Google is Massive, and Incredible, (and a little bit scary)

Google isn’t  just a search box anymore. Larry Page and Sergey Brin created Google as a research project in 1996 when they were PhD students at Stanford. 17 years later, Google is now a verb. A search engine is now ingrained into nearly everyone’s life. At the very least, if you have a internet connection, Google plays a part in what you do every single day.

Here are some of the other projects Google has started that have been made public.   They’re doing amazing things very worth checking out.  They’re also positioning themselves to be pretty damn powerful.

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Google X.  Research and Development.

Google X is their research and development arm that creates projects in total secret. It’s not known where its offices are and it deals in completely speculative research.   Google X was reponsible for both google glass and the driverless car and they are rumored to be working on a space elevator, the Google Home (with interconnected devices) and various robot projects including sending a robot to go to work for you.  Sound Crazy?  So did the Driverless Car.

Google Glass.  Wearable Computer.

Google’s first wearable computer/webcam was released in April of 2013 to a select number of applicants who each paid 1500 to be among its first users.  Images are projected in front of the users field of vision, and a single button on the frame of the “glass” helps the user navigate.

The Google Driverless Car

Exactly what it sounds like.  The first driverless car has been road tested with great success.  Google’s self-driving cars have logged hundreds of thousands of miles and have not caused a single accident.

Google Fiber TV and Internet

Google wants in on the TV and Internet provider game. Google Fiber offers cable TV and internet speeds no other providers in the US can come close to. They’re set in 3 cities so far – Kansas City, Austin and Provo, UT. The going is slow, since it takes a gigantic amount of money and infrastructure to be built to create your own cable company and internet provider. Some think that Google Fiber was created to only scare the big providers into updating their own technology. Whichever is the case, the faster our internet connections are, whether it’s through Time Warner or Google Fiber, the better it is for Google.

Google Cultural Institute Historical Archives

You may not know this, but Google is on an amazing mission to digitize some of the great things on planet earth and they’ve put them all in the Google Cultural Institute and Google Art Project. You can spend hours looking through the Dead Sea Scrolls, taking a virtual tour of Versailles, or the Grand Canyon. That’s just the tip of what they’re collecting for this massive historical archive.  (http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/home)

Google Art Project Bringing Art and Museums Online

(http://www.googleartproject.com/) Google is also cataloging the works of entire museums and placing them on the site for anyone to look through. It’s still a work in progress with some bugs, but it’s giving access to art people would otherwise never see. From the looks of it, they’re beginning to archive the great works of humanity.   You can even walk around some museums and see the art where it’s hanging.

Google Scholar Research Archive

(http://www.scholar.google.com)  Search scholarly articles, papers and theses.  You can also do a search for federal legal documents at Google Scholar.

Google Lunar X Prize Rewarding Science

(http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/) Google’s offering up a $30 million dollar prize to anyone who can land a robot on the moon, have it travel for 500 meters and send back pictures and video to earth. It has to be 90% privately funded. 25 teams are vying for the prize and they have until December 2015 to do it.

Google Same Day Delivery

(http://www.google.com/shopping/express/about/) Google is now testing the waters in the home delivery of goods game, except they’re doing it as same day delivery. They’re currently testing it out in the San Francisco Bay Area and are already partnered with stores like Staples, Target and Toys R Us. All you do is order what you want online like you normally would, select a delivery time for that day and it’s sent out. After they announced this, Walmart began playing with the idea of same day delivery as well.

Google Now Knows You

(http://www.google.com/landing/now/)  Sign in to your account on your phone with Google Now and the nice folks at Google will follow everything you do every day, and suggest information that might be useful to you.  Train schedules, directions, reminders that you’re leaving a little early.  This is either the greatest thing that’s ever happened, or the scariest.

