Computer Hysteria:
"Ogle Google"
by Berry F. Phillips January 2005
Ogle means to look at something with admiring eyes. Google
has evolved
into one of the premier search engines on the Internet.
Google is a
play on the word, "googol," which refers to the number 1
followed by 100
zeros. The term reflects the company's mission to organize
the immense
amount of online information.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two
Stanford University graduate students in
computer science, in 1996 began working on a search engine
called
BackRub, named for its unique ability to analyze "back
links" pointing
to a given Website. They continued perfecting their
technology and
Google's first data center was in Larry's dorm room. Unable
to attract
any interest in their search engine from major portals, they
decided to
start their own company. They presented their plan to Andy
Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, who
wrote them a
check made out to Google Inc. for $100,000.00. The check
laid in
Larry's desk for several weeks since it could not be cashed
until he was
able to create Google Inc. as a legal entity.
On September 7, 1998, Google
Inc. opened its door in Menlo Park,
California. The door opened by remote control and inside the
office was
a washer, dryer, and a hot tub, since they had sublet a
garage from a
friend to begin operations. At this time, Google.com, still
in beta,
was answering 10,000 search queries each day and was
attracting national
media attention. The rest of the evolution of Google is a
history of
technological innovation and unbelievable growth.
Naturally, I used only Google to research this article lest
I would feel guilty..
Perhaps, as we celebrate the
New Year, we can be appreciative of the
numerous excellent search engines that let us surf not only
the past but
the unfolding future.
Happy New Year from the
Computer Hysteria Column and the Computer Club
of Oklahoma City!
Berry Phillips
is a member of the CCOKC and a regular writer for the CCOKC website and the eMonitor