document_title: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

question_text: assassin's creed black flag where is the assassin

question_tokens: assassin 's creed black flag where is the assassin

text: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

text: Gameplay[edit]

text: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is an action-adventure, stealth game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. The game features three main cities; Havana, Kingston, and Nassau, which reside under Spanish, British, and pirate influence, respectively.[9] In addition, locations like Port-au-Prince and smaller locations like Greater Inagua are used as main story points. It also features 50 other individual locations to explore, including atolls, sea forts, Mayan ruins, sugar plantations, and underwater shipwrecks, with a 60/40 balance between land and naval exploration.[1] It has a more open world feel, with missions similar to those found in Assassin's Creed, as well as fewer restrictions for the player. The world opens up sooner in the game, as opposed to Assassin's Creed III, which had very scripted missions and did not give players freedom to explore until the game was well into its first act.[9][10][11][12] The player will encounter jungles, forts, ruins, and small villages and the world is built to allow players much more freedom, such as allowing players to engage, board, and capture passing ships and swimming to nearby beaches in a seamless fashion.[1][13] In addition, the hunting system has been retained from Assassin's Creed III, allowing the player to hunt on land, and fish in the water, with resources gathered used to upgrade equipment.[1]

text: A new aspect in the game is the Jackdaw, the ship that the player captains. The Jackdaw is upgradeable throughout the game, and is easily accessible to the player when needed.[10] In addition, a new underwater component has been added.[9] The player has access to a spyglass, allowing the examination of distant ships, along with their cargo and strength. It can also help determine if an island still has animals to hunt, treasures to find, high points to reach for synchronization or additional side-quests to complete, such as assassinations and naval contracts.[9] An updated form of the recruit system introduced in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has returned,[9] allowing Edward to recruit crew members. While Kenway's crew will remain loyal to him, they can be promoted to captain acquired ships, and are needed to assist in boarding enemy vessels, they cannot assist in combat or perform long-range assassinations, as in previous games. Ubisoft removed this aspect of the brotherhood system, believing it allowed players to bypass tense and challenging scenarios too easily.[14]

text: In the present day, at the offices of Abstergo Entertainment—a subsidiary of Abstergo Industries—in Montreal, Quebec, players engage in modern-day pirating through the exploration of Abstergo's offices, eavesdropping and hacking, all without combat. As well, various "hacking" games, similar to previous cluster and glyph puzzles, are present, that uncover secrets about Abstergo.[15]

text: Multiplayer also returns, with new settings and game modes, though it is only land-based.[9]

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: Characters[edit]

text: The main character of the game is Edward Kenway (Matt Ryan),[16] a Welsh[17] privateer-turned-pirate and eventual member of the Assassin Order. Edward is the father of Haytham Kenway, and grandfather of Ratonhnhaké:ton (Connor), the two playable characters of Assassin's Creed III. Real-life individuals that are encountered include the pirates Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch[note 1][18] (voiced by Mark Bonnar),[16] Benjamin Hornigold,[9] Mary Read,[9] Stede Bonnet,[9] Anne Bonny,[9] Calico Jack,[9] and Charles Vane[9] (Ralph Ineson).[16]

text: Setting[edit]

text: As is the case in previous games in the Assassin's Creed series, the story is divided into two intertwined halves, with one in the present day, one in a historical setting, and the events of each influencing the other. Although the present-day story had previously established that an Animus was required to view one's ancestors memories, the ending of Assassin's Creed III reveals that Abstergo can now view a host's genetic memories simply by sequencing the host's DNA. As such, the player character is hired by Abstergo Entertainment to investigate a pivotal character in Desmond's ancestry, the Assassin Edward Kenway.[19] A notorious pirate and privateer operating during the Golden Age of Piracy, Kenway's story is set in the Caribbean, and mixes open-ended ship-based exploration with combat and land-based adventures in Cuba and Jamaica, and on a number of Caribbean islands, parts of southern Florida and eastern Mexico.[20][21][22]

text: Plot[edit]

text: Samples taken from Desmond Miles' body in the moments after his death have enabled Abstergo Industries to continue to explore his genetic memories using the Animus' newfound cloud computing abilities. The unnamed player character is hired by Abstergo Entertainment, from their Montréal headquarters, to sift through the memories of Edward Kenway, an eighteenth-century pirate, the father of Haytham Kenway and the grandfather of Ratonhnhaké:ton. Ostensibly, this is to gather material for an Animus-powered interactive feature film, but in reality, Abstergo—the Templars of the present time—are searching for a First Civilization structure known as the Observatory, and are using the memories of Edward Kenway to find it.

text: As Kenway, the player must unravel a conspiracy between high-ranking Templars within the British and Spanish empires who, under the guise of cleaning up piracy in the Caribbean, have used their positions to locate the Sage—later identified as Bartholomew Roberts—who is the only man that can lead them to the Observatory, a First Civilization device which can monitor anyone anywhere in the world when provided a blood sample, which they intend to use to spy on and blackmail world leaders. Kenway becomes an unwitting player in their plot when he kills a rogue Assassin, Duncan Walpole. Seeing an opportunity for profit, Kenway takes Walpole's place at a meeting of Templars in Havana, where he meets Woodes Rogers as well as Cuban Governor, and Templar Grandmaster, Laureano Torres. His recklessness endangers the entire Assassins' Order, prompting him to pursue the Sage and the conspirators from the Yucatán Peninsula to Jamaica, eventually catching Roberts on the island of Príncipe off of the African coast.

text: Meanwhile, a band of notorious pirates—including Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch, Benjamin Hornigold, Mary Read (under the alias "James Kidd") and Charles Vane, among others—dream of a pirate utopia where man is free to live beyond the reach of kings and rulers. With Kenway's help, they seize control of Nassau and establish a pirate republic. However, poor governance, a lack of an economy and an outbreak of disease bring the pirate state perilously close to collapse, with the founders divided on the best way forward. Kenway attempts to resolve the dispute, but is too late to stop the Templars from exploiting the situation for their own ends.

text: Eventually, Kenway and Roberts uncover the location of the Observatory and retrieve the artifact powering it, but Kenway is betrayed by Roberts at the last moment. After a brief stint in prison for the crimes of piracy, Edward escapes with the aid of Ah Tabai, the Assassin Mentor, and elects to join their Order. Chasing down and eliminating Roberts and the Templar conspirators, Kenway retrieves the artifact and returns it to the Observatory, sealing it away for good. He is left facing an uncertain future with his newfound convictions until he receives a letter informing him of the passing of his wife and the imminent arrival of his hitherto unknown daughter, Jennifer Scott. Kenway travels back to England, promising Ah Tabai that he will continue the fight against the Templars back home in England.  Some years later, Kenway, Jennifer (using her mother's surname in her memory) and Kenway's young son Haytham are about to watch a play in an English theatre.

text: In the present day, the player is contacted by John, Abstergo Entertainment's information technology manager. John convinces the player that their employers know more than they are telling, and encourages them to investigate in more detail. He convinces the player to hack several Animus terminals and security cameras, and then has them deliver the information taken to Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane, who are working undercover to infiltrate Abstergo. When the facility is locked down after the hackings are discovered, John arranges for the player to access the Animus' core, at which point Juno materializes into an incorporeal form. She reveals that although it was necessary to open her temple to avert disaster, the world was not ready for her, and she is unable to affect it or possess the player character as her agents intended. John is unmasked as the reincarnated form of the Sage and attempts to murder the player to cover up the failed attempt at resurrecting Juno, but is killed by Abstergo's security before he can do so, thus implicating him as the one responsible for the hacks. As Roberts, the Sage admits to Kenway that he owes no allegiance to the Assassins or the Templars and instead uses whoever he thinks represents his best chance of achieving his ends. With the Sage dead, the player is contacted by the Assassins as they continue their infiltration of Abstergo, but neither side is able to explain the Sage's presence or identify his followers, the Instruments of the First Will.[note 2]

text: Freedom Cry[edit]

text: The Freedom Cry downloadable content is set twenty years after the events of Black Flag and follows Adéwalé in his mission as an Assassin.

