Ok, so this is a bit of a belated wish… but Google turned 10 years this month after launching in Sept 1998.

So what did Google look like back then? Here goes:

Back in the day, Google, like Yahoo, had an exclamation at the end of the name. They still had the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. 

One thing that is now missing is the index count which said ’25 million pages (soon to be much bigger)’ but today, it contains billions!

In an anticipated move, Google has finally announced that they will indeed be releasing a web browser of its own. Called Google Chrome, it will be available to download on Tuesday (US time, so we wait a day). The first version will run on Windows only environment, but Google said that they are currently working on Mac and Linux versions.

This news comes a week after Microsoft announced a test version for IE8 (I’m using it now, and its a bit buggy, but works decently).

Google took command with it’s search engine, and slowly got its audience to some of their other products, such as – Google Docs, an online version of the alternative Micrsoft Office. Obviously this seems more appealing with the fact that your documents are online and hence accessible from any computer with an internet connection. However, personally, I don’t really like the interface and prefer Office any day.

But Google hasn’t always been successful in this approach – the Google IM or Google Talk hasn’t come anywhere close to the services of MSN and Yahoo.

On the flip side, Microsoft have had a tough year themselves – the Yahoo buy out fell through and they have invested a good amount of money in various companies, more recently at Ciao. Plus on a non-online topic, they are slashing Xbox 360 prices to be competitive against Nintendo Wii.

Microsoft’s response to Google Chrome was – “The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips … and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online,” said Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of Internet Explorer (what a job title!).

So the question is, where to from now for both companies on the browser competition? While Microsoft has a market share of 75% using IE, where will Google’s Chrome come in?

UPDATE: You can now download Google Chrome from the official website – http://www.google.com/chrome

We all know about Google News, surely most of us have used it at least once. So the question is – how does Google monetise from it?

From a new article that was on Google News, I recently read that Marissa Mayer (Vice President Search Product and User Experience, Google – pictured) stated that Google News generates US$100 million in revenue.

I scratched my head going – “A hundred mil? How?”

Surely she had accidently slipped her tongue with that figure. Google simply directs any one who clicks on a new link straight through to news publisher’s site.

Also the News section is an ad-free area so Google isn’t making any ad-revenue which the company is ever so famous of normally doing.

But then I used Google’s search engine to begin my research – I found this – http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/07/22/whats-google-news-worth-100-million/

The figure comes from a referral technique, where it is assumed that Google News funnels readers to the main Google search site. So while we don’t realise this, it’s one way of Google’s free service, that somehow in the background makes money.

And this article is a perfect example. I read about the news headline at Google News (an ad-free environment) and it took me to Forbes. I read the article there, but I was intrigued. So what did I do, I went to Google search to get my research results (an ad-full environment).

This sort of ad-free service at one side to somehow lead us to the opposite end with ads, is a how Google News makes it’s US$100 million revenue referral.

So if Google is making $100 million from its News service, will the news publishers ask for that extra bit of cash? Clearly they already get traffic from users through Google, but if it wasn’t for them, Google wouldn’t have had the content in first place.

The same will come about when Google launches it’s digital consumer health records, a service that allows people to store and access their medical records online. At first there were thoughts of having ads around this service – but it was later decided that they are better off. This is because Google is hoping that the Google News strategy flows through – where it assumes that someone using Google to store medical records, will likely use Google Search when it comes to finding medication, doctors, hospitals or even to just general research.

The above almost defines the Google ecosystem.