25 Facts You Should Know About Google
1. Google’s initial name was "BackRub," in reference to the way it was designed to check backlinks in order to rank a site for search results.
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2. Google’s first investor, Andy Bechtolsheim, wrote the company a check for $100,000 a full month before it even existed. Brin and Page had to file incorporation papers before they could cash it.
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3. The name that stuck for the company comes from the word "googol," a mathematical term for 10 to the power of 100.
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4. A google equals 10, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.
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5. Google encourages employees to spend 20 percent of their time on any projects that strike their fancy.
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6. This "Innovation Time Off" has yielded breakthrough services such as Gmail, GoogleNews and AdSense-in fact, company bigwigs say half of new product launches come from 20 percent freedom.
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7. Google has a C-suite executive dedicated simply to keeping the innovative environment alive at the growing company. The Chief Culture Officer has been around since 2006.
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8. Trekkies take note: Google has a Klingon interface for those so inclined.
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9. Another odd language also supported is Swedish Chef.
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10. The use of "google" as a verb became official in 2006, when the word was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
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11. In response to the closed nature of mobile computing platforms, Google’s Android was designed to give developers and users ultimate freedom with its open source platform.
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12. Google rents goats to mow grass and clear fire-hazard brush at its Mountain View, Calif. property.
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13. Since it bypasses Google’s search result page with embedded advertisements, the "I’m Feeling Lucky" button costs Google about $110 million per year to keep.
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14. Google keeps the hardware requirements to run the site tightly under wraps, but Gartner estimated in 2007 that Google likely had at least one million servers.
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15. With that conservative estimate, that would mean Google runs 2 percent of the world’s servers.
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16. Google has acquired 86 companies since 2001.
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17. In 2010 alone the firm bought 27 companies.
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18. It’s said that Google’s 2007 acquisition of Postini gave the company its first real taste of channel sales management.
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19. The firm first started its channel program for Google Apps in 2009.
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20. As of November 2010, the company had over 2,000 channel partners.
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21. In January 2011 research firm NPD reported that Android finally overtook Apple in U.S. marketshare for smartphone operating systems.
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22. Google employs 24,000 people.
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23. CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down this month to give co-founder Larry Page a go at the helm.
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24. Schmidt was initially hired to act as ‘adult supervision’ to the young co-founders of Google in order to grow the business-his note on his resignation stated that supervision was no longer necessary.
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25. According to the experts with BrandZ, Google has the most powerful brand in the world.