“Hey Google, do dogs dream?” Every day, millions of people use Google to answer their questions and get their work done. In fact, according to Internet Live Stats, Google processes about 40,000 search queries every second on average which makes over 2 million searches each day. We’ve become so reliant on the multi-billion dollar corporation we’ve come to know as “Google”, but what did it take for the company to rise up to fame? Contrary to popular belief, Google hasn’t been around for that long, in fact, Google just passed its 16th birthday last year in September.
Every company has a rich history and story, with Google as no exception. When Google’s creators, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, first met up in 1995, they wanted to create a program that virtually had an infinite amount of information, so they successfully coined the term “googol”, which is a mathematical term that is represented by a “1” followed by one-hundred zeroes. After much consideration, they registered “Google” as a domain, and it became famous from there.
Between 2000 and 2005, Google became a world-known company when it launched many of its applications such as Google Images, Google Books, Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Earth. Such apps are used in people’s everyday lives, and they help people both with their personal lives and with their assignments and work. Today, more than 750 million people use programs owned by Google such as Google Chrome, with over 750 million users, Gmail, with 425 million users, and Blogger with 300 million users. “Google is extremely handy to have around. Whenever I need to search something up for school or for fun, all I have to do is type it in the Google toolbar,” stated 8th grader Elizabeth Widener.
Just recently, Google has taken more concerns into account. Because of the millions of complaints of slow internet, Google introduced Google Fiber, a new internet provider that is up to 100 times faster than the average broadband speeds. Because of this, millions of people can now access internet that works at almost literally the speed of light.
Not only has Google introduced Google Fiber, but it’s also taken technology into thought and unveiled project Glass, a new technology released in 2013 that is virtually just a hands-free smartphone in the form of stylish glasses. Before Glass, Google tried to connect users by launching other applications such as Google+ and Hangouts. In these examples, and many others, Google shows that it is trying to promote customer satisfaction by drawing conclusions to what people search up the most. Just last year, Google piled up the data collected and came up with a list of the ‘Trends of 2014.’
Today, Google plays a large role in everyone’s lives. But with Google constantly improving its system, who knows what it’ll come up with in the future?
