10 Gigantic Facts about Google

First published 14th February 2023 Samantha Khu

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Chances are you’re here because of Google – it’s a part of everyday life! Google has become the main global go-to search engine for billions of users daily. Its growth from a humble two-man start-up in a rented garage to a multi-billion dollar global enterprise is nothing short of phenomenal. To celebrate, here are some fun facts about Google that might surprise you.

1. How did Google get started?

Google came about by accident. Its foundation is based upon the chance meeting of two university graduates with no money but plenty of ambition! Lawrence (Larry) Page and Sergey Brin met by chance – as Brin was asked to show Page around the university of Stamford in 1995.

2. Google’s been around since the 90s.

Google was founded on September 4th 1998, in Menlo Park, California. They restructured under a parent company, Alphabet Inc., in October 2015.

3. Google oversees lots of different subsidiaries!

Google has over 200 subsidiary companies under its umbrella! These include Firebase, Android, Nest, Waymo, and The Moonshot Factory.

4. Google wasn’t always the owner of YouTube.

Enormously popular video streaming service YouTube started life in February 2005, but wasn’t bought by Google until October 2006. The acquisition cost the Big G a cool $1.65 billion! Right now, YouTube oversees revenue of more than $28 billion each year.

5. Way(mo) to go!

One of Google’s more adventurous subsidiary projects is Waymo, which is responsible for developing driverless car technology. There are already multiple Waymo cars operational – and driverless tech is likely going to go mainstream thanks to Google in the coming years.

6. April Fool?

Google’s landmark email service, Gmail, launched on April 1st, 2004 – leading many to think it was a hoax! Bizarrely, this was all the more considered a joke as “Gmail” used to refer to online mail used by visitors to the official “Garfield” website!

Contrary to popular belief, however, Garfield creator Jim Davis and his company Paws Inc never owned the original Gmail domain – it’s an urban myth.

7. To Google… or not to Google?

“Googling” as a verb is a phenomenon all on its own – and perhaps the most pervasive and successful marketing campaign of all time. Millions of people refer to “Googling” when they mean “to search online” – and it’s been this way since around 2002, according to historians.

8. Google is king and queen of the web.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google is the most-visited website on the internet. It’s thought to pull in more than 89 billion views every month – that’s a staggering number of searches.

9. Are there any other search engines?

Yes! Believe it or not, while Google really has cornered the search market in a big way, engines such as Bing and DuckDuckGo still pull in users. Google occupies at least 92% of the search engine market – are you part of that rare 8%?

How Google.com looked, back in March 2000

10. Searches by the billions!

It’s staggering to think, but Google processes around 8.5 billion searches every single day – the world really does rely on it for all kinds of information!

FAQs about Google

Where does the name “Google” come from?

The name “Google” is based upon a mathematical term - a googol, which is illustrated as the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. It’s a great name for a search engine that delivers so many answers to questions every day!

What is a Google Doodle?

A Google Doodle is a small piece of artwork or interactive media that replaces the search engine’s logo on special occasions. The Doodle has gotten really extravagant over the years, with the World Cup 2022 “image” transforming into a penalty shoot-out game that searchers could play via their browsers!

How much is Google worth as a company?

At the time of writing, Google is said to have a market cap of around $1.2 trillion - though it wasn’t the first to reach a trillion, as Apple got there first!

Further reading:
https://factcity.com/tag/internet/
https://about.google/intl/ALL_uk/
https://www.theverge.com/google