Google 2010 Annual Report Download - page 16

PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people connect with information. We
aspire to build products that improve the lives of billions of people globally. Our mission is to organize the world’s
information and make it universally accessible and useful. Our innovations in web search and advertising have
made our website a top internet property and our brand one of the most recognized in the world.
We generate revenue primarily by delivering relevant, cost-effective online advertising. Businesses use our
AdWords program to promote their products and services with targeted advertising. In addition, the third parties
that comprise the Google Network use our AdSense program to deliver relevant ads that generate revenue and
enhance the user experience.
We were incorporated in California in September 1998 and reincorporated in Delaware in August 2003. Our
headquarters are located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043, and our telephone
number is [phone]. We completed our initial public offering in August 2004 and our Class A common
stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “GOOG.”
Corporate Highlights
Effective April 4, 2011, Larry Page, our Co-Founder and President, Products, will become our Chief Executive
Officer, Eric E. Schmidt, our current Chief Executive Officer, will continue as the chairman of our board of directors
and will serve as our Executive Chairman, and Sergey Brin, our Co-Founder and President, Technology, will
continue as Co-Founder.
In 2010, we continued to reap the rewards of the growth of the digital economy. The shift of consumers and
advertisers from offline to online continued unabated, which fueled good growth in our core business of search
advertising. We continued to invest heavily, and rapidly innovate in our search technologies to expand the
comprehensiveness of our index, the relevance of our results, and the speed with which we deliver search results.
Some recent notable enhancements to search include Google Instant, Instant Previews, and Place Search. We
believe that search will only become more intelligent, personal, and interactive, delivering the information most
relevant to users, in their language, and relevant to their location and interests.
In addition, in the past year we have also invested aggressively in our newer businesses—namely display,
mobile, and enterprise—to lay the groundwork for future growth. We have also made strategic investments in
critical product areas, like Android, Chrome, and Chrome OS—following our core philosophy of building open
platforms with optionality, and creating infrastructure that allows everyone on the web to succeed. We also believe
that an active acquisition program is an important element of our business strategy. During 2010, we invested $1.8
billion to acquire companies, products, services, and technologies.
Our business is primarily focused around the following key areas: search, advertising, operating systems and
platforms, and enterprise.
Search
We maintain a vast index of websites and other online content, and make it available through our search
engine to anyone with an internet connection. Our search technologies sort through an ever-growing amount of
information to deliver relevant and useful search results in response to user queries. We integrate innovative
features into our search service and offer specialized search services to help users tailor their search. In addition,
we are constantly improving and adding to our products and services, to provide users with more relevant results
so that users find what they are looking for faster.
3