Google started in 1996 as a research project at Stanford University by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It now consists of over 450,000 servers located around the world and has over 2,668 employees known as "Googlers". Google is the world's most visited website and makes 99% of its profit from advertising. It owns other major companies like YouTube, DoubleClick, and Motorola Mobility.
Networking in the Penumbra presented by Geoff Huston at NZNOG
Fascinating facts about Google's history, technology and culture
1. Interesting facts about Google !!!!
Google is everyone's favorite search engine. We use it everyday to search many things
and even to check our Internet Speed !! Every great company has a story behind its
legend. Here are some interesting facts about Google, which you would love to know :
1. Google started in January, 1996 as a research project at Stanford University, by
Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 years old and 23 years old
respectively.
2. The name Google was an accident. A spelling mistake made by the original
founders who thought they were going for Googol.
Google Inventors !!!
3. Google consists of over 450,000 servers, racked up in clusters located in data
centers around the world.
4. The infamous “I’m feeling lucky” button is nearly never used. However, in trials it
was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users
wanted it kept. It was a comfort button.
5. 57% of American kids say ‘Google’ as their first word.
6. 620 million visitors visit Google.com daily.
7. Google has a world-class staff of more than 2,668 employees known as Googlers.
The company headquarters is called the Googleplex.
8. Google’s index of web pages is the largest in the world, comprising of billions of web
pages. Google searches this immense collection of web pages often in less than half a
second.
2. 9. When Google introduced their improved spell checker seen as “Did you mean ? ”, it
doubled their traffic and soon the developers discovered that the ideal placement was
at the bottom of the search results.
10. There isn’t any restriction for proper dress code in the Google office. This may
include pajamas and even super hero costumes.
Google Doodle !!!
11. In August 2004, Google went public with opening shares at $85 per share. Google
stated that during its IPO, it hoped to raise as much as $2,718,281,828, which is the
first 10 digits of the mathematical constant “e.” It raised $1.67 billion.
12. According to Alexa (“The Web Information Company”), Google is the Internet’s
most visited website globally.
13. The late Steve Jobs said he would be willing to “go thermonuclear war” against
Google, a company he thought was guilty of “grand theft” when it launched its Android
operating system.
14. Google’s tradition of April Fool’s jokes began in April 2000 when Google
announced the “MentalPlex,” or Google’s ability to read a person’s mind as he
visualizes the search results he wants.
15. If you use Google Calendar, Google may also know your schedule, what books
you’ve read on Google Books, and what videos you watch on YouTube. They also
save all your search queries, your IP address, your browser and its set language, the
date and time of every request, your SMS messages, the cookies used for advertising
services, and third-party application data. According to one critic, “Google knows more
about you than your mother."
16. Reluctant to leave school to devote time to their new search engine, Page and Brin
attempted to sell google.com for $1 million to AltaVista. Fortunately for them, Alta Vista
passed . . . as did Yahoo!, Excite, and other search engines.
3. Google Logo !!!
17. Google’s first-ever Twitter post was in February 2004. It was binary for “I’m feeling
lucky.
18. A Google employee is named a “Googler” while a new team member is called a
“Noogler.
19. Google makes 99% of its profit from its advertising.
20. Some Web researchers note that Google helps prop up Wikipedia as an
information source since more than 50% of the traffic to Wikipedia is generated from
Google searches.
21. When Google went public, many employees became instant millionaires. Yahoo!,
which owned 8.4 million shares of Google stock before Google’s IPO, also benefited.
22. Stanford, which holds the patent to the PageRank algorithm Larry Page created,
gained profit of $336 million,the most money any university has ever received from a
single invention.
23. Google owns YouTube, DoubleClick, On2 Technologies, Picnik, Aardvark, AdMob,
Zagat, and Motorola Mobility.
24. There are Google bikes parked throughout the Googleplex that employees can hop
on and ride from building to building. None of them is locked; employees simply take
them when they need them.
25. A doctor regularly visits the Google campus so Googlers don’t have to leave the
office for a checkup. Google is also known for its “20% time,” the one day a week that
employees can take simply to work on something that interests them