Book excerpt: The company that is now Google began as a partnership of ideas between two Stanford University graduate students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, with a shared vision. They both had the confidence and nerve to set out on their own to start up a technology company together. Eric Schmidt was recruited as CEO in 2001 to help guide the company with his management expertise, without changing its exuberant corporate culture. Google has grown from an ambitious little start-up with the dream of changing the world into a global giant that really could, and has, changed the world. In this compelling text, readers learn about Google’s business model, the range of products and services––most of which the company gives away for free––and its mission: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” This perceptive book includes sidebars on the company’s innovations, a biographical fact sheet on Brin, Page, and Schmidt, as well as a fact sheet that profiles the company’s key accomplishments. A timeline offers readers a concise overview of significant events in the history of Google.