Ever thought of how it would be without Google?

  Today (sept4)  marks the 17th year we've been enjoying First Class services from Google, let's take a look at what it would have been without them.
 
  Founded in September 4 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in Menlo Park, California, USA, with the brand name it still bears today (Google). The internet and computer software giant already took hostage of the world's internet services, providing an awesome internet weather and has propelled it to another level, making ground breaking changes to the computing world.
  Known to most as just a "search engine" as it could present a list of articles written on any topic to anyone who tries to surf for such information, Google is a technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products that include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing , and software and not only a search engine
Google's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," and its unofficial slogan was "Don't be evil ".  In October 2015, the motto was replaced in the
Alphabet corporate code of conduct by the phrase: "Do the right thing". Google's commitment to such robust idealism has
been increasingly been called into doubt due to a number of actions and behaviours which appear to contradict this.
  Over these years they have eaten deep into the hearts of the internet users worldwide, creating a wave of over dependence on it and it's other products which includes:
*YouTube: An American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States. The service was created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005. In November 2006, it was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion.YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries. The site allows users to upload, view, rate, share, and comment on videos, and it makes use of WebM, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos. Available content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, audio recordings, movie trailers, and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.

*Gmail: Gmail , a free webmail service provided by Google, was launched
as an invitation-only beta program on April 1, 2004, and became available to the public on February 7, 2007.  The service was upgraded from beta status on July 7, 2009,  at which time it had 146 million users monthly. The service was the first online email service with one gigabyte of storage. It was also the first to keep emails from the same conversation together in one thread, similar to an Internet
forum.  The service offers over 15 GB of free storage, shared with other Google Apps, with additional storage ranging
from 20 GB to 16 TB available for $0.25 per 1 GB per year.

  * Google Drive: Another part
of Google's productivity suite, allows users to create, edit, and
collaborate on documents in an online environment, similar to Microsoft Word . The service was originally called Writely, but was obtained by Google on March 9, 2006, and was released as
an invitation-only preview.

  * Google Translate: A server-side machine translation service,
which can translate between 80 different languages.For some languages, handwriting recognition , or speech recognition
can be used as input, and translated text can be pronounced through speech synthesis.  The software uses corpus
linguistics techniques, where the program "learns" from professionally translated documents, specifically UN and European Parliament proceedings.

  * Google Chrome:An open source web browser ,which was then released on September 2, 2008. On July 7, 2009, Google announced Google Chrome OS , an open source Linux-based operating system that includes only a web browser and is
designed to log users into their Google account.

  * Google Wallet:A mobile application
for wireless payments and other wireless financial transactions.

  * Android OS: A mobile operating system developed by Google, based on the Linux kernel and designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android's user interface is mainly based on direct manipulation, using touch gestures that loosely correspond to real-world actions, such as swiping, tapping and pinching, to manipulate on-screen objects, along with a virtual keyboard for text input. In addition to touchscreen devices, Google has further developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars, and Android Wear for wrist watches, each with a specialized user interface. Variants of Android are also used on notebooks, game consoles, digital cameras, and other electronics.

Android has the largest installed base of all operating systems of any kind. Android has been the best selling OS on tablets since 2013, and on smartphones it is dominant by any metric.

  * Google Camera: A camera application developed by Google for Android . It is supported on Android 4.4 KitKat and higher versions of Android. It was released on the Google Play Store on April 16, 2014.

  Blogger: The google blogger provides publishers with an opportunity to own their own free blogspot and share ideas and thought, the introduction of Adsense enables the monetization of this blogs by placing ad banners on them.

  To mention a few, these products and countless services have defined Google as "not just a search engine" but a revelation in the world of computing and internet usage, and in just 17years, it has already transformed our sense of technology.

  However, the question remains, how would it be without Google?, let's take a look at different search engines and internet giants that 'might' thrive in the absence of Google.

  *Bing: You’ve probably heard of Bing, but you may not have ever used
the search engine. Though it trails Google by a rather large margin, with about a fourth of the traffic to its website, it is
widely accepted as the second largest search engine. It appeared in the popular sphere as Bing as recently as 2009, but the technology behind it has been in production by Microsoft under different names
like Msn Search, Windows Live Search, and simply Live Search since 1998, so it still has the years of research and trial and error necessary to create a well functioning search engine. Since its outbreak in 2009, Bing has solidified its position as the first alternative to Google in the public’s eyes. What is really very pleasant about Bing is its sleek presentation.Somehow, it gives off the impression of being softer and less commercial than the page eating white and standout font colors of Google. On its homepage is always an aesthetically pleasing and constantly changing picture ranging from beautiful landscapes and nature scenes to historical landmarks to poignant scenes of human beings. Every time you open Bing, you are treated to an image that could have come from National Geographic. Beyond its drawing appearance, Bing offers a large range of convenient services for its users like money conversion, spell check, sports updates, translation services, and many others. Another good feature of Bing is its compatible and easy to use mobile compatibility, easily integrated and offering its own range of mobile applications. It’s easy to see why Bing is considered the best search engine after Google.

