Google Celebrates 13 Years

Sci-Tech — 27 September 2011

Online giant, Google, which started as an ambitious Stanford project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to index the entire Internet and deliver meaningful search results, turned 13 today.

However, 13 years later Google is no longer just an online search engine.

Today, Google powers Android, the fastest growing smartphone operating system in the world, is delivering media (music, movies, television and news), has probably the most widely used navigation platform, is experimenting with self-driving cars and has ambitions to explore outer space!

In a nutshell, Google wants to be a part of everything and anything that can connect to the Internet – from microwaves to airplanes. It wants to democratize the Internet (its own, not our words) and ensure that everyone has access to information, irrespective of where they live or what device they can use to access it.

Keeping ambitions aside, Google faces lots of challenges, the biggest at the moment being antitrust and anti-competitive proceedings against it.

Google today enjoys an almost monopoly when it comes to online search, which accusers claim puts it in a position to manipulate what information people can access.

It also faces new challenges from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, as consumers spend more time on online social networks and could use those networks to access information and replace search engines like Google in many cases. Its Chrome OS, too, has not made much of a dent in the low-cost laptop market.

These are just some of the many challenges it faces as Google enters its teens, which is often related to rebellious behavior – a trait its co-founders can relate to. It would be interesting to see how Google responds to these challenges even as governments try to clips its wings and influence.

We wish you a very happy birthday, Google!