Internet users are finally realizing what Google really means 27 years after it was developed.
The popular search engine known for transforming the internet is used by billions of people worldwide since its creation in 1998.
Google has grown significantly over the last 27 years and now operates Gmail, YouTube, and Workspace.
The company also has its own smartphone, owns the Pixel brand, and completed a $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit.
However, the popular name that individuals use on a regular basis is not only a common word but also a misspelling.
A recent Quora post made by some wondering if ‘Google’ was an acronym revealed the word was actually a misspelling of ‘Googol.’
Googol is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, which was selected to reflect the mission of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The mission – ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’.
The name ‘Google’ comes from ‘Googol’ – the number one followed by 100 zeros
(Stock image only) Google got its name after a friend of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin misspelled ‘Googol’
The word ‘Googol’ was invented by nine-year-old Milton Sirotta in 1920.
Sirotta’s inspiration behind the term may have been the comic strip character Barney Google.
The boy was the nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, who frequently referenced Googol in his book ‘Mathematics and the Imagination.’
Page revealed the name came up while he and Brin were thinking of what to name their search engine.
However, the individual who suggested the name accidentally spelled the word as ‘Google,’ which they kept.
Despite Google coming from that mathematical term, Quora member Ezio Solutions Private Limited thought otherwise despite the explanation of the meaning.
The user claimed Google actually stands for ‘Global Organization of Oriented Group Language of Earth.’
While the user’s definition of ‘Googol’ is similar, due to lack of evidence, the theory ‘Google’ stands for ‘Global Organization of Oriented Group Language of Earth’ is considered to be false.
Google was founded in 1998 and its parent company, Alphabet Inc, is valued at more than $1.8 trillion
Page and Brin’s partnership began shortly after meeting at Stanford University in 1995.
The pair began working in their dorm rooms to built a search engine that used links to determine the importance of pages on the internet.
After they originally called it ‘Backrub,’ Page and Brin changed the name to Google.
Google quickly caught the attention of investors, and what turned into a project became a reality after Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim invested $100,000.
Businessmen Jeff Bezos and Ram Shriram also funded the company, and by 1998, Google was a company with over $300,000 invested in it.
Today, there are 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches yearly worldwide, according to Internet Live Stats.
Page and Brin worked with Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc, on and off until stepping down from all duties in 2019.
As of this month, Alphabet Inc is valued at more than $1.8 trillion.
