Introduction

Google Inc. took the world by storm, and now it stands unparalleled in its field. Google earns from advertising related to its internet searches, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. There are many reasons why Google is the success that it is, but generally, it's the think-outside-the-box attitude that makes all the difference. Innovation over profit, a quality few can boast. Of course, it's more than preferable if you could optimize revenue while you're at it. For example, their motivation technique called Innovation Time Off, where all Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interests them. They still work on projects so the company doesn't loss money. And it's quite effective as well, since services like Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense originated during Innovation Time Off. Google Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, stated that half of the new product launches originated from the 20% time.

They've also got creative methods of getting free publicity like Google's tradition of April Fool's Day jokes such as Google MentalPlex, which searched the web with mental powers, the claim that pigeons were the secret behind thier search engine, Google Lunar, which featured jobs on the moon, the brain-boosting Google Gulp, online dating service called Google Romance, the TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider) which got connections by flushing one end of a cable down the toilet and waiting for a PHD (Plumbing Hardware Dispatcher) to connect you, and finally, Gmail Paper, which allows users to email messages printed and shipped to any address. Google also uses more traditional techniques like Easter eggs; for example, the Language Tools offers search interface in the "Swedish Chef"'s "Bork bork bork", pig latin, l3375P33K, Elmer Fudd, and Klingon. The search engine calculator gives the anser to life, the universe and everything from the book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (the answer is 42). Google routinely modifies its logo to suit various holidays and events.

The name Google was diverged from the common misspelling of the word googol, meaning a very large number, later redefined as 10^100.