Flag of Denmark

In royal resolution of October 25, 1939 for the Danish Navy, it is stated that the Orlogsflag is a Splitflag with a deep red ("Kraprød" or "dybrød") colour. A judge subsequently threw out SearchKing's lawsuit in mid-2003 on precisely these grounds. Especially after 1870 the government generous and with little thought hand out approval to all kinds to institutions. In its defense, Google stated that its rankings are its constitutionally protected opinions of the web sites that it indexes. From the mid 1800's to 1899 another bunch of institutions and private companies also received approval to use the Splitflag. Google's efforts to refine its database have led to some legal controversy, notably a lawsuit in October 2002 from the company SearchKing which sought to sell advertisements on pages with inflated Google rankings. From about 1750 to early 1800's a number of ships / companies which the government has interests in, received approval to used the Splitflag. On February 5, 2006, google.com was banned by China Telecom, only use google.cn can be visited, but unfortuntely, the blocking released after several hours.

At the same time it is now allowed the Danish East India Company to use the Splitflag when past the equator. This complete ban is currently lifted. In 1741 it is re-stated that the regulation of 1690 is still very much in effect, that merchants ships may not use the Splitflag. The mirror search site elgooG has been used by Chinese citizens to get around blocked content. In 1685 an order, distributed to a number of cities in Slesvig, says that all ships must carry the Danish flag, and in 1690 all merchants ships is forbidden to use the Splitflag, with the exception of ships sailing in the East Indies, West Indies and at the coast of Africa. The People's Republic of China, whose human rights record has been widely criticized by the international community, has in the past restricted citizen access to popular search engines such as Altavista, Yahoo!, and Google. The first regulation regarding the Splitflag dates from 27 March, 1630, where King Christian IV orders that Norwegian "Defensionskibe" (merchants ships with guns) may only use the Splitflag if they are in war-service under Denmark. Any data stored on Google is therefore subject to being turned over to any country, including China.

Any swallow-tail flag, no matter the color, is called a Splitflag provided it bears additional markings. Google's Terms of Service allow it to comply with the laws of any one country, providing information that was originated (or that Google stores) in another country. Furthermore, the Orlogsflag is only described as such if it has no additional markings. Google complies with these laws by banning keyword searches related to these terms. Same flag with markings has been approved for a few dozen companies and institutions over the years. According to American law, any copyright owner can require material to be removed via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, whereas under French and German law, for example, hate speech and Holocaust denial are illegal. A few institutions have been allowed to fly the clean Orlogsflag. In order to comply with the varying laws of these countries, several versions of Google restrict very specific keyword searches.

There are though a few exceptions to this. Google is a multinational corporation, having offices in over a dozen countries [33]. The Orlogsflag with no markings, may only be used by the Royal Danish Navy. In a concession to general concerns about the nature of their project, Google had announced plans back in August that they would respect the wishes of copyright holders who contacted the company to inform them that they did not want their works included in this digitization project. The Orlogsflag is a Splitflag with a deeper red colour and is only used on sea. Many commentators in the world of copyright law and technology were not surprised by this development as the Authors Guild has also been involved in attempting to make online publishers pay royalties to writers whose stories appear in any number of online databases without their express consent. The Splitflag is a Danish flag ending in a swallow-tail, it is Dannebrog red, and is used on land. Arguments in the case will hinge around the interpretation of the four factors of Fair Use.

The Splitflag or Orlogsflag have similar specifications, but legally, they are two different flags. The lawsuit seeks damages and an injunction that will prevent the company from continuing their very ambitious digitization project. That some confusion still exists in this matter can be seen from the regulation of May 4, 1927, which once again states that Danish merchant ships have to fly flags according to the regulation of 1748. authors, including a former Poet Laureate of the United States, filed a class action suit in federal court in Manhattan against Google over its unauthorized scanning and copying of books through its Google Library program. This regulation is still in effect today and thus the legal proportions of the National flag is today anywhere between 3:1:3 width / 3:1:4.5 length and 3:1:3 width / 3:1:5.25 length. On September 20, 2005, the Authors Guild, a group that represents 8,000 U.S. So in May 1893 a new regulation to all chiefs of police, stated that the police should not intervene, if the two last fields in the flag were longer than 6/4 as long as these did not exceed 7/4, and provided that this was the only rule violated. Google could even argue that it "adds value" to AFP's news without harming the French news wholesaler.[32].

They also noted that the flag currently used had lengths, of the last two fields, anywhere between 7/4 to 13/6. The lawsuit's outcome will likely depend on whether Google can successfully argue that its use of AFP's material constitutes "fair use" under copyright law. Any new flag would also quickly become unlawful, due to wear and tear. AFP's lawsuit, if successful, is bound to have a major impact on how news is delivered on the Internet.". Some interested in the matter made inquires into the issue and concluded that the 6/4 length would make the flag look blunt. It seems that the basis of the lawsuit is just the abstract notion of copyright without any real damages to justify the action." The article concluded "It would be a sad day for those who look to the Internet for news if AFP is successful in limiting what Google can display.. As late as 1892 it was stated in a series of regulations that the correct lengths of the two last fields in the flag were 6/4. is now attempting to remove all postings of Agence France-Presse material from its site, although AFP spokesmen say that even if this is done, the lawsuit will continue..

