Our history in depth – Company – Google
1995-1997
1995
Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford. Larry, 22, a U               Michigan grad, is considering the school; Sergey, 21, is assigned to show him around.
1996
Larry and Sergey begin collaborating on a search engine called BackRub . BackRub operates on             Stanford servers for more than a year—eventually taking up too much bandwidth.
1997
Google.com is registered as a domain on September 15. The name—a play on the word             "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by             100 zeros—reflects Larry and Sergey's mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount             of information on the web.
1998
April
Larry launches a monthly " Google Friends Newsletter " to inform             fans about company news. (We've since shut down Google Friends Newsletter in favor of             blogs, Google+ and other methods of sharing             news .)
August
Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim writes a check for $100,000 to an entity that             doesn't exist yet—a company called Google Inc.
Before heading to the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, Larry and Sergey             incorporate the iconic Man into the logo to keep people informed             about where the Google crew would be for a few days—our first doodle .
September
On September 4, Google files for incorporation in California. Larry and Sergey open             a bank account in the newly-established company's name and deposit Andy Bechtolsheim's             check.
Google sets up workspace in Susan Wojcicki's garage on Santa Margarita Ave., Menlo             Park, Calif.
Larry and Sergey hire their first employee. Craig             Silverstein is a fellow CS grad student at Stanford who works at Google for 10+             years before joining education startup Khan Academy.
December
"PC Magazine" reports that Google "has an uncanny knack for returning extremely relevant               results" and recognizes us as the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Sites               for 1998.
1999
February
We outgrow our garage office and move to new digs at 165 University             Avenue in Palo Alto with just eight employees.
April
Yoshka, our first "company" dog, comes to work with our senior vice president of operations, Urs Hölzle.
May
Omid Kordestani joins to run sales—employee #11. Ten years later, Omid steps down             from his active role in the company, becoming a senior advisor.
June
Our first             press release announces a $25 million round from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner             Perkins; John Doerr and Michael Moritz join the board.
August
We move to our first Mountain View location: 2400             Bayshore . Mountain View is a few miles south of Stanford University, and north of             the older towns of Silicon Valley: Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose.
November
We hire our first chef, Charlie             Ayers (his previous claim to fame was catering for the Grateful Dead; he now owns a             cafe in Palo Alto). Today Google's food programs focus on providing healthy,             sustainably sourced food to fuel Googlers around the world.
2000
April
We announce the MentalPlex : Google's             ability to read your mind as you visualize the search results you want. Thus begins our             annual foray in the Silicon Valley tradition of April 1 hoaxes.
May
We win our first Webby Awards: Technical Achievement (voted by judges) and Peoples'             Voice (voted by users).
We run a series of             doodles featuring a little alien—our first doodle series and the first doodle not             associated with any particular event.
The first 10 language versions of Google.com are released : French, German, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch,               Norwegian and Danish. Today, search is available in 150+ languages.
July
Our first international doodle celebrates Bastille Day in France.
September
Google New York starts               in a Starbucks on 86th Street with a one-person sales "team." Today, more than 4,000               Googlers work in our New York office, a former Port Authority building at 111 Eighth               Avenue.
We start             offering search in Chinese, Japanese and Korean—bringing our total number of             supported languages to 15.
October
Google AdWords launches with 350 customers. The               self-service ad program promises online activation with a credit card, keyword               targeting and performance feedback.
The first doodle by a guest artist, Lorie             Loeb , goes live. Since then, many             artists have lent their talents to the Google homepage, from Wayne Thiebaud to             Christoph Niemann to Eric Carle.
December
Google Toolbar is released—a browser plug-in               that makes it possible to search without visiting the Google homepage.
2001
February
In our first public acquisition, we acquire Deja.com's Usenet Discussion Service,             an archive of 500 million Usenet discussions dating back to 1995. We add search and             browse features and launch it as Google Groups .
