Ask HN: What are some innovative products Google has come up with?

Posted by toaltctrl on Sunday January 25, 2015 @02:56PM
from the ask-hn dept.

Google is well known for it's highly innovative culture. They hire the best and brightest who then create products that change our lives. Well, at least that's what the television says.

I'm having a problem trying to figure out what innovative products they actually created.

EXCLUDING ANY PRODUCT OR COMPANY THAT WAS BOUGHT, what are some innovative products that Google created on it's own? Is it still alive? Is it popular?

( 5 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: What are some innovative products Google has come... by minthd on Sunday January 25, 2015 @03:27PM (#8944120)

Google translate. chrome. Chromebooks(zero maintenance laptop). Google books.

Android(altough they bought it at first, what they bought wasn't even close to how android and touch based smartphones look today ,so it can be considered a internal development.And the innovation there was creating such OS that fits many phones and their business model with it).

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Re:Ask HN: What are some innovative products Google has come... by byoung2 on Sunday January 25, 2015 @03:06PM (#8944057)

Gmail and Google Maps we're developed in house, and are still alive and kicking.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some innovative products Google has come... by toaltctrl on Sunday January 25, 2015 @03:18PM (#8944093)

Gmail, yes.

Maps, I'm not so sure. Wikiepdia says it was created when Google acquired Where 2 Technologies, Keyhole, and ZipDash.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some innovative products Google has come... by olalonde on Sunday January 25, 2015 @03:20PM (#8944101)

A search engine. Still alive and popular.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some innovative products Google has come... by hyp0 on Sunday January 25, 2015 @04:14PM (#8944277)

Also adwords (the product that is actually sold). Brilliant idea: users only see ads relevant to their interests; advertisers get qualified users, and instant feedback and adjustment; google gets the highest price possible (by advertisers bidding against each other).

Google is double the good guy: (1) helps users for free, because advertisers pay for it (like free-to-air TV); (2) advertisers can't complain about google's high prices, because it's the other guy who bid it up (like selling munitions in an arms race).

I believe google came up with this independently BUT goto/overture did it first, patented it, sued, and google settled.

So far as revenue is concerned, this is Google's only product.

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