Snapshots in History: September 4: Google Inc. and the Search Revolution
(Credit: CNBC – Wevideostube – YouTube – The Google Empire – The Building of Google – The Google Culture – Published on March 21, 2014 – 42:36)
(Credit: Wikivoicemedia – YouTube – Google – Published on November 23, 2013 – 53:05)
On September 4 and beyond, take a moment to remember the founding and private incorporation of Google Inc. on September 4, 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D students at Stanford University in California. “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” You can read Brin and Page’s paper “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine” online from when they were graduate students at Stanford University. Alex Fitzpatrick’s article “Google Used to Be the Company That Did ‘Nothing But Search’” on Time.com reminds us that Google has come a long way from a company whose primary reason for being is still Internet searching to offering a variety of services and products such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Android-based smartphones and tablets (including Nexus 7).
Some users embrace the “Google universe” of products and services while others reject it. Google has played an important role in developing Internet searching but one cannot forget neither Microsoft Corporation (with its Bing search engine) nor Yahoo! (with its Yahoo! search engine) in the development of World Wide Web searching. Those concerned with privacy issues while searching the Internet can'turn to alternatives such as DuckDuckGo, Ixquick and its sister Google-enabled search engine, Startpage. Those wishing an alternative to Google Search’s Knowledge Graph for quick facts and figures on a topic could turn to a computational knowledge engine such as Wolfram Alpha. Mention should also be made of Apple Computers Inc. and its world of iPhones, iPads, iPods and so on. Let us not forget Facebook in the social networking realm and Google’s attempt to meet that challenge with Google Plus. And, on and on one could go…Google and its competitors have given people a lot to think about and options to consider when seeking to access information on the Internet.
Want to learn more about Google Inc.? Consider the following titles for borrowing from Toronto Public Library collections:
How Google works [eBook, 1 online resource] / Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg with Alan Eagle, 2014. Electronic Book. Access Online.
Read the review in Kirkus Reviews. Read the review in Publishers Weekly.
Digital wars Apple, Google, Microsoft and the battle for the Internet [2nd ed.] [eBook, 1 online resource] / Charles Arthur, 2014. Electronic Book. Access Online.
1st edition also available in eBook (Access Online) format.
Read a review of the 1st edition on ZDNet.
Dogfight: how Apple and Google went to war and started a revolution / Fred Vogelstein, 2013. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 338.47004 VOG
Also available in eBook (Access Online) format.
Read the review in the Boston Globe. Read the review in the New York Times.
The Googlization of everything: (and why we should worry) / Siva Vaidhyanathan, 2011. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 338.76102 VAI
Read the review in Times Higher Education. Read the review in Kirkus Reviews.
In the plex: how Google thinks, works, and shapes our lives / Steven Levy, 2011. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 338.76102 GOO LEV
Also available in Audiobook CD (17 sound discs) format.
Read the review in Bloomberg Business Week. Read the review from European Affairs by the European Institute.
Outsmarting Google / Evan Bailyn and Brad Bailyn, 2011. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 658.872 BAI
Also available in eBook (Access Online) format.
Read the review in State of Digital.
The genealogist's Google toolbox: a genealogist's guide to the most powerful free online research tools available / Lisa Louise Cooke, 2011. Book. Adult Non-Fiction. 929.1072 COO
Read the review on Genealogy Blog.
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