March
Eric Schmidt is named chairman of the               board of directors.
April
Swedish Chef becomes a language preference in search. We offer several "joke"             languages, including Klingon.
July
Google Images launches, initially offering access               to 250 million images.
August
We open our first international office, in Tokyo, Japan .
Eric Schmidt becomes our CEO. Larry and Sergey are named presidents of products and             technology, respectively.
December
We release our first annual Google             Zeitgeist , a visual look at what millions of people searched for over the year just             ending. It's a revealing look at the year that was, from "Harry Potter" to "Osama Bin             Laden." We continue to release Zeitgeist every year.
2002
February
The first Google product for enterprises is released: the Google Search Appliance is a             yellow box that businesses can plug into their computer network to enable search             capabilities for their own documents.
We release a major overhaul for AdWords ,             including new cost-per-click pricing.
April
We release the first set of Google APIs, enabling developers to query more than 2 billion web documents             and program in their favorite environment, including Java, Perl and Visual Studio.
May
We release Google Labs, which let people try out beta technologies and was the             proving ground for many Google features, such as Google Transit, Google Scholar and             Google Trends. Nearly 10 years later, we wind down Google Labs in order to prioritize             our product efforts.
September
Google News launches with 4,000 news sources. Today               Google News includes 50,000+ news sources, with 70 regional editions in different languages. All told, Google News and other services send publishers 6 billion clicks               per month as of 2012.
October
A few months after our first employee in Australia starts selling AdWords from her             lounge room, we open our office in Sydney —the second office after             Japan in APAC. Our first local AdWords client is eBay Australia.
December
With the launch of Froogle (which became Google             Shopping in 2012), people can search for stuff to buy.
2003
February
We acquire Pyra Labs, the creators of Blogger .             Nearly as old as Google itself (Blogger started in 1999), today more than 300 million             people visit Blogger every month.
March
We announce Google AdSense , a new             content-targeted advertising service that enables publishers large and small to access             Google's vast network of advertisers. (The following month, we acquire Applied             Semantics, whose technology bolsters the service named AdSense.)
April
We launch Google Grants —the nonprofit             edition of AdWords, which provides nonprofit organizations with $10,000 per month in             in-kind AdWords advertising to promote their iniatives.
October
Registration opens for programmers to compete for cash prizes and recognition at             the first ever Code Jam. Today, Google Code             Jam attracts tens of thousands of contestants each year, and the finals have             traveled to Tokyo, Dublin, London and New York City.
December
We launch Google Print (now known as Google             Books ), indexing small excerpts from books to appear in search results. In 2004,             the program expands through digital scanning partnerships with libraries. To date,             we've scanned more than 20 million books.
We launch Orkut , in its heyday the most important             social network in several countries.
March
We move to the new "Googleplex" at 1600             Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View with 800+ employees.
We introduce Google Local, offering relevant neighborhood business listings, maps,             and directions. (Eventually, Local is combined with Google Maps.)
April
We launch Gmail on April Fools' Day. At first             invite-only, today it boasts more than 425 million users. Fun fact: our internal code             name for Gmail was "Caribou," inspired by a Dilbert cartoon.
The Official Google Blog goes live.             Today, we offer a wide variety of ways —including             Google+ pages and Twitter accounts—for people to get news from Google, in many             different languages.
May
We announce the first winners of the Google Anita Borg Scholarship , awarded to outstanding women studying computer               science. Today these scholarships are open to students in Africa, Asia, Australia,               Canada, Europe, India, Middle East, New Zealand, and the United States.
July
We acquire Picasa , which helps people             organize and display photos online.
August
Our Initial Public Offering of 19,605,052 shares of Class A common stock takes             place on Wall Street. Opening price: $85 per share.
September
Our Hong Kong office is the             first Google office to open in the Greater China region.
October
We acquire Keyhole, a digital mapping company whose technology will later become Google Earth .
