Google Press Blog

FWIW, I think I may have solved the mystery why some of us legacy users have not been notified. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2006/08/google-launches-hosted-communi… "A standard edition of Google Apps for Your Domain is available today as a beta product without cost to domain administrators or end users. Key features include 2 gigabytes of email storage for each user, easy to use customization tools, and help for administrators via email or an online help center. Furthermore, organizations that sign up during the beta period will not ever have to pay for users accepted during that period (provided Google continues to offer the service)." The original version of the TOS from August 2006 read as follows: https://web.archive.org/web/20061029132431/https://www.google.com/a/he… "16. Modification. Except as provided in Section 17, Google reserves the right to change or modify any of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement or any policy governing Google Apps, at any time, by posting the new agreement at http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/terms.html or such URL as Google may provide. Customer is responsible for regularly reviewing any updates to this Agreement. Any changes or modifications to this Agreement will become binding (i) when made in a writing executed by both parties, (ii) by Customer's online acceptance of updated terms, or (iii) after Customer's continued use of Google Apps after such terms have…

Hmm, in the interest of full disclosure here I was working at Google when the Ground Truth project went from a 20% project to a more serious effort. My impressions of its impressiveness may be clouded :-). Yes, NASA, Digital Globe, Et Alia, have built geographic information services (GIS), there are constraints, both on the data and on what you can do with the data. Google bought Keyhole [1] (the satellite imaging company) discovered that even if you had a satellite image you don't necessarily get to do what ever you want with it, and went out and funded their own satellite [2]. And of course you drive around cars and take pictures of everything, that seemed a little bit crazy at the time but folks like Trimble wouldn't let you use data about streets for doing directions, and then of course different data sets were all slightly 'off' from one another which is really illustrated in the article. So various folks have invested in one part of the problem, but few have invested in solving the bigger problem, and assembling that solution for disjoint offerings is problematic and expensive at best, and impossible at worst. That is what I considered the mind boggling investment. And of course the recent tit for tat maps announcements by Apple and Google just reminded me that both companies are pouring in a lot of resources. And yes, Microsoft is right up there as well. Its quite the barrier to entry if you want to a map based startup. (or at least a huge dependency on an…

Came here to mention this. > Ads are always separate and clearly labeled. Indeed. Let's look at Google's launch of Adwords in October 2000: > Google’s quick-loading AdWords text ads appear to the right of the Google search results and are highlighted as sponsored links, clearly separate from the search results. https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.… Things evolved from there, and that's likely here, as well, I think.

1999, $25 million investment: https://googlepress.blogspot.com/1999/06/google-receives-25-million-in… 2000, launched ads: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Ads 2001, profitable: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2001/aug/08/internetnews.search…

Google was founded in 1998 and you could buy ads on the search results page in 2000. https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.…

There were ads on google.com since at least 2000[1]. Chrome wasn't announced until 2008. Disclosure: I work at Google but not on ads or Chrome. [1] https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.…

October 23, 2000. The day Google went from being a search engine to being an advertisement company. I know they still dabble in search but that’s not the point. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.h…

it's probably a wishful interpretation from the initial coverage, https://slashdot.org/story/04/04/01/0038200/googles-gmail-to-offer-1gb… "hey want to offer their searching capabilities so that users can search through their entire set of e-mail, I guess forever. " https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-… "Storage: Google believes people should be able to hold onto their mail forever. That’s why Gmail comes with 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of free storage – more than 100 times what most other free webmail services offer." (at the time, I thought it meant forever, silly me)

http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-g… 2004, announcement says 1GB. This stuff is easy to check, why don't you?

I don't believe your alleged change happened. Gmail was hosted under google.com literally from the day it launched [0]. [0] http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-g…

> What happened, from memory, was that a sysop made a backup of his Usenet feed and Google got that tape Google bought Dejanews, a service that operated a usenet2web gateway. It became Google Groups. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2001/02/google-acquires-usenet-discuss…

See also, 1. Eternal September: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September 2. (and what I like to call) Eternal October: https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.…

Except, they might be sued now, and it might be significantly more expensive. They probably forgot what they wrote in their blog post http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2006/08/google-launches-hosted-communi… "Furthermore, organizations that sign up during the beta period will not ever have to pay for users accepted during that period (provided Google continues to offer the service)." Yes, they can claim they are no longer providing the service, but that's difficult to argue when they are providing a functionally identical service that is just a billing change to cause a "migration".

