Google meaning

A social networking site from Google, introduced in 2011. Although Google+ never achieved the market share of Facebook, users have ranked it favorably. In 2015, its chat, video calling and photos services were separated out (see Google Hangouts and Google Photos). In October 2018, Google announced it would shut down Google+ because of a data vulnerability discovered earlier that year, which exposed the data of a half million users. However, it was not known if any data were actually breached.CirclesFriends and families are stored in Circles, which display as circular icons on screen. In order to better engineer privacy and who sees what, all posts, photos and invitations are shared by dragging them into the appropriate Circle, which remembers the last selection. Friends, Acquaintances, Family and Following (whom you follow) are the defaults, but any Circle can be created. See Google+ Ripples, Google+ Sparks and Google.

(Google, Mountain View, CA, www.google.com) The largest Web search engine and one of the most influential companies in the tech world. In addition to general Web searching, Google offers a variety of specialized search tools and a huge amount of Web and desktop software that includes office apps, multimedia and social networking (see Google applications). Each of the following Google products is used by more than a billion people: Android, YouTube, Chrome browser and Maps navigation.In addition, Google is involved in advertising, publishing, software development, security, statistics, language translation and self-driving cars.Android is the leading mobile platform worldwide, and highly secretive Google Labs is exploring the future of high tech. In 2015, Google formed Alphabet, a holding company that includes Google and all of its projects and acquisitions. See Alphabet, Google X Lab and Android.It Started With BackRub SearchIn 1996, Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed their "BackRub" search engine and unique page ranking (explained below). With investments from Sun founder Andy Bechtolsheim and others, Google was founded in September 1998, and BackRub was launched as the Google search engine in 1999.The Google name came from "googol," a number so large no one can fathom it (1 plus 100 zeros). Chosen to represent the immensity of the Web and the huge ambitions of the company, the choice of name was exceedingly appropriate. See googol.The Clean ScreenGoogle set itself apart from the other search sites with the first almost-empty home page. Instead of being laden with graphics that took forever to come in over analog modems, the Google page downloaded fast, and users sensed an immediate response before they started searching. With a single graphic, the home page is still ultra sparse (see Google Doodle).However, behind it all lies an incredibly sophisticated infrastructure. The company streamlines its servers to provide the most search engine power for the least amount of energy. Using its own self-healing software, the Google indexes are mirrored around the globe, and servers can fail without disruption.The Popularity ApproachCalled "PageRank," Google introduced the concept of popularity to rank pages in the search results. The pages with the most links pointing to them from other sites ("backlinks") are placed higher in the list. The websites' popularity is analyzed going back several levels, which is why a site ranks higher if 25 popular sites link to it rather than 100 non-popular sites. Today, Google analyzes Web pages not just for popularity, but for myriad attributes (see Google algorithm).Lots of AcquisitionsStarting with the Usenet discussion groups in 2001 and YouTube video in 2006, Google has acquired numerous companies that contributed value (see Usenet and YouTube). See Google bomb and Googleplex.

(by extension) To search for (something) on the Internet using any comprehensive search engine.

An internet search, such as that which is performed on the Google search engine.

A particular Internet company.

See Google+.

(intransitive, cricket) To deliver googlies.

(intransitive, cricket) To move as a ball in a googly.

(Internet) A match obtained by a query in the Google search engine.

To search for (something) on the Internet using the Google search engine.