“Google” Was Originally Called “Backrub”

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The current Google logo today.

Kailey Thom, Editor-in-Chief

Did you know that the search engine Google was originally called Backrub? It is true!

When the search engine was originally built in the dorm rooms of Stanford University, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, it was originally named Backrub. The engine was able to use links to determine the importance of pages on the internet, then often referred to as the World Wide Web.

However, the engine was later renamed Google, after the mathematical expression for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, seen by many as a metaphor for the slew of information that the new search engine put at people’s fingertips. It slowly became one of the most popular search engines and companies in the world, evidenced by the amount of use that it gets today.

If you want to read more about the beginnings of Google, go here.

 

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