It’s the End of the World As We Know It Roy Tennant
Presented at the LITA National Forum September 30, minutes from the Googleplex
1995 AltaVista proves web searching can be effective
1995 Yahoo! Proves the solution to cataloging the web is to not catalog it at all
1995 Amazon proves finding books need not be painful
1998 Google Incorporates
2002 Google releases its first Search Appliance, soon replaced by the mini
2002 Google releases the Froogle shopping portal
2003 Google buys Blogger
2003 Amazon releases the “Search Inside” service
2003 Google introduces Google Print
2004 Google introduces GMail
2004 Google buys the image managing and editing software Picasa
2004 Google introduces Google Desktop
2004 Google raises billions of dollars through an initial public offering
2004 Google announces a massive library digitization project
2004 Google releases Google Scholar
2005 Google releases Google Video
2005 Google releases Google Maps
2005 Google quietly begins buying up “dark fiber” – unused telecommunications capacity
2005 Google begins offering free wireless access
2006 Google buys Reed Elsevier
2006 OCLC, RLG, LC, DLF, and many large libraries create the Library Alliance
2008 Google and Amazon merge
2013 After a botched merger, bad investments, and copyright lawsuits, a weakened Googlezon is bought by Microsoft
2014 Microsoft puts formerly free content into a premium paid service for MSN subscribers
2015 The Library Alliance releases WorldLibrary, an easy to use portal to all the information to which you, personally, have access