Self learning
(Google)
Prepared by: Badar Naef Alotaibi
ID:429109740
Supervised by:Shankar
The beginning of the establishment of Google
company
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Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were
students at Stanford University. The company was officially launched
in September, 1998 in a friend’s garage. In one of the most
anticipated Initial Public Offerings (IPO) Google raised $1.67 billion in
August of 2004. Today, Google has over 12,000 employees in offices
throughout the world.
Google’s mission statement and corporate culture reflect a
philosophy that you can “make money without doing evil” and that
“work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun”. These
beliefs dominate life at Google. The official mission statement of the
company is to “organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful.”
In 2006, Google was selected by MBA students as the ideal place to
work. In 2007 and 2008 Fortune Magazine named Google the
Number 1 employer in their annual 100 Best Companies to Work For.
Google Company Culture
• casual” the company attracts and retains some of the brightest
minds in the technology industry. There is a work hard, play
hard atmosphere. The Google Mountain View, CA
headquarters (aka “the Googleplex”) is a campus-like
environment. There are workout facilities, a café, well stocked
snack rooms, and a dorm like environment.
• In my opinion, one of the coolest programs at Google is the
20% time program. All Engineers at Google are encouraged to
spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them.
Not only does this keep Engineers happy and challenged, its
also good business: some estimates put half of all new
product launches can be directly attributed to projects that
came from the 20% time program.
Jobs at Google
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In the United States, Google has offices in several states, including California, Illinois,
Massachusetts, Arizona, Michigan, New York, Texas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington (Seattle) and Washington, DC. They
currently have hundreds of openings in Engineering, IT, Operations and Support
functions. Some of the current openings at Google:
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Current job postings in Engineering include openings for Software Engineers with
extensive experience in C++ programming and in java programming. There are also a lot
of openings for Testing Engineers and a few for Web Designers.
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The current postings for Operations and IT include openings you would find in
many Information Technology departments, including System Administrators and Help
Desk Technicians. There were dozens of openings in their Data Center as of this writing.
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Google actively recruits college graduates, with a special website section
specifically for students. Google offers both internship and full time employment
opportunities on their student recruitment pages.
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Google also has offices internationally. While much of the information presented
here refers to Google’s US offices, they currently have hundreds of Google Openings
Worldwide in areas such as Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the
Americas. I counted openings in 57 worldwide locations, not including those in the United
States.
Google Compensation and
Benefits
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Most workers at Google have base salaries that are on the lower end of normal for the
markets they operate in. The base salaries are supplemented by stock options,
challenging work and extensive benefits. In addition to the normal health and welfare
benefits that most larger companies offer, Google provides its employees with the
following cutting-edge benefits:
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Health care for you and your family, plus on-site physician and dental care at our
headquarters in Mountain View, California and our engineering center in Seattle,
Washington
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Vacation days and holidays, and flexible work hours
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Maternity and parental leave, plus new moms and dads are able to expense up to
$500 for take-out meals during the first four weeks that they are home with their new
baby
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Adoption assistance
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Google Child Care Center, just five minutes from Google headquarters in
Mountain View
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Back-up child care helps California parents when their regularly scheduled child
care falls through
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Free shuttle service to several San Francisco, East Bay, and South Bay locations
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Fuel Efficiency Vehicle Incentive Program
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Employee discounts
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Onsite dry cleaning, plus a coin-free laundry room in the Mountain View office
BackRub Becomes Google
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The name "Google" was chosen from the word "googol," a mathematical term coined by
Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, for the number
represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. A googol, or google, represented a very large
number and reflected the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite,
amount of information available on the World Wide Web.
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Unable to secure the financial support of the major portal players of the day, cofounders
Page and Brin decided to make a go of it on their own. They wrote a business plan, put
their graduate studies on hold, and searched for an investor. They first approached Andy
Bechtolsheim, founder of Sun Microsystems, and friend of a Stanford faculty member.
Impressed with their plans, Bechtolsheim wrote a check to Google Inc. for $100,000. The
check, however, preceded the incorporation of the company, which followed in 1998.
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Shortly after its incorporation, Google Inc. opened its new headquarters in the garage of
a friend in Menlo Park, California. Their first employee was hired--Craig Silverstein, who
later became Google's Director of Technology. By this time, Google .com was answering
10,000 search queries a day. Articles about the new Web site with relevant search results
appeared in USA Today and Le Monde. In December, PC Magazine named Google to its
list of Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines for 1998.
The Google Culture Evolves
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Although the company grew rapidly, it still maintained a small company feel.
The Googleplex helped nurture an atmosphere of innovation and collegiality
with its exercise balls, lava lamps, workout room, grand pianos and visiting
dogs. Sophisticated computer equipment was originally set up on wooden
doors supported by sawhorses. Charlie Ayers, former cook for the Grateful
Dead was hired as company chef. Twice-weekly street hockey games were
held in roped off areas of the parking lot and weekly staff meetings were held
in the open space among employees' desks.
Improvements to the search engine itself came in the introduction of the
Google Directory, which was based on Netscape's Open Directory Project,
and the ability to search via wireless devices. Thinking globally, Google also
introduced ten language versions for search users.
In May 2000 Google received a Webby award for Best Technical
Achievement for 2000 and a People's Voice Award for Technical
Achievement. The following month, Google introduced its billion-page index
and, with 18 million search queries per day,
With 2002 Comes the Google
Search Appliance
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In January 2002, Google announced the availability of the Google Search Appliance, an integrated hardware/software
solution that extended the power of Google to corporate intranets and Web servers. AdWords Select was launched, an
updated version of the AdWords self-service advertising system with new enhancements, including cost-per-click-based
pricing.
