When computer scientists Sergey Brin and Larry Page created the search engine back in 1996, they named it ‘BackRub’ in reference to its analysis of the web’s ‘back links’.
Can you imagine saying, “Can you BackRub this for me?” I feel like HR would maybe have some issues with that one.
In 1998, they changed it to the name we know and love today ‘Google’, which is a play on the word for ‘Googol’ which 10 to the power of 100, or a one followed by 100 zeros.
Page and Brin were brainstorming different names when a graduate student at Stanford University, Sean Anderson, came up with the name.
When Anderson checked to see if the domain name was taken, he misspelt the word, and now we have Google.com.
Another fun fact is that the term ‘googol’ was actually coined by a 9-year-old boy.
Milton Sirotta was the young nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, who frequently referenced the astronomical number in his 1940 book, ‘Mathematics and the Imagination.’
Milton thought the silly number deserved a silly name, hence ‘googol’.
