I can’t imagine a life without Google. Do you feel the same too?!
“You don’t know something?” Just ‘google’ it.
“You want tips for your interview?” Ala just ‘google’ it!
We tend to ‘google’ literally everything if we’re unsure and google is always the life saver..
But do you know these unique facts about Google? Here are the things you might want to know about Google!
1. Google was originally called as “backrub”!
In 1996, two students from Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergei Brin, collaborated and founded the search engine as their project which was named at “backrub”. A year later, the co-founders decided to change the name to something that would be more accurate in reflecting the real purpose of the web site.
2. Google is a play on the word ‘Googol’.
‘Googol’ brings a meaning from a mathematical term represented by the numeral one followed by 100 zeros. On 15th September 1997, Page and Brin registered their project as Google, a twist on “Googol”. Google brings a hint meaning of seemingly infinite amount of data stored in it.
3. The “I’m Feeling Lucky” button that we eventually forgot it existed.
Back to the days when there is an “I’m Feeling Lucky” button existed to augment search. The button could automatically take you to the first result on the search page when you click it. This button is no longer exists. Allegedly, this caused the company to lose over $100 million per year, so they replaced it with an auto-filling search bar.
4. Burning Man stick figure was Google’s first doodle.
The first Google doodle was a Burning man stick figure. When Page and Brin went to the Burning dadaists art festival in the Nevada desert in 1998, they got this idea. They inserted the festival’s stick man symbol behind the search engine’s logo to let the users know that they are away from the office that weekend.
5. Gmail was launched on April Fool’s Day!
Google launched Gmail on 1st April 2004 toying Silicon Valley’s outstanding tradition of pulling April Fool’s day pranks. Gmail was a precursor to a Google staple that now serves million of users across the world every day. You can now use Gmail in more than 50 languages now which includes Welsh, Basque, Tagalog, Malayalam and Telugu.
6. A rented garage was Google’s first office.
The company first workspace was Susan Wojcicki’s garage on Santa Margarita Ave. in Menlo Park, California. Wojcicki was Google first marketing manager and is now the CEO of Youtube. As for the house that built Google, the tech titan bought it and it was filled with the suburban ranch-style dwelling with candy, snacks and lava lamps.
7. The Grateful Dead’s former caterer was Google’s first chef.
Chef Charlie Ayers who was initially cooking for the Grateful Dead won a cook-off judged by Google’s employees in 1999. At Google, he eventually served 4,000 daily lunches and dinners in 10 cafes throughout its Mountain View, California, global headquarters.
8. Google New York began at a Starbucks on 86th Street.
Google unofficially kicked off its New York branch at a Starbucks in New York City in 2000. It was managed by a one-person sales ‘team’. Now, thousands of New York ‘googlers’ visits the 2.9 million-square-feet New York office, a former Port Authority building.
9. Google uses goats instead of lawnmowers!
Google hires goats to eat the grass and fertilize the soil whenever the Googleplex lawn needs some trimming. The company rented around 200 goats for a week from a company called California Grazing. The goats get free food, the grass.
10. NASA was a “parking lot” for Google!
Brin and Page used to park their shared ride, a customized Boeing 767-200 which is a plane at the nearby NASA Ames Research Center airstrip. For this privilege, it costs them around $1.3 million a year. As a trade off, NASA also got to place their equipment for scientific analysis on the plane.
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Info via: Youtube | Entrepreneur Asia Pacific | Business Insider | Best Life