Google

Google is an American technology company, now the largest business of its parent Alphabet Inc., best known for its internet search engine and for products such as YouTube, Android, Gmail, Chrome and Google Cloud. Alphabet, which reports Google’s results, had revenues of $402.8 billion in 2025, according to its annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Google’s headquarters are at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.

History of Google

Google began as a research project at Stanford University. Larry Page was considering the school for graduate study when Sergey Brin, a student there, was assigned to show him around. By the following year the two were working together, and from their dorm rooms they built a search engine that used links between pages to judge how important each page was.

They first called the search engine Backrub and then renamed it Google. The name is a play on googol, the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, and it reflected their mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

In August 1998 Andy Bechtolsheim, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, wrote them a check for $100,000, and Google Inc. was formally incorporated. The company’s first office was a garage in Menlo Park, California, owned by Susan Wojcicki, who later became chief executive of YouTube. Google later moved to its present campus in Mountain View, known as the Googleplex.

Even early on, the company did things differently. Its first server was built from Lego bricks, and its first Doodle in 1998 was a stick figure on the logo telling visitors that the whole staff was at the Burning Man festival.

The company held its initial public offering in 2004. In August 2015 it was reorganized as a subsidiary of a new holding company, Alphabet Inc. Sundar Pichai became chief executive of Google that year and added the same role at Alphabet in 2019.

Products and services of Google

Alphabet’s annual report describes itself as a collection of businesses, the largest of which is Google. It reports Google in two segments, Google Services and Google Cloud, and groups its other ventures as Other Bets. Alphabet also reports central research on advanced artificial intelligence, including frontier models that serve its businesses.

Google Services includes Search and related products, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Google Play and devices. Google Cloud sells infrastructure, data analytics and AI tools to businesses over the internet, which is the model known as cloud computing.

The annual report says Google earns revenue mainly by delivering performance and brand advertising that appears on Google Search, YouTube and partner websites. It also earns revenue from subscriptions, platforms and devices. In 2025 Google Services produced $342.7 billion of revenue, up from $304.9 billion in 2024, and Google Cloud produced $58.7 billion, up from $43.2 billion.

Subscriptions, platforms and devices, a category that covers paid services and hardware, brought in $48.0 billion in 2025 compared with $40.3 billion in 2024.

Other Bets are early-stage ventures outside the main businesses. They produced only $1.5 billion of revenue in 2025, which shows how much of the company still depends on advertising and cloud services.

Corporate structure and operations

Alphabet is the publicly traded parent. Its structure separates Google from its other ventures so that each business can be managed and funded on its own terms.

As of December 31, 2025, Alphabet had 190,820 employees. The company has works councils and statutory employee representation obligations in some countries, which means workers in those places have legal channels to take part in decisions affecting them.

Revenue has grown each year in the three-year period reported in the filing. It was $307.4 billion in 2023, $350.0 billion in 2024 and $402.8 billion in 2025. Net income was $100.1 billion in 2024 and $132.2 billion in 2025. The report shows that gains and losses on investments outside the main businesses can change net income noticeably from one year to the next.

Research and development spending rose from $49.3 billion in 2024 to $61.1 billion in 2025, which is a sign of the company’s heavy investment in computing infrastructure and AI.

Impact of Google

Google Search became one of the main ways people find information online. Its use as a verb entered major dictionaries in the early 2000s. Businesses rely on it, and on the advertising it supports, to reach customers, and publishers depend on its traffic.

Android is the operating system behind many of the world’s smartphones, and Chrome is one of the most widely used web browsers. YouTube is a leading video platform, so Google’s choices about ranking and moderation affect what many people watch and read.

The company also helped popularize free, advertising-supported internet services. Users get tools such as email and maps without paying directly, and in return the company earns money from digital marketing placed alongside them.

Criticism and controversies

Antitrust and competition issues are the most prominent source of criticism. Alphabet’s annual report says the U.S. Department of Justice, various states and other plaintiffs have filed antitrust lawsuits about its advertising technologies, the operation and distribution of Google Search, and the operation and distribution of the Android operating system and Play Store. The company warns that remedies could mean significant expenses and changes to its business.

The report adds that the company is also subject to claims about privacy, consumer protection, content moderation and AI. Under antitrust law, regulators examine whether a dominant firm uses its position to block rivals. Courts and regulators have not always agreed on the right remedies, and some decisions are being appealed.

Another long-running concern involves privacy and the collection of user data to target ads. Regulators in several regions have investigated these practices, and the company says it faces ongoing regulatory scrutiny in many countries.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 4, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue