About Google: Our products, technology and company information

The said data hub will add to the already operational center near Columbus, bringing Google's total investment in Ohio to over $2 billion. In December 2022, Google debuted OSV-Scanner, a Go tool for finding security holes in open source software, which pulls from the largest open source vulnerability database of its kind to defend against supply chain attacks. It would not remove content that is "broadly useful", such as news articles, or already part of the public record. Even with the new policy, Google may remove information from only certain but not all search queries. It had previously accepted requests for removing confidential data only, such as Social Security numbers, bank account and credit card numbers, personal signatures, and medical records. In 2022, Google began accepting requests for the removal of phone numbers, physical addresses and email addresses from its search results. In March 2013, the five-play individual track limit was removed for users in the United Kingdom, and media reports stated that users in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand never had the limit in the first place. In April 2025, Spotify expanded its AI Playlist beta feature to Premium listeners in over 40 new English-speaking markets, including countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. All other streams of selected songs outside of Spotify Radio and Autoplay remain commission-free. In November 2021, Spotify launched the City and Local Pulse charts, aimed at representing the songs listened to in major cities around the world. The feature is represented by a bell icon on the app's main page and is available on iOS and Android.

• The lawsuit alleged that Google engaged in anticompetitive behavior by paying Apple between $8 billion and $12 billion to be the default search engine on iPhones.
• Pelly advocated for a move away from the current royalty model that says the artists who people listen to the most should make the most money toward a more generalized approach where the decision for who gets paid rests with industry or government bodies, not audiences.
• Google's Internet business was responsible for $10.8 billion of this total, with an increase in the number of users' clicks on advertisements.
• Not available to users who have already tried Premium.
• As a motivation technique, Google uses a policy known as Innovation Time Off, where Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that interest them.
• Google announced the launch of a new company, called Calico, on September 19, 2013, to be led by Apple Inc. chairman Arthur Levinson.

Enterprise services

The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. In 2012, the company ranked 2nd in campaign donations of technology and Internet sections. Google's Internet business was responsible for $10.8 billion of this total, with an increase in the number of users' clicks on advertisements.

Google Labs

In April 2017, the panel was upgraded to leave beta status, renamed as "Spotify for Artists", and opened to all artists and managers. In March 2009, Spotify began offering music downloads in the United Kingdom, France, and Spain. The company was, according to TechCrunch, planning to launch on the stock market in 2017, but in 2017 it was seen as planning on doing the IPO in 2018 to "build up a better balance sheet and work on shifting its business model to improve its margins".

Antitrust

Additionally, Apple stated that they have attempted to work with Spotify to integrate the service better with Apple's products, such as Siri and Apple Watch. Two days later, Apple responded, stating that the claim was misleading rhetoric and that Spotify wanted benefits of a free app without being a free app. In a further escalation of the dispute with Apple, on 13 March 2019, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission over unfair app store practices. Spotify released the first version of its Apple Watch app in November 2018, allowing playback control of the iPhone via the watch. Furthermore, he stated that "There is nothing in Apple's conduct that 'amounts to a violation of applicable antitrust laws.' Far from it. ... I would be happy to facilitate an expeditious review and approval of your app as soon as you provide us with something that is compliant with the App Store's rules".

• In November 2024, Google announced the establishment of a new AI hub in Saudi Arabia, aiming to support the Kingdom's economic growth and technological development as part of its Vision 2030 initiative.
• In May 2017, Google enabled a new "Personal" tab in Google Search, letting users search for content in their Google accounts' various services, including email messages from Gmail and photos from Google Photos.
• In December 2016, Google announced that—starting in 2017—it would purchase enough renewable energy to match 100% of the energy usage of its data centers and offices.
• In January 2021, Spotify made a selection of audiobooks available on the platform as a test of developing a greater breadth of content for users.
• Ek stated that "We're giving people the best free music experience in the history of the smartphone." This limitation does not apply to Android and iOS tablets, or computers.

