MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc. on Sept. 7, 1998, they had little more than their ingenuity, four computers and an investor’s $100,000 bet on their belief that an Internet search engine could change the world.
It sounded preposterous 10 years ago, but look now: Google draws upon a gargantuan computer network, nearly 20,000 employees and a $150 billion market value to redefine media, marketing and technology.
Google’s expanding control over the flow of Internet traffic and advertising already is raising monopoly concerns.
The intensifying regulatory and political scrutiny on Google’s expansion could present more roadblocks in the future. There’s a chance U.S. antitrust regulators will challenge Google’s plans to sell ads for Yahoo Inc., a fading Internet star whose recent struggles have been magnified by Google’s success.
In the latest example of its expansion, Google has just released a Web browser to make its search engine and other online services even more accessible and appealing.
Extending Google’s ubiquity to cell phones and other mobile devices sits at the top of management’s agenda for the next decade.
“There are people who think we are plenty full of ourselves right now, but from inside at least, it doesn’t look that way,” said Craig Silverstein, Google’s technology director and the first employee hired by Page and Brin. “I think what keeps us humble is realizing how much further we have to go.”