If anyone ever asked: What is the largest company in the world in 2020? What would be your answer? Coca Cola? Facebook, or perhaps, Bill Gates' Microsoft? Well, on this matter, your guess is as good as mine.

Google is today one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. Do you know anyone who knows something about the digital world and, yet, does not use Google? Almost everyone uses Google as their favourite search engine. Indeed, many people have Google set as their home page. This facilitates easier usage.

The company is so widely used today that the term Google has quickly become a part of the international vocabulary, familiar everywhere. From 2006, the word was even included in some widely used English dictionaries, like the Oxford English dictionary.

The history of Google starts way back in 1998 with two graduate students of Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The two men invented Google in the college precincts. Today, they control about 56% of the stockholder shares. Google was later incorporated as a privately- held company in California, USA. Soon after that, Google moved its headquarters to the famous Googleplex building in Mountain View, California. The company continued with a sterling performance in business, progressively becoming popular and very successful.

In 2015 Google announced new plans to reorganize its corporate interests and turn into a conglomerate. The new giant was known as the Alphabet Incorporated. Google became the principal subsidiary of the Alphabet conglomerate. Despite the formation of the new company, Google maintained its place as the umbrella company representing the Alphabet's general interests. Google is a true symbol of success. In the new formation, Sunday Pichai took over the role of Google CEO, replacing Larry Page. The latter assumed the mantle of the Alphabet Company as the overall conglomerate CEO.

Today, Google ranks highly in the digital space as the world's most visited website. Other Google subsidiaries feature high in the top 100 websites most visited by surfers. Among these is the phenomenal YouTube and Blogger. Between 2015 and 2017, Google became the world's most valuable brand. Nevertheless, in recent years, the company has weathered significant criticism from users regarding an array of issues, including general privacy concerns, censorship, anti-trust tax evasion, and search neutrality.

Most interestingly, the Google Company consists of unique teams of employees, 14% of whom never stepped into college. The company has a policy that stresses the intrinsic qualities of individuals instead of mere educational backgrounds or school test scores. The capability and suitability of Google's potential employs are measured solely basing on these.

At one time, Google even hired a camel when the company sought to create some imagery for a new street view application. The intent was to document the desert, thus including it as part of the programme. In another of Google's pioneering programmes,, you can readily explore around parts of Mars as well as tour the base camp at Mount Everest.

Should you decide to bypass all the Google advertisements and go for the 'I am Feeling Lucky' button, the company stands to lose a whopping $100 a year. This device is designed to take you straight to the listed search first page, thus saving you some seconds in the process. A staggering amount, by most standards, won't you agree? However, consider the total amount of money that Google makes from advertising each year: A whopping $30 billion. This is more than the combined fortunes of all the leading satellite channels in America, including ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.

Does this kind of profit surprise you? Remember that Google hosts more than 4 million searches every minute.

Yes, every day, Google receives more than 63,000 searches in just one second. That is the average number of people who use the search engine daily. This means Google gets 3.8 million searches per minute, 228 million per hour and 5.6 billion per day.

People's subconscious impressions of us are very important, and while your mouth can deliver one message, your body and your tone can deliver the complete opposite. It is important to be clear and concise with your communication through every aspect that your audiences receives.

Your audience most likely wants to see you looking and projecting confidence. When you speak, make sure to slow down your words and to speak clearly, in phrases and vocabulary that are easily accessible and understood. Smiling is absolutely vital, and as well as making difficult tasks seem easier, it makes you quickly likeable, portrays you as more friendly, and emits an aura of confidence. It also sends a subconscious message to your brain that you can achieve what you are trying to accomplish, as proven by a test with weightlifters conducted by Charles Garfield.

Keeping in line with confidence is your stance. If you are standing in front of a classroom, for example, try to keep your arms and posture open. Augmenting your stance increases testosterone flow and lowers stress, and it also makes you appear more approachable and comfortable. Try to avoid crossing your arms which suggests you're a closed person, or fidgeting which implies you are easily distracted. Feeling relaxed is the key, but is often quite difficult as we can feel quite intimidated in professional situations.

Where you place your audience also has a large effect on the communication. If you place them in a meeting room across your desk and lower down than you are, they will perceive you as a powerful and stubborn boss. If you lower your position to their level and perhaps sit by their side, the tension is released and a more effective conversation is likely to occur. If you wish to propose a collaboration, don't intimidate your audience by dominating the room with your presence.

If you feel your audience is closing up by looking at their body language, you can try to open their posture by handing them an object, for example a glass of water or a cup of coffee, or even a business card, as they will have to unfold their arms to receive this. By changing their body position, you will be changing their attitude without them even realising it.

