Probably the most notable occasions of the last decade

Also read: Google Chrome: The History and Rise to Dominance

However, Google did not rest on its laurels and launched the Nexus One smartphone in collaboration with HTC in 2010. It continued to run Android 2.1 Eclair, but was later updated to Gingerbread not nearly as good as the Nexus S that came on the market later in the year. The Nexus S was developed with Samsung and, although still somewhat defective, was the basis for later Google devices.

2010 also saw another event that Google was to follow over the decade: the lawsuit at Oracle. The focus is on the use of open source code and APIs. The results could have a huge impact on the entire tech industry. Since then, Google has made two decisions in its favor, but the recent decision reversed those two decisions. The fight is still ongoing, but the Supreme Court should make a final decision in 2020.

2011: New services, old CEO

Also read: 8 years after the first Chromebooks: Google was right

Since Google knew that the future of its business depended on a healthy internet connection, Google started Mitte of the year launched its Gigabit Internet service Google Fiber in Kansas City -2011. It was later expanded to eight more regions before further expansion was suspended. It was a brave move that caused other telecommunications companies to expand their high-speed Internet offerings, which was a limited success at best.

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To take advantage of Facebook's massive success, Google also launched its own social media platform: Google Plus. The service built on previous experiments like Google Wave and Google Buzz, but finally closed its doors in 2019.

Another important service started in 2011: Google Wallet (later integrated into Google Pay). It would take years to approach Google Pay's convenient one-tap payment system, but the groundwork was laid long before Apple Pay made the concept palatable to the masses.

On the hardware side, Google bought Motorola Mobility for more than $ 12 billion, although it never really took full advantage of the purchase. Google later sold Motorola to Lenovo for less than $ 3 billion. Still, Android's growth in 2011 was phenomenal and it officially became the largest mobile operating system in the United States.

2012: Google Glass falls from the sky

Also read: Seven years after the Nexus 7, what happened to Android tablets?

2012 was also the year in which Google consolidated its mobile cloud services and digital marketplaces in the Google Play Store. Google's app market is still lagging behind Apple's app store, but both have become huge revenue streams for competing companies.

2013: Chromecasts and moon shots

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Under the leadership of Page and Brin, Google was a vast empire with tendrils in so many industries that investors felt they had no idea what they were buying. In order to separate Google's core business from moon shots like Calico and Google Glass, the company has restructured itself under the name Alphabet.

Google's core business was separated from moon shots during the 2015 restructuring.

Google, Android, YouTube, and other core services would be merged, and all other companies would be managed as separate subsidiaries of Alphabet. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google and Page changed to CEO of Alphabet. Virtually nothing changed for the end user.

2015 also launched Google Fi, an affordable carrier plan that switches between networks to provide customers with the best possible coverage. As of 2019, it's still running, though it's still limited to subscribers in the United States.

The Nexus line was placed in the Google Cemetery this year, and Google has teamed up with Huawei and LG to keep the endpoints in the product range. the Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X. It was the launch device for Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is still used by more than 10% of Android users worldwide.

2016: Google's modern approach revealed

Also read: Google Hardware: Where Google is leading and where it is lagging

One of these magical elements is the Google Assistant, which was launched at the beginning of the year with the Smart Speaker debuted by Google Home. It builds on its predecessor Google Now, and although released two years after Amazon's Alexa and five years after Apple's Siri, it is now one of the leading voice assistants on the market.

Even sharper focus on Google's core business 2016 was also the year in which the self-driving car company Waymo was spun off into an independent company under the name Alphabet. It remains one of Alphabet's most successful non-Google companies to date. An automated taxi service test was started in Phoenix, Arizona in 2017.

2017: Pixel 2 and the beginning of serious legal problems

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2017 was a relatively quiet year for Google after building on the (relative) success of the first pixel phone, Google spent over $ 1 billion on HTC's hardware division. In addition to the expertise (and intellectual property) included in the deal, Google has gained a foothold in Asia for the first time in its history.

Also read: Further hardware acquisitions from Google: Where are they now?

