Google

Google, LLC is a principal subsidiary of US-based Alphabet specializing in Internet-related products and services, software, electronic devices and other technologies.

Its main product is the Internet content search engine of the same name, although it also offers other products and services: such as its cloud service, Google Drive, email, Gmail, its map services Google Maps, Google Street View and Google Earth, the YouTube video website, among others.

On the other hand, it leads the development of the operating system and application operation services based on Linux: Android, aimed at smartphones, tablets, televisions and cars, and augmented reality glasses, Google Glass. His catchphrase is " Do the Right Thing " ("Do the right thing").

With thousands of servers and data centers around the world, Google is capable of processing more than 1 billion search requests daily and its search engine is the most visited website worldwide, as reported by Google. evidence in the international web ranking.

The company has been criticized for collaborating with certain countries in Internet censorship in an effort to expand commercially in them and for repeated copyright infringement. It is also criticized for alleged tax engineering in different countries, and for being one of the companies that collaborate with intelligence agencies in the global surveillance network, brought to light in 2013.

History

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, in September 2003.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google as a college project in January 1996 when they were both graduate students in computer science at Stanford University. The original name of the search engine was BackRub, but in 1997 the founders decided to change the name to Google inspired by the mathematical term "googol" which refers to the number 10 raised to the power of 100, in reference to their goal of organizing the enormous amount of information on the Web. Both founded, on September 4, 1998, the company Google LLC, which launched its search engine on the Internet on the following September 27 (considered the anniversary date). They had a closet full of servers (about 80 processors), and two HP routers. This search engine surpassed the other most popular of the time, AltaVista, which had been created in 1995. In 2000 Google introduced AdWords, its system online advertising and the so-called Google Bar.

In February 2001, Google bought the Usenet discussion service Deja News and transformed it into Google Groups. In March of the same year Eric Schmidt is appointed president of the board of directors. In July 2001, it launched its image search service. In February 2002, he launched the Google Search Appliance. In May, it launches Google Labs, which will close 9 years later. Google News is launched in September. In December of the same year, the product search service called Froogle, now called Google Products, was launched. In February 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs and with it the Blogger blog creation service. Google Grants, a free advertising service for non-profit organizations, is launched in April. In December of that year Google Print was launched, later Google Books.

In January 2004, he launched the orkut social network. In March, Google Local was launched, which would later be integrated with Google Maps. In April Google introduced Gmail, its email service with 1 Gb of storage. On August 19, Google Inc. would go public under the symbol "NASDAQ:GOOG", with an initial offer of 25.7 million shares, and with a price range of 85 to 95 dollars. In October of that year they launched Google Desktop, which was discontinued in 2011. They also launched the so-called Google Scholar. On August 18 of that same year, Google went public on WallStreet. In 2004 he bought the Keyhole company.

A year later, in 2005, they brought out Google Maps and Google Earth. That same year Google bought Android Inc. Vint Cerf, considered one of the fathers of the Internet, was hired by Google in 2005. He also launched Google Code and developed the first Summer of Code. In August he presents Google Talk. In October Google launches its RSS feed reader Google Reader. In November Google Analytics is presented and in December Google Transit.

In 2006, he launched Picasa. In March he acquires Writely to later launch Google Docs and introduces Google Finance that same month. Google Calendar is presented in April and Google Apps, a business-oriented service, in August. In October 2006, Google acquired the YouTube video site for $1.65 billion. That same month, it acquired JotSpot, which would later become Google Sites.

A year later, in 2007, Google released the open mobile operating system Android and created the Open Handset Alliance. In April 2007, Google bought DoubleClick, a company specializing in Internet advertising, for $3.1 billion. This same month, Google became the most valuable brand in the world, reaching the sum of 66 billion dollars, surpassing emblematic companies such as Microsoft, General Electric and Coca-Cola. In June, it launches Google Gears, which will later be abandoned because what it offered later was incorporated into HTML5. In July 2007, Google bought Panoramio, a website dedicated to displaying the photographs that users themselves create and geoposition, some of which are uploaded to the site so that they can be viewed through Google Earth software, whose objective is to allow users to Users of the mentioned software learn more about a specific area of the map, observing the photographs that other users have taken there. In November he presents OpenSocial.

Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and their former executive president, Eric Schmidt (2008).

In February 2008, Google Sites is launched. On September 2, 2008, Google introduces its own Google Chrome web browser and the Chromium open source project. Google Friend Connect is launched in December. Google Latitude is launched in February. Google Voice is presented in March. In September 2009, it acquired reCAPTCHA. In November he presents the Chromium OS open source operating system project. In December presents Google Public DNS.

In January 2010, Google introduced its first mobile phone, the Nexus One, which runs on Android. In February, Google makes official its intention to deploy a high-speed Internet network. That same month he acquired Aardvark. In March it acquires Picnik. In May it launches Google TV. In October he presents his autonomous vehicle project. In December it presents its second phone, the Nexus S, manufactured by Samsung.

In January 2011, Larry Page is appointed CEO. Chromebooks are introduced in May. In June, the new Google social network called Google+ is presented. In August 2011, Google acquires Motorola Mobility for €8.8 billion ($12.5 billion). Google introduces its third smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus, manufactured by Samsung and running on the fourth version of Android.

In April 2012, Google presents Project Glass, a project to create augmented reality glasses. At Google I/O 2012, it was announced that the developer version of Google Glass would be available by 2013 while the consumer version would be ready by 2014. Android 4.1 and Google's first tablet, the Nexus, were announced at the same event. 7, made by Asus. On September 27, 2013, in commemoration of 15 years in service, Google featured a game-shaped doodle on its home page that consisted of breaking a piñata.

In May 2012, Google invested $35 million in Machinima, Inc, an online entertainment company. It was the first time that Google has openly backed a content company by acquiring an equity stake.

In June 2013, Google acquired Waze, in a $966 million deal. While Waze would remain a separate entity, its social features, such as its crowdsourced location platform, were reportedly valuable integrations between Waze and Google Maps, Google's own mapping service. Google announced the launch of a new company, called Calico, on September 19, 2013, to be led by Apple Inc. Chairman Arthur Levinson. In the official public statement, Page explained that the "health and wellness" would focus on "the challenge of aging and associated diseases".

In February 2014, Google buys SlickLogin, a company made up of great developers, security experts, who have created an innovative sound identification system for smartphones. On June 10, 2014, Google announces the acquisition from Skybox Imaging for US$500 million (€370 million) to "provide satellite images to the online mapping service".

Google Logo until 2015.

On August 10, 2015, Google becomes the main subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., a company created for the better administration of all Google products and services, which will function mainly for the research and development of new products and technologies, as well as the implementation of new services such as Google Fiber.

On August 8, 2017, Google fired employee James Damore after he distributed a company-wide memo that argued that bias and "Google's ideological echo chamber" they clouded his thinking about diversity and inclusion, and that it's also biological factors, not just discrimination that make the average woman less interested than men in technical positions. Google CEO Sundar Pichai accused Damore of violating company policy by "promoting harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace," and was fired the same day. The New York Times columnist York Times David Brooks argued that Pichai had mishandled the case and called for his resignation.

At the beginning of 2019, Google obtained authorization to operate as a payment institution from the Irish Central Bank, applicable in Ireland and the rest of the European Union.

Products

Google Account

A Google account is a user account that allows access to services owned by Google such as Blogger, YouTube and Google Groups. Creating a Google account automatically creates a Gmail email account.

Google web search engine

Google search engine or Google web browser (in English Google Search) is a web search engine owned and the main product of Google, it is the most used search engine on the Web, it receives hundreds of millions of searches consultations every day through its different services. The main objective of the Google search engine is to search for text on web pages, instead of other types of data, it was originally developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997.

Google Maps

Google Maps car parked.

Google Maps is the service that allows us to visualize the world through satellite images, map images or a combination of these two. Thanks to the search engine, we can search for places around the world and be able to visualize them effectively.

The satellite images share the Google Earth database, which means that they are the same images that we will see in said program and with the same resolution.

Maps are only available in certain locations, which means that the hybrid map and satellite feature is only available where both features are available.

YouTube

YouTube is owned by Google, since its purchase on October 14, 2006 for $1.65 billion. On this website, users can upload and view videos of all kinds. In the US, YouTube USA changed its logo on August 29, 2017, a change that in Latin America was completed on September 3 of that same year.

