As many other stories of technology companies, Google´s story began with two young students of Engineering. Back in 1995, twenty-year-old Larry Page was choosing the topic for his thesis in Stanford and he was thinking of creating a map of the World Wide Web (www).
Page thought that knowing which sites linked others would turn Internet in a powerful tool. Sergey Brin agreed. As his teammate, he felt attracted to other theses, but he was not convinced. The links network turned him mad.
While they were working in the thesis, a new analogy with the scientific publications turned the thesis project into a billionaire idea. Page realized that although it was important knowing who linked who, it was essential to know how important was the one linking.
Suddenly, the internet map became more complex. They should not only know the links, but also establish their importance. This was Brin´s essential role, who since the age of 6 was considered a math's genius.
Googol
The reasoning seems simple now, but it was revolutionary back then. Almost without realizing, the two young men had created a tool which allowed to search in the web and provide results according to the importance.
Page and Brin relegated a minor portion of the market (Yahoo, for instance) and made other search engines such as Altavista to go bankrupt soon after launching Google in 1998. The name of the company comes from the word "googol", which refers to a number that starts with number one and is followed by 100 ceros.
Huge Expansion
Thinking of Google believing as a simple searching engine is today a naive and erroneous idea. The company started creating and buying companies which were already working in strategic areas.
That is how they developed Gmail (2004), the translator (2007), Chrome searcher (2008) and Google Talk (2005), and Hangouts, just to mention some of the online services. It also bought the video platform YouTube (2006) and Blogger (2003), among others.
Google grew with its advertisement tools AdWords and AdSense, where nothing was left up to fait. The current CEO of Yahoo and former Google Executive Marissa Mayer, made 40 tones of blue to know which was the exact colour which led people to make more clicks and produce more earnings.
Android Invader
The alarm of Google´s plan to conquer the world should have been set with Android´s launch. The mobile operating system managed the same strategy Microsoft had launched 30 years before for PCs: to develop a software for all hardware brands willing to use the product.
But Google also knew how to make the difference, and created an open code operating system. Although it has some restrictions, it enables developers to make changes in the original software in order to improve it or customize it.
The strategy was a complete success. Last year, the margin of the Android market reached 78,6%, while iOS, Apple´s Operating System was of 15,2%.
Google had managed to innovate and become a leader in different platforms.
Real Futurism
At less than a mile-distance from Google´s main headquarters, at Mountain View, California, there is a restricted access lab. Its name is Google X, and it is the most innovative and secret area of the company.
Projects such as Glass were born in Google X. Google´s smart glasses are a symbol of wearable technology. Thanks to its connection to internet and its operating thorough voice sounds, you can tell one of these appliances to do activities such as google something or take a picture (of 5 MP), record a video (of 720 p) or use the GSP to go somewhere, send an SMS or email (through wifi or Bluetooth).
Glass are still not in the market, but when the company started selling them for just 24 hours in the US at $ 1,500 dollars, they were sold out. Google promises to launch them this year.
The other futurist project is the car that drives by itself. Google introduced the first prototype in May of a commercial model of an autonomous vehicle. Its tiny space should not deceive those who love cars. The key of this autonomous vehicle is preventing accidents causes by human errors.
This project explains the latest and most ambitious Google acquisition: the satellite company, Skybox Imaging.
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