The History of Google: From Googel Cars to the Big Apple

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In summary, Google began as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996. They officially formed Google Inc. in 1998 and moved to various locations before settling at the "Googleplex". In 2001, Google received a patent for their ranking system, PageRank. The name "Google" comes from the word "googol", which was created in 1938 by Milton Sirotta, the nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner. However, there is no evidence that Kasner was inspired by the car company Googel Cars & Co. of 1923.
  • #1
Ivan Seeking
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The other day I happened to think about the origins of the word Google. In his book Cosmos, Carl Sagan told how the nine year old nephew of the mathematician Edward Kasner was allowed to invent the name for the number 10100. He named it a googol. I have always assumed that this was the motivation for the name Google, but not so.

The roots of modern Google can be traced back to Googel Cars & Co. of 1923. In the emerging German automobile industry, Karl Kastlowski of Polish heritance invented a new approach to car design, challenging the habits of European drivers. It was only after a huge mass accident in the 1931 National Road Championships when a horse crossed the lane, that Googel had to declare bancruptcy and wasn't to be seen for almost two decades.

It was in 1953 when New York tailor Thomas Rafner Jr. decided to switch business and took up the company name to form a tourist guide company, using the popular "Barney Google" horse in the logo. The motto was "Google - The Big Apple in One Bite" [continued]
http://blog.outer-court.com/history/google.html

It seemed worth a post.
 
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True or false? I'm still looking.
 
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There we go. I was right. :rofl: I thought that first link was debunking urban legends, not creating them! :blushing:
History
Google began as a research project in early 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Leland Stanford University, USA. They made it into a company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. In February 1999, the company went to 165 University Ave., Palo Alto, California. Then, later that year, it went to the "Googleplex".

In September 2001, Google's ranking system ("PageRank", for saying which information is more helpful) got a U.S. Patent. The patent was to Leland Stanford University, with Lawrence Page as the inventor (the person who first had the idea).

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The name "Google"
The name "Google" is a play on the word googol. Milton Sirotta, nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner, made this word in 1938, for the number 1 followed by a hundred zeros. Google uses this word because the company wants to organize a very big quantity of information on the Web. Andy Bechtolsheim first thought of the name
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
 
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Boy are you fast. I was about to post the link...
 
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I had read all but the last bit of the page. :biggrin: I read that and thought, wow, that's really interesting and surprising!

This has not been a good night. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
 
  • #6
We'll see about that... :wink:

Oh, here's some fun facts as well
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html

Back before Google? Aye, there's the Rub.

According to Google lore, company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were not terribly fond of each other when they first met as Stanford University graduate students in computer science in 1995. Larry was a 24-year-old University of Michigan alumnus on a weekend visit; Sergey, 23, was among a group of students assigned to show him around. They argued about every topic they discussed. Their strong opinions and divergent viewpoints would eventually find common ground in a unique approach to solving one of computing's biggest challenges: retrieving relevant information from a massive set of data.

By January of 1996, Larry and Sergey had begun collaboration on a search engine called BackRub, named for its unique ability to analyze the "back links" pointing to a given website. Larry, who had always enjoyed tinkering with machinery and had gained some notoriety for building a working printer out of Lego™, took on the task of creating a new kind of server environment that used low-end PCs instead of big expensive machines. Afflicted by the perennial shortage of cash common to graduate students everywhere, the pair took to haunting the department's loading docks in hopes of tracking down newly arrived computers that they could borrow for their network
 
  • #7
This is all very interesting, but on the first article posted by Ivan, it said:

The roots of modern Google can be traced back to Googel Cars & Co. of 1923.

on the second:
The name "Google" is a play on the word googol. Milton Sirotta, nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner, made this word in 1938,

I am mainly concerned with the years here. The car company mentioned on the first quote I have just posted was of the year 1923, whereas Kasner invented the word similar to it in 1938. So how do you know Kasner didn't get the idea for the word from the company of 1923?

sorry if I'm being too analytical...
 
  • #8
That first link is complete satire, or something... It was only when I noticed that the story is copy protected that I realized that I'd been had. Like I said, this has not been a good night.
 
  • #9

1. What is the origin of Google?

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two PhD students at Stanford University. They developed the search engine as part of their research project.

2. How did Google get its name?

The name "Google" is a play on the word "googol," which is a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. This represents the vast amount of information that the search engine can access.

3. When did Google become a publicly traded company?

Google became a publicly traded company in 2004, with an initial public offering (IPO) that raised $1.67 billion. This allowed the company to expand and develop new products and services.

4. What are some of Google's major milestones?

Some of Google's major milestones include the launch of its AdWords advertising platform in 2000, the acquisition of YouTube in 2006, and the release of its first smartphone, the Google Nexus One, in 2010. In 2015, Google restructured and became a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

5. How does Google continue to innovate and expand?

Google continues to innovate and expand through its numerous acquisitions, investments in new technologies, and partnerships with other companies. The company also encourages its employees to pursue new ideas through its "20% time" policy, which allows them to spend one-fifth of their work time on personal projects.

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