The term Google has come to be synonymous with surfing the internet for information. So an expression like “I am going to Google it” is not uncommon. I remember just some few years back Google were in a court case with a firm that had apparently listed the registered trademark name of Google to mean something like searching online for information in a dictionary. Well I guess you could say that Google are a victim of their own success. But is Google all about search.
A Brief History
In 1996, Google started out as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University. In 1998, Page and Brin — while continuing to perfect their technology — bought a terabyte of disks at bargain prices and built their own computer housings in Page's dorm room, which became Google's first data center. In 1999, the beta logo came off the Google Web site. Since then Google has expanded its search technology into blogging, mapping, shopping, research and more. In fact, Google now has so many services it's hard to keep them straight. To help you get a grip on Google, our Google Services Quick Reference will highlight the many Google-branded services and provide links and references for each. [Source: Webopedia.com]
It would surprise you to know that Google is involved in a lot of products and is not just a search engine. Over 100 products have been released or are in testing and yet to be officially launched.
The Most Popular Of the Lot
Web Search
Web search engine, which is Google's core product. It was the company's first creation, coming out of beta on September 21, 1999, and remains their most popular and famous service. It receives 1 billion requests a day and is the most used search engine on the Internet.
Gmail
(Also known as Google Mail) Free Webmail IMAP and POP e-mail service provided by Google, known for its abundant storage and advanced interface. It was first released in an invitation-only form on April 1, 2004. Mobile access and Google Talk integration is also featured
YouTube
Popular free video sharing Web site which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. In October 2006, Google, Inc., announced that it had reached a deal to acquire the company for $1.65 billion USD in Google's stock. The deal closed on 13 November 2006.
Earth
Virtual globe that uses satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS over a 3D globe.
Desktop
Desktop search application, that indexes e-mails, documents, music, photos, chats, Web history and other files. It allows the installation of Google Gagdets.
News
Automated news compilation service and search engine for news. There are versions of the aggregator for more than 20 languages. While the selection of news stories is fully automated, the sites included are selected by human editors.
Chrome
Open source web browser.
Android
Open Source mobile phone platform developed by the Open Handset Alliance
Pack
Collection of computer applications -- some Google-created, some not -- including Google Earth, Google Desktop, Picasa, Google Talk, StarOffice and Mozilla Firefox.
SketchUp
Simple 3D sketching program with unique dragging interface and direct integration with Google Earth.
Talk
Application for VoIP and instant messaging. It consists of both a service and a client used to connect to the service, which uses the XMPP protocol.
Web Accelerator (Windows 2000 SP3+/XP/Vista)
Uses various caching technologies to increase load speed of web pages.
Blogger
Weblog publishing tool. Users can create a custom, hosted blogs with features such as photo publishing, comments, group blogs, blogger profiles and mobile-based posting with little technical knowledge.
Notebook
Web clipping application for saving online research. The tool permits users to clip text, images, and links from pages while browsing, save them online, access them from any computer, and share them with others.
Lively
3D animated Chat program. Communicate and interact in a virtual world, this new beta was launched on July 9, 2008.
Page Creator
Webpage-publishing program, which can be used to create pages and to host them on Google's servers.
Maps
Mapping service that indexes streets and displays satellite and street-level imagery, providing driving directions and local business search.
Mars
Imagery of Mars using the Google Maps interface. Elevation, visible imagery and infrared imagery can be shown. It was released on March 13, 2006, the anniversary of the birth of astronomer Percival Lowell.
Moon
NASA imagery of the moon through the Google Maps interface. It was launched on July 20, 2005, in honor of the first manned Moon landing on July 20, 1969.
Sky
An Internet tool for viewing the stars and galaxies, you can now access this tool through a browser version of "Google Sky".
Language Tools
Collection of linguistic applications, including one that allows users to translate text or web pages from one language to another, and another that allows searching in web pages located in a specific country or written in a specific language.
Besides all these great products, Google also has special site dedicated to various other searches. The following are some of the most popular.
Google Web Searches
Code Search
Search engine for programming code found on the Internet.
Book Search (Previously Google Print)
Search engine for the full text of printed books. Google scans and stores in its digital database. The content that is displayed depends on the arrangement with the publishers, ranging from short extracts to entire books.
Image Search
Image search engine, with results based on the filename of the image, the link text pointing to the image and text adjacent to the image. When searching, a thumbnail of each matching image is displayed.
Movies
A specialized search engine that obtains Film showing times near a user-entered location as well as providing reviews of films compiled from several different websites.
Scholar
Search engine for the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and scholarly fields. Today, the index includes virtually all peer-reviewed journals available online.
University Search
Listings for search engines for University websites.
U.S. Government Search
Search engine and Personalized Homepage that exclusively draws from sites with a .gov TLD.
[Source: en.Wikipedia.org]
In short Google has evolved from being just a search engine into …Why don’t you take advantage of all that Google has to offer and make your life easier. And don’t forget almost all of the stuff is free.
Look out for featured articles on Chrome, Android and more in subsequent editions.