Let's face it: nothing is better than pizza. But, Google does come close. In fact, Google is going to rule the universe one day. Seriously though, they're working on it. Their headquarters alone are reason enough to believe that Google would be the best company to work for. They have goats that "mow" their lawn, a T-Rex, a spaceship, Lego figures, ball pits, and nap pods! (Not to mention what they are building in London.)
This company that started out of a garage in 1996 had over 54,000 employees in 2013 and was also rated the world's #5 most valuable brand by Forbes that same year. In 2014 it was included as one of the happiest companies to work for and was the fastest growing of those companies. Google is not only one of the best places to work, it is one of the most dominant companies out there. Google had claim to about 68% of the US search engine market in 2014; but their domination doesn't stop there.
Google seems to be sticking their robotic hand into cookie jars all over the business world. Over the years they have acquired companies to integrate into their own empire, including some big names such as YouTube, Android, and Motorola. But what else are they doing?
You already know that Google is the god of the internet, but did you also know that this ruler of rulers is making new products to help out the medical world? Google is making new things every day. New things?! Uh oh…
1. YouTube
YouTube is the Google of video streaming websites. As much as "Google it" is an everyday phrase, "YouTube it" is becoming just as common. In fact, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world; it is second only to Google. It just so happens that Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. (Smart move!)
For those of you who haven't seen the first ever video uploaded to YouTube, you really are not missing anything (especially because there are much more entertaining videos, such as this idiot jumping starfish style into a wall). But those 18 seconds led to the most popular video search engine on the internet.
2. Google Goggles
As previously established, Google is the most dominant search engine on the market. But now, with the Google Goggles app, you can search by taking a picture with your phone, further separating themselves from the competition. You can take a picture of a famous landmark and it will find information about it, or take a picture of a product barcode to find information on that product. This app is especially helpful when you see something but don't know the name of it, you can snap a pic and Google Goggles can tell you about it.
3. Android
A year after the first iPhone hit the market, Android put their operating system in a smartphone in 2008 (three years after Google bought the company). If you haven't debated whether iPhones or Androids are better, you are missing out.
The iPhone is so yesterday. Since at least 2011, Android phones have had the edge over iPhones in ownership. Chances are if you are a fan of Google, you probably have an Android in your pocket.
4. Google's Self-Driving Car
Yes, you read that right: Google has a self-driving car! In fact, they have at least 10 in various models including Toyota Prius, Audi TT, and Lexus RX450h. These Google cars drove over 300,000 miles without an accident and its first accident was in 2011 while a human was driving it. Google might even start letting members of the public test out their cars this year.
Maybe they should partner up with Tesla and wreak some havoc!
5. Google Chrome
In 2008, Google Chrome took to the stage of the internet and was recently estimated as the most widely used browser in the world. In fact, it is DESTROYING the competition! Although, I'm pretty sure no one likes Internet Exploder (errr...Explorer) anymore. If you haven't yet discovered Google Chrome you need to back away from your computer before you get sucked in by the evil forces that are the weaker web browsers. Even the CEO (who was against creating a Google web browser for 6 years) said it was so good he was "forced to change [his] mind" about not wanting to develop Google Chrome.
6. Gmail
In 2004, Google dipped their toes into the world of electronic mail with their launch of Gmail. Gmail has easily surpassed the other email competitors and has over 500 million users.
With a seemingly unlimited storage (15gb), you will virtually never run out of space for the thousands of emails you are keeping, because you obviously have a good reason to keep all of them.
7. SolarCity
Google recently invested in SolarCity in order to encourage solar energy use in homes across the United States, specifically in Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Google's investment is intended to make the installment of solar energy for house affordable in the hopes to dramatically lower the nation's dependence on polluting power.
8. Robotics and AI
Google is also dabbling in robotics after having bought a handful of companies. Recently, they introduced Spot, their robot dog. They are also playing with artificial intelligence (AI) and have even created a machine that can beat Atari video games better than "professional humans."
9. Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility was a split from the company Motorola Inc. to be in charge of mobile phones, cable modems, satellite television services, and more in early 2011. Only several months later, Google acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion (and less than three years later sold it to the Chinese computer and mobile device company Lenova for only $2.91 billion). Turns out that Google doesn't always make the smartest investments.
10. Google Glass
One big advancement in the futurization of technology was the Google Glass. Google Glass was a virtually hands free device that was controlled by voice command and used to search the internet, take pictures and videos, social media, and much more.
Google Glass has been halted due to various reasons including the fact that they released a product that didn't seem fully ready to be out in the world and was still considered a prototype. After it had been tested by a handful of people, it went from being deemed one of the best inventions of the year by Time Magazine to being called "the worst product of all time" by some tech reviewers. There are plans to improve and re-release Google Glass, but hopefully this time they will wait until it has been fully developed before doing so.
11. Google Contact Lens
The Google Contact Lens is a project under the Life Sciences Division of Google X (the semi-secret facility in charge of making major technological advancements) and is intended to help diabetics measure glucose levels in their tears. Other Life Sciences Division projects consist of a spoon to help people suffering from tremors and even more recently a synthetic skin to test their disease-detecting nanoparticle platform. Now that's cool!