That they did. Per Google's press release for Google Apps: >Furthermore, organizations that sign up during the beta period will not ever have to pay for users accepted during that period (provided Google continues to offer the service). http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2006/08/google-launches-hosted-communi…

1998 - 2000 http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.h…

This suggests otherwise: “For example, entering the query "buy domain" into the search box on Google’s home page produces search results and an AdWords text advertisement that appears to the RIGHT of Google’s search results” [1] It is from October, 2000. It is so ancient, it is even before Schmidt happened. I don’t believe anything preceded that, but to be sure we’ll have to wait for Larry to chime in and clarify. [1] http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.h…

No idea - a quick skim, and the first version was the one I liked most. It would search Thunderbird emails too with a plugin, was instantaneous, and for a little while was a huge productivity boon. With a bit of thought, the later versions did retain some local search, but made it clunky and awkward. I forget quite how, only that I liked it less and less. Course before too long it was discontinued entirely. Odd really as it, to me, is the obvious use of my computer for my web activity... Here's the original press release and a couple of screen shots: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/10/google-announces-desktop-searc…

Google to Invest $1 Billion for a 5% Stake in AOL Companies to Collaborate on Online Video Offering and Make More AOL Content Available to Google Users (http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2005/12/time-warners-aol-and-google-to… Wow, I really didn’t remember!

Gmail, Docs, and Calendar weren't around in 2000. The first release of Gmail wasn't until invite-only beta in 2004[0] (invites were required until 2006/7); Google bought Upstartle (Writely -> Docs) and released Docs and Calendar in 2006[1][2]. [0]: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-g… [1]: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-announces-google-docs_1… [2]: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2006/04/google-calendar_13.htm

Maps was significantly enhanced thorough a bought company: Keyhole. https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2005/04/google-maps-and-keyhole-integ… Intermediated by the CIA; https://pando.com/2015/07/01/cia-foia-google-keyhole/

> I'm not sure about Brin and Page, ... Larry Page was incredibly ambitious even while he was a PhD student. He naively intended to work on 3 projects. Luckily he listened to the good advice of his advisor, Terry Winograd, who asked him to narrow his focus down to the web. The quote below is excerpted from his 2009 commencement address [1]. "I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. I know that sounds completely nuts. But, since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition. There are so few people this crazy that I feel like I know them all by first name." [1] http://googlepress.blogspot.com.ng/2009/05/larry-pages-university-of-m…

I guess it's only been just under 10 years[1], rather than 10 plus. [1] http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-announces-google-docs_1…

This is more than a little bit silly. Duck.com used to be owned by On2 Technologies which made video compression software. Google acquired On2 and got duck.com as part of the deal. It's not like they went out and just bought the domain. And they definitely didn't spend $106 MILLION on a video compression company just to get the domain. This is entirely legal. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2009/08/google-to-acquire-on2-technolo… https://web.archive.org/web/20080301180912/http://www.duck.com/

As a counterexample, Google didn't show ads until 2000. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.h…

> What if on April 1st they announced something that was so drastic that people thought it was an April 1st joke but it wasn't? I've been surprised lately how few people seem to recall Google's launch of Gmail on 04/01/2004. There was a lot of back and forth debate about whether or not it was a joke. What they promised was pretty incredible for the day. Adding to this was the tone of the announcement... http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-g…

Real announcements do happen on April 1st. See for example gmail [1], perhaps one of the most important product announcements in the last decade. Though I admit, I sometimes expect them to announce that it was a joke all along and shut it down. [1] http://googlepress.blogspot.ca/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-gm…

Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-to-acquire-youtube-for-…

Why does "not knowing you are doing it" matter at all? Here is evidence that Google wanted to "organize the world's information" in 1999. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/1999/06/google-receives-25-million-in-… Certainly world changing success is very rare. But explicitly aiming for it seems like it would help rather than hurt.

http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-g… :D

http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-acquires-applied-semant… "A key application of the CIRCA technology is Applied Semantics’ AdSense product" Is this wrong?