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More honors were received in 2002, including "Outstanding Search Service," "Best Image Search Engine," "Best Design,"
"Most Webmaster Friendly Search Engine," and "Best Search Feature" in the 2001 Search Engine Watch Awards. Expansion
of global capabilities continued with the launching of interface translation for Belarusian, Javanese, Occitan, Thai, Urdu,
Klingon, Bihari, and Gujaratie, bringing the total number of interface language options to 74. Google Compute offered a new
toolbar feature to access idle cycles on Google users' computers for working on complex scientific problems. Folding@home,
a non-profit research project at Stanford University aimed at understanding the structure of proteins in order to develop better
treatments for certain illnesses, was the first beneficiary of this effort. Google Web APIs service enabled programmers and
researchers to develop software that accessed billions of Web documents as a resource in their applications. Awards in mid2002 included Google's founders, Brin and Page, being named to InfoWorld's list of "Top Ten Technology Innovators" and an
M.I.T. Sloan eBusiness award as the "Student's Choice."
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A multi-year agreement with AOL was announced to provide results to AOL's 34 million members and millions of visitors to
AOL.com. Under the agreement, Google's search technology began powering the search areas of AOL, CompuServce,
AOL.com and Netscape. Google Labs was launched, enabling users access to Google's latest and evolving search
technologies. Seven new interface languages were introduced, including traditional and simplified Chinese, Catalan, Polish,
Swedish, Russian and Romanian. Global expansion continued with a new office opening in Paris to complement existing
international offices in London, Toronto, Hamburg and Tokyo. The 2002 Google Programming Contest, launched in early
2002, announced its first winner of $10,000 for the creation of a geographic search program that enables users to search for
Web pages within a specified geographic area.
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Plans for the remainder of 2002 at Google include efforts to intensify its global push--half the company's search queries come
from aboard--and to expand its corporate search services, which power the Web sites for other corporations. So far Google
has amassed 130 clients worldwide including Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Cisco Systems, Sony and Cingular Wireless. As
Google continues to grow, some wonder whether it can maintain the culture and focus that has propelled it so far. To Brin and
Page, the company's cautious start has forced it to enter the search services arena with a deeper understanding of the
market. At present, it is truly the dot.com engine that could.
The best services provided by
Google
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products from multiple categories such as video solutions, mail services, calendar, blogs and numerous
search technologies including news, jobs, maps, groups and patents. Obviously, every client of the
Google products has his own favorite services used every day for a certain activity. In the next lines, I'll
present you the top 10 Google solutions in my opinion with a short description for every service in the
list.
1. Google Search is regarded as the best search engine on the Internet because it provides an
impressive amount of information from numerous websites in the entire world. I use it every day for
certain activities so I guess it is quite popular among the Internet users.
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2. Gmail is the mail solution provided by Google, released on April 1, 2004 and available as a free public
beta. Since the launch date, Gmail was available only by invitations, requiring users to register for the
service using an invitation sent by another client of the product.
The service was improved several times but the most important feature seems to be Mail Fetcher that
allows users to receive up to 5 POP3 accounts directly into the Gmail inbox. Another important update is
the Google Talk interoperability that helps Gmail users communicate with friends and family using the
interface of the mail solution.
3. Image Search is a technology provided as a part of the Google Search, allowing you to find pictures
from the websites located on the entire Internet. It was the subject of a well-known controversy because
the company improved its interface but, after an impressive number of users' complaint, Google decided
to switch it back to the old appearance.
4. Google News is one of the most popular sources of information on the Internet because it receives
news and latest headlines from almost 4500 publications from the entire world. Although the product
displays only the headline but places a link to the original publisher, it was often criticized for receiving
praises for the content offered by other sources.
5. YouTube is the leader of the online video services that allows you to upload, share and comment
videos with friends or other members of the community. The product was acquired in October 2006 for
$1.6 billion and caused numerous lawsuits for Google, the company being accused of publishing videos
without authorization.
6. Google Maps is probably the most popular solution in its category, allowing users to view maps and
other imagery captured directly from the satellites. It is used in many domains; multiple publications
reported that even terrorists were connecting to the service to organize attacks against the UK troops
located in Basra.
7. Docs & Spreadsheets is regarded as the Office solution provided the search giant that allows users to
create, edit and share documents using a simple web-based interface. The product is available for free
so I guess it can represent a powerful rival for the well known Microsoft solution.
8. Blogger is the blog service developed by the search giant to help users post and comment articles
wrote by numerous authors. Recently, the company revealed the final version of the Blogger that
provides an innovative interface bundled with new exciting features.
9. AdSense is currently the most attracting service provided by the search giant because it allows users
to earn money quick and easy by placing ads on their websites. The solution is based on the pay per
click procedure because it automatically transfers a certain amount of money into the owner's account
every time a user clicks on the adverts.
10. Google Video is another video solution provided by Google that provides almost the same features
as YouTube but it is currently in beta. Although the company now owns two similar products, its
representatives sustained Google Video will continue to exist but will be based on the content it
provides.
So, this is my Top Ten Google Products. Feel free to comment it but remember these are the most
popular services provided by Google in MY opinion, so try to avoid criticizing me because I really use all
these solutions.
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The End
Thank you