(Reuters) – 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at some milestones in the history of the tech giant, whose parent is now known as Alphabet :<\/p>\n
YEAR EVENT<\/p>\n
1995-1996 Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford<\/p>\n
University and create a search engine named<\/p>\n
BackRub.<\/p>\n
1998 The startup, now renamed Google, gets $100,000<\/p>\n
in funding from Sun Microsystems co-founder<\/p>\n
Andy Bechtolsheim.<\/p>\n
1999 Google announces $25 million in funding from<\/p>\n
Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins in its<\/p>\n
very first press release, and officially<\/p>\n
announces the term “Googlers” to the world.<\/p>\n
June 2000 Google becomes the default search engine<\/p>\n
provider for Yahoo, one of the most popular<\/p>\n
websites at the time.<\/p>\n
October Launches AdWords, the online advertising<\/p>\n
2000 platform that would become core to Google’s<\/p>\n
business.<\/p>\n
2001 Eric Schmidt is named Google’s chief executive<\/p>\n
officer and chairman of the board of<\/p>\n
directors.<\/p>\n
April 2004 Google announces it is testing the release of<\/p>\n
Gmail, with up to 1GB of storage capacity.<\/p>\n
August 2004 Launches initial public offering of roughly<\/p>\n
19.6 million shares, at an opening price of<\/p>\n
$85 per share.<\/p>\n
February Launches Google Maps for desktop.<\/p>\n
2005<\/p>\n
August 2005 Acquires mobile startup Android.<\/p>\n
Launches Google Talk instant messaging<\/p>\n
service.<\/p>\n
2006 Buys online video service YouTube for $1.65<\/p>\n
billion.<\/p>\n
April 2007 Announces acquisition of web ad supplier<\/p>\n
DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.<\/p>\n
May 2007 Introduces universal search that lets users<\/p>\n
access search results across all content<\/p>\n
types, like images, videos and news, at once.<\/p>\n
September Debuts first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 or<\/p>\n
2008 HTC Dream.<\/p>\n
Launches Google Chrome web browser.<\/p>\n
January Launches smartphone, Nexus One, co-developed<\/p>\n
2010 with HTC.<\/p>\n
March 2010 Stops censoring search results in China,<\/p>\n
leading to its banning in the country.<\/p>\n
October Google tests out its first self-driving<\/p>\n
2010 vehicles with a small fleet of Toyota Prius<\/p>\n
cars in California.<\/p>\n
June 2011 Launches Google+ social networking service,<\/p>\n
which was shut down in 2018.<\/p>\n
August 2011 Announces acquisition of Motorola Mobility,<\/p>\n
which includes Motorola’s cellphone and TV<\/p>\n
set-top box businesses, for $12.5 billion.<\/p>\n
2012 Launches Google Glass.<\/p>\n
2013 Announces acquisition of Israeli mapping<\/p>\n
startup Waze for about $1 billion.<\/p>\n
2014 Announces in January that it will acquire AI<\/p>\n
firm DeepMind.<\/p>\n
In the same month, announces a $3.2 billion<\/p>\n
deal to buy smart thermostat and smoke alarm<\/p>\n
maker Nest Labs.<\/p>\n
2015 Announces plans to create a new publicly<\/p>\n
listed company, Alphabet, which will house<\/p>\n
Google and other units, including YouTube and<\/p>\n
research and venture capital businesses.<\/p>\n
Sundar Pichai named CEO of Google.<\/p>\n
October Launches the first Pixel smartphone.<\/p>\n
2016<\/p>\n
November Launches Google Home smart speaker.<\/p>\n
2016<\/p>\n
June 2017 The European Commission fines Google 2.42<\/p>\n
billion euros for violating the neutrality of<\/p>\n
its search.<\/p>\n
February Google reports full-year sales of over $100<\/p>\n
2018 billion a year for the first time.<\/p>\n
July 2018 The European Commission fines Google 4.34<\/p>\n
billion euros for anti-competitive practices<\/p>\n
with respect to its Android operating system.<\/p>\n
March 2019 The European Commission imposes a 1.49 billion<\/p>\n
euros fine for anti-competitive practices with<\/p>\n
respect to the company’s online advertising<\/p>\n
business.<\/p>\n
June 2019 Google announces acquisition of analytics<\/p>\n
startup Looker for $2.6 billion.<\/p>\n
November Announces acquisition of Fitbit for $2.1<\/p>\n
2019 billion.<\/p>\n
December Co-founders Page and Brin announce they are<\/p>\n
2019 stepping down as CEO and president,<\/p>\n
respectively; Pichai becomes CEO of Alphabet.<\/p>\n
2020 Alphabet hits $1 trillion in market<\/p>\n
capitalization.<\/p>\n
January The company cuts 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its<\/p>\n
2023 workforce.<\/p>\n
February Google announces Bard, a generative AI-powered<\/p>\n
2023 chatbot that can produce text content and<\/p>\n