Google SMS launches. This service enabled users to send text search queries to             GOOGL or 466453 on mobile devices.
We formally open our European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland , with 150             multilingual Googlers, a visit from Sergey and Larry, and recognition from the Deputy             Prime Minister of Ireland, Mary Harney.
We open our new offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad , India. Googlers in             India have worked on products ranging from Map Maker to ads to Chrome.
November
We launch Google Scholar in beta. This free             service helps people search scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed papers, theses,             books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports.
December
We establish Google.org , dedicated to the idea that             technology can help make the world a better place.
2005
February
Google Maps goes live. Just two months later, we add               satellite views and directions to the product.
April
Google Maps comes to mobile phones in the               U.S., offering driving directions and local information to people on the go.
Our first Google Maps release in Europe is geared             to U.K. users. France, Germany, Italy and Spain follow in 2006. Today, we offer driving             directions in 190+ countries around the world.
The first video goes up on             YouTube (not yet part of Google). Today, 100+ hours of video are uploaded every             minute and people watch 6 billion hours of video per month!
May
Personalized Homepage (later iGoogle and no longer available as of November 2013)             was designed for people to customize their own Google homepage with content modules.
June
Google Mobile Web Search is released,               specially formulated for viewing search results on mobile phones.
We unveil Google Earth , a satellite             imagery-based mapping service that lets you take a virtual journey to any location in             the world. Google Earth has since been downloaded more than 1 billion times.
The Google Maps API is released;             developers can embed Google Maps on many kinds of mapping services and sites. Today             there are 1 million active websites and apps using the API, reaching 1 billion people             every week.
August
We launch Google Talk, a downloadable application that lets Gmail users to talk or             instant message with friends quickly and easily; Chat comes to Gmail the following             year. In 2013, we announce that Talk will be rolled into Hangouts , Google's new single communications system.
October
Googlers volunteer to produce an author event with Malcolm Gladwell in Mountain             View. Since then, the Talks at             Google program has hosted 1,500+ authors and other thought leaders in 18 offices.
November
We release Google Analytics for measuring             the impact of websites and marketing campaigns. Analytics is based on Urchin, a company             we acquired in March 2005.
We announce the opening of our offices in São Paulo and Mexico City —our first in Latin             America.
The first Doodle 4 Google contest             takes place in the United Kingdom. Since then, we've run Doodle 4 Google contests in             countries across six continents, with more than 1 million doodles submitted by students             eager for the chance to see their artwork on the Google homepage.
December
Google Transit launches in the Portland, Ore. metro area. Today, Transit has             schedules for more than 1 million public transit stops worldwide.
2006
March
Google Finance launches—complete with               interactive charts and related headlines from Google News—to help people to find               financial information more easily.
April
We launch Google Calendar to help you keep             track of events, special occasions and appointments, and to share schedules with             others.
Google Translate launches, offering               translations between Arabic and English. Today our machine translation service               provides translations between 70+ different languages.
May
We release Google Trends , a way to visualize             the popularity of searches over time.
Gmail launches in Arabic and Hebrew, bringing the               number of interfaces up to 40.
June
We announce Google Checkout, a fast and easy way to pay for online purchases which             paved the way for broader payments with Google             Wallet .
Picasa Web Albums enables Picasa users to               upload and share their photos online.
The Oxford English Dictionary adds the word "Google" (as a verb).
August
Google Apps for Your Domain is released. This suite of applications, including             Gmail and Calendar, is the precursor to Google Apps Premier Edition , which             launched later in the year and brings cloud computing to businesses. Today, more than 5             million businesses are using Google Apps.
October
We launch Apps for             Education ; our first deployment is to Arizona State University. Today Apps for EDU             has more than 25 million users, and is being used by 74 of the top 100 universities.
We release web-based applications Docs & Spreadsheets (now called Docs and Sheets ). Docs is a reworking of Writely (acquired in             March).
We announce our acquisition of YouTube .
