7 ms·

Origin of the name “Google”

80 points by crivabene 11y ago

philliphaydon 11y ago
Back when you could register the domain you wanted because some dickhead didn't squat it to try get 75k out of your idea for a startup.
- ck2 11y ago
  If it's not a trademarked word, registering a domain name is like investing in real estate. Or is every property owner who doesn't live on that property a "dickhead" ?
  - lcswi 11y ago
    Yes.
  - BillinghamJ 11y ago
    Absolutely yes! It's a nightmare in high-density cities like London.
    - ck2 11y ago
      Then why don't they make laws that you have to live on a property to own it?
      - logfromblammo 11y ago
        It would likely be more popular to institute a land-ownership tax that includes leased properties and exempts up to 80 acres, plus 10 additional acres for each additional person if the size of your household exceeds 8, but only for land in the same county/parish as your official domicile, or within a 50 mile radius of it. In theory, that would allow rents extracted from the local economy by (presumably non-voting) absentee landlords to be recovered. A straight ban on absentee ownership would simply lead to workaround legal arrangements, such as strawman purchasers who can then turn around and sign a 99-year "peppercorn" lease to the true buyers. You would be playing whack-a-mole with evasion tactics and corporate shell games. If you just introduce an economic penalty, people would only evade/avoid to the extent that it produces a profitable bottom line. Rich people and foreigners could still buy up all the available local property, but they would at least have to pay to keep it unavailable to the local market.
    - philliphaydon 11y ago
      @ck2 they should. Singapore for example, you cannot own land, and you cannot buy a HDB house, if you're not a citizen. But you can buy a Condo, so those are expensive for foreigners. But locals can afford HDBs. Thailand, foreigners cannot own land, or houses, or villa's, etc. But you can own an apartment, because you own the apartment, but not the building or land. If you want to own a villa, you have to be a lease hold where you pay a huge tax to a Thai company who owns the actual property and grants you the right to live in it. So, houses in Thailand are affordable for Thai people. Yet you take NZ, Aus, UK, America, where you can sit on a computer, press buy on a website, get your lawyer to send some money, and own a house and property without ever stepping foot in the country. Western and now we can't afford to own a house in our own country without getting a 1.2m loan that costs us our life and prevents us from enjoying the money we work so hard for.
  - skj 11y ago
    I don't think it compares. Investing in real estate has the bonus that it allows others to divest themselves of real estate.
    - ck2 11y ago
      Could you give me some real world examples of people commonly divesting themselves of their real estate? You don't mean renting out a property do you? Because that isn't divesting, that's highly profitable.
      - skj 11y ago
        For every buyer there is a seller, and the seller is divesting themselves of that real estate. So, every time someone sells a house is a real world example.
jordigh 11y ago
I can't remember if I knew the word "googol" before I knew this story or not. I think I may have encountered it in World of Mathematics in high school. Or I may be misremembering and making up a pretty story to make myself sound smarter than I am. Human memory is so weird sometimes.
- arethuza 11y ago
  I'm pretty sure Carl Sagan mentions both googol and googolplex in Cosmos.
  - jjw1414 11y ago
    Most definitely. That's where I first heard the terms. Sagan also demonstrated the length of the number by rolling out a roll of toilet paper with a googolplex written on it. https://youtu.be/0lFQOmb6mVs https://youtu.be/0lFQOmb6mVs
- chiph 11y ago
  Funny datapoint - 1e100.net (a googol) is used by Google for some of their servers.
- soylentcola 11y ago
  I did know "googol" and "googolplex" but only by virtue of picking it up as trivia when I was a kid. Pretty sure it was a kid named Mike in grade school who enjoyed one-upping other kids on nerdy facts who told me it was "the biggest number". Then again, this was the same kid who later on told me that the actual biggest number was "inthidity". I have no idea why I remember this but it's just a memory that sticks out for some reason. He must've only heard the word "infinity" but not seen it written out because it wasn't like a speech impediment or anything. Later on I remember learning about the word/concept of infinity and realizing that must've been what Mike was talking about. Anyway, sorry for the grade school flashback. Just one of those things I haven't thought about in ages.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
ZeroGravitas 11y ago
I read something recently that claimed that Googol (the mathmatical term) was in fact a corruption of Google in the first place, though the evidence is thin, it's vaguely plausible: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/05/15/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-155/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/05/15/comic-bo...
- mohawk 11y ago
  That seems to be wrong, look here for the details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol The terms googol and googolplex were first published in 1940.
  - ZeroGravitas 11y ago
    I'm not sure if you read the link or not. The word "Googol" was coined in the 1920s. There's speculation that the child who came up with it was inspired by a Comic book character called "Barney Google" who was famous at that time.
    - JorgeGT 11y ago
      > how likely is it that Sirotta came up with the world “googol” on his own, and was not influenced by the massively successful comic strip of the same name, which was EVERYwhere (comics, cartoons, toys, you name it)? I say the odds are extremely unlikely, to the point where I think it’s safe enough to say that he DID get the term from the comic strip To be honest, that's just wild (and a bit arrogant) speculation on the part of the author. I knew about the comic book, so I expected at least an ounce of evidence, not just the author convincing himself...
lightx 11y ago
Check the html source for this additional tidbit > The following day, Tamara entered the office she shared with Sean and Larry, and saw "google.com" as the final name remaining on their whiteboard. Recognizing the misspelling, she brought it to their attention. Sean checked the domain name registry for "googol.com" and found that it was already taken. Larry said he preferred the "google.com" spelling anyway, and when he and Sergey later received their first angel investment check for $100,000 from Andy Bechtolsheim, it was made out to "Google Inc."
- foldor 11y ago
  Weird, I wonder why this was commented out? Was it something the author preferred to leave out and didn't do it properly? Or was it just an editorial mistake?
insensible 11y ago
Douglas Adams.
- xxgreg 11y ago
  “I described myself as the second greatest,” intoned Deep Thought, “and such I am.” Another worried look passed between the two programmers. Lunkwill cleared his throat. “There must be some mistake,” he said, “are you not a greater computer than the Milliard Gargatubrian at Maximegalon which can count all the atoms in a star in a millisecond?”. “The Milliard Gargantubrain?” said Deep Thought with unconcealed comtempt. “A mere abacus - mention it not.” “And are you not,” said Fook, leaning anxiously forward, “a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?” https://books.google.com/books?id=cUSqB1xA8OkC&pg=PT89&dq=googleplex+star+thinker&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBmoVChMI58i9l4ysyAIV4xqmCh2jMwxW#v=onepage&q=googleplex%20star%20thinker&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=cUSqB1xA8OkC&pg=PT89&dq=go...
jdauriemma 11y ago
Why didn't Sean just google the spelling of "googol?"
drivebyubnt 11y ago
One of the early pop-culture mentions of googol was Peanuts, 23rd Jan 1963 http://www.peanuts.com/search/?pubdate=&sort_by=bydate&seasonal=&startdate=&enddate=&selectcharacter=&keyword=googol&type=comic_strips http://www.peanuts.com/search/?pubdate=&sort_by=bydate&seaso...
chrismcb 11y ago
What are the incorrect origin stories the author referred to?

