Google used to be a search engine. Now it wants to be everything

The tech giant still dominates online advertising, but its aggressive AI push has transformed Google into a sprawling company with competing identities.

[Images: Adobe Stock, Mitchell Luo/Unsplash]

BY Chris Stokel-Walker

Twenty years ago, if you asked the average person what Google was, they’d tell you it was a search engine. The company became synonymous with searching for information online, reaching a level of dominance no search engine had seen before, or has seen since.

Ask the average person today and they’d probably tell you the same thing. Except Google isn’t just that anymore. It’s a far........

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