Origin of the name "Google"
From time to time I read or hear stories of the origin
of the search engine and company name "Google" that are incorrect,
which prompts me to write this brief account, based on my understanding
of the genesis of the name.
The source of my information is my friends and colleagues
from Wing 3B of the Gates Computer Science Building at Stanford
University, where Google was born.
In 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin called their initial search
engine "BackRub," named for its analysis of the
web's "back links." Larry's office was in room 360 of
the Gates CS Building, which he shared with several other
graduate students, including Sean Anderson, Tamara Munzner,
and Lucas Pereira.
In 1997, Larry and his officemates discussed a number of
possible new names for the rapidly improving search
technology. Sean recalls the final brainstorming session
as occurring one day during September of that year.
Sean and Larry were in their office, using the whiteboard,
trying to think up a good name - something that related to
the indexing of an immense amount of data. Sean verbally suggested
the word "googolplex," and Larry responded verbally with the
shortened form, "googol" (both words refer to specific large numbers).
Sean was seated at his computer
terminal, so he executed a search of the Internet domain name registry
database to see if the newly suggested name was still
available for registration and use. Sean is not an infallible
speller, and he made the mistake of searching for the name
spelled as "google.com," which he found to be available. Larry
liked the name, and within hours he took the step of registering
the name "google.com" for himself and Sergey (the domain name
registration record dates from September 15, 1997).
David Koller
(dk@cs.stanford.edu), January, 2004