80 points by crivabene 11y ago

Back when you could register the domain you wanted because some dickhead didn't squat it to try get 75k out of your idea for a startup.

ck2 11y ago
If it's not a trademarked word, registering a domain name is like investing in real estate. Or is every property owner who doesn't live on that property a "dickhead" ?
- lcswi 11y ago
  Yes.
- BillinghamJ 11y ago
  Absolutely yes! It's a nightmare in high-density cities like London.
  - ck2 11y ago
    Then why don't they make laws that you have to live on a property to own it?
    - logfromblammo 11y ago
      It would likely be more popular to institute a land-ownership tax that includes leased properties and exempts up to 80 acres, plus 10 additional acres for each additional person if the size of your household exceeds 8, but only for land in the same county/parish as your official domicile, or within a 50 mile radius of it. In theory, that would allow rents extracted from the local economy by (presumably non-voting) absentee landlords to be recovered. A straight ban on absentee ownership would simply lead to workaround legal arrangements, such as strawman purchasers who can then turn around and sign a 99-year "peppercorn" lease to the true buyers. You would be playing whack-a-mole with evasion tactics and corporate shell games. If you just introduce an economic penalty, people would only evade/avoid to the extent that it produces a profitable bottom line. Rich people and foreigners could still buy up all the available local property, but they would at least have to pay to keep it unavailable to the local market.
  - philliphaydon 11y ago
    @ck2 they should. Singapore for example, you cannot own land, and you cannot buy a HDB house, if you're not a citizen. But you can buy a Condo, so those are expensive for foreigners. But locals can afford HDBs. Thailand, foreigners cannot own land, or houses, or villa's, etc. But you can own an apartment, because you own the apartment, but not the building or land. If you want to own a villa, you have to be a lease hold where you pay a huge tax to a Thai company who owns the actual property and grants you the right to live in it. So, houses in Thailand are affordable for Thai people. Yet you take NZ, Aus, UK, America, where you can sit on a computer, press buy on a website, get your lawyer to send some money, and own a house and property without ever stepping foot in the country. Western and now we can't afford to own a house in our own country without getting a 1.2m loan that costs us our life and prevents us from enjoying the money we work so hard for.
- skj 11y ago
  I don't think it compares. Investing in real estate has the bonus that it allows others to divest themselves of real estate.
  - ck2 11y ago
    Could you give me some real world examples of people commonly divesting themselves of their real estate? You don't mean renting out a property do you? Because that isn't divesting, that's highly profitable.
    - skj 11y ago
      For every buyer there is a seller, and the seller is divesting themselves of that real estate. So, every time someone sells a house is a real world example.

