Uncovering the Dominance of Google: The World's Most Powerful Company

I remembered my first time in a cybercafé. I saw the word "Google" on the computer screen as the cybercafé attendant helped me surf the internet for a solution to my assignment. I was wowed by what our teacher had told us in class about being able to search out anything on the internet. I marveled at what this could be and how it was achievable.

Today, Google is a bank of information and the pacesetter for the modern-day web. Google is an amazing company that has ruled the web and the world of modern-day technology as a whole.

Even before I became a software developer, I always loved Google because of a number of reasons that I'll be sharing with you in this article. But before I begin, I'd love to refresh your mind on who and what Google is.

According to Wikipedia,

Google is an American multinational technology company that focuses on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. Due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the area of artificial intelligence, Google has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world" and one of the world's most valuable brands. Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in Menlo Park, California. The current CEO of Google is Sundar Pichai.

Some of the products and services offered by Google include:

Search engine
Advertising
Web-based services
Software
Hardware
Enterprise services
Internet services

Why Google inspires me is something that cannot be written in one article, but I'll try to pen down a few ways.

Google made searches easier and better.

There had been various search engines before the inception of Google. Search engines like Yahoo, Lycos, AltaVista, etc. exist. According to tower marketing,

Google had the capacity to calculate a site's relevance according to the number of pages and links pointing back to the original site. This success led to the most used search engine in the U.S. market, managing over three billion pages a day.

Unlike previously curated outlets, Google indexed the internet extraordinarily well without human intervention. With Google, you can find any needle in any haystack at any time. "Google" became a recognized verb in the dictionary very quickly in the world.

As a lover of technology, it was wonderful to see how it was possible to see an organization with so much information. Growing up, there was literally nothing we could not Google search for.

Now that I am a developer, Google has been more than helpful in solving problems such as debugging, finding quick solutions to certain problems, making sure I am not lost, etc.

Google's success story of being a multi-billion-dollar industry

The knowledge that Google started in a garage is one inspiring story that stood out for me. You would not believe that the founders of Google offered to sell their page ranking algorithm to the biggest tech giant at that time, which was Yahoo. At first, the two founders thought it was too early for them to get into business and wanted to sell their product, but they were rejected. In 2003 again, they offered to sell their product for 5 billion dollars to Yahoo!, but Yahoo refused.

After this series of rejections, the founders decided to continue. They got their first funding of $1 million from Andy Bechtolsheim, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems. And in 1998, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and David Cheriton, a professor of computer science, also invested in Google.

In 2004, Google held its first initial public offering (IPO), which was a huge success. Google profited handsomely from this investment, making its founders the youngest billionaires of their generation.

Their Acquisitions.

Aside from their path to financial freedom, another thing that stood out for me was their acquisitions.

One thing Google understood was that a tree does not create a forest. Google started acquiring other companies, which helped them get to where they are today.

One of Google's big acquisitions that has greatly contributed to its growth is the acquisition of Applied Semantics, a company that specialized in developing software related to online advertising. The technology utilized in Google AdSense was developed by Applied Semantic.

Google went on to acquire Android in 2005, YouTube in 2006, AdMob in 2009, and Motorola in 2012, which was their largest acquisition. Google has acquired approximately 232 companies to date.

These are a few reasons why I am inspired by Google and want to join the army of software engineers out there making the world a better place. Google is one of my biggest dreams as a software engineer.

If you know that you are also a fan of Google and all they do, leave a comment and give us your reason why you chose Google.