Plenty of ways. Google maps provides accurate maps and route planning pretty much worldwide and for no (monetary) cost. I remember the days before when you had to pay Garmin £60 for up to date maps.

Chrome, while heading the way of ie6 in it's dominance is a massive public benefit.

Search - given that it's free of charge, it is a hugely valuable tool and has changed the world in the last 20 years.

I think you can argue that they don't provide this altruisticly, but it's definitely been a positive impact

Just wanted to chime in that Google Maps was (is) huuuge. Instant access to such quality mas anywhere, anytime and even the street view project.

Improving the world's access to information is probably the biggest one? I would guess Google Search is, if you could magically add up all the net positives/negatives, one of the best things to happen to humanity in the last few decades. Having grown up before it existed, I can't imagine how much I would personally pay just for Search to come back if Google all of a sudden disappeared. I would probably give up my car before I gave up Search.

Google probably increases my productivity as a programmer by a factor of 100. I can't imagine what I would do without it. I remember reading programming books when I was much younger, and the rate of information gathering was orders of magnitude slower.

And that's just programming, a relatively niche use of Google, not to speak of any other occupation or task that you might use it for, and that's just google search, not even chrome or maps or... Google has revolutionized the world.

Even if we ignore the typical answer of finding information in library.

Even as a Search Engine, Google was miles ahead of its competitors during its early days. Yahoo, AltaVista, and plenty of smaller ones like Ask.com..... They were crap.

I dont like Google since the day they said they do no Evil. But there is no way I can ignore the Impact Google has to the Internet and the world.

Have you ever had to research something in a library like in books?