text: While attempting to intercept Templar activities in the West Indies Sea, Adéwalé is shipwrecked off the coast of Haiti. Making his way into Port-au-Prince, he establishes that the Templars are working with Bastienne Josèphe, the proprietor of a local brothel and a sympathiser to the Maroons, a faction of freedom fighters made up of liberated slaves led by Augustin Dieufort. Despite his obligations to the Brotherhood of Assassins, Adéwalé becomes sympathetic to their cause, and joins with the Maroons in hijacking a vessel, Experto Crede, in order to interrupt the slave trade.

text: Whilst working for Bastienne, Adéwalé begins to uncover a conspiracy within the French provincial government ruling Port-au-Prince. The local governor, Pierre de Fayet, plans a clandestine scientific expedition to measure the curvature of the earth and gather geographical data, which they intend to sell to the highest bidder with the promise of naval superiority. Adéwalé successfully sabotages the expedition by substituting the illiterate slaves being used by the expedition for literate members of the Maroons.

text: Tensions begin to arise within the Maroons when Adéwalé plots further raids against the slave trade. Bastienne objects, as de Fayet will only punish those trapped in slavery further as punishment. Adéwalé ignores her, but is horrified when he witnesses a frigate fire on an unarmed slave ship to prevent the slaves from joining the Maroons. Adéwalé boards the slave ship and manages to save a few slaves from drowning before the ship capsized with the rest. He plans retribution, but Bastienne cautions that taking revenge will weaken the Maroons' cause; if Adéwalé is to kill de Fayet, then he should do so acting as an agent of justice. After assaulting the Governor's Mansion, pursuing him through the city and fighting off a local garrison, Adéwalé finally corners and kills de Fayet, who claims that slaves are incapable of self-governance and turn to armed uprising at the slightest provocation. Adéwalé points out that none of the slaves or overseers came to his aid, and instead let him die. After killing de Fayet, Adéwalé returns to say goodbye to Bastienne before returning to the Assassin Order, but pledging to use his newfound convictions to aid people who are oppressed rather than the cause of their would-be liberators.

text: Development[edit]

text: In early February 2013, during its quarterly financial call to investors, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that the next Assassin's Creed game, due for release some time before April 2014, would feature a new hero, time period, and development team.[23] On February 28, 2013, Ubisoft posted their first promotional picture and cover for their next Assassin's Creed game, following leaked marketing material days before.[24] It announced the title of the game as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and featured an unnamed character holding a flintlock and a sword with a black flag in the back ground containing the Assassin's symbol with a skull.[24] A reported glitch on the official Assassin's Creed IV website suggested the game will release on next-gen consoles and October 29 as the release date,[25] which was confirmed by the first trailer for the game, released on March 4, 2013 (originally leaked on March 2, 2013, but was quickly pulled by Ubisoft).[1][26][27]

text: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was announced with a cinematic trailer on March 4, 2013.[26] Development began in mid-2011 at Ubisoft Montreal by a separate team from the one on Assassin's Creed III, with additional work done by Ubisoft studios in Annecy, Bucharest, Kyiv, Montpellier, Singapore and Sofia.[9]

text: Lead content manager Carsten Myhill stressed away the sentiment that the sequel should have been a spin-off in the same vein as Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood or Assassin's Creed: Revelations, given the ostensible similarities with Assassin's Creed III. He stated "The whole feeling of the game is completely fresh and new. It will feel very different from Assassin's Creed III. I think it completely warrants the Assassin's Creed IV moniker, not only with the new name and setting, but the attitude and the tone of the experience."[28] Assassin's Creed IV is the first main series numbered title to carry a subtitle, a decision which Myhill says was made to clearly distinguish the pirate theme from the rest of the franchise.[28]

text:
By utilizing the AnvilNext engine, the development team is able to work with one engine for both the next-gen and current-gen versions of the game, as the AnvilNext engine was designed with next-gen capabilities in mind, while still working on current-gen systems.[1] In addition, each system will have their own intricacies and feature sets, with support for the different controllers and utilizing features specific to each console.[1]
The PC version supports Nvidia's TXAA.[29]

text: Music[edit]

text:
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Original Game Soundtrack)Soundtrack album by Brian TylerReleased
October 14, 2013 (2013-10-14)Genre
Video game soundtrackLength
1:42:52Label
Ubisoft Music

text: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Original Game Soundtrack) was composed by American composer Brian Tyler, who also composed the soundtrack of the previous Ubisoft title Far Cry 3. Additional compositions and arrangements were provided by Sarah Schachner, Omar Fadel,[30] Steve Davis, Mike Kramer, Jeremy Lamb, Matthew Llewellyn, and Robert Lydecker. The soundtrack was released on Amazon MP3[31] and iTunes on October 14, 2013.[32] Two other soundtracks have also been released:

text:
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Game Soundtrack — Sea Shanty Edition), a second soundtrack containing a set of 16 sea shanties composed by various artists, was released on Amazon MP3[33] and iTunes on October 29, 2013.[34]
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Game Soundtrack — The Complete Edition), a complete soundtrack including the two previous soundtracks as well as the multiplayer soundtrack composed by Joe Henson and Alexis Smith, was released on Amazon MP3[35] and iTunes on December 2, 2013.[36]

text: The score to the Freedom Cry DLC was composed by French composer Olivier Deriviere. It was recorded at Avatar Studios in New York with La Troupe Makandal, a dedicated group for Haitian music, and at Galaxy Studios in Belgium with the Brussels Philharmonic.[37]

text: showAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Original Game Soundtrack) / Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Game Soundtrack — The Complete Edition) (Disc One)No.TitleMusicLength1."Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag Main Theme[a]"Sarah Schachner2:142."Pyrates Beware[a]"Schachner3:173."On the Horizon[a]"Brian Tyler, Schachner3:024."The High Seas[a]"Tyler2:455."The Fortune of Edward Kenway[a]"Schachner1:586."In This World or the One Below[a]"Tyler, Schachner2:497."Under the Black Flag[a]"Schachner3:218."The Ends of the Earth[a]"Tyler2:539."Stealing a Brig[a]"Tyler1:5210."Fare Thee Well[a]"Tyler5:1411."The Buccaneers[a]"Tyler4:0512."Marked for Death[a]"Tyler3:2113."Last Goodbyes[a]"Tyler2:2414."Take What Is Ours![a]"Tyler3:1515."I'll Be with You[a]"Tyler6:0516."Lay Aboard Lads[a]"Tyler2:2417."A Pirate's Life[a]"Tyler2:0218."Men of War[a]"Tyler2:5719."Order of the Assassin[a]"Tyler3:1020."In the Midst[a]"Tyler3:0521."The British Empire"Tyler3:0822."Batten Down the Hatches"Tyler1:3723."Modernity"Tyler2:1424."A Merry Life and a Short One"Tyler1:1625."Queen Anne's Revenge"Tyler4:4226."Confrontation"Tyler3:1527."Prizes Plunder and Adventure"Tyler2:1228."Meet the Sage"Omar Fadel3:3629."Into the Jungle"Tyler1:4630."The Spanish Empire"Tyler3:5731."The Islands of the West Indies"Tyler3:0632."Ships of Legend"Tyler2:0233."Secrets of the Maya"Tyler3:2434."Life at Sea"Fadel3:10Total length:1:41:33

