Search results
People also ask
What is the difference between Google and googol?
What does Google mean?
What does Google mean in a sentence?
Why is Google spelled googol?
Google is a misspelled version of Googol, a mathematical term for a huge number. Learn the story of how Google became the world's leading search engine and what it means to work there.
Jan 25, 2018 · Google is a misspelling of googol, a mathematical term for 10 raised to the power of 100. Learn how a nine-year-old boy, a typo, and a backlink-based search program led to the creation of one of the biggest tech companies in history.
Google LLC ( / ˈɡuːɡəl / ⓘ, GOO-ghəl) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial intelligence (AI). [9] .
Sep 20, 2023 · Google is an internet search engine that uses a proprietary algorithm to retrieve and order relevant and dependable sources of data. Learn about Google's history, mission, and impact on the online information flow.
- It's a Reference to an Astoundingly Huge Number
- How Much Is a Googol, Really?
- The Best Tech Newsletter Around
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
The Google name originated in 1997 when two Stanford University Ph.D. students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, created web search engine technology called PageRank that analyzed the number of links pointing to sites (often called "backlinks") to determine page ranking results.
Originally, the pair called the technology "Backrub," as a playful pun on their analysis of backlinks. While looking for a better name with officemate Sean Anderson, someone suggested "googolplex," and Anderson mistakenly typed in "google.com" while looking to see if the domain name was available. A googol is the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. A googolplex is 10 raised by the googol power. (In an alternate version of the story, the trio reportedly encountered a web list of terms for very large numbers and found "google" misspelled near the top.)
So why pick a word that means a huge number as the name of your search engine? According to Google's 1999 company page, they picked the name because their "goal [was] to make huge quantities of information available to everyone. And it sounds cool and has only six letters." And since it was a novel name and not just a common word, "Google.com" was available when the yet-to-be-incorporated company registered it in 1997.
In an interesting twist, the word "googol" itself might have been inspired by another kind of "Google." The mathematical term googol was originally coined in 1920 by Milton Sirotta, the nephew of the mathematician Edward Kasner. In The Hidden History of Coined Words (2021), Ralph Keyes suggests that Sirotta might have been influenced by the popular newspaper comic strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, first published in 1919.
A googol is amusing because it's an absurdly large number: 10 to the 100th power. Here's a googol written out without any exponential notation: 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
According to Carl Sagan's Cosmos, the total number of elementary particles in the observable universe is about 10 to the 80th power, still far short of a googol. And with only 1,880,000,000 websites on the net as of 2021, Google won't be indexing a googol of websites any time soon---or ever. But it's still a fun name for an impressive concept and a very impactful internet company.
Recommended Articles
Features How to Turn Your iPhone Screen Black and White (And Why) Make your iPhone less distracting by removing all its color. Mozilla Mozilla Thunderbird Will Support Microsoft Exchange There will be some catches, though. Microsoft Edge Can You Remove Microsoft Edge From Windows (and Should You)? No! And you don't have to. Web 10 Fascinating Facts About Google Doodles The ever-changing Google logo began as an out-of-office notice. Google Chrome Google Chrome Masks Your IP Address with This Experimental Feature The "IP Protect" feature is currently limited to Chrome Canary. Streaming YouTube TV Now Lets You Build a Sports Multiview Easily stream four games at once with Multiview.
Learn the origin and meaning of the name Google, a search engine company that uses a huge number (googol) to measure information. Find out how Google relates to a comic strip character and a mathematical term.
Learn the origin, usage, and examples of the verb google, which means to use the Google search engine to find information on the web. Avoid confusing google with googol, a number, or Google, a company.
Learn the meaning of Google as a noun and a verb, and how to say it in different languages. Google is a trademark name of a search engine that finds information on the internet.