During the next about 150 years nobody paid much attention to actually abide fully to the proportions of the flag given in the 1748 regulation, not even the government. According to the Canada Free Press, "Google Inc. No official nuance definition of "Dannebrog rød" exists. [31] Still, AFP argues that the headline and first sentence of an article constitutes the "heart" of the work and that reproducing it is copyright infringement. The private company, Dansk Standard, regulation number 359 of 2005, defines the red colour of the flag as Pantone 186c. Additionally, "in 2002, a federal appeals court ruled that Web sites may reproduce and post 'thumbnail' or downsized versions of copyrighted photographs," so Google News' thumbnails are likely legal. The only available red fabric colour in 1748 was made of bracken root, which make a brownish red. It was argued that had AFP wanted to prevent free use of its articles, it should have asked its providers to require subscriptions rather than suing Google.

According to the regulation of June 11, 1748 the colour was simply red, which is common known today as "Dannebrog rød" ("Dannebrog red"). It is possible that AFP will make additional arguments in court that it has not yet made in public, but currently, many pundits are confused by the decision to sue [28][29][30] because Google does not display the full article on its site, provides a link to one of AFP's 600 online clients such as Singapore's Channel NewsAsia (which presumably benefits AFP because more people view the article and advertising), and because the articles are available via the providers' websites regardless of Google's actions. To the best of knowledge, this regulation has never been revoked, however it is probably no longer done. In March 2005, Agence France-Presse (AFP) sued Google for $17.5 million, alleging that Google News infringed on its copyright because "Google includes AFP's photos, stories and news headlines on Google News without permission from Agence France-Presse." [27] It was also alleged that Google ignored a cease and desist order, though Google counters that it has opt-out procedures which AFP could have followed but did not. the Knights Hospitaller). The contract says that it will comply with "fair use", an exemption in copyright law that allows people to reproduce portions of text of copyrighted material for research purposes. John (a.k.a. of Michigan does make it clear that Google will provide only excerpts of copyright text in a search.

These had to carry the King's cypher logo in the center of the flag, to distinguish them from Maltese ships, due to the similarity of the flag of the Order of St. The contract between Google and the U. A somewhat curious regulation came in 1758 concerning Danish ships sailing in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Google claims that it is in compliance with all existing and historical applications of copyright laws regarding books. Both flags are identical. Also, Google is setting a new precedent by making digital copies of copyrighted material on a wide scale without explicit permission from copyright holders. This definition are the absolute proportions for the Danish national flag to this day, for both the civil version of the flag, "Stutflaget", as well as the merchant flag ("Handelsflaget"). There are claims that it is a violation of copyright laws to use copyrighted material for profit by placing search ads beside the search results of these digitized books.

The quest to unite them into a specified flag law have been brought forth many times, especially in the 20th century, but it never amounted to anything. Google typically handles this by removing the link as requested and including a link to the complaint in the search results. Denmark does not have a specified flag law, but various regulations and rules spread out over many documents, from King Christian IV's time till today, can be found. A number of organizations have used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to demand that Google remove references to allegedly copyrighted material on other sites. The royal seal of King Erik VII from 1398 - the first combined coat of arms found in Denmark - shows the flag twice; the cross that separates the four coats-of-arms is the cross of the Dannebrog and the coat of arms representing Denmark show the three lions holding a Dannebrog banner. They also offer a download of Firefox with the Google Toolbar pre-installed. From Queen Margaret I and King Erik VII time we also have a case that undisputedly links Dannebrog to Denmark. This is confirmed by a job listing posted on Google.

This image from "Wapenboek Gelre" is near identical found in an old coats of arms book from the 15th century now located in the National Archives of Sweden, ("Riksarkivet"). Google is looking for software engineers to join them in collaborative development on the Firefox browser. This image has been used to acknowledge a previously disputed theory that the cross found in Valdemar Atterdag's coats of arms located in his Danælog seal ("Rettertingsseglet") from 1356 is indeed the cross from the Danish flag. Google has an unknown partnership with the Mozilla Foundation. This is the earliest known undisputed colour rendering of the Dannebrog. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help the open source office program OpenOffice.org. The text left of the coat of arms says “die coninc van denmarke” (The King of Denmark). Google also has a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies [26].

On the right horn is a Danish banner. [25]. On page 55 verso we find the Danish coat-of-arms with a helmet on top with horns. The new building would also include labs, offices, and housing for Google engineers. It is now located on the Royal Library of Brussels (the "Bibliothèque royale Albert Ier"). As reported by SearchEnginejournal.com, NASA and Google were said to be planning to work together on a variety of areas, including large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry. The book displays some 1700 coats-of-arms from all over Europe, in colour. On Sept 28, 2005, Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1-million square foot R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center.

