What is Google?

In many of the conversations I have online with commenters on my posts or on Twitter, it becomes clear people have very different conceptions of what Google is as a company. I’ve heard at least the following descriptions: “Google is an advertising company” “Google is a search company” “Google is a data company” And so on. The reality is there are at least three different ways of looking at Google as a company. I wanted to explore each of those briefly with a view to seeing what eac...