Do we like Google?
Search, ads, YouTube, Android, Chrome, cloud and AI (Gemini). Part of Alphabet, based in Mountain View, California.
Our score: 4 out of 10. Useful products, but courts and regulators keep finding it abused its power. We'd hold back until the appeals and its AI emissions rise are settled.
Google started in 1998 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded it as Stanford students. In 2015 it became part of a holding company, Alphabet. Sundar Pichai has run Google since 2015 and Alphabet since late 2019. The founders stepped back from running it but still control just over half the votes through super-voting shares.
The big drama is antitrust. In the US search case, the remedies ordered include banning exclusive default deals and making Google share some search data with rivals. The judge turned down the push to force a sale of Chrome and Android. Google and the DOJ have both appealed.
Ad tech went much the same way. A Virginia court found Google's publisher tools unfairly shut out rivals. In September 2026 the judge refused the DOJ's request to break up the ad-tech business and ordered behavioural fixes instead. These cover interoperability, data sharing and auction conduct. Google is appealing.
Privacy and workers are further sore spots. In September 2026 Ireland's data regulator fined Google €403m over how it handled location data, and Google says the policies involved have since been updated. In April 2026 the US labour board ruled Google unlawfully refused to bargain with a contractor union. Google has argued it isn't their employer.
On the environment, Google is buying lots of clean power, but the AI build-out is outrunning it. Axios reported emissions up 18% and water use up 34% in 2025. We'd call it a useful company with a long list of rulings and fines against it, so a 4.