Great Facts from ‘The Google Story’ – Part 2

Here I am back again, with the second part of Great Facts from 'The Google Story' 

Here we go..

What does the name Google mean?

"Google means a very large number," Page said. "It is the number V followed by 100 zeros. And we were trying to come up with a name. We were confused about how to spell this, and so we actually spelled it incorrectly. It is a mathematical term and it is spelled g-o-o-g-o-l. So that is the right way Google is spelled. Most people don't know that, fortunately."

Larry’s aim was to download the entire web in a week??!!

"Google was started when Sergey and I were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in computer science," Page began, "and we didn't know exactly what we wanted to do. I got this crazy idea that I was going to download the entire Web onto my computer. I told my advisor that it would only take a week. After about a year or so, I had some portion of it."

How does Google make money?

"Google gets paid for every search that happens, more or less, mostly through advertising," Page said. "People pay for advertising. We are very lucky in that we chose to make ads relevant rather than having flash banner ads. It helps us have the best search engine. We also get paid by other companies, like AOL, that use our search engine."

Having a healthy disregard for the impossible

"So optimism is important," he went on. "You have to be a little silly about the goals you are going to set. There is a phrase I learned in college called, 'Having a healthy disregard for the impossible,'" Page said. "That is a really good phrase. You should try to do things that most people would not."

Brin and Lary – made and depend for each other

Supremely confident about their achievements and vision, Brin and Page had been on a roll ever since they started working together. They wanted no one—neither competitors nor outside investors—to come between them or interfere in any way. That combination of dependence on each other, and independence from everyone else, had contributed immeasurably to their astounding success.

Do you think Google was the highlight of your career? the first student asked Brin and Page.

"I think it was the smallest of accomplishments that we hope to make over the next 20 years," said Brin. "But I think that if Google is all we create, I don't think I would be very disappointed."
Page felt otherwise. "I would be very disappointed," he said. "We have many years left to go."

Sergey Brin wants more failures before every success ??!! How about that??!!

"We run Google a little bit like a university," Brin explained. "We have lots of projects, about 100 of them. We like to have small groups of people, three or so people, working on projects. Some of them, for example, are related to molecular biology. Others involve building hardware. So we do lots of stuff. The only way you are going to have success is to have lots of failures first."
The students applauded. The idea of eventually succeeding after failing first, of not being afraid to fall down, resonated with them immediately.

A Project closer to the Google Founder heart is TRANSLATION !!!

"A project that is closer to our hearts," Sergey continued, "involves translation, and I was asked about Hebrew to English, which is not one of the ones we are working on. One of the most important aspects of information access is that a lot of information is not in languages that you understand. We have an existing translation service, but we think we can make it exceptionally better."

Hope you like these facts too.. Let me know what do you feel..

If you missed the Part 1 of this series, you can view it here