text: showAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Game Soundtrack — Sea Shanty Edition) / Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Game Soundtrack — The Complete Edition) (Disc Two)No.TitleMusicLength1."Randy Dandy Oh[a]"Sean Dagher, Nils Brown, Michiel Schrey1:352."Maid of Amsterdam[a]"Brown, Schrey, Dagher1:413."Leave Her Johnny[a]"Dagher, Brown, Schrey2:124."Whisky Johnny O'[a]"Schrey, Dagher, Brown1:215."Good Morning Ladies[a]"Dagher, Brown, Schrey1:386."Fish in the Sea[a]"Schrey, Dagher, Brown1:297."Dead Horse[a]"Dagher, Brown, Schrey1:078."Running Down to Cuba[a]"Schrey, Dagher, Brown1:299."Trooper and the Maid"Charlotte Cumberbirch, Dagher, Nelson Carter, Richard Irwin, David Gossage1:5710."William Taylor"Dagher, Brown, Schrey, Cumberbirch, Carter, Irwin, Gossage2:1611."Patrick Spens"Schrey, Dagher, Irwin, Gossage1:5212."Fathom the Bowl"Linda Morrison, Dagher, Carter, Patrick Graham, Gossage2:1313."Admiral Benbow"Schrey, Dagher, Brown, Carter, Irwin, Gossage1:5314."All for Me Grog"Morrison, Dagher, Carter, Graham, Gossage2:0615."Buleria"Marco Marin, Dominic Soulard, Eric Breton2:0616."Verdiales"Marin, Soulard, Breton1:26Total length:28:22

text: showAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Game Soundtrack — The Complete Edition) (Disc Three)No.TitleMusicLength1."Saba Island"Joe Henson, Alexis Smith3:372."Santa Lucia"Joe Henson, Smith3:103."Tampa Bay"Joe Henson, Smith, Christian Henson3:194."Prison"Joe Henson, Smith3:005."La Havana"Joe Henson, Smith3:186."Portobelo"Joe Henson, Smith3:457."Saint Pierre"Joe Henson, Smith, Christian Henson3:238."King Of The Seven Seas"Orivian3:08Total length:(Disc 3) 26:40(Complete) 2:36:35

text: ^[a]  signifies a song that is included in the "Skull Edition"[38]

text: Marketing and release[edit]

text: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was released worldwide for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 29, 2013,[5][6][7] while the Wii U was released on October 29, 2013 in North America,[3][6][7] November 21, 2013 in Australia, November 22, 2013 in Europe[2] and November 28, 2013 in Japan.[39] The Wii U version in Europe was delayed from its original November 1, 2013 release date.[2] It was announced on March 1, 2013 that the game will also come to the PlayStation 4, and on May 21 that it will release on the Xbox One.[4] Both versions were launch titles, with the PlayStation 4 version releasing on November 15 and November 29, 2013 in North America and Europe, respectively,[6][7] and November 22, 2013 worldwide for Xbox One.[6][7]

text: Ubisoft partnered with Sony to bring exclusive content to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of the game,[40] which will feature the protagonist of Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, Aveline de Grandpré, in three missions. The Aveline content, which was written by Liberation writer Jill Murray, picks up after the conclusion of her story in Liberation.[41] The content is also available on the PC platform, through the Uplay Gold Edition.[42]

text: On June 21, 2013, it was announced that the Microsoft Windows version had been delayed "a few weeks" from its intended release of October 29, 2013.[43] Its new release dates were later revealed to be November 19, 2013 in North America and November 22, 2013 in Europe.[2] Lead designer Jean-Sebastien Decant explained that the delay was caused by the team working on the "master version" first, making sure it works and then proceeding to the other versions. For Black Flag, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version was the master, before the team adapted it to the other consoles.[44]

text: On October 31, 2013 Ubisoft announced that the Uplay Passport requirement would be removed from Assassin's Creed IV and all future games. Uplay Passport came with all new copies of the game and was required for accessing multiplayer and Edward's Fleet minigame. Owners of used copies could download Uplay Passport for a fee before the removal.[45][46]

text: A Japanese manga adaptation of the game, written by Takashi Yano and illustrated by Kenji Oiwa, began serialization in Shueisha's Jump X magazine on August 10, 2013.[47] The manga however contradicts many parts of the game's actual storyline, despite the manga being an adaptation of the game.

text: Downloadable content[edit]

text: On October 8, 2013, Ubisoft announced that a Season Pass would be available for purchase at the launch of the game on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC, and would include the Freedom Cry single-player missions, Kraken Ship pack featuring elements to personalize the Jackdaw, as well as additional single-player and multiplayer elements.[48]

text: Freedom Cry sees the player take on the role of Adéwalé, a freed slave from Trinidad who became Edward Kenway's Quartermaster, and later a member of the Assassin Order. The story mode takes place 20 years after the events of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag where Adéwalé has become a trained assassin with the Order and finds himself shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue, where he comes face-to-face with some of the most brutal slavery in the West Indies. The DLC is written by Jill Murray, who wrote Liberation and the Aveline content for Black Flag.[49] In February 2014, it was announced that Freedom Cry would be released as a standalone title on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 on February 18, 2014 for North America and February 19, 2014 for Europe. It was released for the PC on February 25, 2014.[50]

text: Blackbeard's Wrath allows the player to play any one of three new characters in Black Flag's multiplayer mode. These characters include Blackbeard, The Jaguar and The Orchid. This DLC is free with the Season Pass.[51]

text: Guild of Rogues adds three new characters to the multiplayer mode. These characters are The Shaman, The Siren and The Stowaway. It was not released for the Wii U.[52]

text: The PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 releases both contain an exclusive DLC, "Aveline". As an exception it is available on PC in the Uplay Digital Deluxe Edition and Jackdaw Edition only.

text: A Game of The Year version, called the Jackdaw Edition, was released in the UK for sale exclusively on Amazon.com. It was made available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles as well as PC. The edition includes all previously released downloadable content. No comparable editions were created for territories outside of the UK.

text: Reception[edit]

text: ReceptionAggregate scoreAggregatorScoreMetacritic(PS3) 88/100[53](WIIU) 86/100[54](X360) 86/100[55](PS4) 83/100[56](PC) 84/100[57]Review scoresPublicationScoreCVG9/10[58]Edge9/10[59]EGM9.5/10[60]Eurogamer9/10[61]Famitsu37/40[62]Game Informer8.25/10[63]GameSpot9/10[64]Giant Bomb[65]IGN8.5/10[66]Joystiq[67]OPM (UK)8/10[68]OXM (US)9.0/10[69]PC Gamer (UK)90%[70]VideoGamer.com7/10[71]The Escapist[72]

text: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic, with critics praising the open world gameplay, side-quests, graphics and naval combat. In November 2013, Hardcore Gamer ranked Black Flag as the 70th greatest game of the seventh generation era.[73]

text: Black Flag was generally praised as superior to Assassin's Creed III,[67][71] with Game Informer's Joe Juba noting that Ubisoft responded to criticisms the previous game faced and rectified them.[63] CVG's Matt Gilman called the game "a return to form for the franchise,"[58] while Mikel Reparaz of Official Xbox Magazine stated that "After weathering the somewhat diminishing returns of Revelations and ACIII, Black Flag is exactly the shot in the arm Assassin's Creed needed."[69] Two days after its release, IGN ranked Black Flag as the 2nd best game in the Assassin's Creed series, only behind Assassin's Creed II.[74]

text: Several reviewers directed heavy acclaim to the game's open world structure, with the Edge staff declaring that Black Flag "sets new benchmarks not only for Ubisoft's series but for open-world gaming."[59] Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell called the open world gameplay "a surprising breath of fresh sea air,"[61] with Gilman stating it "revitalizes the series."[58] The large scale of the open world was praised,[66] with Greg Tito of The Escapist saying that the game "opens up the whole Caribbean."[72] Reviewers also praised the game's side-quests and collectibles,[58] as it actively encouraged the player to explore the open world,[61][66] with GameSpot's Shaun McInnis saying that "Black Flag presents a world full of adventure and opportunity and full of reasons to go exploring."[64] The side-quests were generally agreed to be superior to the main missions,[60][63] with IGN's Marty Sliva stating that "Black Flag is at its best [when you] set out in search of your own fun."[66] The assassination side-missions were particularly praised.[63][70] The seamless exploration between ship, land, and sea without loading was also praised.[64][70]

