The story
Google began in January 1996 as a research project by American computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford. They developed the PageRank algorithm, which determined a website's relevance by the number of pages linking back to it. Their friend Scott Hassan wrote the initial code for Page's ideas, setting the foundation for the search engine.
The search engine was eventually named Google, a misspelling of the word 'googol' (1 followed by 100 zeroes), symbolizing the vast amount of information it aimed to organize. Initially working from their friend Susan Wojcicki's garage in 1998, they secured a crucial $100,000 investment from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim in August 1998, which spurred the formal incorporation of the company. Additional angel investments from individuals like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and venture capitalist Ram Shriram brought their initial funding to approximately $1,000,000, enabling them to establish their first office in Menlo Park, California.
Despite Page and Brin's initial reluctance for an advertising-funded model, Google began selling text-based advertisements linked to search keywords in 2000, maintaining a clean page design. A significant breakthrough came in June 2000 when Google became the default search engine for Yahoo!, a leading website at the time, greatly expanding its reach and recognition.
Challenges along the way
One of the key challenges Google faced in its early years involved securing a professional management team while retaining control for its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Venture capitalists like Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital, major investors in a $25 million funding round in 1999, initially hesitated due to Page and Brin's desire to maintain significant company control. Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital even threatened to demand repayment of their investment if the founders did not appoint a CEO, highlighting the struggle between retaining founder vision and satisfying investor demands for experienced leadership. Ultimately, Eric Schmidt was brought in as CEO in 2001, but not without considerable negotiation and a requirement for Schmidt to invest his own money into the company.
Major milestones
- 1996Larry Page and Sergey Brin begin their research project that leads to Google Search.
- 1998Google is formally incorporated after an initial $100,000 investment and opens its first office.
- 1999Google raises a new $25 million round of funding from venture capital firms.
- 2000Google begins selling text-based advertisements and becomes the default search engine for Yahoo!.
- 2001Eric Schmidt is hired as Google's CEO, bringing external management to the company.
- 2001United States PatentFig. 2Method for node ranking in a linked database (PageRank)US 6,285,999Read filing ↗
- 2003Google leases and later buys the office complex that becomes known as the Googleplex.
- 2004Google becomes a public company via an initial public offering on the NASDAQ.
- 2015Google is reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., with Sundar Pichai becoming CEO of Google.
Prototypes & people
Currently stocked
