spent four years as CEO of software maker Novell before joining Google; before that he was the chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems. The company turns a profit for the first time.

Did you know? Google launches its 'Did you mean?' spell-checker.

Annual revenue: $86.4 million

Profits: $6.99 million

Employees: About 250

2002: AOL chooses "the champ of search"

Google thrives even as the bursting of the dotcom bubble devastates scores of Internet companies. AOL Time Warner COO Bob Pittman (right) calls Google "the reigning champ of online search" as AOL abandons Overture search technology for Google's. A new version of AdWords, which will prove to be a multibillion-dollar jackpot, lets advertisers bid on keywords to determine where their ads appear on search result pages.

Did you know? Yahoo drops the Google search logo from its homepage.

Annual revenue: $439 million

Profits: $99 million

Revenue growth: 409%

Employees: About 500

2003: Start making AdSense

Capitalizing on the success of AdWords, Google introduces AdSense in June to deliver ads to third-party sites. While Googlers celebrate AdSense (right), rumors of an IPO heat up and analysts estimate that Google is worth up to $25 billion.

Did you know? Microsoft, desperate to get in the search game, briefly considers an offer to buy Google.

Annual revenue: $1.47 billion

Profits: $106 million ;

Revenue growth: 234% ;

Employees: About 1,300

2004: The IPO of the decade

In the most hotly-anticipated tech IPO since Netscape, Google goes public on Aug. 19 at $85 a share. By the end of the year, Google's stock spikes to $195. The company launches its hugely popular Gmail message service. Orkut, a social-networking site, also debuts but fails to gain much traction, much like the Froogle comparison shopping site before it.

Did you know? CEO Eric Schmidt mandates that meetings start seven minutes after the hour because that's the way some college classes are run.

Annual revenue: $3.19 billion;

Profits: $399 million;

Revenue growth: 118%;

Employees: 3,021


2005: Power player

As Google grows, so does its rivalry with Microsoft and Yahoo. Google introduces personalized homepages that compete directly with Yahoo and MSN. Google also spars with the software giant in court over the hiring of a former Microsoft executive, Kai-Fu Lee (right), to run Google's China operations (the case settled and Lee stayed at Google).

Did you know? One quarter of Googlers work outside the United States.

Annual revenue: $6.14 billion

Profits: $1.47 billion

Revenue growth: 92.5%

Employees: 5,680


2006: The Google of video
Looking to expand its search-advertising platform, Google shells out $1.65 billion for its largest acquisition to date: YouTube, an 18-month old video-sharing site founded by Steven Chen (near right) and Chad Hurley (far right). The search king also strikes a three-year, $900 million deal to run text-based ads on MySpace, a social networking site owned by News Corp.

Did you know? Google is added as a verb in the Oxford English and Merriam-Webster Dictionary.


Annual revenue: $10.6 billion;

Profits: $3.08 billion;

Revenue growth:: 72.8%

Employees: 10,674


2007: A tale of two workplaces

Google tops Fortune's Best Company to Work For rankings, thanks to fabulous perks and a stock that hits an all-time high of $741 in November. Even so, an exodus of top Googlers picks up as Gokul Rajaram, one of two senior AdSense execs, leaves to start his own company. Several star Googlers have since decamped to Facebook, including former AdWords sales chief Sheryl Sandberg.

Did you know? Google changes its privacy policy to make users' search data anonymous after 18 months.

Annual revenue: $16.6 billion

Profits: $4.2 billion

Revenue growth: 56.5%;

Employees: 16,805


2008: Taking on Microsoft

Google goes after Microsoft on multiple fronts. The search giant completes its $3.1 billion acquisition of ad server DoubleClick, a company that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (right) wanted. Google also strikes a search partnership with Yahoo, which Microsoft also wanted. In September, Google, its shares down 40% from their all-time high in 2007, takes on Microsoft's Internet Explorer with its own Web browser, Chrome. Google also prepares to launch its Android mobile operating system to compete with the Apple iPhone and Microsoft's Mobile OS.

Did you know? Google's 2008 international revenues are on track to exceed domestic sales for the first time.

Revenue: $10.6 billion (first half of 2008)


Profits: $2.56 billion (first half of 2008) ;

Revenue growth: 39% (full-year estimate by Thomson Financial) ;

Employees: 19,604 (as of June 30)