History+of+Google

History of Google

If you've ever searched for anything on the Internet, you've probably discovered Google.com. Chances are, once you've discovered Google.com, your search is one of over 150 million Internet searches that Google.com handles a day. With reliable and almost instantaneous results (the life span of a Google search normally lasts less than half a second), Google claims one of the widest audiences among Web sites, with 3 billion searchable documents and more than 21 million unique users per month. A dot-com company that made it, Google Inc. has not only survived, but is making a profit. Credit is given to top-rate technology, a rare sales model and an aggressive vision for what's ahead. media type="custom" key="5725529"

**Google Conceived at Stanford** Google, Inc., the developer of the award-winning Google search engine, was conceived in 1995 by Stanford University computer science graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Their meeting at a spring gathering of new Ph. D. computer science candidates launched a friendship and later a collaboration to find a unique approach to solving one of computing's biggest challenges: retrieving relevant information from a massive set of data. By 1996 this collaboration had produced a search engine called BackRub, named for its unique ability to analyze the "back links" that point to a given Web site. Continuing to perfect the technology in 1998, Page and Brin built their own computer housing in Larry's dorm room, a business office in Sergey's room, and Google had a new home.

**The Google Culture Evolves ** Although the company grew rapidly, it still maintained a small company feel. The Googleplex helped nurture an atmosphere of innovation and collegiality with its exercise balls, lava lamps, workout room, grand pianos and visiting dogs. Sophisticated computer equipment was originally set up on wooden doors supported by sawhorses. Charlie Ayers, former cook for the Grateful Dead was hired as company chef. Twice-weekly street hockey games were held in roped off areas of the parking lot and weekly staff meetings were held in the open space among employees' desks. Improvements to the search engine itself came in the introduction of the Google Directory, which was based on Netscape's Open Directory Project, and the ability to search via wireless devices. Thinking globally, Google also introduced ten language versions for search users. In May 2000 Google received a Webby award for Best Technical Achievement for 2000 and a People's Voice Award for Technical Achievement. The following month, Google introduced its billion-page index and, with 18 million search queries per day, officially became the world's largest search engine.

**Company Perspectives: **

Google's founders have often stated that the company is not serious about anything but search. They built a company around the idea that work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun. To that end, Google's culture is unlike any in corporate America, and it's not because of the ubiquitous lava lamps and large rubber balls, or the fact that the company's chef used to cook for the Grateful Dead. In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to our online service, Google Inc. puts employees first when it comes to daily life in our Googleplex headquarters. There is an emphasis on team achievements and pride in individual accomplishments that contribute to the company's overall success. Ideas are traded, tested and put into practice with an alacrity that can be dizzying. Meetings that would take hours elsewhere are frequently little more than a conversation in line for lunch and few walls separate those who write the code from those who write the checks. This highly communicative environment fosters a productivity and camaraderie fueled by the realization that millions of people rely on Google results. Give the proper tools to a group of people who like to make a difference, and they will. Key Dates: media type="custom" key="5725561" align="right" **Fun Facts **
 * 1995:** Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page meet at Stanford University.
 * 1997:** BackRub, the precursor to the Google search engine, is founded.
 * 1998:** Google is incorporated and moves into its first office in a Menlo Park, California, garage.
 * 1999:** Google moves its headquarters to Palo Alto, California, and later to Mountain View, California; Red Hat becomes Google's first commercial customer.
 * 2000:** //Yahoo! Internet Life// magazine names Google the Best Search Engine on the Internet; Google becomes the largest search engine on the Web and launches the Google Toolbar.
 * 2001:** Google acquires Deja.com's Usenet archive and launches Google PhoneBook; Dr. Eric Schmidt joins Google as chairman of the board of directors and is later appointed CEO.
 * 2002:** Google launches the Google Search Appliance, AdWords Select, the 2001 Search Engine Awards, and Google Computer.


 * Google sorts billions of bits of information for its users. Here are some little-known bits of information about Google:
 * Google's name is a play on the word **googol**, which refers to the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, "Mathematics and the Imagination" by Kasner and James Newman. Google's play on the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web.
 * Google started as a **research project** at Stanford University, created by Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 years old and 23 years old respectively (a combined 47 years old).
 * 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.
 * Google receives daily search requests from all over the **world**, including Antarctica.
 * Users can restrict their searches for content in **35 non-English languages**, including Chinese, Greek, Icelandic, Hebrew, Hungarian and Estonian. To date, no requests have been received from beyond the earth's orbit, but Google has a Klingon interface just in case.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Google has a world-class staff of more than 2,668 employees known as **Googlers**. The company headquarters is called the Googleplex.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Google translates billions of HTML web pages into a display format for WAP and i-mode phones and **wireless** handheld devices, and has made it possible to enter a search using only one phone pad keystroke per letter, instead of multiple keystrokes.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Google Groups** comprises more than 845 million Usenet messages, which is the world's largest collection of messages or the equivalent of more than a terabyte of human conversation.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Googlers are multifaceted**. One operations manager, who keeps the Google network in good health is a former neurosurgeon. One software engineer is a former rocket scientist. And the company's chef formerly prepared meals for members of The Grateful Dead and funkmeister George Clinton.