Google is marking its 25th anniversary, when it was created in the garage of its founders. Google is now one of the most valuable companies in the world.
As a company established in the prior millenium, Google is an integrated service that many couldn’t imagine living without it. It is also literally the case for a large part of the workforce, which was not born or does not remember a world before its advent. The BBC looks back at the beginnings of the company:
Google turns 25 this month (I’ll have a few more candles on my cake) – and finds itself in a tech landscape that has changed dramatically since founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started it in 1998.
That company – now part of a larger parent group called Alphabet – has since diversified into pretty much every area of tech and dominates some of them to an extent which sometimes troubles anti-competition regulators. Right now it is trying to Google itself into pole position in the AI race – but some say it has already fallen behind.
However, Google’s innovation is starting to lag in the Artificial Intelligence field. Chat GPT, a junior newcomer to the “big tech” world, has continued to have a lead in the field. Channel News Asia continues:
In terms of functionality, Google Search was effective for a few reasons. It used the innovative approach of delivering results by counting web links in a page (a process called PageRank). But more importantly, its algorithm was very sophisticated; it not only matched search queries with the text within a page, but also with other text linking to that page (this was called anchor text).
Google’s popularity quickly surpassed competitors such as AltaVista and Yahoo Search. With more than 85 per cent of the market share today, it remains the most popular search engine.
With deep pockets and an experienced workforce, Google has the capability to propel itself back to the top of the search and AI industry. Poor decisions, however unlikely, could have a dramatic effect and make Google obsolete.
READ NEXT: Google Rolls Out Anticipated Feature