Eye contact is vital in communication. If somebody is avoiding your gaze, they probably don't trust you or feel intimidated by you. By being able to look somebody in the eye, you are telling them that you want to be understood and that you want to connect with them. It shows a confidence in the words you are saying and trust in the message you are preaching.

Make sure to end your communication with a positive statement. Saying a confident “thank you” will win you a lot of points, as will a strong, firm handshake. Leave your audience with the lasting impression that you would like them to think of you.

Words only account for a small percentage of our potential communication. Make sure you are clear with your message, not just with your words, but also with how you are seen.

While larger corporations drive our economy forwards, smaller companies tend to develop the local community more. When you buy from a local company, more money will stay within the local community, in fact about twice as much as buying from larger corporations. In order for local communities to survive, money has to keep circulating instead of flowing out, which is what happens when you spend your earnings at large supermarkets or chain stores.

Spending your money in a local community also has other benefits. A smaller corporation will have more of a localised demand and can adjust a product to suit the immediate proximity of the business. Larger corporations are less successful at this as they have to appeal to a mass market instead of a refined market.

By keeping things local, you lower the cost of transportation which benefits the environment. It also boosts employment and builds strong connections among the members of your community. This also has the added benefit of a more positive vibe, and happy people tend to spend more money.

If, for some reason, the price of importing international goods increases then it helps to be able to rely on your local community to provide for all of your needs. As long as there is enough money flowing around your local community, it will be able to support enough stores to cover everything; from food and clothes to entertainment and restaurants. Small businesses are more flexible to support a growing and changing environment to meet the demands of the local economy.

A few communities have even gone so far as to create their own currencies. Calgary in Canada and Bristol in the UK amongst a few others have taken a drastic leap to ensure money is being spent in their local economies and the keep the flow of cash localised. This ensures that consumers inside the community are supporting the causes that make them pleasant places to reside in.

The big counter-argument to shopping locally is the price. As we see an increase in millennial consumption of goods that come from ethical and localised backgrounds, the margin between large chain stores and smaller communities is slowly decreasing, however it is still generally cheaper to buy your food at the supermarket instead of at the corner store. The reason that most chain stores and supermarkets exist is because they could initially provide cheaper prices which obviously attracted a large consumer base. Some people argue that by shopping locally, although more money is spent, this is offset by the reduction in transportation and travel costs and the increase in local employment which benefit the community. Products made in smaller local companies tend to be of higher price, but they also tend to be of higher quality.

While it is tempting to always go for the cheapest option, it does pay as a long term lifestyle investment to keep money flowing through the businesses around you. Next time you go to the supermarket, consider if you can buy the same or a replacement product from a local store and consider the benefits for both your community and yourself.

In a time when almost anything and everything can be delivered to your door at the push of a button, it is getting more and more difficult for businesses to sustain themselves up against the Internet.

The internet, on the most part, provides a product with a price. The reason that websites are so successful is because these prices are somewhat lower than what you would pay in a store. This is achieved because with no store front to pay for and maintain, everything is a lot cheaper. They may have to pay for distribution and storage, but things are considerably cheaper, particularly when done on mass.

Considering these companies will also deliver straight to your door, it is hard to believe that people still go to the shops these days, however there are reasons why there is a still a thriving high street industry. This is mostly because we like the social element of shopping, because staff who work in shops can provide expertise in areas where we cannot, and even searching on the internet for is tedious and confusing whereas asking is more simple, and because sometimes the shops can offer something that the internet can't.

For example, we can use price comparison sites to find cheap flights, however when you speak to a travel agent, they will often charge more. This is because they have the knowledge to look into things such as the length of time that layovers take, the quickest routes, the best airports, the best airlines and even be able to recommend alternatives such as fast speed rail networks that may be considerably cheaper. It's because of this expertise that the travel agency business is still alive, and while the internet keeps coming out with better prices, people feel safer talking to an expert and have an overall better experience.

As well as offering expertise, the product itself can differ. You can have a loaf of bread delivered from a supermarket which was mass produced in a large bakery, or you can go and visit your local baker who will provide a similar product, but will most likely provide a loaf of bread of higher quality and maybe with his own unique recipe. This may not be the best example as not many people buy their bread online, but the principal can be applied across all industry sectors.

Trends tend to come in circles, and with a new generation of consumers looking to reignite traditional values, more people are trying to support a local economy through using shops instead of the internet. If you can tell your customers that all of your materials and produce are locally sourced, this is likely to interest the more ethical consumer and persuade them to use your services at a higher price than what they would pay online.

You don't have to be cheaper than the internet to beat it, you just have to reinforce why your product is more valuable, whether because of expertise and knowledge or because of quality or whatever unique properties you can add, and this way you can ensure a steady flow of business, even when there are cheaper alternatives elsewhere.