One of those things you assume "everyone does" -- until you leave your home country and find out NO, everyone doesn't think of it that way.

In America, corporations and companies are seen as a single person. Our Legal system and government regards Google, Microsoft, and Apple (and every other corporation) as a SINGLE PERSON, just like you or I.

It's made it's way into our language:

"Google is trying to become the #1 search engine."

But that is NOT the only way to do it. Don't believe me? Go to another English speaking country, like Australia. They would speak that sentence like this:

"Google are trying to become the #1 search engine."

Basically, when they say a company name, they treat it like "The people at _____" which is plural.

So "Google has released a new version of Android" needs to be modified, since "The people at Google has released a new version of Android" is grammatically incorrect. They would change the "has" to "have" and then the sentence would make sense in their mind: "Google have released a new version of Android".

As an aside, I can't criticize the upside-down Aussies on this one -- I think they are more correct. There IS no single person named "Google" -- only a GROUP of individuals pursuing interests of the corporation. In other words -- something plural. Giving corporations personhood in the United States was a BIG MISTAKE, but that's a huge topic, which I can't go into right now. There is a really good docuмentary on this subject, which I don't recall the exact name of. I watched it though, and I learned a lot.