Google Ventures Help Fund Your Startup

(http://www.googleventures.com/)  Google will also fund your start up idea. They have funded a number of companies dealing with gaming, mobile apps, energy, and science. Why look for some independent venture capitalist when you can just go to Google Ventures and apply there?

Google Maps Show You the World

(https://www.google.com/maps) It’s easy to forget about google maps because we’re so used to it, but this is an incredible undertaking that has put a massive amount of information into google’s hands.  They are well on their way to mapping every inch of the planet, including oceans.

Google Earth Shows You the World in 3D

(http://www.google.com/earth/index.html) As revolutionary as maps were, Google Earth made those old drawn maps seem outdated.  See everything buildings.  See satellite images.  Zoom in on your house or someone elses.  Again, we forget about it, because its so seamlessly integrated into google maps, but when this came out, everyone freaked.

Google Street View in 3D From the Ground

(http://www.google.com/streetview) Google Maps with Street View is like Google Earth, but from a street level viewpoint with  360-degree and  panoramic images.  If you haven’t seen the google car whiz by your neighborhood taking photos, you probably don’t get out much.

Google 100,000 Stars Project Mapping Space

Not content with mapping the entire earth with Google Maps?  Google’s Data Arts Team mapped out and visualized 100,000 neighboring stars in the galaxy. Powered by Google’s web browser, Chrome, it allows you to view and zoom in and out on a 3D map of star systems all around the Solar System.

Google Green Wind and Solar Farms

(http://www.google.com/green/) Google invests in the green energy market, owning multiple wind and solar farms across the United States. They invest in developing more efficient ways to produce green energy and power their gigantic data centers with it as well.

Google Person Finder for Disaster Relief and More

(http://google.org/personfinder/global/home.html)  This first came to light after the Boston Marathon bombing and cell phone service was shut off. This service was created to help people find relatives and friends who have been effected by a disaster in their area. Disaster Relief agencies can upload information to the Person Finder and people can search to see if people they know are safe.

Android Mobile

(http://www.android.com/) Before Google released Android, the iPhone and Blackberry were the dominant cell phone/mobile operating systems out. The Android software, which can be run on any phone, unlike Apples which only runs on the iPhone, is now the most used operating system among all cell phones.

Google Translate

(http://translate.google.com/) Google’s free online language translation service instantly translates text and web pages.

Google Wallet Replaces Your Old Wallet

(http://www.google.com/wallet/) Introducing Google Wallet – a smart, virtual wallet that saves you time and money. With the Google Wallet mobile app, you can make your phone your wallet.

Google Lobbying

Google spent $18 million lobbying in D.C. in 2012 compared to $2 million spent by Apple.

Google Chrome Browser

(http://www.google.com/chrome) Released in 2008 Google Chrome is now the most widely used browser in the world, stealing that title from the seemingly unstoppable Internet Explorer.

Google Ad Words to Advertise Your Business

(http://www.adwords.google.com) Google’s main source of revenue.  Advertise your business on google.

Google Ad Sense for Web Publishers

(http://adsense.google.com) This service helps web publishers get advertising for their own blogs and websites easily and quickly.

Google Offers Help You Save Money

(http://google.com/offers)  Think of it as google coupons or google groupons.  Google helps you find a steal of a deal.

Google Gmail Free Email

Started in 2004 when everyone you knew still had an aol or hotmail email address (and paid for it), google did two unheard things– they offered free email, and virtually unlimited storage space.  This revolutionized email worldwide.

Google.com  The Search Engine

Lets not forget the original search engine.  Google’s much protected programming that decides who gets ranked where in various searches is constantly changing and helping you find things faster.

