According to the MediaGuardian 100 list – the most influential media figures in the UK – Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page (both Americans) top the list. Why?
Brin and Page’s creation dominates the UK online search market, with eight out of 10 searches through Google. The UK is its second most valuable territory behind the US, and with advertising revenue of …£1.3bn in 2007 it is on the verge of overtaking ITV.
Google has extended its brand and moved beyond its search engine roots with the likes of Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Docs, offering spreadsheets and word processor tools that Microsoft customers have to pay for.
It owns online video phenomenon YouTube, to which 10 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and bought online advertising company DoubleClick last year for $3.1bn (…£1.56bn) despite concerns it would give the search firm unfair dominance.
Google has also moved into mobile internet with its mobile phone operating system Android, and has moved into offline advertising in the US in TV, print and radio.