fetch information off the internet. However, a<\/p>\n
factual error in the AI tool’s demo tanks<\/p>\n
Alphabet shares, erasing $100 billion from the<\/p>\n
company’s market capitalization.<\/p>\n
Susan Wojcicki, one of Google’s first<\/p>\n
employees, steps down as YouTube CEO; Neal<\/p>\n
Mohan replaces her.<\/p>\n
March 2023 Begins rolling out Bard to some users.<\/p>\n
EU regulators say Google may have to sell part<\/p>\n
June 2023 of its adtech business to address concerns<\/p>\n
about anti-competitive practices<\/p>\n
September The U.S. Justice Department and a coalition of<\/p>\n
2023 state attorneys general begin a blockbuster<\/p>\n
antitrust trial in Washington, alleging that<\/p>\n
Google unlawfully abused its dominance in the<\/p>\n
search-engine market to maintain monopoly<\/p>\n
power<\/p>\n
November Google begins U.S. trial with Epic Games over<\/p>\n
2023 claims of violation of federal antitrust law<\/p>\n
December Google launches Gemini, its most powerful<\/p>\n
2023 generative AI model at the time<\/p>\n
January Samsung says it will use Google’s Gemini large<\/p>\n
2024 language models in its Galaxy S24 series<\/p>\n
smartphones<\/p>\n
February Google flags increased spending on servers for<\/p>\n
2024 data centers, underscoring its hefty<\/p>\n
investments to power AI that will later raise<\/p>\n
investor concerns<\/p>\n
February Google renames its Bard chatbot after the<\/p>\n
2024 Gemini models that power it<\/p>\n
February Nvidia snatches Goggle’s spot as the<\/p>\n
2024 third-most valuable U.S. company, underscoring<\/p>\n
the AI shift across Big Tech<\/p>\n
February Google releases open source “Gemma” models,<\/p>\n
2024 following in its AI competitor Meta Platforms’<\/p>\n
footsteps<\/p>\n
February Google pauses its AI tool that creates images<\/p>\n
2024 of people, following inaccuracies in some<\/p>\n
historical depictions generated by the model,<\/p>\n
just weeks after first offering the service<\/p>\n
February Thirty-two media groups including Axel<\/p>\n
2024 Springer and Schibsted hit Google with a<\/p>\n
2.1-billion-euro ($2.3 billion) lawsuit<\/p>\n
alleging that they had suffered losses due to<\/p>\n
its digital advertising practices<\/p>\n
March 2024 A U.S. judge rules that Google must face<\/p>\n
advertisers’ proposed class action lawsuit<\/p>\n
claiming that it monopolizes the ad exchange<\/p>\n
market<\/p>\n
March 2024 EU antitrust regulators open their first<\/p>\n
investigations under the Digital Markets Act<\/p>\n
into Google, Apple, Meta for potential<\/p>\n
breaches of the landmark EU tech rules.<\/p>\n
April 2024 Google sued by U.S. artists over AI image<\/p>\n
generator<\/p>\n
April 2024 Alphabet announces first-ever dividend<\/p>\n
June 2024 Google names Anat Ashkenazi as CFO<\/p>\n
October Google shifts Gemini app team to DeepMind<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
November Google must sell Chrome to restore competition<\/p>\n
2024 in online search, DOJ argues<\/p>\n
November Meta will face antitrust trial over Instagram,<\/p>\n
2024 WhatsApp acquisitions<\/p>\n
March 2025 Google defeats part of U.S. shareholder class<\/p>\n
action over digital advertising practices and<\/p>\n
user privacy protections<\/p>\n
March 2025 Alphabet signs its biggest deal ever, to buy<\/p>\n
cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion<\/p>\n
March 2025 U.S. drops bid to make Google sell AI<\/p>\n
investments in antitrust case<\/p>\n
April 2025 Google faces 5 billion pound UK lawsuit for<\/p>\n
allegedly abusing dominance in online search<\/p>\n
April 2025 U.S. judge finds Google’s holds illegal<\/p>\n
monopolies in ad tech, paving the way for U.S.<\/p>\n
antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its<\/p>\n
advertising products<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa, Kritika Lamba, Meghana Khare, Jaspreet Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Devika Syamnath)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Reuters) – A U.S. judge has ruled that Google illegally monopolized digital advertising markets, paving the way for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3161],"tags":[3836,20639,867,1954,20638,3082,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-35693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-alphabet","9":"tag-digital-advertising","10":"tag-google","11":"tag-google-chrome","12":"tag-google-talk","13":"tag-internet","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114370550331729647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}