Google Play

Google Play is an online store for electronic devices and accessories (depending on region), Android apps, music, movies, and books maintained by Google.

Google News

Google News is an automated newsgathering service. The Google News website was introduced in its beta version in April 2002. There are different versions of the site in more than 20 languages, along with getting the news from 700 free and paid sources.

The update of each subject is 15 minutes, making that each time you re-enter the site, a new piece of news appears within its highlights.

The promotion of this site consists of being a neutral site in its collected news, due to the fact that there is no human intervention, with which there is a neutral point of view in each news item displayed.

Gmail

Icon of Gmail.

On March 31, 2004, Google launched its service (in beta phase) Gmail, which stood out among the most popular mail services of the moment for providing 1 gigabyte of capacity (a figure that is constantly increasing at an approximate rate of 36 bytes per second). up to the current 15 GB). For quite some time, in order to access a Gmail account it was necessary to receive an invitation from another Gmail user. In early February 2007, Gmail registrations were completely released, and today it is possible to register without invitations.

This messaging service stood out, among other things, for using a simple and advanced message search system at the same time, similar to that of the web search engine to which it owes its slogan "Don't organize, search". It also offers other additional features such as labels, advanced filters, the possibility of multiple accounts for outgoing mail, integrated chat, etc. which make it very attractive.

Currently available in 39 languages.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a file hosting service. It was introduced by Google on April 24, 2012. Google Drive is a replacement for Google Docs that has changed its link address from docs.google.com to drive.google.com among other qualities. Each user has 15 gigabytes of free space to store their files, expandable for a fee. It is accessible through its website from computers and has applications for iOS, and Android that allow you to edit documents and spreadsheets.

Blogging

Blogger is a service created by Pyra Labs and acquired by Google in 2003, which allows you to create and publish an online blog. To publish content, the user does not have to write any code or install server or scripting programs.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a website where users can discover, upload and share Office or Google documents on their Microsoft or Facebook profile page, similar to a corporate social network. Includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is an agenda that allows you to have different calendars differentiated by colors. It allows you to share private calendars with other users, being able to give them different levels of permissions. It has the possibility of incorporating public calendars made by other users, such as a television programming guide, schedule of your favorite football club, santoral, etc. The calendar can be configured to send a reminder before an event happens to the user's email account with a file to import the task to the Microsoft Outlook calendar, it can even send an SMS notice if you live in an enabled area for it. To date, it is in beta version but it is functional.^{[citation needed]} In October 2017, it introduces a new interface developed with Material Design.

Google+

Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written Google Plus, sometimes abbreviated as G+, in some Spanish-speaking countries pronounced Google Más) was a social networking service operated by Google LLC. The service, launched on June 28, 2011, is based on HTML5. Users have to be over 13 years of age to create their own accounts. Google+ was already the 10th most popular social network in the world with approximately 343 million active users. In the first quarter of 2019, the closure of this social network, maintaining only some services.

Google translate

Google Translate or Google Translator is a web tool that allows you to translate texts between a large number of languages. If the device has a microphone, the application allows the use of speech recognition as a translation source. The result can be read in the alphabet of the source language or in the translated one. You can also listen to the synthesized translation on devices that have a speaker.

Google Photos

Google Photos is a photo and video sharing software application and storage service from Google.

Google Shopping

Google Shopping (formerly known as Froogle) is a website integrating a price comparison engine, registered to Google LLC. Its interface provides an HTML form in which the user can write the product to be consulted, and receives a list of the vendors that offer it, as well as its price information.

Google Books

Google Books (formerly known as Google Book Search and Google Print) is a Google service that searches the full text of books that Google scans, converts the text using optical character recognition, and stores them in its database. online data. The service was known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2004.

Google Contacts

Google Contacts is Google's contact management tool available in its free Gmail email service, as a stand-alone service, and as part of the integrated Google Apps suite of web applications for businesses.

Google Hangouts

Hangouts is a cross-platform instant messaging service developed by Google. On August 24, 2005, Google launched the beta version of its Google Talk instant messaging service, based on the XMPP protocol. With the launch of Google+, Google launches a video chat service called Hangouts. On May 15, 2013, at the Google I/O event, Vic Gundotra announced the new Hangouts, which would unify all of Google's messaging services, replacing Google Talk, Google+ Messenger, and Google+ Hangouts. That same day it was launched for different platforms such as Android (replacing the Google Talk application), iOS and Web (through Chrome and Google+).

