Today, we rely on Google to find information about anything and everything. From daily hacks to educational queries, we use the platform to clear almost all our doubts. But have you ever wondered how and why the search engine was created? Billionaire Richard Branson recently revealed that famed poet and author Willian Shakespeare played a huge role in the creation of the Google search engine. Mr Branson took to LinkedIn to share how Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin told him about the inspiration. "Where do you find inspiration in your career? I'll never forget when Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, told me that Shakespeare had no small part to play in the founding of one of the world's biggest companies," he said.
He wrote, "'To be, or not to be, that is the question.' But Sergey became most interested in the answer. We were on a Virgin Voyages cruise when he enlightened me with this intel."
The 74-year-old said that at that time 'Ask Jeeves' was the dominant search engine. However, it had a problem. "Rather than searching for specific terms, people had to frame their queries as precisely worded questions. Jeeves, an old-fashioned butler (perhaps you remember him?), fetched the answers - not always effectively," he added.
"Sergey decided to search: 'To be or not to be'. Jeeves struggled to show him what he was looking for. This became part of the inspiration for Sergey and Larry Page to create Google. They needed to come up with an algorithm that could cover all search terms, no matter which way you worded it. 'To be' was the choice Sergey took, which is always a good idea! It reminded me of the time I was on-stage with Larry and he mentioned how I had founded more than 400 companies, while he had only founded one. Quick as a flash, I replied: 'I'll swap!'" Mr Branson continued.
The billionaire said that he doesn't know if Shakespeare has ever been a source of inspiration for him. He concluded, "However, the process of turning a feeling of frustration into a business idea that no-one has ever thought of never fails to put a spring in my step."