A phenomenon is launched: The first of search engine Google
1998 - Nowadays we can hardly imagine a world without Google. No doubt that even if you don't use it, you heard from this Internet sensation that first appeared on this day in 1998. On the relatively new Internet a would-be phenomenon was presented: Search engine Google.
Backrub
The two founders of Google Inc. met at Stanford University, California. Larry Page considered studying there. Sergey Brin, already a Stanford student, was asked to show Larry around. They were not best friends from the start; in fact they could argue about almost everything. Nevertheless they decided to work together and invented a search engine that used links to determine the importance of individual pages on the web. Their first version was called Backrub.
Conquering the world
A couple of investors saw a future for their algorithm and helped the two boys out. Google Inc. was born and Larry and Sergey could enter their first office; a garage owned by Susan Wojcicki. She is now CEO of YouTube. From that moment on they conquered the virtual world. Today Google has more than 60.000 employees in over 50 countries.
The first version of Google was stored on a 4 GB hard drive, kept in a Lego casing. It shows the students already suspected that their invention could grow fast. They put it in the Lego casing, so they could easily expand storage capacity. Stanford University now showcases the first Google storage box.