Google (company)
Google Inc. is an internet search engine company that was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It is currently the most popular search engine on the internet. Among the services offered by Google are Google Mail, Google Video, and Google Maps. Google Inc. is also the owner of several other websites and companies, for example Blogger, YouTube, and DoubleClick.
History
The history of Google has been detailed.[1] Brin and Page published their article, "The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine", in 1998.[2] Their patent for PageRank was filed in 1998 and issued in 2001.[3]
Controversies
The Google Book Search Library Project, in which millions of books from libraries will be scanned and made searchable on the Web, has led to controversy and legal action. In support of Google's mission to "organize the world's information," the Google Book Search program is designed to digitize printed book content so that it may be searched and retrieved via Google's search engine. The program has two facets—one that involves publishers, which has not been controversial, and one that involves libraries, which has. The University of Michigan has committed to allowing Google to scan its entire print and journal collection. Publishers are suing Google for copyright infringement, while Google claims their use falls under the fair use privilege of the Copyright Act.[4]
Google has agreed to censor results for queries made from China. Google has decided to do so to stop China from hindering Chinese user searches (blocking Google or substantially slowing down the result display). Google has agreed to block content that the Chinese government deems unacceptable. [5].
Google Reader now automatically allows contacts a person has in a Gmail account to what feeds are subscribed.[6].
Google cookies are criticized by the World Privacy Forum and others. They expire automatically after two years, but cookies will not be erased unless a person does not visit any Google sites for two years. [7].
References
- ↑ John Battelle. The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. Portfolio Trade. ISBN 1-59184-141-0.
- ↑ Brin, Sergey; Lawrence Page (1998-04). "The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine". Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 30 (1-7): 107-117. DOI:10.1016/S0169-7552(98)00110-X. ISSN 0169-7552. Retrieved on 2008-12-17. Research Blogging.
- ↑ Page L. (2001) Method for node ranking in a linked database. United States Patent Office Google Patents U.S. Patent 6,285,999,
- ↑ Baksik, Corinna. (2006) "Fair Use or Exploitation? The Google Book Search Controversy," Libraries and the Academy- Volume 6, Number 4, October 2006, pp. 399-415 in Project Muse
- ↑ Fox News.com, "China's Google Search Engine to Be Censored", [Associated Press], January 25, 2006.
- ↑ Profy, "Don't Be... What Was That Again? We Seem to Have Forgotten", Cyndy Aleo-Carreira, December 27th, 2007.
- ↑ USA Today, "Google's cookie policy good for privacy?", Anick Jesdanun, July 19, 2007.