continued from part 1
August 2005 The company launches
Google Talk, a downloadable Windows application that enables Google Mail users to chat with friends using a computer microphone and speaker for free.
September 2005 Overlays in Google Earth illustrate the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina around New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Some rescue teams use these tools to locate stranded victims.
Google Blog Search goes live, allowing users to find current and relevant blog posts on particular topics throughout the vast blogosphere.
November 2005 Google's first offices in South America open in São Paulo and Mexico City. Google Analytics is launched to measure the impact of websites and marketing campaigns.
December 2005 Google staff bulk-buy vast quantities of silly putty for fun and games in the office.
Google Earth is unveiled,
offering a satellite imagery-based mapping service combining 3D buildings and terrain with mapping capabilities and Google search.
Google Transit launches in Labs, allowing people in the Portland, Oregon metro area to plan their trips on public transport on one site. Google Mail for Mobile also goes live. The Google headcount reaches 5,680.
January 2006 Google.cn, a local domain version of Google, goes live in China, attracting criticism from human rights groups who accused the search engine of submitting to government censorship.
February 2006 The Chat function is introduced in Google Mail, using the instant messaging tools from Google Talk. Google News for mobile launches.
March 2006 Google announces the acquisition of Writely, a web-based word processing application that is to become the basis for Google Docs.
April 1 2010 Google unveils a new product, Google Romance, declaring: “Dating is a search problem.” Google Calendar is also launched, complete with sharing and group features.
June 2006 The Oxford English Dictionary adds “Google” as a verb. The company announces Picasa Web Albums, allowing users to upload and share their photos online. Google Mail launches in Arabic and Hebrew, bringing the number of interfaces up to 40.
November 2006 The first nationwide Doodle 4 Google contest takes place in Britain. More than 15,000 children enter and 13-year old Katherine Chisnall is chosen to have her doodle displayed the UK homepage.
December 2006 Google staff around the world wear their pyjamas and slippers to work for the first company-wide “Pyjama Day”.
Patent Search is launched in the US, indexing more than seven million patents dating back to 1790. The staff headcount has reached 10,674.
January 2007 Google's relationship with China blossoms further with the announcement of a partnership with China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile telecom operator, to provide mobile and Internet search services.
Army intelligence sources warn that terrorists attacking British bases in Basra are using aerial footage displayed by Google Earth to pinpoint their targets.
February 2007 The Candidates@Google series of interviews with presidential hopefuls kicks off with an appearance by Senator Hilary Clinton.
For Valentine’s Day, Google Mail is opened to everyone. It had previously been available by invitation only. Traffic information is added to Google Maps for the first time.
August 2006 Google Book Search begins offering free PDF downloads of books in the public domain.
March 2007 Google launches "gBikes" in Mountain View, California - allowing staff to use on of 650 bicycles identifiable by an orange flag to ride to their meetings. Partnerships are signed to give free access to Google Apps for Education to 70,000 university students in Kenya and Rwanda.
April 2007 The company makes hundreds of videos of talks by authors, academics and politicians who visit its offices available on the @Google YouTube channel.
May 2007 Video, news, books, image and local results are integrated together in one search result. Street View debuts in Google Maps in five US cities: New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami and Denver.
June 2007 Google begins a series of blog posts affirming its support for a free and open internet, amid criticism over its relationship with China.
Google Maps is integrated as an app on the original Apple iPhone and YouTube becomes available in nine more domains: Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Ireland and Britain.
July 2007 The first CNN/YouTube debate takes place between the eight US Democratic Presidential candidates. The Republicans get their turn in November.
August 2007 Sky launches inside Google Earth, including layers of constellation information and virtual tours of galaxies.
September 2007 Google Reader becomes available in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, English (UK), Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese and Korean.
October 2007 A new layer in Google Earth is added to keep track of seasonal wildfires in California. Users also create maps to maintain up-to-date information on burned areas and evacuation zones.
November 2007 Android, the first open platform for mobile devices, is announced.