jordigh 11y ago

I can't remember if I knew the word "googol" before I knew this story or not. I think I may have encountered it in World of Mathematics in high school. Or I may be misremembering and making up a pretty story to make myself sound smarter than I am. Human memory is so weird sometimes.

arethuza 11y ago
I'm pretty sure Carl Sagan mentions both googol and googolplex in Cosmos.
- jjw1414 11y ago
  Most definitely. That's where I first heard the terms. Sagan also demonstrated the length of the number by rolling out a roll of toilet paper with a googolplex written on it. https://youtu.be/0lFQOmb6mVs https://youtu.be/0lFQOmb6mVs
chiph 11y ago
Funny datapoint - 1e100.net (a googol) is used by Google for some of their servers.
soylentcola 11y ago
I did know "googol" and "googolplex" but only by virtue of picking it up as trivia when I was a kid. Pretty sure it was a kid named Mike in grade school who enjoyed one-upping other kids on nerdy facts who told me it was "the biggest number". Then again, this was the same kid who later on told me that the actual biggest number was "inthidity". I have no idea why I remember this but it's just a memory that sticks out for some reason. He must've only heard the word "infinity" but not seen it written out because it wasn't like a speech impediment or anything. Later on I remember learning about the word/concept of infinity and realizing that must've been what Mike was talking about. Anyway, sorry for the grade school flashback. Just one of those things I haven't thought about in ages.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

ZeroGravitas 11y ago

I read something recently that claimed that Googol (the mathmatical term) was in fact a corruption of Google in the first place, though the evidence is thin, it's vaguely plausible: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/05/15/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-155/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/05/15/comic-bo...

mohawk 11y ago
That seems to be wrong, look here for the details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol The terms googol and googolplex were first published in 1940.
- ZeroGravitas 11y ago
  I'm not sure if you read the link or not. The word "Googol" was coined in the 1920s. There's speculation that the child who came up with it was inspired by a Comic book character called "Barney Google" who was famous at that time.
  - JorgeGT 11y ago
    > how likely is it that Sirotta came up with the world “googol” on his own, and was not influenced by the massively successful comic strip of the same name, which was EVERYwhere (comics, cartoons, toys, you name it)? I say the odds are extremely unlikely, to the point where I think it’s safe enough to say that he DID get the term from the comic strip To be honest, that's just wild (and a bit arrogant) speculation on the part of the author. I knew about the comic book, so I expected at least an ounce of evidence, not just the author convincing himself...

lightx 11y ago

Check the html source for this additional tidbit > The following day, Tamara entered the office she shared with Sean and Larry, and saw "google.com" as the final name remaining on their whiteboard. Recognizing the misspelling, she brought it to their attention. Sean checked the domain name registry for "googol.com" and found that it was already taken. Larry said he preferred the "google.com" spelling anyway, and when he and Sergey later received their first angel investment check for $100,000 from Andy Bechtolsheim, it was made out to "Google Inc."

foldor 11y ago
Weird, I wonder why this was commented out? Was it something the author preferred to leave out and didn't do it properly? Or was it just an editorial mistake?

insensible 11y ago

Douglas Adams.

xxgreg 11y ago
“I described myself as the second greatest,” intoned Deep Thought, “and such I am.” Another worried look passed between the two programmers. Lunkwill cleared his throat. “There must be some mistake,” he said, “are you not a greater computer than the Milliard Gargatubrian at Maximegalon which can count all the atoms in a star in a millisecond?”. “The Milliard Gargantubrain?” said Deep Thought with unconcealed comtempt. “A mere abacus - mention it not.” “And are you not,” said Fook, leaning anxiously forward, “a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?” https://books.google.com/books?id=cUSqB1xA8OkC&pg=PT89&dq=googleplex+star+thinker&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBmoVChMI58i9l4ysyAIV4xqmCh2jMwxW#v=onepage&q=googleplex%20star%20thinker&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=cUSqB1xA8OkC&pg=PT89&dq=go...

jdauriemma 11y ago

Why didn't Sean just google the spelling of "googol?"

drivebyubnt 11y ago

One of the early pop-culture mentions of googol was Peanuts, 23rd Jan 1963 http://www.peanuts.com/search/?pubdate=&sort_by=bydate&seasonal=&startdate=&enddate=&selectcharacter=&keyword=googol&type=comic_strips http://www.peanuts.com/search/?pubdate=&sort_by=bydate&seaso...

chrismcb 11y ago

What are the incorrect origin stories the author referred to?