10 Facts About Google.

Amazing Facts About Google.

Back in 1997, Larry Page and Sergey Brin developeda life-changing program that, within 20 years, has become a household commodity and the cornerstoneof an impressively successful multinational technology conglomerate. 

Google is in our homes, on our phones, andeven driving through our neighborhoods, but do you really know the internet company? Well, we’re happy to provide you a littleextra info with these top ten incredible facts about Google. 

10. World’s Most Valuable

Since 2011, Apple had dominated the world of branding with an approximate brand valueof $145 billion. After failing to impress the market and consumerswith its line of technologies, by 2017, the multinational technology company dropped tothe second most valuable brand in the world with its value slipping to $107 billion. 

With $109 billion backing its name, Google stepped in as the world’s most valuable brand, for now. 

9. Employee Benefits

You may think that your bi-weekly company lunch is just the bee’s knees, but it maypale just a little in comparison to the benefits Google bestows upon its employees. In fact, there are so many that we won’tget to cover them all, but Google employees are known for enjoying a dog-friendly workenvironment, free massages, gym access and fitness classes, 18 weeks maternity and sixweeks paternity leave with bonuses, access to financial advisors, and family death benefits that pay out for 10 years after the employee’s passing. 

8. BackRubNo, no. 

We’re not referencing one of the company’smany employee perks. Before Google was, well, Google, it was amuch smaller company, not even on the radar. It also wasn’t even called “Google”. Fans of wordplay, Page and Brin opted to calltheir newly formed entity “BackRub,” referencing how their program evaluated “back links”to determine a website’s reputation and filter other related sites. In 1997, the Google name was born – but that’s a story for a different time. 

7. What’s in a NameOkay, so that time is now. If you’ve ever wondered where “Google”came from, it actually stemmed from a slip-up by Stanford University student Sean Anderson,who stepped in when the minds behind BackRub wanted a name change. Anderson initially suggested “googol,”or the long-form number of 10100, but while searching the domain availability of googol.com,slipped and typed in Google.com, which caught Page’s attention. On September 15th, 1997, Google.com was official registered. Fun fact, Google hates when the term “googling”or any variation of it is used to refer to the act of performing a web search unless you’re actually using Google. 

6. Goats of Google Back in 2009, 

Google was making headlines for its unique method in lawn care – goats! At its Mountain View, California headquarters,Google’s director of real estate and workplace services Dan Hoffman enlisted the servicesof local company California Grazing to tend to the property. Rather than send a team of green-thumbs, CaliforniaGrazing provided Google with 200 goats, a herd of natural lawnmowers that spent a weekat a time grazing and fertilizing the surrounding property while at the same time providinga cleaner and quieter alternative to typical landscaping companies. Of course, PETA involved themselves, raisingconcerns about transportation, shelter, and veterinary care of the goats. 

5. Selling GoogleBefore Google was worth billions, Page and Brin weren’t intending on it being a long-termproject. Instead, the two were ready to sell off theircreation in 1999 to what was then the number two search engine, Excite.com. With a price tag of $750,000, Excite had showninterest in Google, but when Page mentioned the stipulation that all of Excite’s technologywould need to be replaced by Google’s, the deal fell through. A year earlier, the Stanford students approachedYahoo with a $1 million offer for PageRank, which became the meat and potatoes of Google. Ultimately, Yahoo declined… and has regrettedit ever since... evident by their failing YouTube channel.. <Oh, the irony..> 

4. Company Acquisitions

In the beginning, there was just little ‘ole Google. Then, in 2015, the internet powerhouse wentthrough a restructuring to form the parent company, Alphabet, Inc., with Page and Brinfilling the seats of CEO and president, respectively. You may be wondering why the need for a blanketcompany, and the answer lies within the some 200 smaller companies that Google has acquiredover the years. Boston Dynamics, reCAPTCHA, Owlchemy Labs,Jetpac, and Motorola Mobility were just a few of the notable purchases, though the roboticscompany, Boston Dynamics, was put up for sale in March of 2016 for lack of revenue. 

3. CalicoIn 2013, Google joined forces with Apple chairman and former chief executive officer and chairmanof biotechnology corporation, Genentech, Inc., Arthur D. Levinson to form Calico. Since its success, the web tech company hasinvested in many ventures, but Calico, short for California Life Company, may be one ofits most notable shifts away from search engines and the internet. Calico’s main focus has been combating agingand age-related diseases, focusing heavily on cancer and neurodegeneration. Research performed within Calico’s facilitiesis done within a secretive fog, with reps for the company remaining incredibly vagueabout the actual science behind its anti-aging efforts. 

2. Google Failures Even the greatest of minds are bound to fail, and for every genius implement Google has,it also must face its collection of missteps. One of its most notable failed products wasmeant to give Facebook a run for its money, but Google+ never took off. Despite having over 2.5 billion registeredusers - most of which being forced registrations from YouTube - an estimated 90% of them havenever used the program’s more social aspects. Google+ wasn’t even Google’s first attemptat social networking as it struggled to launch Google Buzz, Dodgeball, and Orkut. Google also attempted to revolutionize wearabletechnology with Google Glass, a pair of smartglasses that showed promise but failed to deliveron the consumer level. 

1. Lunar X Prize

Everybody wants to know more about our Solar System, but Google is willing to pay over$20 million to actually get results. Launched in 2015, the Google Lunar XPRIZEcompetition sought to pit a series of teams against one another in a privately fundedspace race. Each team was charged with launching a lunarrobot that could travel across the moon’s surface for 1,640 ft (500 m) and transmithigh-def imaging and video. Thirty-four teams entered the competitionbut by 2017, only five remained and were under contract to launch. The teams have until the end of 2017 to launchtheir craft in order to be eligible for the $20 million first prize. 

By Amazing Facts

Also Read: Men's Luxury