Most historians claim that the book was written by Geldre Claes Heinen. Display advertising throughout the Google network will also increase. The earliest source that indisputably links the red flag with a white cross to a Danish King, and to the realm itself, is found in a Dutch register of coats-of-arms “Wapenboek Gelre”, written between 1340 and 1370 (some sources say 1378 or 1386). This will allow users of Google Video to search for AOL's premium-video services. The national Coat of Arms of Estonia, three blue lions on a golden shield, is almost identical to the Coat of Arms of Denmark, and its origin can be traced directly back to King Valdemar II and Danish rule in Estonia 1219-1346. [24] As part of the collaboration, Google plans to work with AOL on video search and offer AOL's premium-video service within Google Video. Efforts to trace it from Estonia back to Denmark have, however, been in vain. 21, including an enhanced global advertising partnership and a $1 billion investment by Google for a 5% stake in AOL.

The symbol later became the coat-of-arms of the city. Time Warner's AOL unit and Google unveiled an expanded partnership on Dec. In Tallinn, a coat-of-arms resembling the flag is found on several buildings and can be traced back to the middle of the 15th century where it appears in the coat-of-arms of the "Die Grosse Gilde", a sort of merchant consortium which greatly influenced the city's development. The New York Times article was headlined, "Relax, Bill Gates; It's Google's Turn as the Villain" [23]. An obvious place to look for documentation is in the Estonian city of Tallinn, the site of the legendary battle. In 2005, articles in The New York Times and other news sources [22] began suggesting that Google had lost its anti-corporate, no evil philosophy. However, if one examines the few existing foreign sources about Denmark from the 13th to 15th centuries, it is apparent that, at least from foreign point of view; the national symbol of Denmark was not a red-and-white banner but the royal coat of arms (three blue lions of a golden shield.) This coat of arms remains in use to this day. Page said, "We think a lot about how to maintain our culture and the fun elements.".

In the 19th and early 20th century, these images were used by many Danish historians, with a good flair of nationalism, trying to date the origins of the flag to 1219. Later Mr. However, several coins, seals and images exist, both foreign and domestic, from the 13th to 15th centuries and even earlier, showing flags similar to the Dannebrog. In a report given to potential investors, co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page promised that the IPO would not change the company's culture. Whether the flag has its origins in a divine sign, a banner of a military order, an ecclesiastical banner, or perhaps something entirely different, Danish literature is no help before the early 15th century. Also, it may be more challenging for the company to maintain a collegial atmosphere when approximately 1,000 (30%) of the employees are paper-millionaires. Danish literature of the 13th and 14th centuries remains suspiciously quiet about the national flag. Many people have suggested that after Google's IPO the corporate culture will not be able to stay so "fun" and focused on the future.[20] [21] The company may be required to answer to its new shareholders who may press the company to reduce employee benefits and to focus on short term advances.

Since King Valdamar II was married to the Portuguese princess, Berengaria, it is not unthinkable that the origin of the story, if not the flag, was the Spanish tale or a similar tale, which again might have been inspired by an even older legend. Some people thought the announcement of Gmail in 2004 around April Fools Day (as well as the doubling of Gmail's storage space to two gigabytes in 2005) was a joke. Basically, these are all variations of the same legend. They also offer versions in Pig Latin Elmer Fudd, and Klingon. In Estonia it is the Danish colours, and in Jerusalem the English colours. Bork! is the mock Swedish of the Muppet Show's Swedish Chef. In Spain, the colours of the Pope appears in the sky, in Finland the Swedish colours. In the languages list one can find the Bork! Bork! Bork! version.

The similarities to the legends is obvious. One can find other pranks hidden between Google's pages. The English flag, the Saint George's Cross is also claimed to have appeared in the sky during a critical battle, in this case in Jerusalem during the crusades. In 2004 it featured Google Lunar which featured jobs on the moon and in 2005 a fictitious, brain-boosting drink termed Google Gulp was announced. Probably a later invention to counter the legendary origins of the Danish flags, but never the less of the same nature. In 2002 they claimed that pigeons were the secret behind their growing search engine. Likewise an almost identical Swedish tale from the 18th century about a yellow cross on blue appearing in 1157 during a Swedish battle in Finland. Google has a tradition of creating April Fool's Day jokes such as Google MentalPlex which featured the use of mental power to search the Web.

Bruhn mentions a battle (also mentioned by Fabricius) taking place on September 10, 1217 between Christian knights and Moor warriors on the Iberian Peninsula near the castle Alcazar, where it is said that a golden cross on white appeared in the sky, to bring victory to the Christians. The building also offers state-of-the-art bathroom facilities featuring digitally controlled toilets [19] which are similar to Japanese toilets. Similar tales of appearances in the sky at critical moments, particularly of crosses, can be found all over Europe. In addition to the rec room, there are snack rooms stocked with various cereals, gummy bears, toffee, licorice, cashews, yogurt, carrots, fresh fruit, and dozens of different drinks including fresh juice, soda, and make-your-own cappuccino. She claims that it is neither the battle nor the banner that is central to the tale, but rather the cross in the sky. Recreational amenities are scattered throughout the campus, and include a workout room with weights and rowing machines, locker rooms, washers and dryers, a massage room, assorted video games, Foosball, a baby grand piano, a pool table, and ping pong. A much different theory is briefly discussed by Fabricius and elaborated more by Helga Bruhn in a book from 1949. Each employee has access to the corporate recreation center.

