It has been a very long time since a research project of two Stanford University Ph.D. students took the world by storm. It has been a long time since we started finding everything we needed by a single click on our computers. It has been a while since Google came into our lives.
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, after two years of gruesome research and hard-work. Larry Page was the long term CEO and was replaced by Sundar Pichai after Google started operating as a Subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. which got Larry page as it’s CEO. It currently has its headquarters in Mountain view, California.
The most valuable brand in the world in 2017 doesn’t need any introduction or any publicity. However, it’s always good to know something fun, something new and gains some knowledge. So here are a few not so commonly known facts about Google –
1. It was earlier called as Backrub
When Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the project, they nicknamed it ‘Backrub’ to portray the feature of analyzing backlinks to establish how important any site was.
2. The name is derived from the word Googol
Do you know how the word ‘Google’ which has now also find its place in the dictionary initially arrived? It’s a misspelling of the word ‘Googol’ which is the name of a number. The number? 100,000,…… (1 followed by a 100 zeroes). A good way to signify the large quantity of information the place stores.
3. Google wanted to sell itself to Excite
Back in those days, 1999 to be precise, Google wanted to sell itself to a company called ‘Excite’ for 1 million dollars. Let’s just say we are all thankful that the deal didn’t happen. All except Excite, Google values at 300 billion dollars today.
4. The Mirror World Of Google – Google Reverse
Google has its own reverse feature called ‘Google Mirror’ which shows every data and information in a reversed form. Talk about making things fun.
5. Type a number to check the written form
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If you type in a number in its numerical form, however big, you add a ‘=English’ after it and Google will give you the whole written form of the same. Always making things easy for humans.
6. The first Doodle was a technical glitch
Have you noticed how Google has a doodle theme on different days to show respect and spread information about different events in the world? The first one was of a Burning man Stick on August 30,1998 when the founders visited the Burning man festival in Nevada. It was actually a technical glitch that could not be removed. Apparently, Mistakes make miracles.
7. ‘I am feeling Lucky’ cost 110 million dollars!
Google used to have an ‘I am feeling lucky’ button, right below its search engine. It got removed due to its cost of a whopping 110 million dollars every year. Who says technology isn’t expensive?
8. A separate web tool called ‘foo.bar’
Google has a separate web tool called ‘foo.bar’. So it recruits new employees for the company based on what they search on the portal.
9. Google Offices have food at every 150 feet
Google values its employees and their health. Actually, it values employee satisfaction and knows the ways to achieve it. Google offices have no points where you can find food that is more than 150 feet away. Eat while you work to get the brain juices working.
10. Surviving spouse of a deceased employee gets 50% Salary
In the US, Google has its own system where an employee’s death would ensure their surviving spouse receiving 50% of their salary for a decade.