Google expanded its search services to include shopping (launched originally as Froogle in 2002), finance (launched 2006), and flights (launched 2011). Google also hosts Google Books, which allows users to search books in its database and shows limited previews, or the full book when allowed. In May 2022, Google announced that the company had acquired California based, MicroLED display technology development and manufacturing Start-up company Raxium. In April 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google ran a years-long program called "Project Bernanke" that used data from past advertising bids to gain an advantage over competing for ad services. The company subsequently announced that "48 employees have been fired over the last two years" for sexual misconduct. While conventional search engines ranked results by counting how many times the search terms appeared on the page, they theorized about a better system that analyzed the relationships among websites. The judgment claimed Google had failed to sufficiently inform users of its methods for collecting data to personalize advertising. The outage, attributed to a cloud service error and not a cyberattack, prompted a joint apology from UniSuper and Google Cloud executives, who assured members that no personal data was compromised and restoration efforts were underway. In 2017, three women sued Google, accusing the company of violating California's Equal Pay Act by underpaying its female employees. On September 14, 2022, Google lost the appeal of a €4.125 billion (£3.5 billion) fine, which was ruled to be paid after it was proved by the European Commission that Google forced Android phone-makers to carry Google's search and web browser apps. The abuse of dominants position has been referred to as Google's constraint applied to Android device manufacturers and network operators to ensure that traffic on Android devices goes to the Google search engine. The testing was very limited in nature and was only available on Spotify's Android app in the US. Some artists included in this initial test phase were Steve Aoki and the Wombats. In May 2022, Spotify began testing a feature that would allow select artists to promote their NFTs via their profiles. In September 2020, Spotify, Epic, and other companies founded The Coalition for App Fairness, which aims for better conditions for the inclusion of apps in app stores. In 2019, under iOS 13, it became possible to play Spotify music using Siri commands.

Advertising

In December 2015, Spotify debuted Spotify Wrapped, a program that creates playlists based on each user's most listened-to songs from the year. The features were announced by CEO Daniel Ek at a press conference, with Ek saying that a common user complaint about the service was that "Spotify is great when you know what music you want to listen to, but not when you don't". "Follow" lets users follow artists and friends to see what they are listening to, while "Discover" directs users to new releases as well as music, review, and concert recommendations based on listening history. The company announced the two locations will generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to supply 55,000 homes. In September 2025 Google opened their £735m AI Centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire and announced their plans for £5 bn investment in AI research, in the same month that Alphabet reached market capitalisation of $3 trillion. The new campus, reported to be the company's largest outside the United States, will accommodate 13,000 employees. Spotify users can also 'jam' sessions where users can create and contribute live music playing sessions with their Spotify friends. Spotify also has a 'blend' feature in which two users' music preferences are mixed in a shared playlist. In April 2014, Spotify moved away from the peer-to-peer (P2P) system they had used to distribute music to users. Spotify's terms and conditions do not permit users to reverse-engineer the application. Ek stated that "We're giving people the best free music experience in the history of the smartphone." This limitation does not apply to Android and iOS tablets, or computers.

Google Password Manager

Other artists and podcasters, such as Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, Brené Brown, and Crosby, Stills, & Nash, also announced a boycott of Spotify. This policy was revoked in June because the company deemed the original wording to be too "vague"; they stated that "Across all genres, our role is not to regulate artists. Therefore, we are moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct". In response to the allegations about unfair compensation, Spotify claims that it is benefitting the industry by migrating users away from unauthorized copying and less monetized platforms to its free service tier, and then downgrades that service until they upgrade to paid accounts. On October 9, 2018, Google confirmed that it had appealed the fine to the General Court of the EU. Google reportedly paid Apple $22 billion in 2022 to maintain its position as the default search engine on Safari. In 2019, a hub for critics of Google dedicated to abstaining from using Google products coalesced in the Reddit online community /r/degoogle. This comes alongside other large fines against social media companies accused of hosting content critical of the Kremlin or supportive of Ukraine. Many complaints were filed against Israel's videos, but Google maintained that the ads did not violate its content policies. According to Google employees, the Israeli military could use this technology to expand its surveillance of Palestinians living in the occupied territories. In April 2015, Google announced Project Fi, a mobile virtual network operator, that combines Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different telecommunication providers in an effort to enable seamless connectivity and fast Internet signal. Following Google's corporate restructure to make Alphabet Inc. its parent company, Google Fiber was moved to Alphabet's Access division. In February 2010, Google announced the Google Fiber project, with experimental plans to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network for 50,000 to 500,000 customers in one or more American cities. Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal wrote felice bet that the suite competes with existing marketing cloud offerings by companies including Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce, and IBM. In October 2016, Google announced Daydream View, a lightweight VR viewer which lets the user place their smartphone in the front hinge to view VR media. Mobile listeners are now able to tap on any song or search for what they’d like to play. In September 2025, Spotify began removing restrictions preventing free users from listening to specific tracks. The company reported that the tier conditions may change before its full launch. On September 10, 2025, it was announced that Lossless would be rolling out to Premium listeners gradually to more than 50 markets through October. In February 2021, Spotify announced their plans to introduce a HiFi subscription, to offer listening in high fidelity, lossless sound quality. The changes faced a mixed reaction from the music industry, who believed that it would be detrimental to emerging musicians, but would make a larger share of total royalty payments available to musicians. The company also actively funds and profits from climate disinformation by monetizing ad spaces on most of the largest climate disinformation sites. Google donates to climate change denial political groups including the State Policy Network and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. In October 2020, the company pledged to make the packaging for its hardware products 100% plastic-free and 100% recyclable by 2025. It also stated that it is committed to operating its data centers and offices using only carbon-free energy by 2030.