Rochester is a city on the southern shore of Lake Ontario in western New York. With a population of over 210,000 residents, Rochester is the seat of Monroe County and the third most populous city in New York state, after New York City and Buffalo. The metropolitan area has a population of nearly 1.1 million people.Rochester was one of America's first boomtowns, initially due to its flour mills along the Genesee River, and then as a manufacturing hub. Several of the region's universities have renowned research programs. Rochester is the site of many important inventions and innovations in consumer products. The Rochester area has been the birthplace to Kodak, Western Union, Bausch & Lomb, Gleason and Xerox, which conduct extensive research and manufacturing of industrial and consumer products. Until 2010, the Rochester metropolitan area was the second-largest regional economy in New York State, after the New York City metropolitan area.