  *Yahoo search: Closely trailing Bing in popularity is the well-known search engine
run by Yahoo. Before Bing’s emergence, Yahoo! Search was always considered the second alternative to Google. A constant
presence since 1995, Yahoo! Search has proved itself as a reliable and friendly service for its users. Previously, Yahoo has experimented with how to power its search results, moving from
Inktomi to Google to its own independently run service, but in 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo produced a deal in which the Yahoo!
Search would be powered by Bing, which was an intelligent decision considering Bing’s recent success. Yahoo! Search is certainly convenient and easily accessible for the less tech savvy populace. The homepage offers a go-to place for
many of the features the everyday person wants from the Internet. All in one easy to navigate location is email, news headlines, sports highlights, celebrity news, resources for online shopping, and
much more. Yahoo! Search is a perfect place to go to find out what is going on in the world, especially by using its trending
topics below the search bar, an excellent resource to get you up to date on what everyone is talking about now. Yahoo! Search’s incorporation of other Yahoo services like Yahoo Answers and Yahoo
Finance provide reliable and user friendly results every time.

  *Ask.com: Once known as Ask Jeeves, is another popular search engine founded back in 1996. Though it followed much of the same system as Google in the past, Ask.com has moved more towards a
question and answer site as the pure search engine competition proved too steep. This provides the site with a little more quirk
and character than the big search engines that just spew out the endless stream of links and information. Ask.com provides answers to your burning questions on a large range of subjects similarly to
Wolfram Alpha including art & literature, business & finance, history, etc. but it caters more to the layman than the academics of Wolfram Alpha, especially with topics like beauty & fashion, food,
and home & garden.
Ask.com definitely feels more like an everyman’s search engine. It is simply set up for your everyday inquiries without the clutter apparent on other sites or the focus on academics and political Internet conflicts. The name Ask Jeeves will also bring back a lot of pleasant nostalgia for some users as we remember that beloved
internet mascot, and if you go to the UK version of ask.com which still provides all the same services, you will still find that beloved butler bringing you your results on a silver platter though he has
had a more modern redesign in recent years. The nostalgia and friendly atmosphere of Ask.com keeps you coming back for more.

  *Wikipedia: Regular Internet users know Wikipedia as a fantastically useful
online encyclopedia full of easily accessible information that is constantly being updated. Well, there is good news; Wikipedia has launched a program to build its own search engine. Though the project is far from finished, it is eagerly anticipated as it promises a transparent search system. It does not intend to immediately replace Google as it will not provide the search of Google’s vast
accumulation of data but only information from Wikipedia and its related free knowledge projects, eventually incorporating open sources of knowledge. This is an extremely exciting development, as anyone
who has used it will know of its phenomenal collection of information that can provide discovery after discovery. Even more exciting is that this new project; along with providing the services
we know and love from Wikipedia,promises perfect privacy and absolutely no ads!

*Wolfram alpha: Most college students will recognize Wolfram Alpha as the go-to
for help on math problems. However, Wolfram Alpha provides more than just answers to those infuriatingly complicated problem sets. While the search engine can provide the answers to even the most challenging mathematic quandaries, it also incorporates many more academic resources for the inquisitive mind. Because it collects
its data from well-respected college publications and libraries as
well as other highly reputable resources, you can be sure of the accuracy of your results. You could spend an afternoon on Wolfram Alpha and come away having learned more than you would in one of
those tedious college lectures.
The presentation of this search engine caters very well to its target
audience. Everything from the font to the circular patterned background suggests that Wolfram Alpha is a place for students,
not only in the sense of enrolled members of a university, but also of the post-school public who still thirst for knowledge. Their homepage boasts the many specialties of the website that read like a list of college majors: mathematics, linguistics, history, physics, astronomy, music, etc. There is an incredible range of subjects you can explore through this search engine. It’s not all academic articles and math solutions, however. Click on surprises and you will discover a range of quirky responses to questions, as Wolfram Alpha also acts like an experimental AI you can play and converse with.
 
  Maybe these 'search engines' will save a day without Google. But something remains peculiar about Google and this sets them above other competitors which is, Easy usage and proximity, being able to get any Google service easily and also the refined quality of these services makes the use of Google inevitable, and thus, "a day without Google will be a bad one".

Reference:Wikipedia