Google has become so embedded in our daily lives, that it’s difficult to imagine a day when it wasn’t. Even though it may sound really old, I can recall a time when a reliable search engine wasn’t available. Google, today’s ultimate search engine, was born 25 years ago.
Google, as we know it today, was founded in 1996 by Sergey Brin (a Stanford University Ph.D. student) and Larry Page (a Google researcher). Page and Brin first called their project BackRub, which has many skeevy connotations.
“Why don’t you BackRub it?”
“I BackRubbed you the other day.”
It’s likely for the best that they chose to work with Google instead. This was due to a misspelling in “googol”, the name for the large number represented with a one with 100 zeroes after.
Brin and Page registered the domain name google.com on Sept. 15, 1997. Soon after, Page and Brin formed their company and started to grow it. In 1999, Google was still in beta and was performing more than 10,000 searches per day. Google was a huge success in 2000 and many things have changed since then.
Consider all the ways Google has influenced your daily life. Google Maps followed a year later. Gmail was launched in 2004. Google’s Chrome web browser was launched in 2008. Google+ debuted in 2011. (Who am I kidding?) Google+ was forgotten by everyone within 15 minutes of its launch.
Google is not the only one that has led the charge in suppressing conservative views by Big Tech. But it has also brought a wave of other search engines that are committed to freedom of speech and viewpoint diversity. While I am aware that many people love DuckDuckGo I have become a fan and supporter of Free spoke.
Today is National Google.com Day, it seems. Although I doubt anyone is celebrating, it’s an opportunity to recognize the impact Google has had in our lives.