text: The graphics were also widely acclaimed. The Edge staff stated that "From a graphical standpoint, Black Flag's world is built to amaze regardless of which console generation you're playing it on."[59] Reviewers praised the game's open world as "beautiful" and "gorgeous;"[58][64] Sliva called Black Flag "one of the best looking games of 2013."[66] The game's level of detail was also acclaimed,[60] with the open world's water, rain and sea, being cited as "amazing" to look at.[58][63]

text: The game's naval combat system drew much praise. Reviewers noted that the naval combat was Assassin's Creed III's best feature, and consequently praised Black Flag for improving on it.[59] Tito explained that, while Assassin's Creed III's naval missions were linear and limited, Black Flag offered the player much greater freedom by allowing them to explore, fight or sail whenever they wanted.[72] McInnis said that the game "places a huge emphasis on naval combat," and stated that it "builds on ACIII's naval side missions to create an experience every bit as important as running around on dry land."[64] The naval combat received praise for its additions of boarding ships and attacking forts,[72] as well as the seamless transitions between ship and sword gameplay,[64][70] with Tito calling it "a great dual system that rewards both skill in naval combat, and [in] pirate action."[72]

text: The stealth in the game was praised for being more flexible than previous games by allowing the player more options to accomplish their goals.[58][64] The Edge staff said that "Stealth games are only as good as the flexibility of their encounters, and in that regard Black Flag is the most generous Assassin's Creed game to date."[59] However, some also criticized the stealth for being frustrating,[63] due to its clunky and poorly defined controls.[61][71] Reviewers noted that fighting as Edward was similar to previous games,[68] with some criticizing it for being monotonous,[61] too easy,[58] and lacking nuance.[72] However, it was also praised for being "an effective and violent power trip,"[70] and for being "fluid and lively."[64] Some also complained about the enemy A.I. for lacking intelligence.[68][70][71] The simplified crafting system was praised for improving over Assassin's Creed III's,[64][69] with reviewers noting it took inspiration from Far Cry 3.[59][70]

text: The story received a positive response overall. Reparaz praised it as "engrossing" and one of the Assassin's Creed series' best. Reparaz and McInnis also complimented the characters, and praised the way the story explores the human side of pirates, painting them in a sympathetic and relatable light.[64][69] Bramwell felt that the story "flourishes," particularly praising the supporting characters and Edward's character arc.[61] PlayStation Official Magazine's Joel Gregory felt that Black Flag's storyline was nothing unique for the series, though he praised the characters as "far more interesting, more likeable, and more varied" than previous games.[68] While he praised the story's first half, Gilman was more critical of the latter half, adding that its flawed pacing and structure resulted in player apathy towards the characters.[58] Both Sliva and Juba also criticized the main story,[66] with Juba complaining about its lack of purpose, or a compelling antagonist, and felt that most of the supporting characters were underdeveloped.[63]

text: The story missions had a mixed reception. Reparaz, who gave the game high praise, felt that they were the weakest aspect of Black Flag.[69] Juba and VideoGamer.com's Steven Burns both felt that most of the story missions were extremely repetitive and were tediously tiring.[63][71] Tito, however, felt that they were varied, and that the frustrating portions compensated by being challenging.[72] One particular aspect that received heavy criticism from most reviewers were the eavesdropping and tailing missions,[59][61][63][64][69][71][72] with several noting that these problems should have been fixed or removed entirely from the series.[58][68] The tailing objectives were also extended to ship/sea missions, with reviewers also criticizing this form of naval stealth.[59][67] The game's pacing and opening were praised, as it introduced the pirate gameplay without the need of an overly long tutorial,[60][66][70] with Juba noting it an improvement over Assassin's Creed III.[63]

text: Several reviewers labelled Black Flag a more pirate game than it is an Assassin's Creed one, due to its heavy focusing on pirating in gameplay, story, and characters.[59][67][68][70] Reviewers felt that it was better for the game; they praised Black Flag's more light-hearted fare and tone compared to previous games,[59][66][71] while also believing the game wisely avoided the usual convoluted Assassin's plot in favor of a simplistic pirate story.[66][70] Gilman stated that "Black Flag is a better pirate game than it is an assassin game,"[58] with PC Gamer's Tom Senior remarking that "Black Flag doesn't really want to be an Assassin's Creed game, and [...] that is a welcome move."[70] Reparaz called it the greatest pirate game he had ever played,[69] while Electronic Gaming Monthly's Ray Carsillo declared Black Flag to be "probably the best pirate simulation in gaming history."[60] Tito stated that Black Flag's gameplay reminded him more of a 3D version of Sid Meier's Pirates! than any Assassin's Creed game.[72] Edward Kenway's character as a self-motivated pirate rather than an Assassin was also praised by most.[61][64][66][71] Sliva believed that Edward's character was a "refreshing change of pace from a series that had started to take itself a bit too seriously,"[66] while he and Gilman stated that Edward was a "livelier" and more "palatable" protagonist than Assassin's Creed III's Connor.[58][66]

text: In December 2015, Game Informer ranked the game as the fifth best game in the Assassin's Creed series to date.[75]

text: Sales[edit]

text: During the first week of sales in the United Kingdom, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag became the best-selling game on all available formats, ahead of Battlefield 4.[76] However, the game's opening week sales were 60% down compared to 2012's Assassin's Creed III. Ubisoft blamed the fall in demand on uncertainty caused by the upcoming transition to eighth generation consoles.[77] According to NPD Group figures, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was the third best-selling game of November 2013 in the United States, only behind Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4.[78] In May 2014, Ubisoft announced that the game had shipped over 11 million copies.[79]

text: Awards[edit]

text: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has received Game of the Year nominations from media outlets Cheat Code Central,[80] GameSpot,[81] and the Inside Gaming Awards,[82] It won the Spike VGX 2013 award for Best Action Adventure Game,[83] and the GameSpot awards for PS4 Game of the Year and Xbox One Game of the Year.[84][85]

text:
showList of notable awards and nominations for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Year
Award
Category
Result
Ref.

2013

5th Annual Inside Gaming Awards

Game of the Year

Nominated

[82]

Best Story

Nominated

Gamers' Choice

Nominated

Cheat Code Central's 7th Annual Cody Awards

Game of the Year

Nominated

[86]

Studio of the Year (Ubisoft Montreal)

Nominated

[87]

Best Graphics

Nominated

[88]

Best Action/Adventure Game

Nominated

[89]

Spike VGX 2013

Best Action Adventure Game

Won

[83]

Game Revolution's Best of 2013 Awards

Best Action-Adventure Game

Won

[90]

Best Publisher (Ubisoft)

Nominated

[91]

GameSpot's Game of the Year 2013 Awards

PS4 Game of the Year

Won

[84]

Xbox One Game of the Year

Won

[85]

Game of the Year

Nominated

[81]

PS3 Game of the Year

Nominated

[92]

Xbox 360 Game of the Year

Nominated

[93]

Hardcore Gamer's Game of the Year Awards 2013

Best Adventure Game

Won

[94]

The Sequel of Sequels

Won

[95]

Game of the Year

Nominated

[96]

Best Multiplatform Game

Nominated

[97]

Best Multiplayer

Nominated

[98]

Best New Character (Edward Kenway)

Nominated

[99]

Best Technical Graphics

Nominated

[100]

Destructoid's Best of 2013

Best Multiplatform Game

Nominated

[101]

Best Action Game

Nominated

[102]

Best Competitive Game

Nominated

[103]

Giant Bomb's 2013 Game of the Year Awards

Best Surprise

Won

[104]

Best Game

Nominated

[105]

13th Annual National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards

Art Direction, Period Influence

Nominated

[106]

Character Design

Won

Costume Design

Won

Game Design, Franchise

Nominated

Graphics, Technical

Nominated

Game, Franchise Adventure

Nominated

2014

GameTrailers Game of the Year Awards 2013

Game of the Year

Nominated

[107]

