The highlights of Google's 25 years

The emergence of Google occurred in 1996, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two PhD students from Stanford University, developed a new search algorithm, at the time nicknamed Backrub, which organized results according to their relevance.

25 years ago, in 1998, Google was officially founded and, since then, it has become the world's leading search engine. The company is also one of the most valuable on the planet and has a significant impact on modern society.

Google has changed the way people access information and continues to innovate and expand its business. To celebrate a quarter of a century, throughout this article, we will talk about some of the brand's main tools.

Gmail

Launched in 2004, the Gmail is a free email service and is one of the major highlights in the company's universe. Available in more than 100 languages, the platform is used by about 1.8 billion active users per month worldwide, being the most popular email service in the United States of America.

At the time of its launch, the main highlight of this service was to offer 1GB of free storage to users, which, for the time, was something abysmal. 

Over the years, Google has been introducing new features, such as the organized inbox, advanced search, filters, and, something less popular, ads.

Google Maps

One of Google's main tools was born in 2005, as a simple path guidance service. Since then, the Google Maps kept up with the times and kept improving.

What started as just a basic map platform now includes tools such as satellite images, transport information, traffic information, 3D street view (Street View) and local guides. 

Today, Google Maps is one of the most popular map services in the world and is used by about billion people around the globe, being a valuable tool, not only in daily life but also for those who want to travel and explore new areas.

YouTube

One year after its founding, in 2006, Google acquired YouTube, a sharing platform that was taking its first steps in the newly arrived era of social networks.

The complete transformation carried out by Google led YouTube to success and made it the most famous and most used video platform on the internet.

Creating content for YouTube has become a profession of astronomical profit for some and, in recent years, to be “youtuber" became the dream of millions of children around the globe.

Android

Perhaps Google's biggest milestone since the launch of the search engine was the introduction of the Android, the most widely used operating system for smartphones in the world. 

Android was born in 2003, by a company of the same name, which would be acquired by Google in 2005. At the time, Android's main focus was the development of a system for digital cameras, but everything changed with the arrival of smartphones.

The success of HTC Dream, in 2008, which was equipped with Android, led the company to take a new direction and, currently, 81% of the world's smartphones are Android.

Google Chrome

Born in 2008, the Google Chrome was definitely one of the biggest highlights in Google's history. Today the global market leader in browsers, Chrome is an open-source based browser and, in just 3 years, stole the throne from Internet Explorer as the most widely used browser in the world.

Based on Chromium, the project that also serves as the base for browsers like Opera, Edge, and Brave, Google Chrome stands out for its versatility and extensive extension store. 

Despite the positive points, Chrome is possibly Google's biggest point of controversy: there are several real concerns about the privacy and user data collection.

Bard

Google's most popular and recent tool is the Bard. As expected, the technology giant could not stay out of the artificial intelligence race and, after the success of ChatGPT, launched its own AI language model.

In opposition to ChatGPT, Google promised to equip Bard with more capabilities and access to updated information, through the search power of your search engine. 

Google's goal is to integrate its artificial intelligence tool into all its features and applications, however, it is impossible to know if this tool will be a success, since it was only launched in March 2023.