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Trivia / Google

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  • Adored by the Network: Google+, at least until April 2019 for consumers due to a failure to fix a data leak bug and keeping the results of it secret.
  • Banned in China: For a time, Google caved in to China's demand for censorship to avoid being banned. Then later, amid suspicions that the Chinese government was trying to spy on Gmail users, they apparently decided it wasn't worth it and left the country entirely.
  • Killer App:
    • Gmail and Google Maps were showcases for AJAX. No one had seen a web page that could be dynamically updated without reloading before. They showed it was possible to build web apps that worked as well as desktop apps did, heralding Web 2.0.
    • Many of Google's features, like Google Maps / Earth or Drive, work best on Chrome, leading to a huge growth in Chrome users.
  • Screwed by the Lawyers: Google was forced to remove the "View Image" button from Google Images search results due to lawsuit from Getty Images and other copyright holders claiming the button infringed on their copyrights.
  • Tyop on the Cover: Amusingly enough, the company got its name this way. The founders were brainstorming names when Sean Anderson suggested naming it after the math term for 10100, and they were pleasantly surprised that "Google" was available as a web domain. It was only after they registered it that they realized the term is actually spelled Googol. Googol.com was already taken, so the misspelled version stuck.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • The first choice for Google CEO was Steve Jobs.
    • Yahoo once had the opportunity of buying out and absorbing Google. They thought it wouldn't work and passed on the offer.

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