Google is the most popular search engine in the western world and the most visited website on earth.

The company has operated since the late 1990s and is one of the most fundamental forces in the development of the internet as we know it – to the point where the phrase ‘googling’ is synonymous with using a search engine.

While the search engine is the company’s flagship product, Google operates in numerous areas including hardware, cloud computing, advertising, software and AI.

The company had its inception in 1995 when founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page partnered to create a search engine called ‘backrub’ while students at Stanford University, California.

The name was then changed to Google and by 1998 the company had secured $100,000 in funding from Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim.

The company famously used the motto “don’t be evil” but, upon restructuring into Alphabet Inc., relegated the phrase to its code of conduct – first in the preface and now as the final sentence.

The name Google comes from a play on the term ‘googol’, which is the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. According to the company. it is said to reflect the founders’ mission to “organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Google is the most popular search engine in the western world and the most visited website on earth.

The company has operated since the late 1990s and is one of the most fundamental forces in the development of the internet as we know it – to the point where the phrase ‘googling’ is synonymous with using a search engine.

While the search engine is the company’s flagship product, Google operates in numerous areas including hardware, cloud computing, advertising, software and AI.

The company had its inception in 1995 when founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page partnered to create a search engine called ‘backrub’ while students at Stanford University, California.

The name was then changed to Google and by 1998 the company had secured $100,000 in funding from Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim.

The company famously used the motto “don’t be evil” but, upon restructuring into Alphabet Inc., relegated the phrase to its code of conduct – first in the preface and now as the final sentence.

The name Google comes from a play on the term ‘googol’, which is the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. According to the company. it is said to reflect the founders’ mission to “organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”