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Don’t Forget All These Companies, Sites and Businesses Acquired By Google

YouTube video sharing, Blogger,  Blogspot.com,  Zagat restaurant reviews , Deja Usenet, Outride Web search engine, Pyra Labs Weblog software, Neotonic Software Customer relationship management, Applied Semantics Online advertising , Kaltix Web search engine, Sprinks Online advertising, Genius Labs Blogging, Ignite Logic HTML editor, Picasa Image organizer, ZipDash Traffic analysis, Where2  Map analysis, Keyhole, Inc Map analysis, Urchin Software Corporation Web analytics, Dodgeball Social networking service, Akwan Information Technologies Search engines, Reqwireless Mobile browser , Current Communications Group Broadband Internet access, Skia Graphics software, Phatbits Widget engine, allPAY GmbH Mobile software, bruNET GmbH Mobile software, dMarc Broadcasting Advertising, Measure Map Weblog software, Upstartle Word processor , @Last Software 3D modeling software, Orion Web search engine, 2Web Technologies Online spreadsheets, Neven Vision Germany GmbH Computer vision,  JotSpot Web application, Endoxon Mapping, Adscape In-game advertising, Trendalyzer Statistical software, Tonic Systems Presentation program, Marratech Videoconferencing, DoubleClick Online advertising,  GreenBorder Computer security, Panoramio Photo sharing, FeedBurner Web feed, PeakStream Parallel processing,  Zenter Presentation program, GrandCentral Voice over IP,  ImageAmerica Aerial photography,  Postini Communications security, Zingku Social networking service, Jaiku Microblogging, Omnisio Online video, TNC Weblog software, On2 Video compression, reCAPTCHA Security  USA, AdMob Mobile advertising,  Gizmo5 Voice over IP, Teracent Online advertising, AppJet Collaborative real-time editor, Aardvark Social search, reMail Email search, Picnik Photo editing, DocVerse  Microsoft file sharing site, Episodic Online video platform start-up, PlinkArt Visual search engine, Mobile start-up, Agnilux Server technology start-up, LabPixies Gadgets, BumpTop Desktop environment, Global IP Solutions Video and Audio compression, Simplify Media Music syncing, Ruba.com Travel, Invite Media Advertising, ITA Software Travel technology, Metaweb Semantic search, Zetawire Mobile payment, Instantiations Java/Eclipse/AJAX developer tools, Slide.com Social gaming, Jambool Social Gold payment, Like.com Visual search engine, Angstro Social networking service, SocialDeck, Inc. Social gaming, Quiksee Online video, Plannr Schedule management, BlindType Touch typing, Phonetic Arts Speech synthesis, Widevine Technologies DRM, eBook Technologies E-book, SayNow Voice recognition, fflick Social networking service, Zynamics Security, BeatThatQuote.com Price comparison service, Next New Networks Online video, Green Parrot Pictures Digital video, PushLife Service provider, TalkBin Mobile software, Sparkbuy Product Search, PostRank Social media analytics service, Admeld Online advertising, SageTV Media center, Punchd Loyalty program, Fridge Social groups, PittPatt Facial recognition system, Dealmap One deal a day service, Motorola Mobility Mobile device manufacturer, Zave Networks Digital coupons, DailyDeal One deal a day service, SocialGrapple Social media analytics service,   Apture Instantaneous search, Katango Social circle organization, RightsFlow Music rights management, Clever Sense Mobile apps, Milk, Inc Social Network, TxVia Online Payment, Meebo Instant Messaging, Quickoffice Productivity Suite, Sparrow Mobile apps, Wildfire Interactive Social media marketing,  VirusTotal.com Security,  Nik Software, Inc. Photography, Viewdle Facial recognition, Incentive Targeting Inc. Digital coupons. BufferBox Package delivery, Channel Intelligence Product ecommerce, DNNresearch Inc. Deep Neural Networks,  Web Application Server Talaria Cloud computing, Behavio Social Prediction,  Wavii Natural Language Processing, Admeld – for publishers

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So much more than just a search box on a website you use to find out everyday information– google has hands in so many places.  Google has integrated itself completely into a large portion of the population, whether you realize it or not.

“Don’t Be Evil” is the unofficial corporate motto at Google.  Let’s hope they mean it.