Google just turned 22, here’s the story behind how it got its iconic brand name

Google, the global search engine giant, has been around for more than two decades since its inception in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergrey Brin. On September 27, the tech giant turned 22 years old. To mark its birth anniversary, the company came up with an interesting doodle for its search homepage. Usually, Google comes up with tidbits commemorating important events and birthdays of eminent personalities. This year, on its 22nd birthday, Google shared a special birthday doodle that showed a video call in progress. The call was being made between the letter G and the rest of the letters in the name of the company- Google.

In the doodle, two O’s were together in one screen and gave an impression of fraternal twins, where one is bespectacled. The remaining letters were a part of different screens and the complete doodle also showed a slice of cake, and included some presents also. The idea was to show how a majority of people are celebrating their birthdays in times of Coronavirus pandemic. Since social and physical distancing has to be maintained, people have been celebrating their birthdays via video calls with their family and friends.

Apart from this, the company also shared a story regarding its name. According to the company, the partnership between the founders of Google- Larry Page and Sergey Brin goes way back. The two founders, who graduated from Stanford University, decided to come up with a way that helps people get more information. “The pair set out to improve the way people interacted with the wealth of information on the World Wide Web. In 1998, Google was born, and the rest is history,” the company said.

Further, it said that the world-famous name has been played on a mathematical term that was introduced around the year 1920. A century ago (1920), an American mathematician Edward Kasner was walking in the woods of New Jersey. While taking a stroll Kasner had asked his nephew Milton Sirotta to help him choose a name. The name was for a mind-boggling number (at that time)- a 1 followed by 100 zeros. To this, Milton replied, “A googol.” Since then, the term gained visibility and the word spread. After twenty years, in 1940, Kasner co-authored a book called “Mathematics and the Imagination,” and included the term, Googol.

According to the company, the name “Google” officially became a part of Oxford English Dictionary as a verb.