The campaigns reportedly aim to counter international criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, including denying the existence of famine despite UN declarations and promoting content that discredits aid agencies like UNRWA. During 2025, Google engaged in a $45 million, six-month contract with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office to run advertising campaigns that the contract describes as “hasbara” (propaganda). Following media reports about PRISM, the NSA’s massive electronic surveillance program, in June 2013, several technology companies were identified as participants, including Google. Google provided anonymized location data from devices in the area, which raised privacy concerns due to the potential inclusion of unrelated protesters.
by Google
In November 2024, Google announced the establishment of a new AI hub in Saudi Arabia, aiming to support the Kingdom’s economic growth and technological development as part of its Vision 2030 initiative. The EU Court of Justice found that Google’s treatment of rival shopping searches, which the court referred to as “discriminatory”, was in violation of the Digital Markets Act. In September 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU), based in Luxembourg, also found that Google held an illegal monopoly, in this case with regards to its shopping search, and could not avoid paying a €2.4 billion fine.
Automatic updates
On May 1, 2023, Google placed an ad against the Brazilian Congressional Bill No. 2630, an anti-disinformation law that was about to be approved, on its search homepage in Brazil, calling on its users to ask congressional representatives to oppose the legislation. In a 2022 National Labor Relations Board ruling, court documents suggested that Google sponsored a secretive project—Project Vivian—to counsel its employees and to discourage them from forming unions. In September 2020, Google announced it had retroactively offset all of its carbon emissions since the company’s foundation in 1998. 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 October 2006, the company announced plans to install thousands of solar panels on its Mountain View campus to provide up to 1.6 Megawatt of electricity, enough to satisfy approximately 30% of the campus’ energy needs.
See anything, search anything.
Google is Alphabet’s largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet’s internet properties and interests. It has been referred to as “the most powerful company in the world” by BBC, and is one of the world’s most valuable brands. Download Chrome on your mobile device or tablet and sign into your account for the same browser experience, everywhere.
Your Google Account helps you save time by automatically filling in passwords, addresses, and payment details using the information you’ve saved to your account. No matter which device or Google service you’re using, your account gives you a consistent experience you can customize and manage at any time. In April 2018, thousands of Google employees, including senior engineers, signed a letter urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to end this controversial contract with the Pentagon. Google has been criticized for continuing to collect location data from users who had turned off location-sharing settings.
Google expanded its search services to include shopping (launched originally as Froogle in 2002), finance (launched 2006), and flights (launched 2011). Google indexes billions of web pages to allow users to search for the information they desire through the use of keywords and operators. In August 2024, Google would lose a lawsuit which started in 2020 in lower court, as it was found that the company had an illegal monopoly over Internet search.
On every tab, there’s Gemini in Chrome.
It also stated that it is committed to operating its data centers and offices using only carbon-free energy by 2030. This will grow their green energy profile by 40%, giving them an extra 1.6 gigawatt of clean energy, the company said. 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. The wind energy comes from two power plants in South Dakota, one in Iowa and one in Oklahoma.
Browse with the confidence that you’re staying safer online.
- Google generated $50 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 2012, generating $38 billion the previous year.
- This led to the filing of an antitrust lawsuit in October 2020, on the grounds the company had abused a monopoly position in the search and search advertising markets.
- Google has had criticism over issues such as aggressive tax avoidance, search neutrality, copyright, censorship of search results and content, and privacy.
- In October 2020, the company pledged to make the packaging for its hardware products 100% plastic-free and 100% recyclable by 2025.
- In August 2024, District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google held a monopoly in online search and text advertising in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
In March 1999, the company moved its offices to Palo Alto, California, which is home to several prominent Silicon Valley technology start-ups. Terry Semel, Yahoo’s then-CEO, offered $3 billion to purchase the company, but Page and Brin reportedly held firm on a $5 billion valuation. 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. Page and Brin initially approached David Cheriton for advice because he had a nearby office in Stanford, and they knew he had startup experience, having recently sold the company he co-founded, Granite Systems, to Cisco for $220 million.
The sale of $1.67 billion gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion. The company opened on the NASDAQ National Market under the ticker symbol GOOGL with an offering of 19,605,052 shares at a price of $85 per share. At that time Page, Brin and Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for 20 years, until the year 2024. In 2003, after outgrowing two other locations, the company leased an office complex from Silicon Graphics, at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California. 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.
- In 2007, Google announced a free Internet service called TiSP, or Toilet Internet Service Provider, where one obtained a connection by flushing one end of a fiber-optic cable down their toilet.
- Google provided anonymized location data from devices in the area, which raised privacy concerns due to the potential inclusion of unrelated protesters.
- It also stated that it is committed to operating its data centers and offices using only carbon-free energy by 2030.
- Eventually, they changed the name to Google; the name of the search engine was a misspelling of the word googol, a very large number written (1 followed by 100 zeros), picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.
The said data hub will add to the already operational center near Columbus, bringing Google’s total investment in Ohio to over $2 billion. In early May 2023, Google announced its plans to build two additional data centers in Ohio. In May 2022, Google announced that the company had acquired California based, MicroLED display technology development and manufacturing Start-up company Raxium.
In 2010, Google Energy made its first investment in a renewable energy project, putting $38.8 million into two wind farms in North Dakota. An average search uses only 0.3 watt-hours of electricity, so all global searches are only 12.5 million watts or 5% of the total electricity consumption by Google. Total carbon emissions for 2010 were just under 1.5 million metric tons, mostly due to fossil fuels that provide electricity for the data centers. Google disclosed in September 2011 that it “continuously uses enough electricity to power 200,000 homes”, almost 260 million watts or about a quarter of the output of a nuclear power plant.
In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Google announced several cost-cutting measures. Later in 2019, some workers accused the company of retaliating against internal activists. 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. Google became Alphabet’s largest subsidiary and the umbrella company for Alphabet’s Internet interests. On August 10, 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate named Alphabet Inc.
On September 14, 2022, Google lost the appeal of a €4.125 billion (£3.5 billion) fine, which was ruled to be paid after it was proved by the European Commission that Google forced Android phone-makers to carry Google’s search and web browser apps. EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google had violated EU antitrust rules by “imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites” that required them to exclude search results from Google’s rivals. In 2019, a hub for critics of Google dedicated to abstaining from using Google products coalesced in the Reddit online community /r/degoogle. According to Google employees, the Israeli military could use this technology to expand its surveillance of Palestinians living in the occupied territories. Google has had criticism over issues such as aggressive tax avoidance, search neutrality, copyright, censorship of search results and content, and privacy.
Upon discovering Ding had been in contact with Chinese state-owned companies, Google notified the FBI, who carried on the investigation of the data breach. Ding had allegedly stolen over 500 files from the company over the course of 5 years, having been hired in 2019. 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.
The investigation claimed Google used its market power to prevent rivals from competing fairly, affecting billions spent on digital ads. In September 2024, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) provisionally found that Google engaged in anti-competitive practices in the online advertising technology market, potentially harming thousands of UK publishers and advertisers. The DoJ also sought a ban on Google re-entering the browser market for five years and restrictions on its investments in rival search or AI technologies. In August 2024, District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google held a monopoly in pin up casino online search and text advertising in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Another suit was brought against Google in 2023 for illegally monopolizing the advertising technology market.
