logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2021
44m 26s

Land of the Giants: The Google Empire

The Verge
About this episode
Vergecast is on vacation this week, so instead we'll share an episode of Land of the Giants from our friends at Recode. Land of the Giants is a podcast that explores the five biggest tech companies and their impact on our world, and this season is all about Google. The episode we're sharing tells the story of how two grad school students with a unique way to ... Show More
Up next
Jul 8
A quest for the best headphone mics
On this episode of The Vergecast, we kick off Hot Girl Vergecast Summer with a classic Vergecast segment: the mic test. Guest host Victoria Song is joined by Vergecast producers Andru Marino and Erick Gomez to see how the Nothing Headphone 1, Sony WH-1000XM6, Apple AirPods Max, a ... Show More
1h 6m
Jul 1
The movie and TV tech we actually want to use
One way to think about the tech industry is just as a series of people trying to build stuff they saw in movies and on TV. Some of that tech is great, some of it is deeply dystopian, and most of it would make the world a very different place if it suddenly existed. In this episod ... Show More
1h 33m
Jun 27
What Meta and Anthropic really won in court
It's already the heat of summer, and the news keeps coming. Nilay, David, and Jake start the show with a bunch of tech news, including the latest on Tesla's robotaxi launch, some updates on the Trump Phone, new devices from Fairphone and Unihertz, and Meta's shifting strategy for ... Show More
1h 46m
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2021
The Google Empire
In Land of the Giants: The Google Empire, Recode’s Shirin Ghaffary and Big Technology's Alex Kantrowitz explore how a company that began with idealistic goals of creative experimentation and making useful products has turned into a worldwide power with enormous impact on the way ... Show More
3 m
Feb 2021
Googliath
Australia just reined in Google. Dozens of other countries want in on the action. The latest season of Land of the Giants explains how two grad students turned a search engine into what might be the most powerful company in history.Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more ... Show More
44m 40s
Sep 2023
U.S. v. Google
For years, the government has been trying to rein in Big Tech, pursuing some of the largest and most powerful companies on the internet. This week, the government takes on Google in the first monopoly trial of the modern internet era.David McCabe, who covers technology policy for ... Show More
24m 18s
Feb 2021
Chrome and the Android Wars
Today, nearly all of the world's smartphones are powered by Android. Which means Google is the gatekeeper to the Internet for billions of people. The story of Android is the story of how Google became so big. And it started with an existential threat. With Google in survivalist m ... Show More
40m 58s
Mar 2024
Media Houses vs. Google, Sam Altman's Ethics, Brave's Leo AI, Antarctica's Secrets
In this episode, we’ll dig into a legal showdown with Google involving media houses, the scrutiny surrounding tech visionary Sam Altman, and the innovative strides of Brave's Leo AI. Plus, we take a detour to the icy expanse of Antarctica to uncover its secrets. For more on ... Show More
7m 11s
Mar 2021
Should We Break Up Google?
Google is now facing antitrust scrutiny at a level it's never experienced before, from both sides of the political aisle. Which means we’re in an unprecedented moment that could define the company, our economy, and our daily lives for years to come. In our season finale, we explo ... Show More
47m 43s
Jan 2022
How Google tracks you online may be changing
It’s been a particularly busy week for Google. Three state attorneys general, plus one from Washington, D.C., sued the tech giant, alleging it misled consumers about when they were being tracked. Google also announced this week it’s going to change the way it collects user data f ... Show More
7m 53s
Mar 2021
Googlers vs. Google
On December 2nd, 2020, Dr. Timnit Gebru - co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team - got an email that said Google had accepted her resignation. A resignation she didn’t think she made. Her exit is just the latest sign of the crisis unfolding within Google — a loss of trust between ma ... Show More
49m 13s
Sep 2023
In Google we antitrust
Google is headed to court over allegations its search engine violates federal antitrust law. The Verge’s Adi Robertson breaks down the case, and David Pierce explains how Google Search came to rule the internet.This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Matt Collette ... Show More
26m 22s