Google, founded in 1998 as a search engine, became one of the world’s largest advertising businesses.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google while they were doctoral students at Stanford University. Their early search technology ranked pages partly by analyzing links between websites, helping Google stand out from many earlier search engines.
Google’s main revenue engine became advertising, especially search advertisements sold through Google Ads. The company expanded into Gmail, Maps, Android, Chrome, YouTube, and cloud computing, creating the broader business now owned by Alphabet.
Google and Alphabet are related but not identical answers. Google is the operating company and consumer brand; Alphabet is its publicly traded parent. Investors value Alphabet’s market capitalization, while Google supplies most of the group’s best-known products and revenue.