Google, a company founded by computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, has become a household name and a trillion-dollar company. Despite its widespread use in applications like Gmail, YouTube, and Workspace, many people are still unaware of what Google actually means or how it got its name.
Recently, a curious Quora user asked if Google is an acronym, sparking a discussion among users. It turns out that Google is actually a misspelling of “Googol,” which refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. This name was chosen to reflect the company’s mission of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.
Interestingly, Google was not always known by this name. Initially, the search engine was called Backrub, which seems like a very different type of service altogether. The company’s website states that Google’s origins can be traced back to 1995 at Stanford University, where Larry Page was considering grad school and was shown around by Sergey Brin, a student at the university. Despite initially disagreeing on many things, they eventually formed a partnership and developed a search engine that used links to determine the importance of web pages. This search engine was initially named Backrub before being rebranded as Google.
While some believe that Google stands for “Global Organisation of Oriented Group Language of Earth,” this is simply an urban legend without any evidence to support it. The true origin of the name lies in its connection to the mathematical term “Googol” and the company’s goal of organizing information on a global scale.
As we continue to use Google’s services in our daily lives, it’s fascinating to uncover the history and meaning behind the company’s name. Despite its massive success and widespread popularity, there are still aspects of Google that remain unknown to many users. The journey from Backrub to Google exemplifies the company’s evolution and growth over the past 26 years, solidifying its position as a leader in the tech industry.