Google, founded in 1998, became a global leader in internet search and online advertising.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google while they were doctoral students at Stanford University. Their early search system used links between web pages as an important signal of relevance, helping users find useful results among the rapidly expanding World Wide Web.
Google incorporated on September 4, 1998. Its advertising systems, including AdWords and later Google Ads, created a highly scalable business by matching advertisements with searches and other online activity. Search remains central to the company’s identity, although it also operates products such as YouTube, Android, Maps, and Gmail.
In 2015, Google became a subsidiary of Alphabet, a newly created holding company. That corporate restructuring is why Alphabet, rather than Google alone, is generally the publicly traded parent whose market capitalization appears in company rankings.