Google LLC

Google LLC is a leading American multinational technology company that specializes in internet-based services and products, including online advertising, search engines, cloud computing, software, and hardware. As one of the “Big Five” technology companies in the U.S., alongside Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, Google plays a dominant role in the tech industry.

Founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University, Google started as a privately held company in California. Page and Brin still own about 14% of Google’s shares and maintain 56% of the voting power through supervoting stock. The company incorporated in California on September 4, 1998, and later reincorporated in Delaware in 2002. Google went public with an initial public offering (IPO) on August 19, 2004, and soon after, it moved its headquarters to Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. In 2015, Google announced a major restructuring, creating Alphabet Inc. as a parent conglomerate. Google remained the lead subsidiary, focusing on its internet ventures. Sundar Pichai succeeded Larry Page as CEO of Google, while Page became CEO of Alphabet. In 2021, the Alphabet Workers Union was established, primarily composed of Google employees.

Over the years, Google’s rapid growth has led to a broad range of products, acquisitions, and partnerships extending well beyond its search engine. The company provides tools for work productivity, email, scheduling, cloud storage, instant messaging, video conferencing, language translation, mapping, podcast hosting, video sharing, blog publishing, note-taking, and photo management. Google also leads in developing the Android mobile operating system, the Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system designed for Chrome.

Google.com is the most visited website globally, with several other Google-owned platforms, including YouTube and Blogger, also ranking among the most popular sites.

Though Google was named the most valuable brand in the world in 2017 (a position later overtaken by Amazon), it has faced significant criticism over issues like privacy violations, tax avoidance, antitrust concerns, censorship, and search neutrality.