Best Multiplatform Game

Nominated

Best Action/Adventure Game

Nominated

IGN's Best of 2013

Best PS4 Multiplayer Game

Won

[108]

Xbox One Game of the Year

Won

[109]

Best Xbox One Action-Adventure Game

Won

[110]

Best Xbox One Story

Won

[111]

Best Wii U Action-Adventure Game

Won

[112]

Best Wii U Sound

Won

[113]

Best Overall Action-Adventure Game

Nominated

[114]

Best Overall Music

Nominated

[115]

Best PC Action-Adventure Game

Nominated

[116]

Best PS3 Action-Adventure Game

Nominated

[117]

Best PS3 Sound

Nominated

[118]

Best PS3 Story

Nominated

[119]

PS4 Game of the Year

Nominated

[120]

Best Xbox 360 Action-Adventure Game

Nominated

[121]

Best Xbox 360 Sound

Nominated

[122]

Best Xbox 360 Story

Nominated

[123]

Best Xbox One Sound

Nominated

[124]

Wii U Game of the Year

Nominated

[125]

Best Wii U Multiplayer Game

Nominated

[126]

Best Wii U Music

Nominated

[127]

The Escapist Awards 2013

Game of the Year

Nominated

[128]

Best Action-Adventure Game

Nominated

[129]

Official Xbox Magazine's Game of the Year Awards 2013

Best Action Game

Won

[130]

Game of the Year

Nominated

[131]

66th Writers Guild of America Awards

Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing(Story by Darby McDevitt, Mustapha Mahrach, Jean Guesdon; Lead Scriptwriter Darby McDevitt;Scriptwriter Jill Murray; AI Scriptwriter Nicholas Grimwood; Scriptwriter Singapore Mark Llabres Hill)

Nominated

[132]

17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards

Game of the Year

Nominated

[133]

Adventure Game of the Year

Nominated

Outstanding Achievement in Animation

Nominated

Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering

Nominated

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering

Nominated

10th BAFTA Video Games Awards

Best Game

Nominated

Action/Adventure

Nominated

Game Design

Nominated

Music

Nominated

14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

Best Technology

Nominated

[134]

32nd Golden Joystick Awards

Best Visual Design

Won

[135][136]

Studio of the Year (Ubisoft Montreal)

Won

Best Audio

Won

Best Gaming Moment (Sea shanties)

Nominated

Game of the Year

Nominated

text: PETA criticism[edit]

text: The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights organisation criticised Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag for the usage of harpoons and "glorification" of whaling. The organisation said it was disgraceful that the video game industry didn't condemn the addition.[137] Ubisoft responded to the claims by saying that Assassin's Creed's is based on history and is a "work of fiction which depicts real events during the Golden Era of Pirates". Ubisoft claimed they do not condone whaling, along with other mechanics and features in the 4th installment in the series.[138]

text: PETA has had a history of criticising  video games, some of the notable cases being Mario and Pokémon.[139]

text: Series continuation[edit]

text: Assassin's Creed Unity, set in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution,[140] was released worldwide on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows on November 11, 2014.[141]

text: Additionally, Assassin's Creed Rogue is the sequel to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and the prequel to both Unity and III, following Shay Cormac, an Assassin-turned-Templar who hunts members of the Assassin order. Taking place in North America during the Seven Years' War, the game was released worldwide on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2014.[142]

text: Other data[edit]

text: In November 2013 the video game company of Ubisoft financed the exhumation of the remains of the Spanish corsair Amaro Pargo to reconstruct his face for its possible appearance in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. For the first time in history,[143] a company in the video game industry exhumed the remains of a historical character in a pioneering campaign that got the attention of national and international media. In addition, this exhumation had important discoveries on the physiognomy of this mythical corsair.[144]


document_title: History of Google

question_text: when did google start as a search engine

question_tokens: when did google start as a search engine

root

text: History of Google

text: Early history[edit]

text: Beginning[edit]

text: Google began in 1995 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both Ph.D. students at Stanford University.[2]

tag: p

text: In the search of a dissertation theme, Page had been considering—among other things—exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web, understanding its link structure as a huge graph.[3] His supervisor, Terry Winograd, encouraged him to pick this idea (which Page later recalled as "the best advice I ever got"[4]) and Page focused on the problem of finding out which web pages link to a given page, based on the consideration that the number and nature of such backlinks was valuable information about that page (with the role of citations in academic publishing in mind).[3]

text: In his research project, nicknamed "BackRub", Page was soon joined by Brin, who was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.[5] Brin was already a close friend, whom Page had first met in the summer of 1995, when Page was part of a group of potential new students that Brin had volunteered to show around the campus.[3] Both Brin and Page were working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). The SDLP's goal was “to develop the enabling technologies for a single, integrated and universal digital library" and it was funded through the National Science Foundation, among other federal agencies.[5][6][7][8]

text: Page's web crawler began exploring the web in March 1996, with Page's own Stanford home page serving as the only starting point.[3] To convert the backlink data that it gathered for a given web page into a measure of importance, Brin and Page developed the PageRank algorithm.[3] While analyzing BackRub's output—which, for a given URL, consisted of a list of backlinks ranked by importance—the pair realized that a search engine based on PageRank would produce better results than existing techniques (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page).[3][9]

text: 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.:[10]

text: Late 1990s[edit]

text: Originally the search engine used Stanford's website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally incorporated their company, Google, on September 4, 1998 in their friend Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park, California.

text: Both Brin and Page had been against using advertising pop-ups in a search engine, or an "advertising funded search engines" model, and they wrote a research paper in 1998 on the topic while still students. They changed their minds early on and allowed simple text ads.[12]

text: By the end of 1998, Google had an index of about 60 million pages.[13] The home page was still marked "BETA", but an article in Salon.com already argued that Google's search results were better than those of competitors like Hotbot or Excite.com, and praised it for being more technologically innovative than the overloaded portal sites (like Yahoo!, Excite.com, Lycos, Netscape's Netcenter, AOL.com, Go.com and MSN.com) which at that time, during the growing dot-com bubble, were seen as "the future of the Web", especially by stock market investors.[13]

text: In March 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups.[14] After quickly outgrowing two other sites, the company leased a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway from Silicon Graphics (SGI) in 2003.[15] The company has remained at this location ever since, and the complex has since become known as the Googleplex (a play on the word googolplex, a number that is equal to 1 followed by a googol of zeros). In 2006, Google bought the property from SGI for US$319 million.[16]

text: The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design.[17] In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords.[2] The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed.[2] Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and click-throughs, with bidding starting at $.05 per click.[2] This model of selling keyword advertising was pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed Overture Services, before being acquired by Yahoo! and rebranded as Yahoo! Search Marketing).[18][19][20] While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.[2]

text: 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 "S-1") for their 2004 IPO, noting that "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."[21] In 2008, Google launched Knol, their own equivalent of Wikipedia,[22] which failed just four years later.[23]

text: In 2011, the company launched Google+, its fourth foray into social networking, following Google Buzz (launched 2010, retired in 2011), Google Friend Connect (launched 2008, retired by March 1, 2012), and Orkut (launched in 2004, retired in September 2014[24])

text: As of November 2014, Google operated over 70 offices in more than 41 countries.[25]

text: In 2015, Google reorganized its interests as a holding company, Alphabet Inc., with Google as its leading subsidiary. Google continued to serve as the umbrella for Alphabet's Internet interests.[26][27][28]

text: Financing and initial public offering[edit]

text: The first funding for Google as a company was secured in August 1998 in the form of a US$100,000 contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, given to a corporation which did not yet exist.[29]

text: On June 7, 1999, a round of equity funding totalling $25 million was announced;[30] the major investors being rival venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital.[29] While Google still needed more funding for their further expansion, Brin and Page were hesitant to take the company public, despite their financial issues. They were not ready to give up control over Google.

