To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Founding Story
Google began in 1996 as a research project called BackRub by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. Page and Brin met in 1995 when Brin was assigned to show Page around campus. Though they initially disagreed on most topics, they formed a partnership in 1996. They developed an algorithm called PageRank that determined a website's importance based on backlinks. The search engine was initially nicknamed BackRub and ran on Stanford's website at google.stanford.edu. The first Google computer was famously housed in LEGO-like brick enclosures. They later renamed it to Google, a misspelling of 'googol'. The company was officially incorporated on September 4, 1998, after receiving a $100,000 check from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim. The founders initially operated out of Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park before moving to offices in Palo Alto and eventually to the Googleplex in Mountain View.
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Leadership
Founders
Larry Page
Computer scientist and engineer. Earned BS in Computer Engineering with honors from University of Michigan (1995) and MS in Computer Science from Stanford University (1998). As an undergraduate, reverse-engineered inkjet printers using Lego, served as president of Eta Kappa Nu honor society, and was part of the 1993 solar car team. While pursuing his PhD at Stanford, developed the BackRub research project that explored web link structure and co-authored The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine. Created the PageRank algorithm that became the foundation of Google Search.
Sergey Brin
Computer scientist and mathematician. Graduated from University of Maryland (1993) at age 19 with BS in Computer Science with honors and high honors in Mathematics. Earned MS in Computer Science from Stanford University (1995) with support from a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. Interned at Wolfram Research in 1993. While pursuing his PhD at Stanford, focused on data mining systems and met Larry Page. Co-developed the PageRank algorithm and built the BackRub search engine, which became Google.
Executive Team
Sundar Pichai
Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet and Google
Joined Google in 2004. Previously served as Senior Vice President of Products and Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome, and Apps. Became CEO of Google in October 2015 and CEO of Alphabet in December 2019. Holds a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, MS from Stanford University, and MBA from Wharton School.
Ruth M. Porat
President and Chief Investment Officer, and Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google
Joined Google in 2015. Previously served as Executive Vice President and CFO of Morgan Stanley. Holds a BA from Stanford University, MS from London School of Economics, and MBA from Wharton School.
Business Model
Revenue Model
Google's primary revenue source is digital advertising through search ads, display ads, and YouTube ads, accounting for approximately 80% of revenue. Additional revenue comes from Google Cloud services (infrastructure, platform, and software as a service), Google Workspace subscriptions, Google Play app and content sales, hardware sales (Pixel phones, Nest devices, Fitbit), and other services. The advertising model operates on pay-per-click, display network, and cost-per-impression bases.
Pricing Tiers
30 GB pooled storage, custom business email, Gemini AI in Gmail, 100 participant video meetings, Google Vids, security controls. Introductory offer: $3.50/month for first year
2 TB pooled storage, enhanced email features, Gemini AI in Gmail/Docs/Meet, NotebookLM access, 150 participant video meetings with recording, eSignature. Introductory offer: $7/month for first year
5 TB pooled storage, full-power Gemini AI, 500 participant video meetings, eDiscovery, Vault, enhanced endpoint management. Introductory offer: $11/month for first year
5 TB+ pooled storage (expandable), S/MIME encryption, 1000 participant meetings, in-domain live streaming, DLP, Cloud Identity Premium, enterprise endpoint management, AI Classification for Drive, enhanced support
Single user plan with AI features
Varies by product and usage. No up-front fees or termination charges. Custom pricing available for enterprise customers.
Bundles Google's top AI features including advanced Gemini capabilities
Target Markets
- Individual consumers (global)
- Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
- Enterprise customers
- Educational institutions (K-12 and higher education)
- Government agencies
- Advertisers (all sizes from local to global)
- Web search and information retrieval
- Digital advertising and marketing campaigns
- Enterprise cloud computing and infrastructure
- Software development and application deployment
- Video content creation and streaming
- Email communication and collaboration
- Etsy
- PayPal
- The Home Depot
- Coca-Cola
History & Milestones
Agreement to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion
Federal judge rules Google held an illegal monopoly over internet search
Launch of generative AI chatbot Bard (later renamed Gemini)
U.S. Department of Justice files antitrust lawsuit
Sundar Pichai becomes CEO of both Alphabet and Google
5 AI Tools by Google
Google's AI professional certification course teaching practical AI skills for workplace productivity and career advancement.
TensorFlow
1moAn end-to-end open-source platform for machine learning that enables building and deploying ML models across any environment.
Google Colab
1moA free cloud-based Jupyter notebook environment that lets you write and execute Python code in your browser with access to GPUs and TPUs.
An open-source framework from Google for building, deploying, and orchestrating AI agents with multi-agent systems support.
NotebookLM
2moAI-powered research assistant that summarizes sources, generates audio overviews, and provides cited insights grounded in your uploaded documents.
