Google was founded in 1998 and has grown significantly since then. It now employs over 10,000 people worldwide and has indexed over 20 billion web pages. Google provides a variety of search tools beyond basic web searches, including specialized searches of news, images, books, and scholarly articles. It also offers other services like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, and more. The document provides many tips for effective Googling, such as using special search operators, quotes, and limiting searches to specific sites or file types.