text: Following the closing of the $25 million financing round, Sequoia encouraged Brin and Page to hire a CEO. Brin and Page ultimately acquiesced and hired Eric Schmidt as Google’s first CEO in March 2001.[31]

text: In October 2003, while discussing a possible initial public offering of shares (IPO), Microsoft approached the company about a possible partnership or merger.[32] The deal never materialized. In January 2004, Google announced the hiring of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group to arrange an IPO. The IPO was projected to raise as much as $4 billion.

text: Google's initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004.[33] A total of 19,605,052 shares were offered at a price of $85 per share.[34] Of that, 14,142,135 (another mathematical reference as √2 ≈ 1.4142135) were floated by Google and 5,462,917 by selling stockholders. The sale raised US$1.67 billion, and gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion.[35] Many of Google's employees became instant paper millionaires. Yahoo!, a competitor of Google, also benefited from the IPO because it owns 2.7 million shares of Google.[36]

text: The company was listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol GOOG. When Alphabet was created as Google's parent company, it retained Google's stock price history and ticker symbol.

text: Growth, 2003-2006[edit]

text: In February 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, owner of Blogger, a web log hosting website. 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.

text: In February 2004, Yahoo! dropped its partnership with Google, providing an independent search engine of its own. This cost Google some market share, yet Yahoo!'s move highlighted Google's own distinctiveness,[citation needed] and today[when?] 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" (a possible indication of "Google" becoming a genericized trademark).[citation needed]

text: After the IPO, Google's stock market capitalization rose greatly and the stock price more than quadrupled. 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). Google has a dual class stock structure in which each Class B share gets ten votes compared to each Class A share getting one. Page said 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."

text: In June, 2005, Google was valued at nearly $52 billion, making it one of the world's biggest media companies by stock market value.[37]

text: 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. The move would double Google's cash stockpile to $7 billion. Google said it would use the money for "acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets".[38]

text: On September 28, 2005, Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1,000,000-square-foot (93,000 m2) R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center, and on December 31, 2005 Time Warner's AOL unit and Google unveiled an expanded partnership—see Partnerships below.

text: Additionally in 2005, Google formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help in the open source office program OpenOffice.org.[39]

text: With Google's increased size came more competition from large mainstream technology companies. One such example is the rivalry between Microsoft and Google.[40] Microsoft had been touting its Bing search engine to counter Google's competitive position. Furthermore, the two companies are increasingly offering overlapping services, such as webmail (Gmail vs. Hotmail), search (both online and local desktop searching), and other applications (for example, Microsoft's Windows Live Local competes with Google Earth). In addition to an Internet Explorer replacement Google designed its own Linux-based operating system called Chrome OS to directly compete with Microsoft Windows. There were also rumors of a Google web browser, fueled much by the fact that Google was the owner of the domain name "gbrowser.com".[citation needed] These were later proven when Google released Google Chrome. This corporate feud boiled over into the courts when Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice-president of Microsoft, quit Microsoft to work for Google. 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). Google and Microsoft reached a settlement out of court on December 22, 2005, the terms of which are confidential.[41]

text: Click fraud also became a growing problem for Google's business strategy. 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."[42]

text: While the company's primary market is in the web content arena, Google has experimented with other markets, such as radio and print publications. On January 17, 2006, Google announced that it had purchased the radio advertising company dMarc, which provides an automated system that allows companies to advertise on the radio.[43] Google also began an experiment in selling advertisements from its advertisers in offline newspapers and magazines, with select advertisements in the Chicago Sun-Times.[44]

text: During the third quarter 2005 Google Conference Call, Eric Schmidt said, "We don't do the same thing as everyone else does. 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. We look at markets as they exist and we assume they are pretty well served by their existing players. We try to see new problems and new markets using the technology that others use and we build."

text: After months of speculation, Google was added to the Standard & Poor's 500 index (S&P 500) on March 31, 2006.[45] Google replaced Burlington Resources, a major oil producer based in Houston that had been acquired by ConocoPhillips.[46] The day after the announcement Google's share price rose by 7%.[47]

text: Updates and Evolution of Ranking System[edit]

text: Early Updates[edit]

text: In its infancy, very little was needed to fully optimize on page content in the eyes of Google.[48] With an inverse relationship between query position (in the HTML tag hierarchy) and weight, it simply boiled down to putting one’s important keywords higher on the HTML tag hierarchy.[49] With this relatively simple algorithm in place, webmasters quickly discovered tricks to vastly boost their SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position). One of the first instances of deceitful SEO came in the form of link keyword stuffing under on page content. As a response, Google removed these sites from its index, a practice it occasionally reverts to as a way of punishing disingenuous webmasters looking to cheat the system. The seemingly arbitrary changes to Googles PageRank algorithm however, led to both community outrage (“many declaring the “death of PageRank”) and a noticeable decline in precision of search results.[50] Google was also constructing its index via a large monthly crawl. Not only did this lock search results to this one month window, it also meant that results would show stale content. An update dubbed “Everflux” introduced fresh crawling (daily crawls) to supplement the larger, primary crawl.[51] Daily crawling added another layer of relevancy (based upon date and time), to content ranking.[51] The inconsistencies of index versions across data centers during the early implementation of Everflux panicked webmasters, who saw their SERPs fluctuate wildly from day to day.

text: Boston/Cassandra/Dominic (2003)[edit]

text: Google's “Boston” update in February 2003 saw major algorithmic changes and the promise of frequent index updates.[52] “Cassandra” marked a much more aggressive attack on shady SEO techniques like hidden and disguised keyword links, by emphasizing link quality[52] This was taken a step further in “Dominic”, which sought to analyze the quality of all backlinks to prevent the then emerging practice of splogging (the practice of creating nonsensical offsite content to boost SERP of another site).[53] To combat practices like “Googlebombing” (putting irrelevant, often negative anchor text linking to popular websites) Dominic tinkered with the weighting of anchor text while stringently scrutinizing back links and internal linking.[54] An exploit where webmasters would link to the same site using different anchor text (thereby allowing both links to unfairly contribute to sites PageRank) was addressed by allowing only one site (given duplicate site links with differing anchor text) link to flow to PageRank.[55]

text: Fritz/Supplemental Index/Florida (2004)[edit]

text: Fritz finalized the “Everflux” implementation, meaning Google's index would receive some degree of updating every day.[52] Daily crawling added another layer of relevancy, (based upon date and time), to content ranking.[51] The creation of a supplemental index was designed to house content Google felt didn’t quite fit in its main index (due either to a low PageRank or shady linking practices).[56] Storing some sites in a separate index that was to be searched only when no good match was found in the primary index, Google hoped, would seamlessly filter out duplicate and untrustworthy content.[57] Questions about the efficacy of a multi-index system (particularly on improving recall) arose, and it remains unclear as to whether Google has retained this system.

text: Google's “Florida” update looked to be the proverbial “nail in the coffin” for SEO abusers. With Florida, context and relevancy were determined not just by the appearance of keywords, but of synonyms and supporting vocabulary throughout the page.[58] This sought to eliminate keyword and inbound anchor text dumping.[59] Features that had long been experimented on, like phrase proximity and keyword stemming, became official and users were now being penalized for overly using commercial/popular keywords.[58] With Florida coming down hard on SEO, many webmasters with commercial presences on the web took a drastic hit. The real estate community in particular, was hit hard by Florida’s changes to Google rankings. In its attempt at wide spread reform, the quality of results took a hit and many site owners felt they took undeserved drops.

text: Personalized Search (2005)[edit]

text: To create seamless personalization of search (beyond manual filtering) Google began tapping into users browsing histories to deliver more relevant, personal results.[60] Promising to grow with the users browsing history, Personalized Search added a new dimension to search by incorporating past user behavior.[60] The implementation of personalized search was a blow to those relying on SEO techniques, as user browsing history was an element outside of their control.