December 2007 The Queen launches The Royal Channel on YouTube. She is the first monarch to establish a video presence this way.
Google staff in the San Francisco Bay Area consume approximately 5,500lbs of handmade chocolates from the snack bins in their office "microkitchens" in 2007.
February 2008 Google Sites debuts. It enables users to create collaborative websites with embedded videos, documents and calendars.
April 2008 16 April Fool’s jokes from Google's offices around the world are featured on its domain, including the new airline announced with Sir Richard Branson, Virgle, and the Manpower Search in China. In an additional prank, all viewers linking to YouTube-featured videos are “Rickrolled”.
A new version of Google Earth launches, incorporating Street View and 12 more languages.
A collaboration between the company's New York and Shanghai teams means Chinese investors can now access stock and mutual fund data through Google Finance China.
May 2008 Google Earth adds new satellite information to help recovery efforts following the Sichuan earthquake in China and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar.
Google Translate adds 10 more languages, bringing the total to 23.
June 2008 Google Finance adds real-time stock quotes for the first time.
July 2008 Street View is launched in Europe with image-maps for the entire 2008 Tour de France route but concerns are raised that the product breaches the privacy of those captured.
Google launches its first downloadable iPhone app, featuring word suggestions for quicker mobile searching. The search engine now indexes one trillion URLs.
The company works with the band Radiohead to make a music video of their song House of Cards using only data and no cameras.
August 2008 Street View becomes available in several cities in Japan and Australia - the first time it has appeared outside of North America or Europe. The Google Suggest feature arrives on Google.co.uk, offering predictive search suggestions as users type.
Google launches an election site in time for the US political conventions, offering news, video and photos as well as tools for teachers and campaigners.
September 2008 Google celebrates its 10th birthday. Its new browser, Chrome, is announced ahead of schedule when the comic book introducing it is relased early. The browser officially becomes available for worldwide download a day later.
Google News Archive helps to make old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with publishers to digitise millions of pages of news archives.
The first Google smartphone, the T Mobile G1, hits the shelves.
February 2009 The new Latitude feature on Google Maps lets users share location data with friends.
The popular Gmail service crashes around the world, leaving millions of users from Britain to Australia unable to send and receive messages for several hours.
March 2009 Google Voice announces plans to offer free phone calls within the US and assign each user a unique phone number that diverts to their mobile and landline.
April 2009 Residents of Broughton in Buckinghamshire form a human chain to prevent a Google Street View car from taking pictures of their homes amid fears the images could be used by burglars.
September 2009 Google Wave, a real-time online communication and collaboration tool for friends, is launched amid fevered anticipation on an invitation-only basis.
Gmail is beset again with technical difficulties and users are left without access to their emails over two days.
January 2010 Google warns it may pull out of China altogether amid fears of cyber-hacking, and then incenses Chinese authorities even more when it redirects Chinese users to its unlimited Hong Kong site.
Google unveils its very own Android phone to rival the Apple iPhone.
March 2010 Residents of Broughton in Buckinghamshire again take to the streets in protest against images of their village appearing on Google Street View.
May 2010 Stephen Conroy, Australia's communications minister, describes Street View as the single biggest breach of privacy in history.
June 2010 Google strikes a deal to allow it to continue to operate it search business in China, and the Chinese government renews its internet content provider licence until 2012.
August 2010 Gmail Calls allows users to call telephones through their email accounts using the microphones and speakers on their computers.
Google Instant search is unveiled - a function which aims to save the world's web users 111 years per day.
Sales of Google's Android phone overtake iPhone sales in the US. But in a rare flop, the search giant is forced to kill off Google Wave because of a lack of users.
September 2010Google celebrates its 12th birthday with a Doodle showing a painting of a cake. The search engine unveils its Transparency Report - a set of tools designed to show censorship levels around the world.
A meteor crater that could help prepare for future impacts is discovered by scientists using Google Earth.
The company announces plans to launch Google TV, which will aim to bring the best web videos to television, in the US.
source:telegraph.co.uk
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