Google is the most used site everyday in the world. We all know what it does but it is a company with crazy ambitions. However, people don’t really know the history of Google? From a different name to unusual company internal regulations there is so much to know. Here we present our top 5 Google facts you probably didn’t know.
Backrub
Google’s original name was different from today’s, it was Backrub. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin created a search engine which analyzed back links to assess how important a website was and to what other sites it was associated with. This curious name lasted about a year until the two founders began working on finding a new one. The new name was supposed to be googol, which is a mathematical name indicating a huge number. This was due to the enormous quantity of data they were and were expecting to hanlde. However, a spelling mistake led to the well-known “Google” we all know today. Maybe it sounded cool to Mr Page…
NASA’s runway for Google
When one of the biggest companies in the world needs a runway it asks no less than NASA. That’s right, NASA. Google needed a place to land its private aircrafts, including a boeing 767, so they asked their neighbors. In exchange for a private runway Google gives NASA the right to use its aircrafts to test scientific equipment and also collect data. Part of the deal involves Google paying NASA 1.3 million dollars per year too.
Google’s funny facts
This “Google funny facts” part aims at easing the nature of information, yet it does not mean it is not worthwhile. You may be suprised to know that one of the world’s biggest companies have some crazy features. For example, would you have imagined that Google rents goats to mow the lawn of their headquarters. Once in a while they rent 200 goats to take care of this “green” task and lessen the carbin footprint. Not enough? Google has a lot of other funny features to offer. Countless easter eggs and fiction-based languages increase but do not complete the list.
Stanford’s rights on Google
Incredible as it might sound Google does not own its pagerank algorithm, not entirely. Google was born out of Stanford in a sense, I mean Stanford provided the students who invented Google with the toold to creat it. As it is a rule that whatever is created in that environment belongs to the University and not the inventors it goes without saying that Stanford owns the central pagerank algorithm. However, Google made agreements with the university to have exclusive rights on the patent in exchange for 1.8 million shares. What a good deal for Stanford, as it sold those shares in 2005 for 336 million dollars.
A big fine
Even for such an amazing company things don’t go always for the better. In January 2017 Google was fined 2.7 billion dollars for violating EU antitrust laws. What was the problem anyway? European regulators charged Google with the accusation of manipulating the searching process. They didn’t offer users a genuine choice and instead favored their shopping platform, thus violating EU antitrust laws. 2.7 billion dollars seems a lot of money, right? Well, it accounts for nearly 2.5% of the company’s 2016 net worth.
That was our top 5 facts you probaly missed about Google.
Thank you for your time.