2007
January
"Fortune" announces its annual list of Best Companies             to Work For and Google is #1 (we've been on top of the list three other years             since). We're proud we've been able to create a company culture where employees are             empowered to do cool things that matter.
February
This year’s Valentine's Day doodle causes             a stir. Many people think we left out the "l" and linked it to a 17th century poet             named Googe; others think it's homage to a band called My Bloody Valentine (the             bassist's last name is Googe).
Many of the 2008 Presidential candidates—including then-Senator Barack Obama and             Senator John McCain— visit             the Googleplex throughout the campaign.
We add traffic information to Google Maps for 30+             cities around the U.S. Today, live traffic data is available in 50+ countries, covering             highways, streets and more in 600+ major cities.
March
The first "gBikes" appear on campus, giving Googlers an efficient, convenient and             healthy way to get to and from meetings. Today around 700 bikes are on campus at any             given moment—just one sign of Google's cycling-friendly culture.
April
This April Fools' Day is extra busy: not only do we introduce the Gmail Paper Archive and TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider) —we lose (and find)             a real snake in our New York office!
GOOG-411 enabled people to dial a phone number and speak a search for local             information.
May
Street View debuts in Google Maps in five U.S. cities: New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami,               and Denver. Today, Street View is available in more than 50 countries.
We kick off an effort to help protect people from malicious content on the             Internet. Today, approximately 1 billion people use Google Safe Browsing , which             extends not only to Google’s search results and ads, but also to popular web browsers             such as Chrome, Firefox and Safari, on mobile and desktop.
We expand the YouTube             Partnership Program to include some of the most popular and prolific original             content creators from the YouTube community. Today more than 1 million channels earn             revenue from the program.
We announce new strides taken towards universal search. Now video, news, books, image and local             results are all integrated together in one search result.
June
We install solar panels on our             Mountain View campus—the largest corporate solar panel installation of its kind at the             time. Today the solar panels power 30 percent of the buildings they sit on.
We unveil a new green initiative aimed at accelerating the adoption of plug-in             hybrid electric vehicles. We later retire the RechargeIT initiative , though we continue to offer             electric vehicles as part of our employee car sharing service.
September
AdSense for Mobile is introduced, giving sites optimized for mobile browsers the             ability to host the same ads as standard websites.
We add a new application for making slide             presentations to Google Docs.
November
We announce Android —the first open platform for             mobile devices—and a collaboration with other companies in the Open Handset Alliance.
Renewable Energy Less Than Coal (RE<C) was               an initiative designed to create electricity from renewable sources that are cheaper               than coal. The program has been retired, but we continue to apply what we learned to               other renewable energy projects.
2008
January
The BOLD Internship program launches, providing opportunities to students             historically underrepresented in tech. Combined with our other internships , over the years             thousands of students have had the chance have an impact at Google, on projects from             engineering to sales.
March
We complete the acquisition of DoubleClick , a digital marketing company that             provides ad management technology for agencies, marketers and publishers.
May
We host the first Google I/O , our             annual developer conference, in San Francisco. I/O has grown since then; in addition to             the thousands of developers who join us in person every year, millions of people tune             in via live stream to hear the latest news on products.
June
The first GoogleServe—our global week of service—takes place. Every year, Googlers             leave their inboxes behind to participate in projects that give back to the community.
Google Map Maker launches, enabling people to               directly update geographic information in Google Maps and Google Earth—helping ensure               that the map accurately reflects the world. Today Map Maker is available in 200+               countries and territories across the globe.
July
We provide Street View for the             entire 2008 Tour de France route—the first launch of Street View imagery in Europe.
Our first downloadable iPhone app, enabling quicker mobile searching , debuts with the launch of the Apple 3G iPhone.
August
We launch a site dedicated to the 2008 U.S. elections. In 2012, we take this effort             to the next level with Google.com/elections ,             providing news and online tools for elections worldwide.
