In today's digital age, it's hard to imagine a day without Google.
This tech giant has become an integral part of our daily lives, serving as more than just a search engine. The phrase 'Google' has become a part of our everyday vernacular.
Google has become the most visited website in the world each day and is considered by many as the gateway to the Internet. It is so familiar, but have you ever wondered why it is called Google?
Well, Google, now a trillion-dollar company, was founded by computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin in September 1998. This tech behemoth has since become a staple in our lives, yet the story behind its name remains a mystery to many.
Many wonder about the name 'Google': Is it an acronym or not?
On social media, including Quora and Reddit, many have asked questions such as, 'Is Google an acronym?' and 'What does Google mean?'
Additionally, many shared their knowledge about the origin of Google's name.
One persons said: Google was originally called “Backrub” by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University.
A second wrote: "Google it" is used colloquially to mean "look it up on the internet", which could mean looking for meaning if you're, say, talking about the definition of a word.
While a third commented: To Google something is to search for something on the internet. It could literally mean using the Google search engine, but not necessarily.
Someone else said: Apart from its internet meaning, As far as I know its meaning equals to look at it such as glance, stare.
Another user said: It is usually interpreted by the listener somewhat acerbically, basically "Instead of asking so many bloody questions, just look it up yourself!".
To look at is to goggle or ogle. Google (at least what found by googling it) is a play on spelling of the numerical term googol. Someone wrote.
Additionally, many believe that Google stands for 'Global Organization of Oriented Group Language of Earth', but this is actually a common misconception.
There are many interesting stories surrounding the name Google that not everyone knows.
The name Google is actually a misspelling of the word 'googol'.
Initially, Google's two co-founders chose the word 'googol' because it refers to a very large number, specifically the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros. This name symbolized the vast amount of information the website would provide to users, in line with its mission.
Google's original name was BackRub.
When the two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, began their search engine project at Stanford University in the mid-90s, it was called BackRub.
In 1997, they decided to rename the company to Google, a name that originated from a typo. It was suggested that the name be 'googolplex' (10100). Later, it was agreed to shorten this to 'googol', but when checking the registered domain name on the Internet, it was misspelled as 'Google'.
The Google website reads: "The Google story begins in 1995 at Stanford University. Larry Page was considering Stanford for grad school and Sergey Brin, a student there, was assigned to show him around.
"By some accounts, they disagreed about nearly everything during that first meeting, but by the following year, they struck a partnership. Working from their dorm rooms, they built a search engine that used links to determine the importance of individual pages on the World Wide Web. They called this search engine Backrub. Soon after, Backrub was renamed Google (phew). "
Additionally, 'googol' is a Latin word meaning the number 10100.
Another interesting fact that few people know is that the first search query ever performed on Google was in 1998 when Page and Brin conducted it to compare the accuracy between Google and other search engines.
They presented their work to John Hennessy, also known as the 'godfather of Silicon Valley'. He typed 'Gerhard Casper', the then-President of Stanford, into the search box.
Instead of getting results related to the ghost Casper from a famous movie, as would happen with a similar search on the rival search engine AltaVista, Google's results are all related to Gerhard Casper.
