Google Inc as One of the Worlds Best Companies - Case Study Example

?Final Research Paper Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Historical Performance of Google 4 Google as One of the World’s Best Companies 5 Google as One of the Most Secretive Companies 6 Data Confidentiality Issues 7 Mitigating this Issues 8 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction Google Inc. is considered to be amongst the largest multinational corporations, which excels in rendering internet-related facilities and merchandises. Established in the year 1998 in Menlo Park, California of the United States of America (USA), the company is regarded to be a role model for many IT companies in today’s business environment. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students of Stanford University willing to create a web database that would help in listing webpages according to their requirements. Till date, Page and Brin hold 16 present of the total share of the company. The project was initially known as “BackRub” that used links to determine the importance of individual webpages. The company was incorporated as a private company in the year 1998 and was subsequently made public in the year 2004. The main mission of the company is to consolidate the world’s facts and figures and to make them universally available and accessible by the common people (1Google, n.d.). The rapid growth of the organisation is determined to be resulting from its continuous introduction of innovative products, procurement and cooperation outside Google’s basic search engine business. In addition, Google also provides online productivity software along with services such as email (Gmail) an official suite (Google Drive) and social networking sites such as Orkut and Goggle+. Furthermore, along with the mentioned products and services, Google also offers a wide range of desktop products like image editing and instant message service (Barr, 2013). It is worth mentioning that android considered to be one the most used mobile Operating Software (OS) is also owned by Google. The main objective of this paper is to provide a detailed evaluation showing the major reasons behind the rapid strides taken by Goggle in the IT industry. Additionally, it would also provide evidence and data that would reveal why the company is recognised as one of the world’s most secretive organisations (2Google, n.d.). Historical Performance of Google With the increasing internet users around the world, Google has become one of the most popular Information Technology (IT) based entities. Every individual who has been a regular under of Google tends to study the history on how the company was established and what were the major reasons behind creating such a search engine that has unified every kind of vital information into a single place. The history of Google started in the year 1995. Larry Page and Sergey Brin were two individuals who met each other at University of Michigan, where both of them went to peruse their PhD degree in computer science. The idea of creating Google as a web page started in the year 1996 as a research project by Brin. In the year 1996, both Page and Brin collaborated to create a search engine which was first started by Page and named it as BackRub (3Google, n.d.). The website was developed in the same year and is believed to have operated on Stanford servers for more than a year. However, it has been viewed that the search engine eventually took up much bandwidth in comparison with other search engines available on the World Wide Web (WWW). Considering the growing issue of bandwidth as well as to convert the data gathered by BackRub’s web crawler assumed greater measure of importance for a given webpage. It was then when Page and Brin both developed the PageRank algorithm and realized that the platform can be used to build a search engine which could be far more superior to the entire users in the web. PageRank is a set of rules developed by Page that analyses the relevancy of the back links of a webpage and list them accordingly. The first version of Google webpage was launched in the month of August, 1996. Later on in year 1997, Google.com was registered as a domain making it open for the public. It is worth mentioning that the name Google is inspired from the mathematical term “googol”, a number where 1 is followed by 100 zeros, which reflects Page and Brin’s view to organise the infinite volume of information obtainable on the web in a chronological order. In the year 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystem issued a check of US$100,000 to Google Inc. which did not exist yet. It was also in that year that the first doodle was made to inform the users that the crew would not be present in the office for a few days. Since the year 2001, the company has also acquired a number of privately owned firms. Amongst them the acquisition of Keyhole, Inc. a firm that developed a particular product named Earth Viewer. This product provided a three dimension of the earth which was later renamed as Google Earth in the year 2005 (Tabakh, 2009). The acquisition of YouTube in the year 2006 has also helped Google to increase its revenue to a great extent (Reuters, 2006). Among all the acquisition of Android Inc. in the year 2005 can be regarded as a revolutionary step as it has helped the company to increase its revenue remarkably and has also helped in bringing a revolutionary change on how mobile devices can be used in the modern world (Elgin, 2005; 3Google, n.d.). Google as One of the World’s Best Companies Google is considered to be one of the most successful IT companies best known for its innovative way of attracting users. The term Google is deemed to be amongst the most common word in every individual’s life. According to Alexa, with the increasing internet users around the globe, Google has attained recognition as amid the most preferred search engines and websites in comparison with other search engine based service providers in the world (Alexa Internet, Inc., n.d.). Today, Google has emerged as the world’s best multinational company to work for which can be viewed through numerous awards that the organisation has been receiving owing to its success. Subsequently, it has also been viewed that the company has been a consistent and strong performer in the stock market as well. For instance, in the year 2013, it is viewed that Google has topped the stock market by jumping 13.8%, which in turn is determined as better than expected earnings for the company (BBC, 2013). The three vital reasons behind considering Goggle as one of the world’s best companies is because of the policies that the company regulates in order to meet the current demands of their users and their employees. The organisation is determined to be maintaining a high energy fast paced environment. The environment in which they work is built in such a way that workers enjoy their work instead of working hard at some point of time. The Mountain View, CA headquarter of Google is built like a college where colleagues gets to share their ideas, along with creating products through creativity and innovation. Additionally, the company uses its corporate services cape and corporate culture to create an informal value added environment as it has been ascertained that an informal working environment facilitates to render