Google Suggest (later called Autocomplete) arrives on Google.com, helping formulate             queries, reduce spelling errors and reducing keystrokes.
Street View is available in               several cities in Japan and Australia—the first time it's appeared outside of North               America or Europe.
September
T-Mobile announces the G1, the first phone built on the Android operating system.
Google Chrome becomes available for download,               one day after a comic book announcing our new browser leaks onto the web. Five years later, Chrome boasts more               than 750 million users.
November
The updated Google Mobile App for iPhone makes it possible for you to do a Google web search using only your voice.
After we discover a correlation between certain search queries and CDC data on flu             symptoms, we release Google Flu Trends , an             indicator of flu activity around the U.S. as much as two weeks earlier than traditional             flu surveillance systems.
2009
February
Our first message on Twitter gets back to             binary: I'm 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000             01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010. (Hint: it's a button on our             homepage.)
We launch Voice             Search on Android . Android users can start searching by voice with the touch of a             button, making mobile web surfing easy and fast.
March
We release Google Voice , which improves the             way you use your phone, with features like voicemail transcription. In 2013, we             announce that Voice will be integrated into Google+ Hangouts.
We announce Google Ventures , a venture             capital fund aimed at using our resources to support innovation and encourage promising             new technology companies. In 2013, Google Ventures added its 200th portfolio company.
We launch a beta test of interest-based advertising on partner sites and on             YouTube. This kind of tailored advertising lets us show ads more closely related to             users' interests, and it gives advertisers an efficient way to reach those most likely             to be interested in their products or services.
April
Our April Fools' Day prank this year is CADIE, our "Cognitive Autoheuristic             Distributed-Intelligence Entity" who spends the day taking over various Google products             before self-destructing.
May
To clear brush and reduce fire hazard in the fields near our Mountain View             headquarters, we rent some goats from a local company. They help us trim the grass the             low-carbon way.
July
We (literally) take the beta label off both the enterprise and consumer versions of             Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk.
We announce that we're developing Google Chrome OS , an open source,             lightweight operating system initially targeted at laptops.
September
We introduce the DoubleClick Ad             Exchange , a real-time marketplace that helps large online publishers on one side;             and ad networks and agency networks on the other, buy and sell display advertising             space.
On the birthday of the "father of science fiction," we unveil the truth behind a             mysterious series of             doodles in tribute to H.G. Wells.
October
Google Maps Navigation is a turn-by-turn               GPS navigation system with 3D views, voice guidance and live traffic data.
November
We release an international series of             doodles for the 40th anniversary of "Sesame Street."
December
Just in time for the holidays we roll out Mac and Linux versions of Google Chrome , as well as extensions for Chrome in             Windows and Linux (all in beta).
2010
January
We introduce the Nexus One to show what's possible on Android devices. The Nexus line of devices has since grown and now               includes tablets as well as phones.
In response to the Haiti earthquake, engineers build Person Finder to connect loved ones in the wake of             disasters. We've since launched Person Finder for other crises—including the Tōhoku             earthquake and tsunami in Japan—and formed Google Crisis Response , a team that responds to global disasters.
After detecting a sophisticated cyberattack from China, we announce we are no             longer willing to continue censoring our services on Google.cn, our local domain.             Today, users in mainland China can access search via Google.com.hk.
February
The first-ever Google Super Bowl ad tells a love story through search terms. This is             one of many videos made to celebrate the human side of search.
We announce a plan to build and test ultra             high-speed broadband networks , delivering Internet speeds up to 100 times faster             than what most Americans have access to today. More than 1,000 communities submit             proposals in response.
March
Bike directions and bike trail data come to Google             Maps . Today, there are more than 330,000 miles (530,000 kilometers) of biking             trails and paths in Google Maps to help you get around on your two wheels.
April
We change our name to Topeka for             April Fools' Day—a tribute to Topeka, Kansas, which changed its name to Google as part             of an effort to bring Fiber to that city.
