In 2017, three women sued Google, accusing the company of violating California’s Equal Pay Act by underpaying its female employees. In June 2022, Google agreed to pay a $118 million settlement to 15,550 female employees working in California since 2013. The investigation claimed Google used its market power to prevent rivals from competing fairly, affecting billions spent on digital ads. It was ruled in 2025 by the Justice Department alongside 17 other states that Google operates a monopoly in online advertising technology. 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. 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.
Europe
According to comScore market research from November 2009, Google Search is the dominant search engine in the United States market, with a market share of 65.6%. The company subsequently announced that « 48 employees have been fired over the last two years » for sexual misconduct. On November 1, 2018, more than 20,000 Google employees and contractors staged a global walk-out to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment complaints.
Web-based services
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- 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.
- 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 2013, a class action against several Silicon Valley companies, including Google, was filed for alleged « no cold call » agreements which restrained the recruitment of high-tech employees.
- Google indexes billions of web pages to allow users to search for the information they desire through the use of keywords and operators.
- In October 2020, the company pledged to make the packaging for its hardware products 100% plastic-free and 100% recyclable by 2025.
- Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California, United States.
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Employees are split into six hierarchies based on experience and can range « from entry-level data center workers at level one to managers and experienced engineers at level six ». As a motivation technique, Google uses a policy known as Innovation Time Off, where Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them. A job search product has also existed since before 2017, Google for Jobs is an enhanced search feature that aggregates listings from job boards and career sites. Google Earth, launched in 2005, allows users to see high-definition satellite pictures from all over the world for free through a client software downloaded to their computers. Page and Brin originally nicknamed the new search engine « BackRub » because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd later co-authored with Page and Brin the first paper about the project, describing PageRank and the initial prototype of the Google search engine, published in 1998.
U.S. government contracts
In 1998, Yahoo’s founders offered Page and Brin $1 million for their search engine technology, but they were turned down. 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. It has been referred to as « the most powerful company in the world » by the BBC, and is one of the world’s most valuable brands. Google has had criticism over issues such as aggressive tax avoidance, search neutrality, copyright, censorship of search results and content, and privacy. In 2010, Google Energy made its first investment in a renewable energy project, putting $38.8 million into two wind farms in North Dakota. The company announced the two locations will generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to supply 55,000 homes.
Financial services
The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. In July 2013, Google introduced the Chromecast dongle, which allows users to stream content from their smartphones to televisions. In October 2016, Google announced Daydream View, a lightweight VR viewer which lets the user place their smartphone in the front hinge to view VR media. On January 26, 2014, Google announced it had agreed to acquire DeepMind Technologies, a privately held AI company from London. Technology news website Recode reported that the company was purchased for $400 million, yet the source of the information was not disclosed.
Data loss
This will grow their green energy profile by 40%, giving them an extra 1.6 gigawatt of clean energy, the company said. It also has product research and development operations in cities around the world, namely Sydney (birthplace location of Google Maps) and London (part of Android development). In November 2013, Google announced plans for a new London headquarter, a 1 million square foot office able to accommodate 4,500 employees. In 2013, a class action against several Silicon Valley companies, including Google, was filed for alleged « no cold call » agreements which restrained the recruitment of high-tech employees. In a lawsuit filed January 8, 2018, multiple employees and job applicants alleged Google discriminated against a class defined by their « conservative political views[,] male gender[,] and/or … Caucasian or Asian race ».
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On March 20, 2019, the European Commission imposed a €1.49 billion ($1.69 billion) fine on Google for preventing rivals from being able to « compete and innovate fairly » in the online advertising market. On June 27, 2017, the company received a record fine of €2.42 billion from the European Union (EU) for « promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results ». 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.
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- Also in February 2022, Google announced a $100 million fund to expand skills training and job placement for low-income Americans, in conjunction with non-profits Year Up, Social Finance, and Merit America.
- Google has had criticism over issues such as aggressive tax avoidance, search neutrality, copyright, censorship of search results and content, and privacy.
- The company has received criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, censorship, search neutrality, antitrust, and abuse of its monopoly position.
- Google is Alphabet’s largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet’s internet properties and interests.
- Responding to the humanitarian crisis after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google announced a $15 million donation to support Ukrainian citizens.
- As a motivation technique, Google uses a policy known as Innovation Time Off, where Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them.
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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. In February 2010, Google announced the Google Fiber project, with experimental plans to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network for 50,000 to 500,000 customers in one or more American cities. Following Google’s corporate restructure to make Alphabet Inc. its parent company, Google Fiber was moved to Alphabet’s Access division. Google also hosts Google Books, which allows users to search books in its database and shows limited previews, or the full book when allowed. 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 Methbet casino as part of its Vision 2030 initiative.
- On August 10, 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate named Alphabet Inc.
- Google Earth, launched in 2005, allows users to see high-definition satellite pictures from all over the world for free through a client software downloaded to their computers.
- In 2010, Google Energy made its first investment in a renewable energy project, putting $38.8 million into two wind farms in North Dakota.
- According to The Wall Street Journal, Google secretively began the project in 2018, with St. Louis-based healthcare company Ascension.
- Google generated $50 billion in annual revenue for the first time in 2012, generating $38 billion the previous year.
- On January 21, 2019, French data regulator CNIL imposed a record €50 million fine on Google for breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
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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. Schmidt was not initially enthusiastic about joining Google either, as the company’s full potential had not yet been widely recognized at the time, and as he was occupied with his responsibilities at Novell where he was CEO. Google is Alphabet’s largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet’s internet properties and interests.