Given Google’s significant influence on our daily lives, it is almost impossible to imagine a world without it. We now use “Google” as a verb since this tech giant has impacted every aspect of our society. Still, many people don’t know that a different name once knew Google.
Recently, this fascinating backstory came to light on Quora when someone posed the question, “Is Google an acronym?” Regarding how the company’s creative minds, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, came up with the name when they formed it in 1998, this topic gave rise to many theories.
Some people incorrectly guessed that Google stood for “Global Organization of Oriented Group Language of Earth.” However, the real story is less complicated and more mathematical. A fun play on the word “Googol,” which denotes a number 1 followed by 100 zeros, is the origin of the name “Google”. The term was adopted to symbolize the search engine’s goal of organizing vast information online.
The project was initially named BackRub, a bit of a tongue-in-cheek name. Yes, the search engine was formerly known as BackRub when it launched in 1996. It doesn’t seem as good to tell someone to “BackRub” something for you as it does to say “Google.”
Stanford University computer scientist David Koller wrote about the brand’s early days in 2004. He disclosed that Page and Brin originally called their search engine BackRub because of its capacity to examine “backlinks” on the Internet.
However, a year after BackRub’s creation, Page and his team, including fellow students Sean Anderson, Tamara Munzner, and Lucas Pereira, began searching for a new name. They wanted something less provocative and more accurately reflected their goal.
In September of that year, at a brainstorming session, the breakthrough occurred. After suggesting the term “Googol,” someone registered the domain after learning it was available. However, due to a typo, the domain was registered with the name “Google,” which Larry Page thought was more appealing.
Google Inc. was founded as a result.
This journey from BackRub to Google demonstrates the evolution of a brand that has become an essential part of our digital lives.
