Dr. Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google Inc..
Google, Inc. is a US corporation established in 1998 that runs the Google search engine and other online services. Google is headquartered at the "Googleplex" in Mountain View, California, and employs over 3,000 workers. Dr. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Novell, took over as Google CEO when co-founder Larry Page stepped down.
Google began as a research project in early 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University who developed the hypothesis that a search engine based on analysis of the relationships between Web sites would produce better results than the basic techniques then in use. It was originally nicknamed BackRub because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance. Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant ones, Page and Brin decided to test their ideas as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. The domain www.google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally founded their company, Google, Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California.
Google got a big break in 1999 when AltaVista, the most popular search engine among knowledgeable Internet users, relaunched as a portal and alienated those users. The Google search engine gained a following for its simple, clean design (imitating the early AltaVista) and relevant search results.
In 2000, Google began selling advertisements by the keyword so that they would be more relevant to the end user. The ads were text-based in order to keep page design uncluttered and fast-loading. The concept of selling keyword advertising was originally pioneered by Overture, formerly Goto.com. While many of its dot-com siblings went under, Google quietly rose in stature while turning a profit. U.S. Patent 6,285,999, describing Google's ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.
At its peak in early 2004, Google handled upwards of 80 percent of all search requests on the world wide web through its own web site and clients like Yahoo!, AOL and CNN. Google's share fell in February 2004 when Yahoo! dropped Google's search technology in order to deliver independent results. As further evidence of Google's popularity, the word "Google" has entered North American slang as a verb meaning, "to perform a web search (using Google's search engine)".
Google's declared code of conduct is "Don't Be Evil".
Google became a publicly traded company on August 19, 2004. Since the IPO, Google's stock market capitalization has risen greatly. On June 7, 2005, Google was valued at $80 billion, making it the world's biggest media company by stock market value, briefly surpassing Time Warner. With Google's increased size comes more competition from large mainstream technology companies, in particular Microsoft Corporation.
Contact Information
| Web Site: | www.google.com/corporate/ |
| Telephone: | 650.253.0000 |
| Fax: | 650.253.0001 |
| Address: | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
USA |
National Media Properties
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Comments about Google Inc.
Comments to date: 17. The most recent comments are below.| |
Media Owners editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 4:20pm on Friday, April 22, 2011 |
-- April 22, 2011 -- Caroline McCarthy has joined the Trends and Insights team at Google. She was previously social media writer at CNET.
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Media Owners editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 9:44am on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 |
Justice Department Rejects Google Books Settlement
-- On March 22, 2011, the National Federation of the Blind released a statement concerning a settlement -- rejected by the Justice Department -- between Google Books and authors and publishers. The settlement would have made millions of titles available to the blind and other Americans with print disabilities, providing more access to the printed word than the blind have had in all of human history.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "The National Federation of the Blind supports access by the blind to the vast amount of knowledge contained in the millions of books available throughout the world, and we believe that the Google Books settlement is one way to achieve that access. For that reason, we are disappointed that the court has rejected the settlement. We will analyze the decision carefully and then determine our future course."
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Media Owners editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 3:18pm on Sunday, March 6, 2011 |
Google's War Against Rotten Search Results
-- On March 3, 2011, Time magazine reported on changes to Google's search algorithm:
"Google's algorithm -- the legendary, largely mysterious technology that determines which sites get shown in search results and in what order -- is good. It's good for the people who quickly find useful stuff on the Web. It's good for the sites they find. And it's very, very good for Google, which handles two-thirds of all searches in the U.S. and reaps billions from the ads it displays.
Not all media coverage of Google-the-company is a lovefest, however. Products such as its Twitter clone, Buzz, have been pummeled by the press; incidents such as its accidental collection of data from Wi-Fi networks during Google Maps Street View photography excursions have been deeply controversial. But Google-the-search-engine has worked so well for so long that it's rarely been subject to serious criticism.
Lately, though, some professional Googlewatchers have wondered if the algorithm -- which is supposed to measure both a site's popularity and relevance by tallying links, keywords, and other factors -- is broken."
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Mondo Times editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 3:04pm on Friday, February 25, 2011 |
Google Changes Its Search Algorithm
-- Move intended to find "more high-quality sites in search", the company announced on February 24, 2011.
From the Google blog:
"Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.
Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.
We can’t make a major improvement without affecting rankings for many sites. It has to be that some sites will go up and some will go down. Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does."
