7 interesting facts about Google
7 interesting facts about Google
Anonim

Knowledge is power. And a life hacker needs knowledge doubly. In this series of articles, we collect fascinating and sometimes unexpected facts about the world around us. We hope that you will find them not only interesting, but also practically useful.

7 interesting facts about Google
7 interesting facts about Google

Why Google

Google service appeared in January 1996 as a research project of Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The original name of the search engine they developed was BackRub because it checked backlinks to gauge the importance of a site. Then the guys decided to change the name to Googol, which meant 10 to the hundredth power. The familiar name Google came about as a result of an early investor mistake when issuing a check. To receive money from the bank, it was necessary to register a company under this name, which was done on September 4, 1998. At first, the company was based in the garage of a friend.

The main feature of Google

Google1998
Google1998

Since its inception, Google's search service has stood out from its competitors for its exceptional simplicity. White background, company logo, field for entering a request - absolutely nothing superfluous. However, in fact, this was due to the fact that Larry Page and Sergey Brin at that time did not know much about HTML. Later, the minimalism of the search service became one of the reasons for the huge success of Google and formed the basis of the company's philosophy.

The biggest mistake in the digital industry

In the late 90s, one of the most powerful Internet companies was Excite. She owned her own search service, webmail, instant messaging, and other services. In early 1999, Brin and Page realized that business was distracting them too much from their studies, and decided to get rid of it. They offered the head of Excite, George Bell, to buy Google for a million dollars, but he turned down the offer.

Wealth

Big money came to the company on August 19, 2004 at the time of the IPO. On this day, almost all Google employees (including the chef and the masseuse) became millionaires. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page only own 16% of the company, but this provides them with a combined fortune of $ 46 billion.

Google value

Everyone knows that Google's influence on the Internet today is enormous, but no one even guesses how much. A small incident that occurred on August 16, 2013 helped to assess the value of the company. On that day, all Google services were unavailable for about five minutes - global traffic immediately dropped by 40%. By the way, during these few minutes offline, the company lost, according to analysts, about $ 545,000.

Unusual Google Employees

Much has been written about the heavenly life of Google employees who work in gorgeous offices with every imaginable and inconceivable convenience. But not everyone knows that besides people, goats also work at Google. It was to them that the management entrusted the care of the grass in the huge campus of the company and its fertilization. The work of more than two hundred animals is looked after by a specially hired shepherd with a dog.

Google advertising on billboards

Google ad street
Google ad street

Google's main source of revenue is advertising. The company earns up to $ 20 billion a year from displaying advertisements - more than the largest American television companies CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox combined. However, today Google is getting crowded online, and the company is trying to come to the streets of our cities.

This year Google began testing interactive billboards on the streets of London. The type and content of advertising materials shown on billboards depend on the current weather, recent events, traffic conditions, time of day, and so on. In general, almost everything is like on the Internet.

What interesting facts about Google can you share?

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