Gboard

Gboard is a virtual keyboard developed by Google for Android and iOS. It was first released for iOS in May 2016, then later released for Android in December 2016, which debuted as a major update to the already established Google Keyboard app on Android. Several Google keyboard services are replaced on Android such as: Google Cantonese Input, Google Zhuyin Input, but there are some that are still active but do not receive updates: Google Korean Input, Google Handwriting Input, Google Japanese Input, Google Pinyin Input and Google Indic Keyboard.

Google One

Google One is a subscription service developed by Google that offers extended cloud storage and is intended for the consumer market. Every Google account starts with 15 gigabytes of free storage that's shared between Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Google One paid plans offer cloud storage from 100 gigabytes up to a maximum of 30 terabytes.

Web

Google Chrome showing Wikipedia cover in Windows 11.

• Google Chrome

It is the browser software of the company Google. It is the most used browser on the Internet, with a market share of 31.88% at the end of July 2012. It is freely available under specific conditions of service.

• Google bar

Google Toolbar is an Internet search toolbar that is only available for Internet Explorer and Firefox (up to version 4.0).

• Google Manufacturers

Google Bookmarks is a free service for saving Internet bookmarks. The service allows users with a Google account to save their favorite websites to read later, as well as organize them using tags and notes.

Company

• Google AdWords

Google AdWords by Alphabet is a quick and easy-to-use tool that lets you buy correctly targeted cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) ads, no matter what your budget. AdWords ads run alongside search results on Google, as well as on search and content sites on the growing Google network.

• Google Workspace

Google Workspace is a Google service that provides various Google products with a customer-customized domain name.

• AdSense

Service for administrators of web pages and advertising companies via the Internet.

This service is characterized by being an HTML frame in which text with the appearance of a Google search is displayed, in which the links of the advertisers appear, and the webmasters receive a payment for each click that is made in the AdSense links from your website. Currently, you have to be careful with the chosen format and the layout of the ads on your website, since if you use large formats, with many ads, you run the risk of being canceled the AdSense account, unilaterally according to the contract. subscribed at the time of registration, if a user clicks on each ad on the page on which they are displayed repeatedly.

Google, a leading online advertising company, is known for vigorously pursuing AdSense click fraud, especially those that attempt it through a PPF.

Media

• Google

Google Images is a specialization of the main search engine for images, which was implemented in 2001. It contains different search tools in its interface, which are used to filter the results of images.

• Google Videos

Google Videos is a specialization of the main search engine for videos. It contains in its interface different search tools, which are used to filter the results of the videos.

• Picasa

Picasa was once an image organizer and viewer (the app still works but is no longer supported by Google) as well as a tool for editing digital photos. Additionally, Picasa has an integrated photo sharing website. It is available for Mac, Linux and Windows.

Geo

• Google Earth

Google Earth is a computer program similar to a Geographic Information System (GIS), created by the company Keyhole Inc., which allows viewing images of the planet, combining satellite images, maps and the Google search engine that allows view scale images of a specific place on the planet, such as buildings, houses and any construction in 3D

• Panoramio

Panoramio is a mashup dedicated to displaying photographs of places or landscapes that users themselves create and georeference.

Specialized search

• Google Academic

Google Scholar is a Google search engine focused on the academic world that specializes in scientific-scholarly literature.

• Google search trends

From English Google Trends, is a tool from Google Labs that shows the most popular search terms of the recent past.

Home and office

• Google Sites

Google Sites is a free online application offered by the American company Google. This application allows you to create a website or an intranet in a way that is as simple as editing a document.

• Google Keep

Google Keep is an application developed by Google LLC that allows you to organize personal information through the notes file.

Social

• Google Groups

Google Groups is a web interface to the long-standing hierarchically ranked forum system called Usenet. It is also an archive of all the shipments made to this network, which can be searched using the Google engine.

Innovation

• Google Code

Google Code was a Google site for developers interested in open source development. The site contains open source code, a list of its public support services, and APIs. However the project has been closed since 2016 according to the information available on the website.

