Google Search Engine Launched - 1999
Friday, September 21, 2007
On this day, 21st September 1999, the Google.com search engine was officially launched.
Google was founded in 1998 by Stanford graduates Sergey Brin and Larry Page, following their success in 1996 with the prototype BackRub and beta version Goo.
At the end of 1999 Google employed 39 people and was answering 3 million search queries per day. In 2006 it had over 5000 employees, covered more than 8 billion items, and the number of daily searches was over 200 million.
Not since Gutenberg invented the modern printing press more than 500 years ago, making books and scientific tomes affordable and widely available to the masses, has any new invention empowered individuals or transformed access to information as profoundly as Google. I first became aware of this while covering Google as a beat reporter for The Washington Post. What galvanized my deep interest in the company was its unconventional initial public offering in August 2004 when the firm thumbed its nose at Wall Street by doing the first and only multi-billion dollar IPO using computers, rather than Wall Street bankers, to allocate its hot shares of stock.
A few months later, in the fall of 2004, I decided to write the first biography of Google, tracing its short history from the time founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page met at Stanford in 1995 until the present. In my view, this is the hottest business, media and technology success of our time, with a stock market value of $110 billion, more than the combined value of Disney, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com, Ford and General Motors.
Google was founded in 1998 by Stanford graduates Sergey Brin and Larry Page, following their success in 1996 with the prototype BackRub and beta version Goo.
At the end of 1999 Google employed 39 people and was answering 3 million search queries per day. In 2006 it had over 5000 employees, covered more than 8 billion items, and the number of daily searches was over 200 million.
An Inside Look At Google
The Google Factory Tour
"The Google Story" - David Vise speaks at Google
The Google Factory Tour
"The Google Story" - David Vise speaks at Google
Not since Gutenberg invented the modern printing press more than 500 years ago, making books and scientific tomes affordable and widely available to the masses, has any new invention empowered individuals or transformed access to information as profoundly as Google. I first became aware of this while covering Google as a beat reporter for The Washington Post. What galvanized my deep interest in the company was its unconventional initial public offering in August 2004 when the firm thumbed its nose at Wall Street by doing the first and only multi-billion dollar IPO using computers, rather than Wall Street bankers, to allocate its hot shares of stock.
A few months later, in the fall of 2004, I decided to write the first biography of Google, tracing its short history from the time founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page met at Stanford in 1995 until the present. In my view, this is the hottest business, media and technology success of our time, with a stock market value of $110 billion, more than the combined value of Disney, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com, Ford and General Motors.
Labels: Google, Googleplex, internet, inventions, Larry Page, Sergey Brin
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Friday, September 21, 2007.
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