What is the Google "Company" TOS for, compared to the Google Chrome TOS?

Question

So I see Google's TOS, and Google Chrome's TOS. First off, does the "Google's TOS" actually mean it's for the Google company as a whole, or is this just for the search engine? They mention user accounts, which is part of their core to the ecosystem of Google Apps and such (Gmail, etc.), so what exactly is this TOS for? When do you agree to this?

Second, if the "Google's TOS" is all you need, why do you have the Chrome TOS? Do you need a TOS for every product you create? Or can one general one suffice?

Basically, should a downloadable mobile/desktop app have a TOS called "My Company TOS", or "My App TOS"? Or should the "My App TOS" include a link to the "My Company TOS" as a prereq? Or does just having the "My App TOS" suffice?

I understand that Chrome is the browser we use for the web, a specific Google product. What I don't understand is (a) why they have a generic Company-wide TOS, and (b) how that relates to product-specific TOSes.

Answer 1

The "company TOS" specifically says that it applies to all of Google's Services. It also says:

Our Services are very diverse, so sometimes additional terms or product requirements (including age requirements) may apply. Additional terms will be available with the relevant Services, and those additional terms become part of your agreement with us if you use those Services.

So the terms in the "company" TOS apply to all their services, including Chrome, and the Chrome TOS adds additional terms that only apply to Chrome. If you use Chrome, you have to comply with all the terms in both documents, except where the Chrome TOS specifically overrides the company TOS.

Presumably they found it inconvenient to have separate documents for all their many services, so they wrote a generic document that would be appropriate for most of them, and then they supplement this with specific documents when individual services need something special.

For your own apps, you'd have to decide, based on your business needs and in consultation with your lawyers, which of these two models makes the most sense for you. It might depend on whether you had many apps that needed very different terms, or if they were all pretty similar.