• Google Colab

It is a web platform that aims to carry out research in data science and artificial intelligence. Allows you to run code in Python. The framework is called Jupiter Notebooks and is not static, but recursive. Some of the advantages are the following:

• No configuration required
• Free access to GPU
• Use of TensorFlow
• Develop neural networks
• Experience TPUS

Operating systems

Android

Android is an operating system based on the Linux kernel. It was primarily designed for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets; and also for smart watches, televisions and cars.

Chrome OS

Chrome OS is a project carried out by the Google company to develop a web-based operating system.

Devices

Nexus

Google owns a range of devices called Nexus. The first Nexus devices were the Nexus One smartphone made by HTC, followed by two smartphones made by Samsung, the Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus. In 2012, it introduced the first Nexus tablet, the Nexus 7, made by Asus. In October of that same year, the Nexus 4 smartphone and the Nexus 10 tablet were presented. In 2013, the second generation of Nexus 7 was presented, and on October 31, the new Nexus 5. In 2014, the first tablet with a processor of 64-bit, Nexus 9, accompanied by the first phablet of the Nexus range (Nexus 6), both with the new version of the Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system. In 2015, the last two devices in the Nexus series were introduced, the Nexus 5X and the Nexus 6P, running Android version 6.0. Currently, the support of the latter two is extended until October 2017. They were replaced by the Google Pixel series.

Chromebook

A Chromebook is a personal computer that runs the Chrome OS operating system. The devices are in a different class from the personal computer, somewhere between the pure cloud client and traditional laptops. They are manufactured both by companies such as Samsung, and by Google itself (the Chromebook Pixel).

Chromecast

Chromecast is a media streaming device that runs on the Chrome OS operating system.

Google Pixels

Google Pixel is a series of smartphones that began with the Pixel and Pixel XL in 2016, and continued with the Pixel 2 in 2017. The line of smartphones is the revamp of the previous Nexus, changing the name to Pixel, with a design and software developed by Google, but assembled by the HTC brand, which unlike the previous Nexus devices, these do not have the name of the brand that assembled them on the outside, since As previously stated the design was developed by Google.

Pixel Watch

The Pixel Watch is a smartwatch, introduced by Google in 2022, that works with smartphones running the Android operating system.

Google as a universal platform

Google, like Facebook, Amazon and Apple, is committed to becoming the universal Internet platform. Part of this strategy consists of having the following aspects:

• Platform for payment
• Single SignOn Platform
• Logistics coverage
• Critical mass of clients
• Critical mass of products and services
• Marketing/publicity
• Supermarket.

On the HRIndex (an index that compares each platform against the ideal) Google scores 50/100, Amazon 51/100, Apple 39/100 and Facebook 27/100.

Google Summer of Code

Infrastructure

This section is a Google Platform extract.[chuckles]edit]

Old Google data center in Eemshaven, Netherlands.

Google data centers are large data-processing facilities that Google uses to provide its services, which combine large units, computer nodes organized in rack corridors, internal and external networks, environmental controls (mainly cooling and humidification control) and operating software (especially with regard to load balance and fault tolerance). There is no official data on how many servers there are in Google data centers, however, Gartner estimated in a July 2016 report that Google at that time had 2.5 million servers. This number is changing as the company expands its capacity and updates its hardware.

Googleplex

This section is a Googleplex extract.[chuckles]edit]

South side of the pavilion.

Googleplex is the headquarters of the Google LLC company, located at 17000 Amphitheatre Parkway, in Mountain View, Santa Clara, California, near San José. The name Googleplex is a word game, being a combination of Google words and complex (complete, in English), and at the same time a reference to gúgolplex (googolplex in English), the name given to the huge number 1010100{displaystyle 10^{10^{100}}}. There is also in the name a reference to the work of Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which it is named, as one of the best computers in the universe to the Googleplex Star Thinker. In Google, it symbolizes the goal of organizing a huge amount of information available on the Internet.

Criticism and controversies

Google's dominance in the market has led to prominent media coverage, including criticism of the company on issues such as aggressive tax evasion, search neutrality, copyright, censorship of search results and content, and privacy. Other criticisms include alleged misuse and manipulation of search results, its use of the intellectual property of others, concerns that its data collection may violate people's privacy and the power consumption of its servers, as well as concerns about traditional business issues such as monopoly, trade restriction, anti-competitive practices and patent infringement.

