Google

Google is an Internet search company founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who met while they were graduate students in computer science at Stanford University. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Google has become widely recognized as the world's largest search engine. Operating in more than 150 countries and 100 languages, Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through its proprietary PageRank technology, which ranks webpages according to their relevance to any given search query, Google [Page 479]allows users to find information online at no charge. As the presence of online content related to religion has increased dramatically over the past decade, with millions of webpages devoted to religious content, Google enables users around the globe to find sites relevant to their queries.

Searching the Internet is Google's primary utility, but Google offers users free communication and publication services as well, such as Gmail (Google's e-mail service), Blogger (a weblog publishing tool), and Google Book Search (a project to provide access to digitized print material). Thus, Google assists in both the dissemination and collection of religious content online. The easy accessibility of information online can undermine the authority structures of religions, especially those of new religious movements, which lack the deeper plausibility structures of the more established religions. On the other hand, web publishing tools such as Google's Blogger can assist in the proliferation of religious messages and the construction of religious identities. The Internet's international reach also increases the visibility of religions across the globe and can help sustain transnational diaspora communities.

Google does not always play an assisting role in online communication. Because Google complies with the censorship policies of the countries in which it operates, it sometimes censors religious content. For example, the Chinese government censors content related to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, the Dalai Lama, and other sensitive topics. Google displays a notice to users when content has been filtered, but controversy continues over its role in censoring information. Google has also been the subject of criticism for its advertising policies and for displaying pornography in its search results, although it does provide a default “safe search” to block pornography. Google generates income by serving ads alongside search results, and its policies are regarded as idiosyncratic by some. For example, Google refused to host antiabortion ads from Christian advocacy groups until it faced court action and was forced to revise its position. In general, Google tries to abide by local laws and customs.

“Google” is a deliberate misspelling of googol, a term for the number starting with 1 and followed by 100 zeros.