Google Case Study

Google

In 1996 Sergey Brin and Larry Page created a search engine called “BackRub.” BackRub was unique because it used links to rank web pages. This technique provides more reputable web pages first that match your search words, making searching the web a little safer. In 1998 the search engine Google was officially born. Named after the term gogol, a mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros.

        Google is very unique and so is its corporate culture. Google employees enjoy huge amenities including, a free massage every other week, an on-site gymnasium, daycare, and laundry service. They also enjoy free gourmet lunches, multiple sporting courts, tuition reimbursement, and discounts on solar panels. Google employees also have the option to bring their pets to work. This is all to keep the employees happy. Their employees get 20 percent of their work week to work on personal projects, which gives Google ideas for future tech and innovations.

        Google is now much more than a search engine. They created a web browser, email system, programs that rival Microsoft office, and even storage solutions such as Google drive. They have also purchased YouTube and Android. Although they purchased Android, they released it through the Open Handset Alliance. Android is now an open source operating system platform. The source code is available for users to view and even modify.

        Google makes its profits through advertising. This is good and bad. In order for them to deliver targeted advertisements they keep information on your searches. They sell this data to partners after they have anonymized the data so that companies can use the statistics to improve themselves. Google is not perfect; it has had its shares of law suits but has tried to make it right. When google entered China, the Chinese government demanded that the people’s searches be censored and that the government had access to see peoples searches. Google complied prompted a notification when users searched stating that the search was being monitored by the government. The Chinese government made them remove this feature.

        Nothing is completely safe and secure. Many companies including, Apple, Target, Yahoo, and Google have all been hacked. Google’s Gmail was hacked around 2010-2011 by the Chinese government. They broke into hundreds of users Gmail accounts. After the attack was detected Google informed the users who were effected and also released the news to the public. The company was not criticized for the attack. Google performs regular security and privacy audits to ensure that they are as protected as can be.

        I learned a lot about Google from reading their case study. I did not like some of the information but overall I still recommend google. They are still the leading search engine and are constantly looking for ways to improve. They are also looking for ways to improve technology and internet access to the world to bring us all closer.