All these theories centre on two battles in Estonia, whether it is in Fellin (1208) or Lyndanisse (1219), and thus try to explain the origin in relation to the tale brought forth over 300 years after the event. The hallways are full of exercise balls and bicycles. He repeats the story about the flag being planted in front of Bishop Theodorik's tent which the enemy mistakenly attacks believing it to be the tent of the King. The lobby is decorated with a piano, lava lamps, and a real-time projection of current search queries. The banner would then already be known in Estonia. Google's headquarters is called the Googleplex. That is based on his tireless efforts to expand Christianity to the Baltic countries and that under his initiative and supervision several smaller crusades had already been conducted in Estonia. Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News and Orkut, are said to originate from this possibility.

P. The company encourages equality within corporate levels. The Danish church-historian L. Google's corporate philosophy is based on many casual principles including: "You can make money without doing evil", "You can be serious without a suit" and "Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun." A complete list of corporate fundamentals is available on Google's Web site [18]. The white on red warrior-cloak cannot be traced until later. Google is known for its relaxed corporate culture, reminiscent of the Dot-com boom. The Knights Hospitaller is a monk-order and used black dresses. Page and Brin, however, had sold $2 billion before some of the largest stock gains.

Adolf Ditlev Jørgensen does not give an explanation how the white Maltese cross on red of the Knights Hospitaller, found its way to the Danish flag of 1219, given the fact that in that time it was a white cross on black. In late 2005 Google shares were valued at $400. He claims that the origin of the legend of the falling flag comes from this confusion in the battle. When recorded on the Forbes 400, Google's stock was around $111. Adolf Ditlev Jørgensen explains that it was Bishop Theodorik who carried the flag, well planted outside his tent, thus as an already well-known Knights Hospitaller symbol in Livonia, the enemy thought this was the King's symbol and mistakenly stormed Bishop Theodorik tent. But due to the recent surge in stock price (April 2005-June 2005), their net worth is significantly higher. In the contemporary writing of the priest Henry of Livonia from Riga it is said that Bishop Theodorik was killed during the 1219 battle, as the enemy stormed his tent, thinking it was the King's tent. According to the Forbes 400 list (2005), the combined net worth of Larry Page and Sergey Brin is $22 billion US.

Furthermore he claims that Bishop Theodorik, already a part initiator of the order in Livonia, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, had the idea of starting a similar order in Estonia and that he was the original instigator of Bishop Albert of Buxhoeveden inquiry to King Valdemar II in 1218, that set the whole Danish participation in the Baltic crusades in motion. As a result, Google Inc.'s (CGQ®) as of January 2006 is better than 31.7% of Russell 3000 companies and 41.4% of Software & Services companies. He supports his theory with that the order came to Denmark in the latter half of the 12th century and during the next centuries spread to major cities, like Odense, Viborg, Horsens, Ribe and their headquarters in Slagelse, so by the time of the Baltic crusade, the symbol was already a known symbol in Denmark. Also, Google has changed some of its board governance practices, and disclosed its executive compensation policies. A theory brought forth by the Danish historian Adolf Ditlev Jørgensen in 1875 in his book Danebroges Oprindelse, is that the Danish flag is the banner of the Knights Hospitaller. However, after that ranking came out, ISS revised its CGQ® ranking methodology. Moreover, it is unlikely that the pope would send such a banner, given the fact that they already had one, namely the banner of the Knights Hospitaller (Danish: "Johanitterne"). [17] The primary contributor of the low ranking was due to how Google's dual class share capital structure was used by ISS to determine the Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ®) ranking for Google.

It is unlikely that the very fair and loyal archbishop would do such a thing behind the king's back. In 2004, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ranked Google's corporate governance dead last in the list of members of the Standard & Poor's 500, even though Google is not yet a part of the S&P500. He suggested that it was not a pope banner to the King but a pope banner to the Churchly legate in the North, more specifically to archbishop Andreas Sunesøn, which he - without the knowledge of the King – brought with him on the King's crusade in the Baltic countries, in an effort to make the army take on a Christian symbol (over the king's symbol) and thereby strengthen the power of the church. [16] Page, Brin, and Schmidt have all declined recent offers of bonuses and increases in compensation by Google's board of directors. A similar theory was suggested by Danish explorer, adventurer and Captain Johan Støckel in the early 20th century. The CEO also agreed to accept an annual base salary of $1 for 2006. On the other hand, the letter in question might simply have been lost. Founders Brin and Page reportedly earned $1 billion in 2004, but after the IPO in Aug 2004, it became public knowledge via annual SEC filings that their base salary is $1 for 2004, 2005, and now 2006.

