The world's most popular search engine, Google, entered our lives in 1998. With an average of 3.5 billion searches conducted daily, Google's name wasn't always 'Google.' What does Google mean, and what was its original name? Let's dive into the fascinating story behind it.
Founded in 1998, Google was developed by Stanford University PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. These two close friends aimed to make the internet more accessible to a wider audience.
Nowadays, we even use the term “to Google” when we want to look something up online. Google has become so ingrained in our language. However, it turns out that the name 'Google' actually came about by accident!
The name BackRub was chosen because this search engine focused on the “backlinks” on the web, or how websites linked to each other. It determined where information came from, which sites were reliable, and what topics they covered. BackRub ranked websites based on these results.
After about a year of using the name BackRub, a decision was made to change it.
The term “googol,” which refers to a very large number, was accepted by both of them. However, while checking if the term “googol” had already been taken by another website, a spelling mistake occurred, and it was searched as “google” instead.
With the registration of the name Google, the term “to Google” that we use today was also born.
For those curious about the meaning of the word “googol,” it refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. According to Google, this term perfectly reflects the company’s mission!