Google is a play on the word googol, said to have been coined in the 1940s by Milton Sirotta, nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner (1878 – 1955). It is equivalent to 10 raised to the power of 100 or in other words - 1 followed by 100 zeros. The name Google reflects the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web. The beginning Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both graduates in computer science, met at Stanford University, California in 1995. Larry, then 24, was on a weekend visit from the University of Michigan and Sergey was 23, amongst a group of students showing him around. They apparently didn’t particularly hit it off, arguing strongly on several topics. However, they did find common ground in their approach to solving the colossal complex challenge of retrieving relevant information from an immense mass of data. Their mission became to organize the world's information in such a way as to make it universally accessible and useful. By January 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin had begun collaboration on a search engine called BackRub and just a year later its reputation as the new search technology was already growing. Finding a partner During the first half of 1998, Larry and Sergey continued on perfecting their technology. Having little interest in starting their own company, they then began looking for potential partners to license what they now considered to be the best search technology available. Despite the technology boom, interest in Google, as it was known by then, was very limited. Friend and Yahoo founder David Filo encouraged Larry and Sergey to start a search engine company and develop the service themselves. Go for it Unable to raise interest and find a partner, Larry and Sergey made the decision to go it alone. But they badly needed cash to move out of the dorm and pay off credit card debts run up for development. They postponed their Ph.D. plans, formulated a business plan and went in search of an investor. A faculty member put them in touch with Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems. Following a Google demonstration, Andy immediately recognized its enormous potential. But being a busy man he had to leave in a hurry saying “I don’t have time to discuss details, why don’t I just write you a Cheque?” He made one out for $ 100,000 to Google Inc. Made it! This created a small problem. Google Inc. did not exist. The cheque couldn’t be turned into cash. So over the next couple of weeks, Larry and Sergey were busy with the task of setting up a company and finding other founders. Ultimately they raised almost $1 million. On 7 September 1998, Google Inc. opened its doors in Menlo Park, California. Its first employee was Craig Silverstein, now Google's director of technology. Google was already answering 10,000 search queries every day and in December 1998, PC Magazine named Google one of its Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines. Google was moving up in the world. They’d made it! Since then, the company has expanded enormously with over 1,900 employees worldwide, and a management team representing some of the most experienced technology professionals in the industry. Today, Google is widely recognized as the world's best search engine. Stock market launch Following months of speculation, confusion and unforeseen problems, Google finally made its stock market debut in August 2004. Google had decided upon a launch using an innovative Dutch auction process - where investors who bid at or above the market-clearing price pay that price. At first, Google’s share auction seemed to run to plan confirming reports that most bids were around the suggested price range of $108-135 per share and valuing the world’s biggest Internet-search company at up to $36 billion. But then came the dramatic news that Google had cut the size of its initial public offering (IPO) by almost 50% and was telling investors to expect a price of $85-95. Google finally priced its shares at $85, valuing the entire group at just $23 billion. Shares rose a little above $100 on the first day of trading but the price was still well below the level hoped for by Google's bosses. Did the mishaps on the way to flotation cause the sharp drop in value? Or a general weakness in dotcom shares? Or was an auction the wrong method? Or was $135 a share simply overpriced? Google is the clear leader in online searches and its revenue is expected to soar but the question is raised – will its profits do likewise? Not just a search engine Google also serves corporate clients, including advertisers, content publishers and site managers with cost-effective advertising and a wide range of revenue generating search services. In addition to the straightforward search engine, Google also provides many other services. For example: Ask a Question – a service involving over 500 carefully screened researchers, University Search – giving detailed information on specific schools. Mail-order catalogue browser, Directories on various topics, Froogle shopping site, News search – updated news from 700 sources, Discussion forums and many more. Location Google has sales and engineering offices throughout the world and its headquarters are at: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 Telephone: 650.623.4000 Fax: 650.618.1499 www.google.com
Great information to know about man. Thanks for the contribution. I'd however like to know where you got the info from? It it directly from google or what?
Its nice to know the history of Google, so that we can appreciate more about it and how well they have evolved..
One more cool info.. The word Google came from a mistake. While brainstorming with names for there site, Sean verbally suggested the word "googolplex", in response to that Larry also verbally suggested the word "googol" (both words refer to specific large numbers). Immediately sean checked on his computer if the domain is available. Since Sean didn't know the spelling of the name, he checked for, well as we know "Google.com". & It was available. Within few hours it was registered. After getting it registered, one of there colleagues told them the actual spelling :p
Whatever the name coincidence maybe, but Google is one company that influences the lives of so many millions and no other company does as much in a fair way.
It is really something interesting and catchy. I really appreciate your knowledge. Looking forward to more interesting posts from you.
