People are baffled after finding out what Google was going to be called
Published on Sep 28, 2023 at 4:51 AM (UTC-4)
by Kate Bain
Last updated on Sep 28, 2023 at 8:51 AM (UTC-4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
Google was originally going to be called something entirely different, and well, strange.
Now, people are just discovering what that name was and it’s leaving them a bit uneasy.
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Today, Google is celebrating its 25th birthday.
And while Google itself is a pretty silly name, it’s well and truly cemented itself into the daily vernacular.
How many times do you catch yourself saying ‘let me just Google that’?
Well, the search engine creators, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, very nearly had you saying something wildly different.
Google was originally going to be called BackRub.
‘I need to quickly BackRub that,’ or ‘let me plug that into BackRub maps’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?
Now, after learning its original name, people are reacting as expected.
“Who else is only just finding out it was originally called BackRub?” one said.
“Back what now?” another said.
“I could die without knowing that this was Google’s old name,” said a third.
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When the creators put BackRub in the rearview, and moved onto Google, they had a good reason for it.
The word Google stems from googol which is a number equivalent to 10 raised to the power of a hundred.
In other words, a really big number.
The creators thought it perfectly represented the indexing of huge amounts of data, which is what they planned to do with Google.
Also, they liked the sound of it.
Today, the company is worth about $1.651 trillion.
It’s come a long way from where it started, which was in a makeshift office in a rented garage by the way.
Yep, just like Apple and Amazon, Google had very humble beginnings.
Kate is Head of Editorial at SB Media Group, overseeing all content on the site. She has more than 10 years’ experience as a journalist and news editor, having worked across a range of major publications including News Corp, Daily Mail Australia, and Sky News. Kate holds a Bachelor of Business Management from University of Queensland and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from Queensland University of Technology. With 6 years in automotive journalism, she is passionate about discovering the best the industry has to offer and sharing it with readers around the globe. She has been with Supercar Blondie since 2020 and played a key role in establishing supercarblondie.com as a leading automotive news destination.
