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Google celebrated its 20th birthday on Monday, marking two decades in which it has simply gone from a better way of exploring the Internet to a search engine integrated into everyday life. His name has become a verb.
The company was to mark its 20th anniversary with an event in San Francisco dedicated to the future of online research, promising some surprise announcements.
– Starting the engine –
Larry Page and Sergey Brin were students at Stanford University – known for its location near Silicon Valley – when they found an effective way to index and search the Internet.
The duo went beyond simply calculating the number of times keywords were used, developing software that took into account factors such as the relationships between web pages to determine their ranking in search results.
Google was launched in September 1998 in a rented garage in the city of Menlo Park, northern California. The name is a game on the mathematical term "googol", which refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.
Google would have run for a while on computer servers at Stanford, where a version of the search had been tested.
And the legend of Silicon Valley says that Brin and Page have proposed to sell the company early for a million dollars, but no agreement has been reached.
Google then moved its headquarters to Mountain View, where it is located.
In August 2004, Google went public with shares priced at $ 85. The multi-billion dollar company's shares are now trading at more than $ 1,000.
Its first code of conduct included a now legendary clause "Do not be mean". Its stated mission is to make global information accessible to all.
The company has achieved a number of dollars with tools that target online ads based on what users reveal and allow marketers to pay only if people click on links in the ad.
– Maps and more –
It has now launched a range of offers, including Maps, Gmail, the Chrome web browser and a free Android mobile device operating system for smartphone or tablet manufacturers.
Google also manufactures high-end Pixel smartphones to introduce Android, which dominates the market with handsets made by a large number of manufacturers.
Meanwhile, he bought the 18-month YouTube Video Sharing Platform in 2006 in a deal valued at $ 1.65 billion – which seemed astronomical at the time but was wise with the entertainment online.
The company has also started to inject money into a X lab dedicated to technological "moonbursts" such as internet glasses, stand-alone cars and high-altitude balloons to provide Internet service in remote locations.
Some of them have become companies, such as the Waymo autonomous car. But Google has also found failures, such as Google Glass glasses, much criticized.
In addition, the social network Google+ launched to compete with Facebook has changed little.
In October 2015, the company's restructuring saw the establishment of Alphabet parent company, making subsidiaries of Google, Waymo, Verily Health Sciences Unit and other properties.
Google is also today a major player in artificial intelligence, its digital assistant infused into smart speakers and so much more. Among its rivals AI, include Amazon, Apple and Microsoft.
– Privacy issues –
Despite efforts to diversify its operations, Alphabet, which employs over 80,000 people worldwide, continues to make the most of its online advertising. Industry tracker eMarketer predicts that Google and Facebook will together collect 57.7% of US ad revenue this year.
In the second quarter of 2018, Google recorded a profit of 3.2 billion dollars despite a fine of 5.1 billion dollars (4.34 billion euros) imposed by the European Union.
The rise of Google has placed it in the crosshairs of regulators, especially in Europe because it fears that dominance of online search and advertising, as well as software exploitation of smartphones, not be abused.
Alphabet is more concerned about the possibility of making money from people's data than about protecting their privacy.
Google has also been accused of embezzling money and readers of traditional media by providing articles in online search results, where it can take advantage of advertisements.
It's one of the tech companies needed to better protect itself against the spread of misinformation – and was also the target of US President Donald Trump, who added his voice to a group of Republicans who say that conservative viewpoints are minimized in search results.
Google will mark its 20th anniversary with an event in San Francisco dedicated to the future of online research
According to Silicon Valley legend, Google's founders, Sergey Brin (L) and Larry Page, have proposed to sell the company very early for a million dollars, but no agreement has been reached
Google is also today a major player in artificial intelligence
The rise of Google has placed it in the crosshairs of regulators, especially in Europe, in relation to concerns that it could abuse its dominance
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