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Canwest News Service
While trying to beat Facebook and Twitter at their own game would be a big bite for most companies to try to take, most companies are not trying to shape the universe with the same vigour as Google. Below, the National Post's Adam McDowell looks back on the company's short but febrile history of world domination, one category at a time.
1998
Web searching Once upon a time, water cooler conversation at tech-oriented companies could revolve around choice of search engine: Should one use Excite or Hotbot? Altavista or LookSmart? How things have changed. Google stood out from the crowd immediately: It was fast and offered an uncluttered interface; it prioritized search results by favouring pages that people have gone out of their way to link to. This turned out to be a multi-billion-dollar idea for Stanford University grads Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
2000
Online advertising The appearance of Google AdWords finally reveals the plan for monetizing Google: Namely, a system of relatively simple, pay-per-click ads. Today, Google controls most of the world's online advertising and AdWords remains, overwhelmingly, the company's primary revenue source, bringing in US$23.7-billion in 2009.
2002
Commerce Froogle, a search engine for products, offers a gateway for merchants. Has since been rechristened, blandly, as Google Product Search.
News Google News indexes material from thousands of news sources and presents an aggregated front page. Despite its time lag, Google News becomes the go-to news stop for millions of users.
2003
Blog publishing Google becomes host to millions of daddy diaries, pop star shrines and cat photo albums when it acquires Blogger via Pyra Labs.
Books Google Print (later renamed Google Books) allows users to "preview" parts of books online; prompts copyright disputes.
2004
Email Google's Gmail spends initial three years as an invitation-only service; opens to the public in 2007 and is now the third-most popular web-based email in the world, with 176.5 million unique visitors in December, versus Hotmail's 369.2 million and Yahoo Mail's 303.7 million.
Social networking Friend-connecting service Orkut flops in North America, but eventually becomes bigger than Facebook in Brazil and India.
2005
Cartography Google Maps launches, alarming military authorities and privacy advocates with its bird's-eye view of the world. Makes finding friends' cottages much easier.
Instant messaging Google Talk allows users to communicate via text-based messages, voice and, later, video. Available by invitation only since last year, Google Wave is intended to afford a more refined form of instant messaging, should it ever enter widespread use.
2006
Office software Google Docs allows users to create text files and other professional documents without having to download any software.
Amusing kitten videos Google buys YouTube for US$1.65-billion. It is the largest clip-sharing service in the world, and the website that has done the most to push the Internet from a text-based medium to an audiovisual one.
2008
Web browsing Google launches Chrome, hoping to pass Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the most popular choice. Reviews are positive but not glowing.
2009
Mobile phones Google takes direct aim at Apple and Research In Motion with the Nexus One, a handset with a touch screen that mirrors the iPhone's appearance.
2010
Social networking (again) Google Buzz allows owners of Gmail accounts to interface with one another without logging onto Facebook or Twitter.
FUTURE?
Tablets Google is reportedly in talks with a Taiwanese manufacturer to create a rival device to Apple's iPad.
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Man Google is taking over the world! Next you know it they will make the next Generation Game Systems like Sony and Microsoft.
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