Google the search engine giant has grown enormously over the years. This search engine is the worlds top visited website and it ranks one leaving Facebook on the second place. Though many use Google to check whether their net connection is working or not still it has something to brag about. Google not only has created employment opportunities but it also helps many people around the world through their Adsense program. I just collected some interesting facts which really are fun to know about.
1. Off to a bad start
Though Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Google, they did not get off to the best start. When Page was considering joining Stanford, Brin was assigned to give him a tour and some say they disagreed about almost everything the first they met.
2. As a research project:
Google was started as a research project created by the then Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. Page and Brin were 24 years old and 23 years old respectively.
3. Started as BackRub
It may be hard for some to think of a
search engine other than Google, but the search behemoth did not begin
with that name. When Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both with computer
science degrees from Stanford, started their search engine, it was
called BackRub. This search engine was operated from the servers of
Stanford only, but soon took up more bandwidth than anticipated.
4. Initial funding from Sun Co-Founder:
As a start-up, Google needed money and Andy Bechtolsheim, the co-founder
of Sun Microsystems, understood the potential of their venture. He
wrote a cheque of $100,000 for Google Inc, a company that had not yet
been formed. Soon, Larry Page and Sergey Brin got their company
registered as Google Inc.
5. First employee:
In 1998, Craig Silverstein, another computer science graduate from
Stanford, became the first employee of Google. A year later, Larry Page
and Sergey Brin recruited their first non-engineering employee - Omid
Kordestani for sales.
6. Name was by accident:
Larry Page and Sergey Brin showed their geeky side while renaming the
search engine they had incepted. They chose a pun on the numerical
entity googol, which means 1 followed by 100 zeros. This figure
represents the duo's aim to organise a huge amount of data on the
internet.
7. Poor HTML knowledge:
The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that
the founders didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. In
fact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and
hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.
8. I am feeling Lucky:
The infamous “I feel lucky” 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.
9. Gives 20% time for their employees on their own project:
Employees are encouraged to use 20% of their time working on their own
projects. Google News, Orkut are both examples of projects that grew
from this working model.
10. First Ever Company Snack :
Back in February, 1999, the chewy candy known as "Swedish Fish" became the first ever company snack (not counting beverages) that was ordered into the Google office. Now a days there are many snacks offered.
11. Google Logo Was Not Centered Until 2001:
Google's famously sparse homepage is considered a classic design in the online world. The Google logo, however, wasn't actually centered on the page until March 31, 2001.
12. Google's First Ever Tweet:
Google's first ever Twitter post was as satisfyingly geeky as you could hope for. The message, sent in February 2009, reads "I'm 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010."
For anyone not fluent in binary, here's a hint — it's a well known phrase from the company's homepage. Got it? Yep, it reads: "I'
13. No Submit button:
At first, there was not even a "submit" button. Users had to hit the "return" key to generate a Google search.
14. Page Rank:
Google's search technology is called PageRank (tm). It assigns an "importance" value to each page on the Web and gives it a rank. But that is not why the technnology is called PageRank. In fact, it is named after Google co-founder Larry page.
15. Did you mean:
One of the biggest leap in search usage came about when they introduced
their much improved spell checker giving birth to the “Did you mean…”
feature. This instantly doubled their traffic, but they had some
interesting discussions on how best to place that information, as most
people simply tuned that out. But they discovered the placement at the
bottom of the results was the most effective area.
16. Translators:
Google has the largest network of translators in the world
17. Advance Preference:
They use the 20% / 5% rules. If at least 20% of people use a feature,
then it will be included. At least 5% of people need to use a particular
search preference before it will make it into the ‘Advanced
Preferences’.
18. Gmail actual birth:
Gmail was used internally for nearly 2years prior to launch to the
public. They discovered there was approximately 6 types of email users,
and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these 6.
19. Google Is Dog-Friendly but not cat:
Google is a super dog-friendly company. It proudly names "company dogs," like Yoshka (described as a "free-range Leonberger") pictured below. Yoshka accompanies Urs Holzle, senior VP operations and Google Fellow to the Googleplex. Less senior staff are also allowed to bring their dogs to the office.
According to Google's "Dog Policy", one indiscretion too many on the Google carpets, or aggressive behavior, means Lassie will have to stay at home in the future. Strong bladdered and friendly canines are more than welcome across the campus.
20. First-ever doodle
Google marks special occasions with a redesigned iteration of its logo on its search home page called doodle. Over the years, they have acquired a following of their own and are widely lauded for their creativity. However, not many know how that first doodle was not a result of an innovation. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had gone to attend the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada and left a drawing in honour of the event to let users know of their absence in case of a server breakdown.
Aren't the facts interesting do you know any of such facts then share your views as comments below.
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