We're the first company to launch a website publishing the number of requests we get from governments to provide information about our               users or to remove content from               Google products. Later in the year, we add visualizations showing disruptions in visitor traffic to               our products, such as a government blocking access or a cable being cut.
May
As part of our efforts to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, we make             our first direct investment in             a utility-scale renewable energy project.
Google TV is built on Android and Chrome and gives               you an easy and fast way to navigate to television channels, websites, apps, shows               and movies.
In celebration of PAC-MAN’s 30th birthday, we release our first-ever playable doodle ,             complete with all 256 levels and Ms. PAC-MAN.
We acquire AdMob , a mobile display             advertising company.
July
As part of our long-term goal to power our operations with 100% renewable energy,             we announce an agreement to purchase the clean energy from 114             megawatts of wind generation in Iowa.
“Life in a Day” is a cinematic               experiment to document one day as seen through the eyes of people around the               world—created with thousands of submissions from YouTube users.
August
Priority Inbox helps you handle information overload in Gmail by automatically             sorting your email by importance, using a variety of signals.
“The Wilderness               Downtown” is a musical experience created by writer/director Chris Milk with the               band Arcade Fire and Google, built with Google Chrome in mind using HTML5 and other               technologies.
September
Google               Instant shows you search results as you type so you can quickly get to the               information you’re looking for.
Three years after we first launched Street View in five U.S. cities, you can             explore all seven continents at eye level with the addition of Brazil, Ireland and             Antarctica imagery.
October
We announce we've             developed technology for cars that can drive themselves; we think self-driving cars can             help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions. Our             automated cars have since logged more than 500,000 miles on the road.
December
YouTube introduces TrueView , a new kind of ad—after 5             seconds, if an ad doesn't seem relevant or interesting to you, you can skip it.             TrueView is part of our effort to ensure viewers watch ads that are most relevant to             them, and advertisers reach the right audience.
2011
February
The Google             Art Project lets you virtually tour some of of the world’s best museums and explore             high resolution images of tens of thousands of works of art from 40 countries.
We introduce an advanced opt-in security feature called 2-step verification to help people keep their             Google Accounts secure. 2-step verification is now available in 40 languages and 150+             countries.
March
The new +1 button lets you publicly             give something a “thumbs up,” helping your friends and contacts find the best stuff             online.
April
Larry Page takes over as CEO —10             years after he last held the title. Eric Schmidt becomes executive chairman.
Charlie Chaplin’s 122nd birthday is the occasion for our first-ever live-action             doodle .
May
Google Wallet makes it convenient to shop               in-store, online or on the go, and helps merchants simplify the checkout experience.
Google Offers kicks off in beta in Portland,               Ore.
We announce the first Chromebooks from             partners Samsung and Acer. Chromebooks are designed to be fast, simple, secure and easy             to keep updated.
June
Our playable             doodle in honor of guitar inventor Les Paul becomes the most popular Google doodle             of all time. in just 48 hours in the U.S., you recorded 5.1 years worth of music—40             million songs—using our doodle guitar. And those songs were played back 870,000 times!
We install a corporate electric             vehicle charging infrastructure . Today it's the largest in the country, with             charging at 750+ parking spaces.
We add speech recognition             into search on desktop for Chrome users. Simply click the microphone in the Google             search box, and you can speak your search.
The Google+ project —real-life sharing, rethought             for the web—launches.
All our products start getting a design makeover, beginning with our homepage.
July
Talented young scientists wow the judges at the inaugural Google Science Fair , an online science             competition open to students aged 13-18 from around the world.
AdWords Express is a faster and simpler way               for small businesses to start advertising online in under five minutes.
August
We bring offline             access to Gmail, Calendar and Docs for people using Chrome.
September
We acquire Zagat to help you find the very best places.