Being granted a banner by the Pope would have been a great honour, but despite the many letters of the popes relating to the crusades, none of them mentions granting a banner to a King of Denmark. Position: name, age, compensation in USD (as of June 2005). One would though imagine that if this story was true, some kind of record ought to exist of the event and presumably Danish historians would not have failed to mention it in some way. (It is estimated that less than one job offer is made per thousand resumes submitted.) Google reportedly employs one in-house legal recruiter just to assist the legal department in evaluating the high volume of resumes from attorneys seeking to join the corporation. Other kings and lords certainly received such banners. Beyond monetary compensation, Google's workplace amenities, culture, global popularity, stellar prospects (relative to most Bay Area companies), and strong brand recognition continues to attract far more applicants than there are positions available. The Danish historian Caspar Paludan-Müller in 1873 in his book "Sagnet om den himmelfaldne Danebrogsfane" put forth the theory that it is a banner sent by the Pope to the Danish King to use in his crusades in the Baltic countries. In 2005 Google has implemented other employee incentives such as the Google Founders' Award, as well making higher salary offers to new employees.

Other origin theories have been put forth in the late 19th and early 20th century. Nevertheless, Google's excellent stock performance following the IPO has enabled these early employees to be competitively compensated by participation in the corporation's remarkable equity growth. Many of these legends are apparently built on earlier ones. For instance, some system administrators earned no more than $33,000 — while $40,000 at that time was considered to be low by Bay Area employment market levels. If the flag of 1208 or 1219 ever existed. Prior to the IPO offering, typical salaries at Google were considered within the industry to be quite low. Historically, it is of course impossible to prove or disprove that these records speak of the same flag. We try to see new problems and new markets using the technology that others use and we build.".

A historian from Slesvig, Ulrik Petersen (1656-1735), wrote in the late 17th century that the flag hung in Slesvig cathedral till about 1660 until it simply crumbled away, thus ending its more than 400-year-old story. We look at markets as they exist and we assume they are pretty well served by their existing players. Henrik Rantzau states in his writing of 1576 that the flag was brought to Slesvig city and placed in the cathedral, following its return. And so if you try to predict our product strategy by simply saying well so and so has this and Google will do the same thing, it's almost always the wrong answer. A priest and historian from Dithmarschen, Johan Neocorus, wrote in 1598 that the banner captured in 1500, was brought to the church in Wohrden and hung there for the next 59 years, until it was returned to the Danes as part of the peace settlement in 1559. During the third quarter 2005 Google Conference Call, Eric Schmidt said, "We don't do the same thing as everyone else does. This is however not the end of the story. [12].

This "Danmarckis Hoffuitbanner" was probably nothing short of the "Banner of the Realm'" (Rigsbanner), the Dannebrog.. [11] Google and Microsoft reached a settlement out of court on 22 December 2005, the terms of which are confidential. This young man was Peder Skram. Microsoft sued to stop his move by citing Lee's non-compete contract (he had access to much sensitive information regarding Microsoft's plans in China). It was saved only by the combined efforts of the banner-carrier Mogens Gyldenstierne, taking multiple wounds, and a young man coming to his rescue. This feud boiled over into the courts when Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice-president of Microsoft, quit Microsoft to work for Google. He writes that the "Danish head banner" ("Danmarckis Hoffuitbanner") was nearly captured by the Swedes. Many Microsoft employees who worked on Internet Explorer have left to work for Google.

An indication that we are dealing with multiple flags, are the 1570 writings of Niels Hemmingsøn regarding a bloody battle between Danes and Swedes near the Swedish town of Uppsala in 1520. This corporate feud is most directly expressed in hiring offers and defections. In fact, the entire letter gives the impression that the lost battle was noting more than an "unfortunate affair". Rumors of a Google browser are fueled by the fact that Google is the owner of the domain name "gbrowser.com". In a letter dated 22 February 1500 to Oluf Stigsøn, King John describes the battle, but does not mention the loss of an important flag. Some have even suggested that in addition to an Internet Explorer replacement Google is designing its own Linux based operating system called Google OS to directly compete with Microsoft Windows. However, it is more questionable if he indeed was carrying the "original" flag. Hotmail), search (both online and local desktop searching), and other applications (for example, Microsoft's Virtual Earth competes with Google Earth).

It is quite plausible that the king’s personal banner as well as the leading banner of the army were both lost, as the battle was led by the King himself. Furthermore, the two companies are increasingly offering overlapping services, such as webmail (Gmail vs. Sources from Dithmarschen, written shortly after the battle of 1500, do mention banners, including the Royal banner, being captured from the Danes, but there is no mention of Dannebrog or the "original" flag. Microsoft has been touting its MSN Search engine to counter Google's competitive position. He notes that the flag was in a poor condition when returned. One such example is the rivalry between Microsoft and Google [10]. In 1576, the son of Johan Rantzau, Henrik Rantzau, also writes about the war and the fate of the flag. With Google's increased size comes more competition from large mainstream technology companies.

