From the way we do business to how we listen to music, the emergence of the internet has transformed our lives in so many ways. A handful of significant businesses have played an important role in this, from the likes of Microsoft and Apple to Facebook.
However, there is an argument that, when it comes to the biggest online brand of all, Google is out on its own.
Two decades of dominance
Founded in September 1998, Google has risen to dominance in a number of ways. Of course, its most famous venture has been its search engine, with research suggesting that the site processes more than 3.5 billion searches a day.
Its reach has no limits either. As VPNbase.com outlines, while full access to the search engine is blocked in China, it can be fairly straightforward to unblock Google through the use of a VPN by essentially making the site think you are in another part of the world.
Away from the search engine, Google’s Chrome browser is also now immensely popular and, back in 2015, was thought to have more than one billion users. Furthermore, the company’s Android mobile operating system is the most used in the world, accounting for a market share of more than 70 per cent.
Considering the company’s incredible achievements, you would understand it if the organisation chose to take its foot off the pedal a little bit. However, Google continues to examine the potential for new innovations, with two recent announcements standing as great examples of this.
Project Stream and Flutter
Video gaming is a hugely popular pastime and one trend that continues to dominate discussion about the future of the industry is streaming. With internet connections becoming faster and more stable than ever before, many organisations are looking at how to bring quality gaming experiences to the public in a swift manner.
Google is among those leading the charge on this with Project Stream, a test to examine the potential of streaming AAA titles that boast graphically-rich content through the company’s Chrome browser. A trial of the system started in October, with a limited number of people being given the chance to sample Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as part of the test.
Another area where Google is looking to make its presence felt is in the world of cross-platform app development for both Android and its big rival, Apple’s iOS. The company’s development team recently announced the first stable release of Flutter 1.0, a toolkit which is designed to help companies create ‘beautiful, native experiences’ for the two operating systems from a single codebase.
The company suggested the move would tackle the ‘compromise’ that many developers currently face, with them having to either build the same app several times for different systems or ultimately create one which trades speed and accuracy for portability.
Exciting new developments
Both of these announcements reveal how Google is continuing to work to develop its position in the technology world, attempting to make matters like app development and the growing trend of game streaming even easier.
These are undoubtedly exciting new developments and it will be fascinating to see just what the company turns its attention to next.
