Google, a US multinational technology company that specializes in online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware turns twenty today.
In the mood of celebration, the world’s most popular search engine created a special doodle to mark its 20th birthday. When clicking on the doodle, a 1.37-minute-long video pop up.
The video shows Google’s journey from the start till date, and also appreciates esteemed users for their support. At TGA, we celebrate with Google for two decades of existence. In the same vein, we have gathered some interesting facts you may not know about the company.
- Google was founded by two students in 1998
Larry Page and Sergey Brin during their time as PhD students at Stanford University in California were the pioneers of this initiatives. They still own about 14 percent of its shares and control 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through super-voting stock.
- Google was incorporated as a private company on September 4, 1998
The two founders incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering (IPO) took place on August 19, 2004, and Google moved to its headquarters in Mountain View, California, famously known as Googleplex.
- Google Reorganized in 2015
In August 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate called Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet’s leading subsidiary and it will continue to be the umbrella company for Alphabet’s Internet interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google, replacing Larry Page who became the CEO of Alphabet.
“Don’t be evil” is a motto used within Google’s corporate code of conduct
Following Google’s corporate restructuring under the conglomerate Alphabet Inc. in October 2015, Alphabet took “Do the right thing” as its motto, also forming the opening of its corporate code of conduct. The original motto was retained in Google’s code of conduct, now a subsidiary of Alphabet. In April 2018, the motto was removed from the code of conduct’s preface and retained in its last sentence.
- The first Google Doodle was a stickman, as a homage to Burning Man 1998, which Larry Page attended.
The first Google Doodle was in honor of the Burning Man Festival of 1998. The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed.
- Google pay deceased employee’s families 50% of their salary for 10 years
Google treats its deceased employees better than some other companies in the world. Aside from the free haircuts, gourmet food, on-site doctors and high-tech “cleansing” toilets, Google’s unusual “death benefits” include paying the deceased’s spouse or domestic partner 50% of their salary for 10 years.
- On August 16 2013, Google goes down for 5 minutes and Internet traffic drops 40%
The outage, which reportedly affected most of Google’s services worldwide, led to a staggering 40% drop in global Internet traffic (page views), according to analytics firm GoSquared. Reports estimated that this brief blip cost Google $500,000 in revenue. The impact of this event on the rest of the digital economy was far greater, imagine if this happens in 2018, traffic may go down by larger margin.
Other facts include;
- If you search for the word “askew” on Google, the results will appear slightly tilted to the right. Try it to confirm!
- Jeff Bezos of Amazon was an early investor in Google.
- Google began in the garage of eventual employee Susan Wojcicki’s Menlo Park home.
- “Google” has been a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary since 2006.
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin who founded Google were offered $1 million (£760,000) to sell Google in 1999 but they rejected the offer.
- Google is the most visited website in the world.
More Tech Stories:
- Huawei Develops Technology to Tackle Pipeline Vandalisation, Leakage
- Egypt’s Sawari Ventures Set to Launch $55 million Venture Capital Fund Later this Year
- 7 Interesting Websites You Probably Didn’t Know About
- Nigeria Communications Commission to Partner NASS To Regulate Social Media
- Innovators Are Africa’s Only Real Hope for Prosperity