Both claims that this was the original flag, and consequently both writers knew the legend of the falling flag. On June 7, 2005, Google was valued at nearly $52 billion, making it one of the world's biggest media companies by stock market value. This legend is found in two sources, Hans Svanning's History of King John from 1558-1559 and Johan Rantzau's History about the Last Dithmarschen War, from 1569. URL accessed on June 1, 2005.) When companies are first listed on the S&P 500 they typically experience a bump in share price due to the rapid accumulation of the stock within index funds that track the S&P. In the capitulation terms it is stated that all Danish banners lost in 1500 were to be returned. L.A.Times. In 1559, King Frederik II recaptured it during his own Dithmarschen campaign. (Source: Google Shares Rise on New Price Target.

The flag was lost in a devastating defeat on 17 February 1500. On the same day, rumors circulated in the financial community that Google would soon be included in the S&P 500. According to tradition, the original flag from the Battle of Lyndanisse was used in the small campaign of 1500 when King Hans tried to conquer Dithmarschen (in western Holstein in north Germany). On June 1, 2005, Google shares gained nearly 4 percent after Credit Suisse First Boston raised its price target on the stock to $350. The story of the original flag has a continuation that many Danes are not aware of. Jessie Stricchiola, president of Alchemist Media, called Google "the most stubborn and the least willing to cooperate with advertisers" when it comes to click fraud. Some historians believe that the story by Petrus Olai refers to a source from the first half of the 15th century, making this the oldest reference to the falling flag. Google's CFO George Reyes said in a December 2004 investor conference that "something has to be done about this really, really quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business model."[9] Some have suggested that Google is not doing enough to combat click fraud.

Whether or not these records describe a truly old oral story in existents at that time, or a 16th century invented story, is not currently determined. Click fraud is a growing problem for Google's business strategy. In another record by Petrus Olai called "Danmarks Tolv Herligheder" (Twelve Splendours of Denmark), in splendour number nine, the same story is re-told almost to the word, however a paragraph has been inserted correcting the year to 1219. Page says in the prospectus that Google has "a dual class structure that is biased toward stability and independence and that requires investors to bet on the team, especially Sergey and me." The company has not reported any treasury stock holdings as of the Q3 2004 report. The Danes were all but defeated when a lamb-skin banner depicting a white cross falls from the sky and miraculously leads to a Danish victory. The actual voting power of the insiders is much higher, however, as Google has a dual class stock structure in which each Class B share gets ten votes compared to each Class A share getting one. This record describes a battle in 1208 near a place called "Felin" during the Estonia campaign of King Valdemar II. The two founders are said to hold almost 30% of the outstanding shares.

The second source is the writing of the Franciscan monk Petrus Olai (Peder Olsen) of Roskilde, from 1527. In January 2005 the shares outstanding was up 100 million to 273.42 million, 53% of that was held by insiders which made the float 127.70 million (up 110 million shares from the first trading day). He also mentions that this flag, falling from the sky during the Russian campaign of King Valdemar II, is the very same flag that King Eric of Pomerania took with him when he left the country in 1440 after being deposed as King. On August 19, 2004 the number of shares outstanding was 172.85 million while the "free float" was 19.60 million (which makes 89% held by insiders). It is not mentioned in connection to the campaign of King Valdemar II in Estonia, but in connection with a campaign in Russia. Since the IPO, Google's stock market capitalization has risen greatly and the stock price has more than quadrupled. The first is found in Christiern Pedersen's "Danske Krønike", which is a sequel to Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, written 1520-1523. [8].

This story originates from two written sources from the early 16th century. Google said it would use the money for "acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets". Though no historical support exists for the flag story in the Fellin battle either, it is not difficult to understand how a small and unknown place is replaced with the much grander battle of Reval from the Estonia campaign of King Valdemar II. The move would double Google's cash stockpile to $7 billion. The first record of the legend dates from more than 300 years after the campaign, and the first record connects the legend to a much smaller battle, though still in Estonia; the battle of Fellin (Viljandi) in 1208. On August 18, 2005 (one year after the initial IPO), Google announced that it would sell 14,159,265 (another mathematical reference as π = 3.14159265...) more shares of its stock to raise money. No historical record supports this legend. The company was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol GOOG.

The legend says that during the Battle of Lyndanisse, also known as the Battle of Valdemar (Danish: "Volmerslaget"), near Reval (Tallinn) in Estonia, on 15 June 1219, the flag fell from the sky during a critical stage, resulting in Danish victory. Yahoo!, a competitor of Google, also benefited from the IPO because it owns 2.7 million shares of Google. The legend of the flag is very popular among Danes, but most consider it to be a legend though a beautiful one. Many of Google's employees became instant paper millionaires. . The IPO gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion. The royal Danish yacht is named after the flag. The vast majority of Google's 271 million shares remained under Google's control.

