US:
A U.S. judge has ruled that Google illegally monopolized digital advertising markets, paving the way for a break up of the internet empire that was started out of a Stanford University dormitory nearly 27 years ago.
Google’s platform for advertisers, closely tied to the online search unit, is a core driver of its $300 billion-a-year advertising business that has been a key focus for the past 2-1/2 decades.
Here’s a look at some milestones in the history of the tech giant, whose parent is now known as Alphabet :
Year Event
1995-1996 Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford University and create a search engine named BackRub.
1998 The startup, now renamed Google, gets $100,000 in funding from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim.
1999 Google announces $25 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins in its very first press release, and officially announces the term “Googlers” to the world.
June 2000 Google becomes the default search engine provider for Yahoo, one of the most popular websites at the time.
October Launches AdWords, the online advertising platform that would become core to Google’s business.
2001 Eric Schmidt is named Google’s chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors.
April 2004 Google announces it is testing the release of Gmail, with up to 1GB of storage capacity.
August 2004 Launches initial public offering of roughly 19.6 million shares, at an opening price of $85 per share.
February 2005 Launches Google Maps for desktop.
August 2005 Acquires mobile startup Android. Launches Google Talk instant messaging service.
2006 Buys online video service YouTube for $1.65 billion.
April 2007 Announces acquisition of web ad supplier DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
May 2007 Introduces universal search that lets users access search results across all content types, like images, videos and news, at once.
September Debuts first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 or HTC Dream.
2008 Launches Google Chrome web browser.
January Launches smartphone, Nexus One, co-developed with HTC.
March 2010 Stops censoring search results in China, leading to its banning in the country.
October Google tests out its first self-driving vehicles with a small fleet of Toyota Prius cars in California.
June 2011 Launches Google+ social networking service, which was shut down in 2018.
August 2011 Announces acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which includes Motorola’s cellphone and TV set-top box businesses, for $12.5 billion.
2012 Launches Google Glass.
2013 Announces acquisition of Israeli mapping startup Waze for about $1 billion.
2014 Announces in January that it will acquire AI firm DeepMind.In the same month, announces a $3.2 billion deal to buy smart thermostat and smoke alarm maker Nest Labs.
2015 Announces plans to create a new publicly listed company, Alphabet, which will house Google and other units, including YouTube and research and venture capital businesses.Sundar Pichai named CEO of Google.
October 2016 Launches the first Pixel smartphone.
November Launches Google Home smart speaker.
June 2017 The European Commission fines Google 2.42 billion euros for violating the neutrality of its search.
February 2018 Google reports full-year sales of over $100 billion a year for the first time.
July 2018 The European Commission fines Google 4.34 billion euros for anti-competitive practices with respect to its Android operating system.
March 2019 The European Commission imposes a 1.49 billion euros fine for anti-competitive practices with respect to the company’s online advertising business.
June 2019 Google announces acquisition of analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion.
November Announces acquisition of Fitbit for $2.1 billion.
December Co-founders Page and Brin announce they are stepping down as CEO and president, respectively; Pichai becomes CEO of Alphabet.
2020 Alphabet hits $1 trillion in market capitalization.
January 2023 The company cuts 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce.
February 2023 Google announces Bard, a generative AI-powered chatbot that can produce text content and fetch information off the internet. However, a factual error in the AI tool’s demo tanksAlphabet shares, erasing $100 billion from the company’s market capitalization.
Susan Wojcicki, one of Google’s first employees, steps down as YouTube CEO; Neal Mohan replaces her.
March 2023 Begins rolling out Bard to some users.
June 2023 EU regulators say Google may have to sell part of its adtech business to address concerns about anti-competitive practices
September 2023 The U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of state attorneys general begin a blockbuster antitrust trial in Washington, alleging that Google unlawfully abused its dominance in the search-engine market to maintain monopoly power
November 2023 Google begins U.S. trial with Epic Games over claims of violation of federal antitrust law
December 2023 Google launches Gemini, its most powerful generative AI model at the time
January 2024 Samsung says it will use Google’s Gemini large language models in its Galaxy S24 series smartphones
February 2024Google flags increased spending on servers for data centers, underscoring its hefty investments to power AI that will later raise investor concerns
February2024 Google renames its Bard chatbot after the Gemini models that power it
February 2024 Nvidia snatches Goggle’s spot as the third-most valuable U.S. company, underscoring the AI shift across Big Tech
February 2024 Google releases open source “Gemma” models, following in its AI competitor Meta Platforms’ footsteps
February 2024Google pauses its AI tool that creates images of people, following inaccuracies in some historical depictions generated by the model,just weeks after first offering the service
February 2024 Thirty-two media groups including Axel Springer and Schibsted hit Google with a2.1-billion-euro ($2.3 billion) lawsuit alleging that they had suffered losses due to its digital advertising practices
March 2024 A U.S. judge rules that Google must face advertisers’ proposed class action lawsuit claiming that it monopolizes the ad exchange market
March 2024 EU antitrust regulators open their first investigations under the Digital Markets Act into Google, Apple, Meta for potential breaches of the landmark EU tech rules.
April 2024 Google sued by U.S. artists over AI image generator
April 2024 Alphabet announces first-ever dividend
June 2024 Google names Anat Ashkenazi as CFO
October 2024 Google shifts Gemini app team to DeepMind
November 2024 Google must sell Chrome to restore competition in online search, DOJ argues
November 2024 Meta will face antitrust trial over Instagram,WhatsApp acquisitions
March 2025 Google defeats part of U.S. shareholder class action over digital advertising practices and user privacy protections
March 2025 Alphabet signs its biggest deal ever, to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion
March 2025 U.S. drops bid to make Google sell AI Investments in antitrust case
April 2025 Google faces 5 billion pound UK lawsuit for allegedly abusing dominance in online search
April 2025 U.S. judge finds Google’s holds illegal monopolies in ad tech, paving the way for U.S. antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its advertising products.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)