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Larry Page and Sergey Brin were thrown together at America’s Stanford University as graduate students in computer science in 1995. Initially they disliked one another but eventually found a common ground in a unique approach to solving one of computing’s biggest challenges – retrieving relevant information from a massive set of data.
They spent 18 months perfecting their technology following a path that would ultimately become Google Inc. They maxed out their credit cards by buying discs at bargain prices and built their own computer housings in Larry’s dorm room, which would become Google’s first data centre.
In search of financial backing to grow the service as a search engine they cold called friends and family and eventually raised $1m, allowing them to drop out of college (although Sergey is still officially on leave) and rent a friends garage as their headquarters.
Growth was quick. Initially Google logged 10,000 queries a day – compared to 100’s of millions today. The business built at an alarming rate, culminating in them floating the company making them both overnight billionaires.
Despite their enormous wealth and success Larry and Sergey, both still in their early 30s, live modest lifestyles – and are renowned in the business world for their quirky running of the Google empire. This includes staff playing roller hockey at their headquarters in Silicon Valley, piano recitals, a full-time on-site masseuse and allowing their team one day a week to spend on their own pet projects.
In this one hour profile of the company, and the men behind it, we learn how Google grew from a student dorm to become a multi-billion dollar global phenomenon in less than 10 years.
The programme also looks at the future of search in general including the issues facing Google as it approaches its 10th anniversary.
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