Google previously adhered to China's Internet censorship policies, enforced through filters known colloquially as "The Great Firewall of China," but no longer does so. As a result, access to all Google services, except for Chinese Google Maps, within mainland China is blocked without the help of VPNs, proxy servers, or other similar technologies. The Intercept reported in August 2018 that Google is developing for the People's Republic of China a censored version of its search engine (known as Dragonfly) "which will blacklist websites and terms search engine on human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protest". However, the project had been held back due to privacy concerns.

Following media reports on PRISM, the NSA's mass electronic surveillance program, in June 2013, several technology companies, including Google, were identified as participants. According to leaks from the program, Google joined to the PRISM program in 2009.

Google has worked with the US Department of Defense on drone software through the "Project Maven" of 2017 that could be used to improve the accuracy of drone strikes. Thousands of Google employees, including senior engineers, signed a letter urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to end a controversial contract with the Pentagon. In response to the backlash, Google ultimately decided not to renew its contract with the Department of Defense, which is set to expire in 2019.

Shona Ghosh, a journalist for Business Insider, noted that a growing movement of digital resistance against Google has grown. A major hub for critics of Google to organize and refrain from using Google products is the Reddit page for the /r/degoogle subreddit.

In July 2018, Mozilla program manager Chris Peterson accused Google of intentionally slowing down YouTube performance in Firefox.

In April 2019, former Mozilla executive Jonathan Nightingale accused Google of intentionally and systematically sabotaging the Firefox browser over the past decade to drive Chrome adoption.

In November 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights began an investigation into Project Nightingale, to assess whether the "mass collection of people's medical records" was HIPAA compliant. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google started the project secretly in 2018 with St. Louis, Missouri-based healthcare company Ascension.

Monopoly accusations

In July 2020, Google, along with other tech giants Apple, Reed Hastings, Samsung, Microsoft, Twitter, Amazon, and Facebook, were accused of maintaining harmful power and anti-competitive strategies to crush potential competitors in the marketplace. The CEOs of the respective companies appeared in a conference call before lawmakers in the United States Congress.

Incidents

The European Commission, which imposed three fines on Google in 2017, 2018 and 2019

Throughout its history the company, as a whole, has presented a series of incidents, of which the most important have been the following:

• On July 18, 2018 the European Commission imposed a fine of 4 340 million euros due to illegal practices related to Android mobile devices in order to strengthen the domain of Google's search engine. Following the appeal before the European Union General Court, this agency reduced the fine by more than 200 million euros, leaving the same at 4.125 million euros.
• At the beginning of September 2018 the search engine leaders were severely criticized after refusing to send their CEO Larry Page to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee on issues of privacy and user security. However, on 20 September and through a letter published in the New York TimesGoogle recognized that it continued to allow third parties to access and share Gmail account data. "Developers (software) can share data with third parties as long as they are transparent with users about how they are using them," the message said.
• On March 19, 2019, Google announced that it would enter the video game market, launching a cloud gaming platform called Stadia.
• On June 3, 2019, the United States Department of Justice reported that it would investigate Google for violations of antitrust laws. This led to the filing of an antitrust lawsuit in October 2020, alleging that the company had abused a monopoly position in search markets and search advertising.
• On July 25, 2019, the aspirant to President Tulsi Gabbard sued Google for blocking their ads after the presidential debate when it became one of the most wanted elements in the search engine.
• In December 2019, it was reported that former PayPal Operations Director Bill Ready would become Google's new trade director. The Ready feature will not be directly related to Google Pay.
• After the Congress hearings in July 2020 and a report from the House's antitrust subcommittee published in early October, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on 20 October 2020, claiming that it has illegally maintained its monopoly position in search and search-based advertising.
• In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Google announced several cost reduction measures. Such measures included slowing down recruitment for the rest of 2020, except in a small number of strategic areas, recalibrating the focus and pace of investments in areas such as data centers and machines, and marketing and non-commercial essential travel.
• Also in 2020, three cuts occurred around the world that disrupted Google's services: one in August that affected Google Drive among others, another in November affected YouTube and one third in December affected the entire Google application package. The three cuts were solved in a few hours.