October
Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice             Cream Sandwich , is designed to work on both phones and tablets, and to make the             power of Android enticing and intuitive.
November
We launch Google+ Pages to connect you             with the businesses, organizations and other things you care about. We have a few of our own sharing               updates about the company.
Google Maps now helps you to figure out where you are and get directions when             you're inside a building like an             airport or mall.
December
Android Market exceeds 10 billion app downloads—with a growth rate of one billion             app downloads per month.
We open a new office in Paris , a symbol of our commitment to             one of Europe’s fastest-growing Internet economies. The new office is also home to the             Google Cultural Institute.
2012
January
We join thousands of other sites to encourage users to stand up against two             legislative proposals in the U.S. (SOPA and PIPA) which would have censored the             Internet and impeded innovation. The next day, the bills are set aside. More than 7             million Internet users sign the petition hosted at google.com/takeaction .
February
Chrome launches on Android, so you can               take the same simple, fast and secure web browsing experience with you wherever you               go, across devices. Three months later we launch Chrome on iOS.
March
Android Market becomes Google Play , a digital             content store offering apps, games, books, movies, music and more.
April
It's our busiest April Fools’ Day ever, launching Google Maps 8-bit for NES , our Canine Staffing Team , NASCAR’s race car of the future (hint: it drives itself) and more.
May
Hangouts On Air become               available worldwide. Many public figures and organizations have hosted Hangouts to               connect directly with the public, including U.S. President Barack Obama, NASA, David               Beckham, Taylor Swift and U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon.
We introduce the Knowledge Graph in             Search, which makes it easier for you to discover information about real-world             things—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, movies, works of art and more.             This launch is built on our acquisition in 2010 of Metaweb.
We acquire Motorola Mobility .
Our doodle in             honor of Dr. Robert Moog , the inventor of the electronic analog Synthesizer, is an             interactive, playable logo that allows you to record, play back and share songs.
We expand our Transparency Report with a new section on copyright ,             providing information on the number of requests we get from copyright owners to remove             Google Search results because they allegedly link to infringing content.
We transition Google Product Search to Google             Shopping to help people research products and connect directly with merchants to             make purchases.
June
We unveil DoubleClick             Digital Marketing , our new platform that enables seamless ad campaign management             for agencies and advertisers.
We announce Google Now , which brings             you the information you need, before you even ask, like what today’s weather will be             like, how much traffic to expect on your way to work or your favorite team's score             while they’re playing.
We release the first Nexus 7 —a powerful 7"             tablet designed to bring Google Play content to life and bring you the best of Google             in the palm of your hand. Later in the year, the Nexus family expands to include a 10"             tablet and the Nexus 4 phone.
Trekker is a way to capture Street View imagery of beautiful places that are only accessible               by foot (like the Grand Canyon or the Galapagos).
July
The world sees the Olympics live on YouTube for the first time. Viewers watched a             total of 230 million video streams, and our partnership with NBC makes it the most             live-streamed Olympics to date.
October
We provide an unprecedented look inside our             data centers .
The Samsung Chromebook becomes available             for just $249.
Google Crisis Response launches Public             Alerts —warnings for natural disasters and emergency situations—the same day we             publish resources to respond to Superstorm Sandy.
November
We begin installing Google Fiber —ultra-high             speed Internet access that is up to 100 times faster than today’s average broadband—for             our first customers in Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City Missouri. The next year, we             announce Fiber in Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah.
December
Lady Ada Lovelace, mathematician and writer known to many people as the world’s             first computer programmer, gets a doodle .
2013
January
We commit to invest $200 million in a wind farm in west Texas. This brings our total clean energy commitments to more than $1 billion, which can generate over 2 GW—enough to power all the public             elementary schools in New York, Wyoming and Oregon for a year.
February
We introduce enhanced             campaigns , which updates AdWords for the multi-screen world.
In 50 words, tomorrow’s Glass Explorers tell us what they would do if they had             Glass. The first Explorers get Glass later in the year.
