Most people think that Google is a private company, but it isn’t. It is a public company whose ownership is distributed to public shareholders through free trade shares or exchange. Google shares are traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange – classified into GOOG and GOOGL shares.
Though GOOG and GOOGL shares sound similar, they have major differences. GOOG is this private company’s Class C share; GOOGL falls into the Class A category. How does Google’s Class C differ from Class A share? Class C shares provide the stockholders with genuine ownership in the private companies.
On the other hand, Class A shares are common company shares. They provide the investors or traders with the company’s ownership and voting rights. However, in Class C shares, investors have no voting rights.
Investors consider GOOGL shares more valuable than GOOG shares. They can share their opinion about Google’s corporate policy, vote for a capable board of directors and agree or disagree with the company’s decisions. For these reasons, GOOGL shares have a higher price than GOOG shares.
Let’s learn more about Google and the product or services it offers:
Was Google a Public Company from the Start?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin established Google as a private company on September 4, 1998. This multinational technology company remained private till August 19, 2004. At that time, Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to work together for another 20 years.
Google offered 19,605,052 shares to worldwide investors, costing $85 per share. The company sold the shares in an auction using an online system developed by two leading investment companies – Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.
After becoming a public company, Google acquired online streaming platforms like YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. The company also has an acquisition of advertisement companies like DoubleClick. Google acquired this company for $3.1 billion on March 11, 2008.
As a public company, Google handled around 3 billion searches daily in 2011. They made 11 data worldwide data centres with 1000+ servers to manage this huge workload efficiently. The monthly visitors’ number increased to 1 billion in May 2011. After a year, Google invested $12.5 billion in Motorola Mobility, the company’s largest acquisition.
Why did Google invest such a huge amount? The company made this investment for its patents, not for manufacturing new products. Google stated that the acquisition protected Android handset manufacturers from being sued by other leading tech companies like Apple and Microsoft.
Here are the other companies Google acquired after becoming a public company:
- Waze
- DeepMind Technologies
- Mandiant
- Fitbit
- Looker
- Nest
How Does a Private Company Differ from a Public Company?
Some basic differences are there between a public and private company. In a private company, the founders or the investors are the owners. On the other hand, shareholders are a public company’s owners.
Founders or investors can trade or buy stocks in a private company. However, the stock exchange or investment is open to everyone in a public company.
Private company shares are limited to company members—public companies like Google trade their shares on the stock exchange. Moreover, raising capital for a private company takes time and effort. Public companies offer IPOs to raise funds quickly.
Do you run a private company? You don’t have to file quarterly financial reports or annual reports. However, the scenario is different for a public company. Public-traded companies must submit quarterly financial and annual reports timely.
Determining a private company’s value can be difficult. However, the valuation of a public company seems easier than a private company. Besides, most privates are small as less capital is invested in them. Public companies are significant because of initial public offerings and massive stock exchanges.
A private company’s main funding source differs from a public company. Private companies receive funds from investors or venture capitalists. However, public companies receive funding by selling their shares and bonds.
List of the Products Google Offers:
Google offers different web-based products to the users, including an easy-to-access search engine. The company has designed several mobile and web applications. It also offers advertising services to worldwide users.
Here, we have compiled a list of Google products that are worth using in 2023:
1. Search Tools
Most people know about the web-based search tool Google Search – the company’s core product. The company also has an email notification service named Google Alert. It lets users monitor keyphrases or keywords they like to find relevant results.
Google Assistant is another voice-searching tool with over 500 million monthly users. What are the other Google search tools creators use? They use Google Custom Engine to add a custom search box to their websites.
Google Images is another popular web-based search tool. It is a Google-owned search engine that lets users search for the required picture online.
Moreover, the company developed Google Shopping, a search engine for making online shopping easier. They have designed a search engine for videos named “Google Videos”. Booking and managing trips and itineraries become easier with search tools like Google Travel.
Here is the list of popular Google web-based search tools:
- Google Dataset search
- Google Flights
2. Groupings Tool
Google has introduced several grouping tools in the past few years. The company launched Google Arts & Culture in 2011. It is a one-stop destination to view artworks and cultural artefacts from renowned artists. Google Books is another grouping tool which is widely used.
What is Google Books? It is a website with 40 million books in 500 languages. Google Finance is another grouping tool which lets users track real-time market trends and value stocks. It also provides currency information and financial data.
Here are the other Google-designed grouping tools:
- Google Patents
- YouTube
- Google Scholar
- Google News
3. Productivity Tools
Google has a list of productivity tools like Gmail and Google Domains. Moreover, Google Calendar is another tool companies use to organise meeting schedules and coordinate essential events. Google Docs Editor is another web-based productivity suite integrated with Google Drive.
Here is the list of Google-owned productivity tools:
- Note-taking app – Google Keep
- Spreadsheet editing app – Google Sheets
- Online presentation app – Google Slides
- Survey creating an app – Google Forms
- Webpage creation and publication site – Google Sites
- Online discussion community – Google Groups
- Text translation app – Google Translate
4. Map-Related Products
You must have already known about some map-based Google products. Google Maps is the most used navigation service, with detailed information about streets and a 3D View option. Google My Maps is another custom map-making app which has a similar interface to Google Maps.
Here are the other web-based Google Maps products:
- Christmas-themed Santa tracking site – Google Santa Tracker
- Satellite viewing browser app – Google Moon
- World’s map collection site – Google Maps Gallery
- An app with a panoramic street viewing experience – Google Street View
Other Web-Based Google Products that Are Worth Using
This tech-based company offers advertising services like Google Ads, AdMob and Google AdSense. Google Ad Manager is another advertising service that many publishers use to increase sales. Google Marketing Platform is another online, easy-to-use advertising and analytics site.
The company also has communication and publishing tools like Blogger and Google Chat. Google Fonts is another webfront hosting service that over 6,287,563 sites in the United States use. The company also released popular web-based communication apps like Google Meet, Google Classroom and Google Voice.
Besides these web-based products, Google has received a massive reputation for offering high-end gadgets. Google Mini is one of their highest-selling music systems, which provides power pack performance. Nexus One also has a high market value for its WVGA resolution and AMOLED screen technology.
Google’s Pixel phones are envisioned to be the best Android devices in 2023. The Pixel 7 model features a Tensor G2 chip for handling memory-intensive work without slowing down the performance. Its new ultrawide lens captures every detail.
Google has discontinued some of their products and services due to integration and technical problems. The company released Google Checkout on June 28, 2006, an online payment processing service. On November 20, 2013, Google discontinued this payment gateway.
Other discontinued Google services are Google Answers and Google Base. Google released Audio Ads on July 8, 2009, and discontinued this radio project on February 12, 2009. The company stopped providing services like Blogger Web Comments, Google Buz and Google Browser Sync because it failed to keep up with user expectations.
