Employees are split into six hierarchies based on experience and can range “from entry-level data center workers at level one to managers and experienced engineers at level six”. As a motivation technique, Google uses a policy known as Innovation Time Off, where Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them. A job search product has also existed since before 2017, Google for Jobs is an enhanced search feature that aggregates listings from job boards and career sites. Google Earth, launched in 2005, allows users to see high-definition satellite pictures from all over the world for free through a client software downloaded to their computers. Page and Brin originally nicknamed the new search engine “BackRub” because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd later co-authored with Page and Brin the first paper about the project, describing PageRank and the initial prototype of the Google search engine, published in 1998.

Office locations

In February 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Google an authorization to buy and sell energy at market rates. The new campus, reported to be the company’s largest outside the United States, will accommodate 13,000 employees. In November 2018, Google announced its plan to expand its New York City office to a capacity of 12,000 employees.

United States

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• The investigation claimed Google used its market power to prevent rivals from competing fairly, affecting billions spent on digital ads.

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• In March 2024, a former Google software engineer and Chinese national named Linwei Ding was accused of stealing confidential artificial intelligence information from the company and handing it to Chinese corporations.
• Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California, United States.

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• In December 2016, Google announced that—starting in 2017—it would purchase enough renewable energy to match 100% of the energy usage of its data centers and offices.

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• Google also hosts Google Books, which allows users to search books in its database and shows limited previews, or the full book when allowed.

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• In October 2020, the company pledged to make the packaging for its hardware products 100% plastic-free and 100% recyclable by 2025.

The company has received criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, censorship, search neutrality, antitrust, and abuse of its monopoly position. After the success of its original service, Google Search (often known simply as “Google”), the company has rapidly grown to offer a multitude of products and services. Google’s other ventures outside of internet services and consumer electronics include quantum computing (Willow), self-driving cars (Waymo), and transformer models (Google DeepMind). In August 2024, Google sent an email to users informing them of its legal obligation to disclose certain confidential information to U.S. government authorities. In January 2025, U.S. federal judge Richard Seeborg rejected Google’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit.

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• In August 2024, Google sent an email to users informing them of its legal obligation to disclose certain confidential information to U.S. government authorities.

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• On October 8, 2024, The U.S. government suggested it could request Google to divest parts of its business, such as the Chrome browser and Android, due to its alleged monopoly in online search.

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• In 2008, Google announced its “project 10100”, which accepted ideas for how to help the community and then allowed Google users to vote on their favorites.
• Page and Brin would also use their friend Susan Wojcicki’s garage as their office when the search engine was set up in 1998.

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• Google CEO Sundar Pichai accused Damore of violating company policy by “advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace”, and he was fired on the same day.

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• Google’s Internet business was responsible for $10.8 billion of this total, with an increase in the number of users’ clicks on advertisements.

U.S. government contracts

In October 2020, the company pledged to make the packaging for its hardware products 100% plastic-free and 100% recyclable by 2025. In December 2016, Google announced that—starting in 2017—it would purchase enough renewable energy to match 100% of the energy usage of its data centers and offices. In September 2019, Google’s chief executive announced plans for a $2 billion wind and solar investment, the biggest renewable energy deal in corporate history.

Corporate identity

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• On March 20, 2019, the European Commission imposed a €1.49 billion ($1.69 billion) fine on Google for preventing rivals from being able to “compete and innovate fairly” in the online advertising market.

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• Google has been criticized for continuing to collect location data from users who had turned off location-sharing settings.

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• Both firms were initially hesitant about investing jointly in Google, as each wanted to retain a larger percentage of control over the company to themselves.
• Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on October 20, 2020, asserting that it has illegally maintained its monopoly position in web search and search advertising.

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• After the success of its original service, Google Search (often known simply as “Google”), the company has rapidly grown to offer a multitude of products and services.

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• It had previously accepted requests for removing confidential data only, such as Social Security numbers, bank account and credit card numbers, personal signatures, and medical records.

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According to The Wall Street Journal, Google secretively began the project in 2018, with St. Louis-based healthcare company Ascension. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on October 20, 2020, asserting that it has illegally maintained its monopoly position in web search and search advertising. The lawsuit alleged that Google engaged in anticompetitive behavior by paying Apple between $8 billion and $12 billion to be the default search engine Methbet casino on iPhones. Later that month, both Facebook and Alphabet agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” in the face of investigation into their online advertising practices. This includes sales of apps, purchases made in-app, digital content products on Google and YouTube, Android and licensing and service fees, including fees received for Google Cloud offerings. In 2022, Google began accepting requests for the removal of phone numbers, physical addresses and email addresses from its search results.

Enterprise services

He had been trying to find a CEO that Page and Brin would accept for several months, but they rejected several candidates because they wanted to retain control over the company. Schmidt was not initially enthusiastic about joining Google either, as the company’s full potential had not yet been widely recognized at the time, and as he was occupied with his responsibilities at Novell where he was CEO. Google is Alphabet’s largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet’s internet properties and interests.