Our newest laptop—the Chromebook Pixel —is designed from the ground up for power users who have embraced               the cloud.
April
Get just the information you need right when you need it with the release of Google Now for iPhone and iPad .
Plan your digital afterlife with Inactive Account Manager , which             enables you to tell us what to do with your data from Google services if your account             becomes inactive for any reason.
May
A video doodle for graphic designer and filmmaker Saul Bass celebrates his classic film credits and             posters.
We release imagery of the Earth taken from space over a quarter-century, providing a stunning historical perspective on             the changes to the Earth’s surface over time.
Google Play Music All Access , a new               monthly music subscription service, lets you listen to millions of songs across your               devices.
We introduce a new Google+             Photos experience that helps your photos look their best, as well as Hangouts , which will be Google’s single             communications system, replacing Google Talk, Google+ Hangouts and Messenger.
Gmail gets a brand new inbox that helps you see what’s new at a glance and decide             which emails you want to read when.
June
We unveil our latest Google[x] project: balloon-powered Internet access. We hope Project Loon can become an option for connecting             rural, remote and underserved areas, and for crisis response communications.
We acquire Waze to help you outsmart traffic.
Funded by Google, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory investigates the energy             impact of cloud computing. Their research indicates that             moving all office workers in the United States to the cloud could reduce the energy             used by information technology by up to 87 percent.
July
Just months after we preview the new Maps for desktop at Google I/O,             we release the updated Google Maps app for             smartphones and tablets —part of our redesign of Maps across devices.
Chromecast is a small and affordable device               that makes it easy to use your phone, tablet or laptop to bring your favorite online               entertainment to your TV screen.
We team             up with Starbucks to bring faster, free WiFi connections to all 7,000             company-operated Starbucks stores in the U.S.
September
Android passes 1             billion device activations —reflecting the work of the entire Android ecosystem and             thanks to the enthusiasm of users all around the world.
We announce Calico, a             new company that will focus on health and well-being, with Arthur D. Levinson as CEO.
October
KitKat delivers a smarter, more immersive Android experience to even more people. We also               introduce the new Nexus 5 .
An update to             Google+ Photos makes it easier to find, perfect and share your best life moments.
November
Street View comes to             Venice , bringing you panoramic views of one of the world's most beautiful cities.
December
2014
January
We acquire Nest —a company that reinvents unloved products             for the home, like thermostats and smoke alarms.
We announce a new             Google[x] project focused on using miniaturized electronics in a contact lens to             measure glucose levels and help people with diabetes.
February
Working with organization Polar Bears International, we collect Street             View imagery of the Canadian tundra , giving you an intimate look at polar bears in             their natural habitat.
Chromebox               for meetings brings together Google+ Hangouts and Google Apps to make it simpler               for any company to have high-definition video meetings.
April
Street View in Google Maps now lets you explore             historical imagery dating back to 2007.
May
Our first 3D doodle celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube .
The next leg             in the journey for our self-driving cars is prototypes that are designed to operate             safely and autonomously without requiring human intervention.
We publicly             share data about the diversity of our workforce.
June
Made with Code is a new               initiative aims to inspire girls to code.
At our annual I/O conference, we announce new updates that             bring Android to you wherever you are—in your car, on your TV and on your wrist.
July
During the World Cup, we share 100+ real-time             search trends showing what people were curious about during the tournament, and             create 60+             doodles live from Brazil.
August
Gmail and Calendar now             recognize addresses that contain accented or non-Latin characters.
September
We introduce the first family of Android One phones in India.
We reintroduce our Enterprise business as Google for Work .
You can now make             voice calls in Hangouts from your phones or desktop computer for free.
October
We launch Android             Lollipop , designed for a multi-screen world. New Nexus 6, 9 and Player devices come along for the ride.
Inbox —from the Gmail team—is a different take               on email , designed to focus on what really matters.