How Google Got Its Name
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14 June 2024
Today, we rely on Google to find information about anything and everything
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But have you ever wondered why the search engine is called Google? Many users are now discovering the history behind its unusual name
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Computer scientists Sergey Brin and Larry Page launched the company in 1998 while pursuing their doctorates at Stanford University
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Contrary to popular belief, Google does not stand for "Global Organisation of Oriented Group Language of Earth"
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However, many pointed out that the famous letters in blue, red, yellow, and green are a play on the term "Googol," not an acronym
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For those who are unaware, that represents 10 raised to the power of 100, or 1 with 100 zeros behind it, in terms of arithmetic vocabulary
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Milton Sirotta, the 9-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, first used this expression in 1920
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The boy reasoned that a quantity this large should have a name just as silly
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When Googol was proposed as the company's name during the brainstorming session, Larry Page asked his friend if that domain was still accessible
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However, the friend spelt the term incorrectly, turning it into "Google," which Mr Page thought he liked better and Google Inc. was created
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To put it another way, a typo in a search bar inspired the name of one of the most powerful search engines on the planet
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