12. Google Earth
Keyhole, Inc. was a CIA (yes, that CIA) funded company that created a program called EarthViewer 3D. Google bought the company in 2004 and has become a means to finding some spectacular views around the globe. Google Earth is more than just a view of the Earth, you can also explore the moon, Mars, the sky, the ocean, 3D images of buildings, and historic views of the Earth. So whether you want to be an astronaut, a mermaid, or a time traveler, jump on the magic carpet ride and let Google show you the world...shining, shimmering, splendid…
13. Google Person Finder
Google Person Finder was launched in 2010 as a platform for survivors and family members of survivors of natural disasters to post and search for information or their whereabouts. This project was created in response to the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
14. YouTube Kids
In February 2015, Google bought Launchpad Toys with the intent of making a new app YouTube Kids. This app allows parents to have a lot more control over what their kids are seeing on the internet. They can set a time limit and remove the search function. It also does not allow for "adult" search terms to produce any results. Although this isn't the perfect solution, it's definitely much safer than the regular YouTube when it comes to allowing your kids on the internet.
15. Google Translate
Although there are faults in Google Translate's abilities, it is still one of the top automatic translating tools on the internet. Recently, Google Translate now has the capability to use the camera on your phone to scan signs in foreign languages and translate them to English (and vice versa). Because the last thing you want to do in a foreign country is end up in the wrong bathroom...
16. Google Wallet
Cash is almost obsolete.
Pretty soon, wallets will also be useless. In 2010, Isis Mobile Wallet became a way to make in-store purchases using a mobile phone. To avoid confusion between Isis Mobile Wallet and the terrorist group ISIS, they adopted the name of Softcard in 2014. Shortly after, Google acquired Softcard in order to integrate it into Google Wallet.
17. Chromebook
After stepping into the smartphone and tablet industry, Google next jumped into the laptop industry and broke the ice with the Chromebook laptop.
This laptop was made to primarily be used while connected to the internet with all its data settling in "the cloud." Some may see this as a limitation but others see it as a "plus". These laptops start at less than $200!
18. Nexus
Not only did Google have the Android market on lockdown, they began to dabble in making phones. The Google owned smartphone and tablet company Nexus started in 2010. Their most recent releases were the Nexus 6 smartphone and the Nexus 9 tablet.
19. Chromecast
The device making didn't stop there! Apple TV had been around since 2007; Roku has a similar product that came out the next year and in 2012 had the Roku Streaming Stick. These devices were a way for users to connect streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu to their televisions as an alternative to cable or dish TV. Google introduced Chromecast in 2013 to serve as a similar service that can be controlled via smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Not to mention there are some crazy hacks you can do with Chromecast, one of which is taking the crappy hotel television "experience" and making it fantastic!
20. Picasa
In 2004, Google acquired the image organizer Picasa, which is used for organizing, sharing, and editing photos. This free tool is an automated process that scrapes your computer for your pictures and puts them in chronological order; after this process is complete, you can rearrange your photos into new albums to best organize them to your liking. It also allows you to do some basic editing to your photos.
21. Google+
Both Facebook and Twitter were already the main faces of the social media world when Google released Google+ in 2011. Unfortunately, Google+ is "about as useful as a poopy-flavored lollipop" (Thanks Patches!). It has not been near as successful as Facebook or Twitter and will be reorganized into two division: Google Photos and Google Streams run by Bradley Horowitz. Google+ isn't necessarily going away, but what the name means will dramatically change. Some speculate it might become more of an advertising platform without the social aspect.
22. Blogger
Pyra Labs created the service Blogger in 1999 as a platform for people to host their blog on. It was bought by Google in 2003. In late February 2015, they announced that it will no longer allow its user to post sexually explicit content; four days later they reversed their decision due to complaints from blog owners. Now if a blog consists of content that you might find on How I Met Your Mother's Barney Stinson's blog, it would have to be labeled as "adult" content.
23. Google Drive
Quickoffice was a similar tool to Microsoft Office consisting of a word processor, spreadsheet, and a presentation program. In 2012, Google became the sensei of Docs, Sheets, and Slides and housed them all in what they call Google Drive.
24. Google Fiber
Google is already the king of the internet, but now they are working on BEING the internet. Google Fiber is one of the latest and fastest internet services out there offering up to 1 Gigabit per second download and upload speeds at $70 per month (and a combo package of 1 Gigabit plus TV for $120) or 5 Megabits per second for free. FOR FREE!!
Unfortunately they haven't quite spread their wings very far on this project as it is only in a handful of cities at this time.
25. Google TV
Google TV was a smart TV platform that started in 2010. After two generations of Google TV, they completely changed their approach and the result was Android TV based off of the Android Lollipop operating system. Although it has slightly similar functions as Google Chromecast, Android TV is more of a platform versus hardware:
Chromecast is to [insert cellphone model here] as Android TV is to Andriod OS.
One big drawback from Google TV becoming Android TV is that you can't transition from the first to the second.
26. Wireless Services
Internet. TV. And now…cellular services. In one of the most exciting (to me) ventures as of late, Google has recently entered a partnership with Sprint and T-Mobile to provide cell phone service to its customers. Consumers will be able to buy such services directly from Google. With Google entering the market, it is bound to make cell phone services much cheaper.
Nothing will ever be better than pizza, unless Google starts a pizza company…
Did I miss anything?! Let me know!
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