Google Profile - Mission Statement, History, Founders, Name, Culture & Quotes

"To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Google History & Trivia:

• At the beginning, desks were made of wooden doors and sawhorses. Some are still used by the engineering group.
  
• The first round of venture capital, $25 million, was provided by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Sequoia also funded YouTube with $8 million before it was purchased by Google.
  
• The first non-engineering Google employee was Omid Kordestani, who started in sales in May, 1999. Omid still works for Google today as the Senior V.P. of Global Sales & Business Development.

Google is primarily known around the world as an internet search engine. Additionally, Google provides a huge suite of internet products and services. Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Videos, Google Images, Gmail, Google News, Google Phone, Google Calendar, Google Groups, Google Translate, and Google Books are the internet-based services that make Google the #2 most popular global website, according to Alexa.com.

In 2006 Google made a high profile purchase of the YouTube website, which, at the time, was less than two years old and unprofitable. By 2008, comScore, Inc. was reporting that nearly 100 million unique users were visiting YouTube.com every month, each viewing an average of 55 videos.

Another stand-alone Google-owned and operated website is Blogger.com. The ninth most popular global website, Blogger was made possible by Google’s purchase of Pyra Labs and Genius Labs in 2003. As of 2008, it is estimated that 6% of U.S. adults have created a blog, and over 57 million people read them.

Google dominates the internet as a search engine, with 61.8% market share in 2008, according to comScore.com. The next largest search engines are Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Ask. Yahoo owns search engines AltaVista, All the Web, and Overture.

Other popular Google alternatives search engines include Excite, Netscape, GoTo, DogPile, Direct Hit, Go, HotBot, iWon, and Raging Search.

Fortune magazine categorizes Google as an “Internet Services and Retailing” company, along with e-commerce companies like Amazon and eBay.

The retail part of the Google business is found in the Google Store, which is filled with Google logo merchandise like solar powered pedometers, slinkies, baby blankets, and denim pencils. This retail outlet is a minute part of the Google business, which is primarily focused on products and services that are internet-based, free to the end-user, and supported by advertising revenue.

Google was started by founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Sergey and Larry met at Stanford University where they invented a search engine for the school's computer system.

Google filed official incorporation papers in California, September 4, 1998. Before the official corporation, Larry and Sergy had met at Stanford, collaborated on a search engine for the college’s servers called “BackRub,” decided to develop the search engine further, renamed their creation “Google,” got their first $100,000 investment check, and set up an office in a garage in Menlo Park.

The name “Google” was inspired by the mathematical term, "googol." This is the name that was given to the number "1," followed by 100 zeros by Milton Sirotta when he was 9 years old. Milton’s uncle was mathematician Edward Kasner, who helped popularize the term in his book, “Mathematics and Imagination.”

Sergey and Larry chose to name their search engine “Google” as a variation of this mathematical term because it related to the enormity of the task of organizing the immense amount of information that was available on the internet.

Craig Silverstein, a fellow Stanford computer science grad student, was hired to help build what is now the world’s largest search engine. Craig is currently Google's technology director. He told the San Francisco Chronicle, "We need to make search as good as a human answering a search request. We need to be like the computer on 'Star Trek,' and we are very, very far from that."

• "We have a mantra: don't be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing." - Larry Page
• "The ultimate search engine would basically understand everything in the world, and it would always give you the right thing. And we're a long, long ways from that." - Larry Page
• "As we go forward, I hope we're going to continue to use technology to make really big differences in how people live and work." - Sergey Brin
• "Obviously everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world." - Sergey Brin

Google Employment and Workplace:

Google's workplace amenities are known by many and duplicated by few. In order to help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance, Google provides these benefits onsite to its employees.

• Workout room with weights and rowing machine
• Locker rooms
• Washers and dryers
• Massage room
• Assorted video games
• Foosball
• Baby grand piano
• Pool table
• Ping pong
• Roller hockey twice a week in the company parking lot
• Snack Rooms with free snacks foods, fruit, and beverages
• Free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the employee cafe.

Google Global Offices:

Google has office locations around the world. Some of those office locations are listed below.

Google Amsterdam, Netherlands

Google Bangalore, India

Google Beijing, China

Google Budapest, Hungary

Google Buenos Aires, Argentina

Google Copenhagen, Denmark

Google Dublin, Ireland

Google Hamburg, Germany

Google Helsinki, Finland

Google Hong Kong, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Google Hyderabad, India

Google Italy, Milan, Italy

Google Japan, Tokyo, Japan

Google Krakow, Poland

Google London, United Kingdom

Google Lulea, Sweden

Google Madrid, Spain

Google Manchester, United Kingdom

Google Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Google Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

Google Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Google Moscow, Russian Federation

Google Mumbai, India

Google Oslo, Norway

Google Paris, France

Google Prague, Czech Republic

Google Sao Paulo, Brazil

Google Seoul, South Korea

Google Shanghai, China

Google Singapore, Singapore

Google Stockholm, Sweden

Google Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Google Taipei, Taiwan

Google Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Google Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Google Wroclaw, Poland

Google Zurich, Switzerland

More Google Worldwide Office Locations