text: XML Sitemaps (2005)[edit]

text: By allowing webmasters to create and submit XML files dictating URLs to be crawled as well as procedural information regarding how the page should be crawled, Google expanded the scope of its index.[61] Providing an additional method of organically increasing site exposure, Google hoped, would decrease the need for shady SEO practices.

text: Big Daddy (2005)[edit]

text: Big Daddy was less an algorithmic change as it was a change of Google's crawling and indexing infrastructure.[62] Pages with superfluous, reciprocal linking schemes and irrelevant outbound and inbound links would be demoted in the new crawler.[62] Whereas previous updates handled the issue of link reliability through algorithmic changes, the Big Daddy modified how many pages a site would have crawled, and subsequently added to the index. The number of pages crawled on a site was again dependent on the relevance and quality of its links.[62]

text: Universal Search (2007)[edit]

text: In May 2007 Google implemented Universal search to its standard web results page.[63] Search results were now a compilation of all relevant results across all of Google’s “vertical” search engines, (Google Images, Google Video etc.).[64] With the implementation of Universal Search, coverage of all types of content (not simply text) rose significantly. It now became important to optimize all forms of on-site content, not just on-site text content, increasing the complexity and breadth of SEO.

text: Google Suggest/Instant[edit]

text: Google Suggest marked the addition of real-time query suggestion. As users began to enter a query, a list of possible query matches would dynamically appear beneath the search bar, allowing for quicker and more accurate searches.[65] According to Google, only about 2% of all user queries were tracked and monitored, in an effort to better improve the service, quelling concerns over privacy.[65] The addition of instant suggestions added yet another dynamic to SEO, as webmasters now vied to associate their site with high ranking instant suggestion queries.[66]

text: Real Time Search (2009)[edit]

text: In December 2009, Google integrated real time search results to its main SERP. Newly indexed, relevant content from social media and news sources would be dynamically inserted into a user’s SERP, thus providing “real time content.”[67] Google also announced its desire to prioritize original, user driven social media over authoritative, corporate social media.[68] Additionally, a separate “updates” filter was added, allowing the user to receive all incoming content from social media, sports, and news sources.[67]

text: Caffeine (2010)[edit]

text: Google’s Caffeine was the result of a complete overhaul of Google’s indexing structure.[69] To accommodate for the explosion of new forms of content (video, real-time content, images) and growing user expectations, Google ditched its old linear system of indexing in favor of the more flexible Caffeine, capable of indexing thousands of pages in parallel.[69] Google would no longer execute lengthy crawls supplemented by smaller daily crawls, but instead dynamically add to its index whenever new information appeared.[69] Caffeine was reported to offer 50% fresher content than Google’s previous index, and required around 100 million gigabytes of storage.[69]

text: JCPenney SEO Incident (2011)[edit]

text: In February 2011, the New York Times published an article titled “The Dirty Little Secrets of Search” detailing back link purchasing by the clothing retailer JCPenney.[70] By purchasing thousands of backlinks (often on unrelated sites), JCPenney dominated Google’s SERP across many clothing related queries, and even queries specifying a brand (JCPenney topped Samsonite for the query “Samsonite carryon luggage”).[70] Given Google’s previous updates and their emphasis on backlink analysis, the JCPenney incident revealed that flaws still existed within the Google ranking algorithm. Google quickly demoted JCPenney’s search position, crippling online sales.[70] Google has since lifted the demotion.

text: Name[edit]

text: The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol",[71][72] which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros. Page and Brin write in their original paper on PageRank:[73] "We chose our systems name, Google, because it is a common spelling of googol, or 10100 and fits well with our goal of building very large-scale search engines."

text: There are uses of the name going back at least as far as the creation of the comic strip character Barney Google in 1919. British children's author Enid Blyton used the phrase "Google Bun" in The Magic Faraway Tree (published 1941) and The Folk of the Faraway Tree (published 1946),[74] and called a clown character "Google" in Circus Days Again (published 1942).[75] There is also the Googleplex Star Thinker from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In March 1996 a business called Groove Track Productions applied for a United States trademark for "Google" for various products including several categories of clothing, stuffed toys, board games, and candy. The firm abandoned its application in July 1997.[76]

text: Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb "google" was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet."[77][78] The use of the term itself reflects their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.[72] In November 2009, the Global Language Monitor named "Google" No. 7 on its Top Words of the Decade list.[79] In December 2009 the BBC highlighted Google in their "Portrait of the Decade (Words)" series.[80] In May 2012, David Elliott filed a complaint against Google, Inc. claiming that Google’s once distinctive mark GOOGLE® has become generic and lacks trademark significance due to its common use as a transitive verb. After losing to Google in UDRP proceedings involving many “Google-related” domain name registrations that he owns, Elliott later sought a declaratory judgment that his domain names are rightfully his, that they do not infringe any trademark rights Google may own, and that all Google’s registered GOOGLE® marks should be cancelled since “Google” is now a common generic word worldwide that means “to search the Internet.”[81]

text: Philanthropy[edit]

text: In 2004, Google formed a non-profit philanthropic wing that gave all the details to the user with a non profit aim and determination unlike, Google.org, giving it a starting fund of $1 billion.[82] The express mission of the organization is to help with the issues of climate change (see also global warming), global public health, and global poverty. Among its first projects is to develop a viable plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that can attain 0.24 litre/10 km.[83]

text: Partnerships[edit]

text: Google has worked with several corporations, in order to improve production and services. On September 28, 2005, Google announced a long-term research partnership with NASA which would involve Google building a 1,000,000-square-foot (93,000 m2) R&D center at NASA's Ames Research Center. NASA and Google are 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 new building would also include labs, offices, and housing for Google engineers.[84] In October 2006, Google formed a partnership with Sun Microsystems to help share and distribute each other's technologies. As part of the partnership Google will hire employees to help the open source office program OpenOffice.org.[39]

text: Time Warner's AOL unit and Google unveiled an expanded partnership on December 21, 2005, including an enhanced global advertising partnership and a US$1 billion investment by Google for a 5% stake in AOL.[85] As part of the collaboration, Google plans to work with AOL on video search and offer AOL's premium-video service within Google Video. This did not allow users of Google Video to search for AOL's premium-video services. Display advertising throughout the Google network will also increase.

text: In August 2006, Google signed a $900 million offer with News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit to provide search and advertising on MySpace and other News Corp. websites including IGN, AmericanIdol.com, Fox.com, and Rotten Tomatoes, although Fox Sports is not included as a deal already exists between News Corp. and MSN.[86][87]

text: On December 6, 2006, British Sky Broadcasting released details of a Sky and Google alliance.[88] This includes a feature where Gmail will link with Sky and host a mail service for Sky, incorporating the email domain "@sky.com".

text: In 2007, Google displaced America Online as a key partner and sponsor of the NORAD Tracks Santa program.[89][90][91] Google Earth was used for the first time to give visitors to the website the impression that they were following Santa Claus' progress in 3-D.[92] The program also made its presence known on YouTube in 2007 as part of its partnership with Google.[93]

text: In January 2009, Google announced a partnership with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, allowing the Pope to have his own channel on YouTube.[94]

text: In January 2013, Google announced a partnership with Kia Motors and Hyundai. The partnership integrates Google Maps and Place into new car models to be released later in 2013.[95]

text: .mobi top-level domain (2007)[edit]

text: In coordination with several of the major corporations, including Microsoft, Nokia, LG, Samsung, and Ericsson, Google provided financial support in the launch of the .mobi top level domain created specifically for the mobile internet, stating that it is supporting the new domain extension to help set the standards that will define the future of mobile content and improve the experience of Google users.[96] In early 2006, Google launched Google.mobi, a mobile search portal offering several Google mobile products, including stripped-down versions of its applications and services for mobile users.[97] On September 17, 2007, Google launched "Adsense for Mobile", a service to its publishing partners providing the ability to monetize their mobile websites through the targeted placement of mobile text ads.[98] Also in September, Google acquired the mobile social networking site, Zingku.mobi to "provide people worldwide with direct access to Google applications, and ultimately the information they want and need, right from their mobile devices."[99]

text: Legal battles[edit]

text: Gonzales v. Google[edit]

text: On Wednesday, January 18, 2006, the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion to compel in United States district court in San Jose seeking a court order that would compel search engine company Google Inc. to turn over "a multi-stage random sample of one million URL’s" from Google’s database, and a computer file with "the text of each search string entered onto Google’s search engine over a one-week period (absent any information identifying the person who entered such query)."[100] Google maintains that their policy has always been to assure its users' privacy and anonymity, and challenged the subpoena. On March 18, 2006, a federal judge ruled that while Google must surrender 50,000 random URLs, the Department of Justice did not meet the necessary burden to force Google to disclose any search terms entered by its users in Google.