For the devices, Google produced a premium Chromebook in the form of the first Pixelbook and two new smart speakers – the affordable Google Home Mini and the non-affordable Google Home Max. In the following years, these became the staple foods of the Family Made by Google. The Google Daydream VR headset and the Google Clips camera… would not.

In the telephone department, the Pixel 2 and 2 XL were worthy successors of the first Pixel and consolidated Google's dominance in the camera software. The camera should be ahead by the following year, and recent camera updates like Night Sight will still make it a solid competitor in 2019.

However, the phones were not without controversy. Screen issues, a relatively boring design, and removing the headphone jack brought fierce criticism. The problem with the headphone jack is particularly bad since Google has mocked Apple's iPhone 7 because it did the same thing a year earlier. In addition, no USB-C headphones were included, and Google charged more than twice Apple's for an additional headphone adapter at launch.

The Pixel 2 removed the headphone jack, although Google mocked Apple for doing the same thing a year earlier.

Even outside of the devices, it was not good news. Google has been fined $ 2.7 billion by the EU. It was the largest fine ever imposed by the regulator at that time, and it was collected by Mountain View for its search results, which showed Google Shopping listings alongside (or via cellphone) other listings.

This was also the year in which Google's sexism scandals came to a head. The James Damore memo revealed some troubling corporate culture issues. Several lawsuits were filed earlier this year, alleging that Google had not adequately compensated women, which was compounded by revelations the following year.

2018: Slate, scandals, fines and strikes

Read Also: Pixel 3 XL Redux: It has not aged well …

In 2018 Google saw expanding smart home offerings with the smart display from Google Home Hub. Google Assistant also has a major upgrade with Google Duplex, which uses AI to recreate natural speech patterns to answer calls for users to do. Initially, it was limited to restaurant reservations, but from 2019 forms can also be completed online without having to enter them directly via duplex on the Internet.

Apple's iPad product line with the Pixel Slate was also unsuccessful, although the device was ultimately too faulty and expensive to recommend. Google would later stop developing new tablets altogether, although the Pixel Slate is still available for purchase.

Google's 20th anniversary year was marked by scandals and fines.

Despite the business environment Better than ever, Google was still hit by a series of scandals and fines. The first was an enormous cartel fine of $ 5 billion by the European Commission, which broke the record from just a year earlier. This time the violation had to do with Chrome and other Google services being pre-installed on Android devices, which suppressed competition from other browsers and search engines.

As if that wasn't enough, 2018 was also the year of Andy Rubin's story collapsed, leading to large-scale strikes by employees at Google sites around the world to demand change. Even worse, the organizers of the strike claim to have been the target of retaliatory measures by the company that resulted in at least one leaving the company less than a year later.

Other scandals that made headlines in 2018 included Google’s commitment to launch a censored search engine in China and to sign AI contracts for US drones that the company no longer met in a bad press hit could.

2019: Cheaper pixel phones, Google Stadia and Sundar Pichai Ascension

Also read: Best of Android Awards 2019: The choice of our editors is…

Google also took the opportunity to rename two of its best-known products in 2019. The latest V Android's ersion has dropped the traditional letter that would have been the annoying Q for the more traditional numerical approach. However, the Android 10 rebranding was far more than a mere name change, as an updated logo and color scheme were also revealed.

The other major rebranding was more of a merger in which the Google Home and Nest brands merged Google Nest. Nest was fully merged with Google in 2018, but the first products to bear the new name were Google Nest Hub Max and Google Nest Hub (formerly Google Home Hub).

Also read: A month later I hardly use the Google Nest Hub Max (and still recommend it).

In 2019, Google also announced a new cloud gaming service called Google Stadia that allows users to play AAA games with just one controller and an internet connection. When the early adopters service started in November, some promised features were missing, and it's unclear whether the free version that started in 2020 can make up for such a difficult start.

Larry Page stepped down as CEO of Alphabet in late 2019, and current Google CEO Sundar Pichai should take over the role. This means that both Google and Alphabet are run by the same person, which questions why the two are separated at all. So far, no major consequences have occurred, but the results of such a concentrated leadership should be felt in 2020.

That was it for our brief review of the past decade by Google. What are the most important events for you? Let us know in the comments below!