Google is a leading global Internet search and online adverising company. In January 1996, the company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who started it as a research project when they were doctoral students at Stanford University. On September 7, 1998, it was formally incorporated Google Inc. Google was able to win its audience as because of the quality of its search results. Google's search algorithm took into account relevance and other qualitative elements that other search engines did not.