During the Danish-Norwegian personal union, the Dannebrog was also the flag of Norway and continued to be, with slight modifications, until Norway adopted its current flag in 1821. The sale raised $1.67 billion, of which approximately $1.2 billion went to Google. The cross design of the Danish flag was subsequently adopted by the other Nordic countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. Of that, 14,142,135 (another mathematical reference as √2 = 1.4142135...) were floated by Google and 5,462,917 by selling stockholders. The national flag of Denmark, the Dannebrog, is red with a white Scandinavian cross that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side. 19,605,052 shares were offered at a price of $85 per share. DS 359:2005 ’Flagdug’, Dansk Standard, 2005. After some initial stumbles, Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004.

Hagerups, Copenhagen 1919. The SEC (Security & Exchange Commission) forbids giving out information pertaining to a company's specifications before an IPO is launched. Lund, Forlaget H. Before Google initiated its initial public offering, Larry Page & Sergey Brin faced legal action for giving Playboy an interview about themselves and Google. D. The public valued it at $100.34 at the close of the first day of trading which saw 22,351,900 shares change hands. Danebrog - Danmarks Palladium, E. The initial offering of shares was sold for $85 a piece.

Dannebrog, Helga Bruhn, Forlaget Jespersen og Pios, Copenhagen 1949. In the run-up to the IPO the company was forced to slash the price and size of the offering, but the process did not run into any technical difficulties or result in any significant legal challenges. Dannebrog - Vort Flag, Lieutenant Colonel Thaulow, Forlaget Codan, Copenhagen 1943. The smallest required account balances at most authorized online brokers that are allowed to participate in an IPO, however, are around $100,000. They chose the unconventional way of allocating the initial offering through an auction (specifically, a "Dutch auction"), so that "anyone" would be able to participate in the offering. In May 2004, Google officially cut Goldman Sachs from the IPO, leaving Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston as the joint underwriters.

The deadline imposed by this requirement accelerated our decision." The SEC filing revealed that Google turned a profit every year since 2001 and earned a profit of $105.6 million on revenues of $961.8 million during 2003. By law, certain private companies must report as if they were public companies. As Google stated in the filing, their "growth has reduced some of the advantages of private ownership. April 29 was the 120th day of 2004, and according to section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, "a company must file financial and other information with the SEC 120 days after the close of the year in which the company reaches $10 million in assets and/or 500 shareholders, including people with stock options.[7] Google has stated in its Annual filing for 2004 that every one of its 3,021 employees, "except temporary employees and contractors, are also equity holders, with significant collective employee ownership", so Google would have needed to make its financial information public by filing them with the SEC regardless of whether or not they intended to make a public offering.

On April 29, 2004, Google made an S-1 form SEC filing for an IPO to raise as much as USD $2,718,281,828 (with a touch of mathematical humor as e = 2.718281828...). According to a banker involved in the transaction, the deal would yield an estimated $12 billion market capitalization for Google. That IPO (one of the most anticipated in history) was projected to raise as much as $4 billion. In January 2004, Google announced the hiring of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group to arrange an IPO.

In October 2003, while discussing a possible IPO (Initial Public Offering of shares), Microsoft approached the company about a possible partnership or merger; no such deal ever materialized. Around six months later, a much larger round of funding was announced, with the major investors being rival venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. After a frantic few weeks, this was topped up to give an initial investment of almost $1 million. The first funding for Google as a company was secured in the form of a $100,000 contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, given to a corporation which didn't yet exist.

Products and demos Google Labs, the experimental section of Google.com help Google maximize its relationships with its users by including them in the beta development, design and testing stages of new products and enhancements of already existing ones. Frequently, new Google enhancements or products appear in its inventory. Analysts speculate that Google's response to Yahoo! will be to continue to make technical and visual enhancements to personalized searches, using the personal data that is gathering from Orkut, Gmail, and Froogle to produce unique results based on the user. The logo is notorious among web users for April Fool's Day tie-ins and jokes about the company.

Not only may decorative drawings be attached to the logo, but as well the font design may mimic a fictional or humorous language such as the Star Trek Klingon[5] and Leet[6]. The Google site includes humorous features such as cartoon modifications [4] of the Google logo to recognize special occasions and anniversaries, known as "Google Doodles". This is interpreted by some activists as against the "Don't Be Evil" spirit. Google.cn search results are filtered so as not to bring any results up on Tianamen Square, the independence movements of Tibet and Taiwan, the Dalai Lama (any results describe him as a troublemaker), Falun Gong and anti-Communist information.

Some controversy has occurred over Google's decision to participate in the Chinese government's Internet censorship policy, colloquially known as "The Great Firewall of China". Google's declared code of conduct is "Don't Be Evil", a phrase which they went so far as to include in their prospectus (aka "red herring" or "S-1") for their IPO, noting "We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served — as shareholders and in all other ways — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains.". Yet Yahoo!'s move highlighted Google's own distinctiveness and today the verb "to google" has entered a number of languages first as a slang verb and now as a standard word meaning, "to perform a web search". Google lost user share of the search market.