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Media Owners editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 11:21am on Thursday, February 17, 2011 |
On February 16, 2011, Google's Eric Schmidt announced Google One Pass, a service that lets publishers set their own prices and terms for their digital content.
From the Google blog:
"With Google One Pass, publishers can maintain direct relationships with their customers and give readers access to digital content across websites and mobile apps.
Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password. Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers don’t have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices.
With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them—offering subscriptions, metered access, "freemium" content or even single articles for sale from their websites or mobile apps. The service also lets publishers give existing print subscribers free (or discounted) access to digital content. We take care of the rest, including payments technology handled via Google Checkout.
Our goal is to provide an open and flexible platform that furthers our commitment to support publishers, journalism and access to quality content. Like First Click Free, Fast Flip and Living Stories, this is another initiative developed to enable publishers to promote and distribute digital content."
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Media Owners editors Boulder, Colorado USA | Posted at 9:34pm on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 |
Larry Page to Replace Eric Schmidt as Google CEO on April 4
-- From a Google announcement entitled "An Update from the Chairman," dated January 20, 2011:
"Larry, Sergey and I have been talking for a long time about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making—and over the holidays we decided now was the right moment to make some changes to the way we are structured.
For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there’s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.
Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead."
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Media Owners editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 9:20am on Monday, January 3, 2011 |
Google Digital Newsstand Aims to Muscle In on Apple
-- Companies vie to become dominant distributor of digital news content, The Wall Street Journal reported on January 2, 2011:
"Google is trying to drum up publishers' support for a new Google-operated digital newsstand for users of devices that run its Android software. With the effort, it is chasing Apple, which already sells digital versions of many major magazines and newspapers through its iTunes store.
The e-newsstand would include apps from media companies offering versions of their publications for smartphones or tablets running Android, say people familiar with the matter. Google hopes to launch it in part to provide a more consistent experience for consumers who want to read periodicals on Android devices, and to help publishers collect payment for their apps, these people say."
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Media Owners editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 2:04pm on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 |
France Says Google Is Main Cause Of News Publishers’ Woes
-- The Guardian newspaper's paidContent.org reported on December 14, 2010:
"The competition watchdog, L’Autorité de la Concurrence, in an opinion expressed to the finance minister, says Google is “dominant” in search advertising (no surprise there - Google’s search share in Europe is far higher than in the U.S.).
But it did not rule Google that is abusing that dominance, instead saying: “This dominance is, of course, not wrong in itself: it is the result of a tremendous effort of innovation, backed by significant and ongoing investment. Only the abuse of such market power could be sanctioned against.”
The authority says it has reviewed the search advertising market and defined what would constitute anti-competitive acts within it. But it has stopped short of actually testing Google or anyone else against those definitions, saying: “The authority, which is acting in an advisory capacity, did not rule on the legality of such practices ... investigations are often long and complex.”"
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Media Owners editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 11:17am on Monday, December 13, 2010 |
Rivals Say Google Plays Favorites
-- The Wall Street Journal reported on December 13, 2010:
"Google Inc. increasingly is promoting some of its own content over that of rival websites when users perform an online search, prompting competing sites to cry foul.
The Internet giant is displaying links to its own services—such as local-business information or its Google Health service—above the links to other, non-Google content found by its search engine.
Google, which is developing more content or specialized-search sites in hopes of boosting ad revenue, says that prominently displaying links to them is more useful to Web searchers than just displaying links to sites that rank highly in its search system. But the moves mean Google increasingly is at odds with websites that rely on the search engine for visitors."
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Media Owners editors Boulder Colorado USA | Posted at 11:40am on Monday, November 29, 2010 |
Why Google Seems to Favor Small Shops
-- Advertising Age magazine reported on November 29, 2010:
"With a brain trust of thousands, a bank account of billions and an insatiable appetite for acquisition, the Google beast is growing more gargantuan by the day. But for a company that's got "plexes" instead of offices and has spent years wooing business from adland's biggest players, when it comes to the marketing of its own products and services, Google thinks tiny.
For years, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company wasn't much of what Madison Avenue would call a client. It occasionally tapped small ad agencies, like Naked Communications and the now-defunct Toy, but wasn't one to ask for much outside help. While most of its advertising today is birthed in the Google Creative Lab, led by former agency executives Andy Berndt and Robert Wong, the company readily admits it's leaning more than ever on outside agencies."
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