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There's no question who the powerhouse on the internet is. Google rules the online sphere with a creative hand. We've already talked about the jumps in Googlebooks, but now let's talk a bit about Google's most recent triumph: Youtube.

Youtube, bought by Google in 2006, has hit one billion views a day. This is great news for Google, since when they bought the video site, many predicted it would run into the ground. Google wanted to monetize the site (which you may have seen with pop-up ads at the bottom of videos and even short commercials before a clip starts), but some bloggers said that these efforts would only cause people to not use YouTube. Apparently, this is not the case, three years later.

Google has quite the detailed history, dallying in everything from search to browsers to multimedia. The internet giant began (according to Google's timeline) in 1995, founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They worked on a search engine called BackRub as students at Standford which eventually became the Google we know today.

Google came a long way from those first days in garages and dorm rooms. Now they have more ambitious projects. Google continues to try and touch all areas of the internet.

Google Voice, one of Google's new and highly debated projects has more to due with phones than the internet. Google Voice provides a single phone number and connects it to voice mail, email and SMS texting. This Google number can be forwarded to any other line, can transcribe your messages as email and work like a regular phone. Of course, free phone and texting services raised the hackles of a number of phone companies and the project has yet to come out of beta.

Other beta projects to watch out for are Google Wave (enhancing collaborative work) and Google Caffeine (a more "intense" way of searching). What we'll see next from Google? Hard to tell, even their charity work is always reaching out in new directions. All that is certain is that they will continue to be on the cutting edge of technology.

What are your thoughts on Google as a company?