At its peak in early 2004, Google handled upwards of 84.7 percent of all search requests on the World Wide Web through its Web site and through its partnerships with other Internet clients like Yahoo!, AOL, and CNN.[3] In February 2004 Yahoo! dropped its partnership with Google in order to provide users at its site independent search results and to maintain their loyalty. However, the acquisition secured the company's competitive ability to use information gleaned from blog postings to improve the speed and relevance of articles contained in a companion product to the search engine, Google News. Some analysts considered the acquisition inconsistent with Google's business model. In February 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, owner of Blogger, a pioneering and leading weblog hosting Web site.

The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor. Patent 6,285,999 describing Google's ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001. U.S. While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.

The model of selling keyword advertising was originally pioneered by Goto.com (renamed Overture, and now Yahoo! Search Marketing)[2]. It also only cost a very small amount per click to the websites that advertised this way. The ads were text-based in order to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. This strategy was important for increasing advertising revenue, which is based upon the number of "hits" users make upon ads.

In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with the search keyword to produce enhanced search results for the user. This appearance, while imitating the early AltaVista, had behind it Google's unique search capabilities. They were attracted to its simple, uncluttered, clean design — a competitive advantage to attract users who did not wish to enter searches on web pages filled with visual distractions. The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users.

Silicon Graphics leased these buildings to Google. After outgrowing two subsequent sites, the company settled into a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, in 2003. Google quickly outgrew its University Avenue home. This unexpected change alienated part of AltaVista's user base.

Google received a big break in 1999 when one of the most popular search engines, AltaVista, relaunched itself as a user Web entry point, or portal. In March 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home to a number of other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. They formally incorporated their company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997.

Originally the search engine used the Stanford website with the domain google.stanford.edu. (A small search engine called RankDex was already exploring a similar strategy.) Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. (Contemporary search engines essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page.) It was originally nicknamed BackRub because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance. They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between Web sites would produce better results than existing techniques.

students at Stanford. Google began as a research project in January 1996 ^[1] by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. . See Google platform for more details on their technology.

While the company does not provide detailed information about its hardware, it was estimated in 2005 that they were using over 100,000 Linux machines. Google's services are run on several server farms, each consisting of many thousand low-cost commodity computers running stripped-down versions of Linux. multiplex, cineplex, etc). As a further play on this, Google's headquarters are referred to as "the Googleplex" — a googolplex being 1 followed by a googol of zeros, and the HQ being a complex of buildings (cf.

The name "Google" is a play on the word "googol," which refers to the number represented by 1 followed by one hundred zeros. Eric Schmidt, formerly chief executive officer of Novell, was named Google's CEO when co-founder Larry Page stepped down. The company employs approximately 5,700 employees and is based in Mountain View, California. public corporation, first incorporated as a privately held corporation in September 1998, that designed and manages the Internet Google search engine.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a U.S. Catalogs: Catalog Search allows the user to search and browse mail-order catalogs. Non-peer reviewed material is also included in the index. Scholar: Allows users to search some peer-reviewed, scholarly journals.

Although it allows you to search specific blogs, this feature is currently malfunctioning. Results can be sorted by relevance or by date. Blogs: Blog Search allows the user to only search blogs based on RSS feeds. See Google Video.

Videos: Allows the user to limit a search to videos on the Internet; Use Google to find reviews and showtimes for movies playing somewhere near you. See Google Talk. Talk: Allows users with Gmail accounts to communicate with each other through instant messaging and have online conversations. See Google Desktop.

Desktop: Allows the user to search their computer for files, folders, and emails. See Google Earth. Earth: Allows the user to download a program to have a 3D version of satellite pictures. Currently it provides full service only in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Ireland.

See also Google Maps. Maps include road maps, medium-resolution satellite images, and "hybrid" maps combining both. Local: Searches for places (such as shops or other landmarks) in a geographical area, and displays maps and driving directions. See Froogle.

Froogle: Allows the user to shop online searching websites within a user specified budget. Google.com.au allows selection criteria for Australia. The search page provides the option for twenty countries. News: Brings the user directly to the Google News search page, formatted similar to news websites such as MSNBC or BBC News.

Groups: Allows the user to create, search and browse groups for discussion. Images: Allows the user to limit a search to images on the Internet; the images are identified by Google by the image name saved on the webpage and context information about the page. Washington Post 20 September 2005 "Google library push faces lawsuit by US authors". The Google Print Library Project: A Copyright Analysis - .pdf.

Scout Report "Authors’ group files lawsuit against Google" Sept, 2005. Drummond, 42, $776K. Counsel: David C. Development, Secretary and Gen.

VP of Corp. VP of Worldwide Sales: Omid Kordestani, 41, $572K. Sr. Page, 32, $1 see [15].

President of Products: Larry E. President of Technology: Sergey Brin, 31, $1 see [14]. CFO: George Reyes, 51, $781K. Schmidt, 50, $1 see [13].

CEO: Eric E.