Ask HN: What are some innovative products Google has come up with?

minthd · on Jan 25, 2015

Google translate. chrome. Chromebooks(zero maintenance laptop). Google books.

Android(altough they bought it at first, what they bought wasn't even close to how android and touch based smartphones look today ,so it can be considered a internal development.And the innovation there was creating such OS that fits many phones and their business model with it).

byoung2 · on Jan 25, 2015

Gmail and Google Maps we're developed in house, and are still alive and kicking.

toaltctrl · on Jan 25, 2015

Gmail, yes.

Maps, I'm not so sure. Wikiepdia says it was created when Google acquired Where 2 Technologies, Keyhole, and ZipDash.

olalonde · on Jan 25, 2015

A search engine. Still alive and popular.

hyp0 · on Jan 25, 2015

Also adwords (the product that is actually sold). Brilliant idea: users only see ads relevant to their interests; advertisers get qualified users, and instant feedback and adjustment; google gets the highest price possible (by advertisers bidding against each other).

Google is double the good guy: (1) helps users for free, because advertisers pay for it (like free-to-air TV); (2) advertisers can't complain about google's high prices, because it's the other guy who bid it up (like selling munitions in an arms race).

I believe google came up with this independently BUT goto/overture did it first, patented it, sued, and google settled.

So far as revenue is concerned, this is Google's only product.