Google is one of the most visited websites in the World, you already knew that, right? Google’s history began in 1995, when two Stanford University students, Larry Page and Sergei Brin, came together to create a search engine. Similarly, there are other facts about Google, for instance, it was initially named “Backrub”. It worked on the basis of the system finding and ranking pages based on backlinks. At that time they had no idea where it would all end up…Now, every kid in the block knows about Google.
Do you know that Google does 87k+ searches per second? And it is not the only surprising fact about Google. There are so many surprising facts about Google that you probably don’t know.
I am also amazed by the fact that we use Google to search for a ton of information every day, and yet we know so little about it. Thus, I have compiled a list of 14 surprising facts about Google that you too might be interested in.
#14 Surprising Facts about Google:
- #14 Surprising Facts about Google:
- 1. The “I’m Feeling Lucky”
- 2. Google’s first doodle
- 3. Google’s 40GB Database
- 4. New things every day
- 5. Google has a lot of little tricks
- 6. Google acquires its name from the word “googol”
- 7. Good things begin from the garage
- 8. The Grateful Dead to Google
- 9. Rented Goats
- 10. Honored by Oxford English Dictionary
- 11. Google comes to Buffy’s rescue
- 12. Launched on April Fool’s Day
- 13. Rejected by Yahoo, Excite, and Altavista
- 14. Motorola Mobility
1. The “I’m Feeling Lucky”
You might have seen the ”I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google’s homepage. But have you ever tried using it? Let me save you some time. Normally, when you searched in Google, a bunch of options pops out. But when you search on Google, if you click on the I’m feeling lucky button instead of enter or Google search, it will save your time. Because It directly opens the first search result of the query. If you click this button without any search string it will take you to the Google Doodle page.
2. Google’s first doodle
Google’s first doodle appeared in 1998 on the company’s homepage. The founders had gone to the burning man festival. And couldn’t fix technical issues. So they placed a burning man stick figure behind the second “o” on their logo.
3. Google’s 40GB Database
The first storage of Google was built of ten 4GB hard drives cased using Legos. It was used to store the search engine’s indexed data during the early days of Google. But it has come a long way since then. Currently, Google’s database measures around 100 million GB.
4. New things every day
Every day Google gets millions of searches. 16%-20% of those searches turn out to be unique.
5. Google has a lot of little tricks
Google has a ton of tricks up its sleeve. For example, In Google, search for “do a barrel roll” without using quotes, and see the magic unfold. Safety tip: you may want to hold on to your desk! Other fun search terms include tilt/askew, Google in 1998, and more.
6. Google acquires its name from the word “googol”
The name of Google is derived from googol, which is equal to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros (1*10^100). It signifies the search engine’s capacity to offer access to the enormous information over the internet.
7. Good things begin from the garage
Similar to Microsoft and Apple, Google too had its first office in a garage. They had set up a workspace in Susan Wojcicki’s garage. She was the first marketing manager of Google and now serves as the CEO of YouTube.
8. The Grateful Dead to Google
Charlie Ayers, the former caterer for The Grateful Dead, became Google’s first chef. He became their chef by winning the cooking competition held by Google’s employees in 1999.
9. Rented Goats
Google rents a herd of 200 goats to maintain the ground of its California Headquarters. They rent the goats for about one week. And allow them to graze on the grass.
10. Honored by Oxford English Dictionary
In 2006, Google was honored by the Oxford English Dictionary when they officially added “Google” as a verb.
11. Google comes to Buffy’s rescue
The phrase “to Google” something was first used in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
12. Launched on April Fool’s Day
Silicon Valley has the tradition of pulling April fool’s day pranks. However, Google used that opportunity to lunch Gmail. Many initially thought that it was a hoax. But it turned out to be the most successful web services.
13. Rejected by Yahoo, Excite, and Altavista
When Google tried to sell its technology to Yahoo, Excite, and Altavista for $1 million all three of them rejected it. But look who is the market leader now.
14. Motorola Mobility
Google’s largest acquisition to date is Motorola Mobility. They purchased it in 2012 for $12.5 billion. Before that their largest acquisition was YouTube ($ 1.65 billion).
