Google is a multinational technology company specializing in internet-related services and products. It was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. Google's core products include its search engine, which is the most widely used search engine globally, as well as other services such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive, YouTube, and the Android operating system. Google has also expanded into hardware with products like the Pixel smartphones, Google Home smart speakers, and Chromecast streaming devices. Additionally, the company has ventures in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, advertising technologies, and autonomous vehicles through its subsidiaries such as DeepMind, Google Cloud, and Waymo. As of my last update in January 2022, Google remains one of the most influential and valuable technology companies in the world, with a significant impact on various aspects of daily life, business, and society as a whole.