enhanced productivity owing to being relaxed along with providing ease to work in (Hierling & et. al., 2008). Moreover, Google offers free foods for all of its employees as they believe that no employee should ever be beyond 100 feet from a cradle of nourishment. Furthermore, Google inculcates 20% of their working hours on projects that interest them. This not only helps the employees to enjoy their work but also helps Google in increasing their revenue. It is worth mentioning that Gmail, Orkut and AdSense were all individual projects that were later introduced for the public as a new service (Kuntze & Matulich, n.d.). Google is listed at the number 1 position in the list of companies where people want to work for (Cable News Network, 2013). Google as One of the Most Secretive Companies Although Google is affirmed to be an aspiring company for many IT based organisations located around the globe however there have been a number of critics who have sited their disagreements against different policies that Google use to protect the data of their users from the general public. Data Confidentiality Issues Two of the most common topics of discussion that Google has also been into include Google in general and Google Apps precisely in terms of security and privacy of the users. In this regard, it can be viewed that both the aspects are taken care of to a considerable extent. Google has built their policies and regulations in such a way that no other individual except the owners of the profiles can access their account. With the advent of advanced technological features, it has also been viewed that Google has been continuously updating and making changes accordingly to make the privacy policies more effective. With regard to the facet of security, Google Apps use an unqualified ‘SSAE 16 and ISAE 3402 Type II audit’ opinion. The administrator of the app enjoys an independent way of controlling their task making the process more appropriate and effective. Additionally, regarding the privacy of the data of the users it is worth mentioning that Google does not possess any data of the users. The data that users put into the system are stored as they are and three key policies guide the stored data. These include: The data stored in the database of the company are not shared unless mentioned in the privacy policy while creating a profile The data stored are only kept till the deletion of the profile owned by an individual And above all, Google provides the facility of carrying data of the users anywhere they go through the introduction of Google Apps (Google, 2013) Furthermore, question has also been raised by many critics about who can gain access to one’s Google Apps administrative account. In this regard, Google’s policy only permits the manager and the owner of the domain name to create a Google Apps administrative account. For instance, after signing a Google App, an administrator is queried to authenticate control of the domain by making an alteration to the DNS record, without this change Google does not allow an account to be opened by any individual. Moreover, none of the servicers can be actively managed if no account is created. It is worth mentioning that any individual whose email has been used as a registered secondary email address can gain access to the primary administrative account (Google, 2013). Mitigating this Issues The advancement in technology and the rapid increase in the number of internet users may be considered as a boon for Google. However, it has been viewed that many organisations and individuals are also developing policies that enabling to keep a track of the privacy polices of different services that are being provided on the web. The growing users of Google has not only provided adequate opportunities for the company to flourish in the IT market but has also provided challenges that the company is required to mitigate in order to maintain its leading position. For instance, in the year 2013 the United Kingdom’s (UK's) Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and five distinct Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) based throughout Europe have charged penalties against Goggle for not following the company’s policies efficiently. Google has replaced over 60 recognized confidentiality rules covering services such as YouTube and Gmail. It has also been viewed that the data collected while creating an account by an individual is being used by Google for further research to introduce new products (Pinsent Masons LLP, 2013). Google has its own legal body along with laws that restrict any individual to illegally access data of an individual and if done it may force the company to take legal actions against them. Furthermore, Google cloud’s users are rapid victims of hackers who are found to hack their data and cause great harm to them. Considering the growing issues, Google has introduced many new policies that restrict unauthorised access by tracking the IP address of the person who tries to make illegal access to the data stored in the cloud database. The stringent security measures taken by the company have largely enabled it to attain recognition as one of the most secretive companies in the world. The evolving security issues have brought in the need to tackle the ever-evolving issues in a more steadfast manner. Thus, the approach taken by Google has been a major strength for the company to address myriad challenges. Conclusion Google has attained global recognition as one of the most admired and largest IT companies around the globe. Since its establishment, the company is viewed to have grown to a greater extent resulting from effective implementation of policies and strategies. However, over the years, the company has been a victim of many issues as well that needed to be mitigated in a strategic way. Google has also introduced a number of new policies and regulations to mitigate the issues by establishing a cooperative standpoint. The main reason behind the success of the company can also be viewed from its acquisition of a number of qualified allies along with introducing unique products. The different policies that Google has been following in its premises have also helped in developing new products accordingly and increasing its user base. With reference to the above stated discussion, it can be affirmed that Google has not only established and provided a new dimension on how an IT based organisation should function but has also provided evidences which show that the confidentiality of the users should be regarded with utmost concern which would in turn enable to ensure greater user retention. References Alexa Internet, Inc., No Date. Top Sites. 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[Online] Available at: http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2013/april/google-facing-regulatory-action-in-six-eu-countries-over-privacy-policy-issues/ [Accessed November 02, 2013]. Reuters, 2006. Google Closes $A2b YouTube Deal. Business. [Online] Available at: http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/Google-closes-A2b-YouTube-deal/2006/11/14/1163266548827.html [Accessed November 02, 2013]. Tabakh, A., 2009. Alumnus Puts KU at Center of Google Earth. The University of Kansas. [Online] Available at: http://www.engr.ku.edu/news/2006-10-9/alumnus_puts_ku#top [Accessed November 02, 2013]. Read More