About Google

• About Google

  About Google

  In fact so cutting-edge was Google’s debut handset that even Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak described it as his ‘favourite gadget’.

  As with mobiles that use Google’s Android platform, Google’s own branded phones come with a host of great applications pre-installed, including YouTube, Facebook and GoogleMaps.

  Thanks to the huge scope for customisation that the handsets offer, you can arrange your phone so that these display on the homescreen, so your most-used apps are only ever a single button push away.

• Company History

  History

  Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as a college project in 1996. By 1998, the search engine had evolved into one of the most popular ways of searching the web, with the result that the same year a grant of $100,000 paved the way for its now dominant position on global web searches.

  After acquiring a number of popular websites, including video sharing portal YouTube, the company diversified into mobile phones with the purchase of the developers of the Android mobile phone operating system.

  The first phone to use Android was the HTC-manufactured T-Mobile G1, which hit the market in late 2008 and quickly registered over a million sales. Because the phone featured Google’s platform, it was widely referred to as the Google phone, despite the fact that Google was not directly involved in the manufacture or branding of the handset. The success of the G1 prompted the release of a series of other phones, including the massive HTC Desire and the Samsung Galaxy S.

  However, it was not until January 2010 that Google made its real mobile phone debut with the Nexus One phone, which took its title from the robots in the movie Blade Runner. A follow-up, the Google Nexus S hit the UK in December the same year to rave reviews.