text: Bedrock Computer Technologies, LLC vs. Google, Inc[edit]

text: A jury in Texas awarded Bedrock Computer Technologies $5 million in a patent lawsuit against Google.[101][102] The patent allegedly covered use of hash tables with garbage collection and separate chaining in the Red Hat Linux kernel. Google and Bedrock later settled the case and the judgment was vacated by the court.[103]

text: UK tax avoidance investigation[edit]

text: In November 2012, the UK government announced plans to investigate Google, along with Starbucks and Amazon.com, for possible tax avoidance.[104] On 20 January 2016, Google announced that it would pay £130m in back taxes to settle the investigation.[105] However, only 8 days later, it was announced that Google could end up paying more, and UK tax officials were under investigation for what has been termed a "sweetheart deal" for Google.[106]


document_title: List of types of killing

question_text: whats it called when you kill your mother

text: List of types of killing

text: Killing of self[edit]

text:
Suicide – intentional killing of self.

Autocide – suicide by automobile.
Medicide – a suicide accomplished with the aid of a physician.
Murder-suicide – a suicide committed immediately after one or more murders.
Self-immolation – suicide by setting oneself on fire, a form of extreme protest.
Suicide by cop – acting in a threatening manner so as to provoke a lethal response from law enforcement.

Autoerotic asphyxiation – suicide by accidental self-suffocation for sexual arousal.

tag: ul

text: Killing of family[edit]

text:
Avunculicide – the act of killing an uncle.
Familicide – is a multiple-victim homicide where a killer's spouse and children are slain.(Familia being Latin for family)
Filicide – the act of a parent killing his or her son or daughter. (Filius being Latin for son)
Fratricide – the act of killing a brother, also in military context death by friendly fire. (Frater being Latin for brother)
Geronticide – the abandonment of the elderly to die, commit suicide or be killed. See also Senicide.
Honour killing – the act of killing a family member who has or was perceived to have brought disgrace to the family.
Infanticide – the act of killing a child within the first year of its life.
Mariticide – the act of killing one's husband.
Matricide – the act of killing one's mother. (Mater being Latin for mother)
Neonaticide – the act of killing an infant within the first twenty-four hours or month (varies by individual and jurisdiction) of its life.
Nepoticide – the act of killing one's nephew
Parricide – (also parenticide) the killing of one's mother or father or other close relative.
Patricide – the act of killing of one's father. (Pater being Latin for father)
Prolicide – the act of killing one's own children.
Senicide – the killing of one's elderly family members when they can no longer work or become a burden. (Senex being Latin for old man)
Siblicide – the killing of an infant individual by its close relatives (full or half siblings)
Sororicide – the act of killing one's sister.(Soror being Latin for sister)
Uxoricide – the act of killing one's wife (Uxor being Latin for wife)

text: Killing of others[edit]

text:
Amicicide – the act of killing a friend. ("Amicus" being Latin for friend)
Androcide – the systematic killing of men.
Capital punishment – the judicial killing of a human being for odious crimes.
Democide – the murder of any person or people by a government.
Ecocide – the destruction of the natural environment by such activity as war, overexploitation of resources, or pollution.
Euthanasia (also mercy killing) – the killing of any being for compassionate reasons, e.g., significant injury or disease.
Familiaricide in commutatione eius possessio – the act of killing a family for their property and/or possessions (From "familiaris" being Latin for of a household,"in commutatione eius" being Latin for in exchange for, and "possessio" being Latin for a possession or property)
Femicide (also gynecide, gynaecide, or gynocide) – the systematic killing of women.
Feticide – the act of killing a fetus.
Gendercide – the systematic killing of members of a specific sex or gender, either males, females, or non-binary.
Genocide – the systematic extermination of an entire national, racial, religious, or ethnic group.
Homicide – the act of killing of a person. ("Homo" being Latin for man)
Human sacrifice – the killing of a human for sacrificial, often religious, reasons.
Murder – the malicious and unlawful killing of a human by another human.
Manslaughter – Murder, but under legally mitigating factors.
Omnicide – the act of killing all humans, to create intentional extinction of the human species. ("Omni" meaning all)
Populicide – the slaughter of the people.
Xenocide – The genocide of an entire alien species. Often used in science fiction, one famous example being the novel "Xenocide" by Orson Scott Card.

text: Killing of superiors[edit]

text:
Deicide – the act of killing a god or divine being
Dominicide – the act of killing one's master. (Latin: dominus means "master")
Episcopicide – the act of killing a bishop.[1]
Giganticide – the act of killing a giant.
Papicide – the act of killing the Pope.
Regicide – the act of killing a king (Latin: rex, Gen. regis means "king")
Tyrannicide – the act of killing a tyrant.
Vaticide – the act of killing a prophet.

text: Killing of intangibles[edit]

text: Chronocide – the killing of time (informal)

text:
Famacide – the killing of another's reputation, a slander.
Liberticide – the destruction of liberties.
Urbicide – the destruction of a city or the stifling of an urbanisation. ("Urbs" being Latin for city)
Linguicide – intentionally causing the death of a language

text: Killing of animals, disease, and pests[edit]

text:
Algaecide – a chemical agent that kills algae
Acaricide – a chemical agent that kills mites.
Avicide – a chemical agent that kills birds
Bactericide – a chemical agent that kills bacteria.
Biocide – a chemical agent that kills a broad spectrum of living organisms.
Canicide – the killing of dogs. (Canis being Latin for dog)
Cervicide – the killing of deer.
Ceticide – the killing of whales.
Culicide – a chemical agent that kills mosquitos.
Felicide – the killing of cats
Fungicide – chemical agents or biological organisms used to kill or inhibit fungi or fungal spores.
Germicide – an agent that kills germs, especially pathogenic microorganisms; a disinfectant
Gonocide (also gonococcicide) – an agent that kills the bacterium causing gonorrhea
Herbicide – an agent that kills unwanted plants, a weed killer.
Insecticide – an agent that kills unwanted insects.
Larvicide (also larvacide) – an insecticide targeted against the larval life stage of an insect.
Lupicide – The killing of wolves.
Microbicide – an agent used to kill or reduce the infectiousness of microorganisms.
Muscicide – an agent that kills flies.
Nemacide (also nematicide, nematocide) – a chemical to eradicate or kill nematodes.
Ovacide – an agent that kills eggs of an organism particular a pest i.e. lice eggs.
Parasiticide – a general term to describe an agent used to destroy parasites.
Pediculicide – an agent that kills head lice.
Pesticide – a general term to describe an agent used to destroy or repel a pest.
Pulicicide (also pulicide) – an agent that kills fleas.
Raticide – an agent for killing rats.
Scabicide – a chemical agent for killing scabies.
Spermicide – a contraceptive agent to render sperm inert and prevent fertilization.
Tauricide – the killing of bulls or steers.
Teniacide (also taeniacide, tenicide)– a chemical agent that kills tape worms.
Vermicide – an agent used to kill parasitic intestinal worms.
Vespacide – a chemical agent that kills wasps.
Virucide (also viricide) – an agent capable of destroying or inhibiting viruses.
Vulpicide (also vulpecide)- the killing of a fox by methods other than by hunting it with hounds.