"Google is an Internet company and brand. Google may also refer to: Google search, the company's search engine Google (verb), a word (synonymous with searching Google) Proceratium google, a Madagascan ant species named after the search engine a fictional monster in The Google Book, a 1913 children's story Barney Google, a comic strip created in 1919 and its protagonist "Google Me", a song by Teyana Taylor in cricket, googly, a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler googol, a one followed by 100 zeroes; 10100.

On Wednesday, January 18, 2006, the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion to compel in United States district court in San Jose seeking a court order that would compel search engine company Google Inc. to turn over, "a multi-stage random sample of one million URL’s", from Google’s database, and a computer file with, "the text of each search string entered onto Google’s search engine over a one-week period (absent any information identifying the person who entered such query)."[68] Google maintains that their policy has always been to assure its users privacy and anonymity, and challenged the subpoena. On March 18, 2006, a federal judge ruled that while Google must surrender 50,000 random URLs, the Department of Justice did not meet the necessary burden to force Google to disclose any search terms entered by its users

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing them with a rich source of information.