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Larry Page: Google Was an Accident

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the the-best-laid-plans-of-mice-and-men dept.

DarklordJonnyDigital writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Google founder Larry Page has admitted that the Google project wasn't originally intended to be a search engine at all. "It wasn't that we intended to build a search engine. We built a ranking system to deal with annotations." ' Of course, happy accidents have often been the cause for advancement, technologically or otherwise.

19 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. like bob ross by the+idoru · · Score: 5, Funny

    there are no accidents, just happy little trees.

  2. Damn bastards by tmark · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wish I was lucky enough to have such accidents. The only accidents I have usually involve me looking for a mop and bucket, or writing a big check.

    1. Re:Damn bastards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The only accidents I have are now the biggest financial burden of my life, and they still aren't even five ;-)

  3. So was I... by Da+Fokka · · Score: 5, Funny

    but I guess I'll never be as successful as google...

  4. Re:Thanks for the link to Google... by ChristTrekker · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah. We might have had to search for it.

    --

    Constitutionally Correct

  5. Mental Anguish by fo0bar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great, now Google is going to grow up with mental problems, constantly wondering if its creators really love it. This will probably lead to Google going into a KFC 20 years from know and shooting up the place. I mean, how well would YOU do if your parents told you that you were an accident?

    1. Re:Mental Anguish by stephenbooth · · Score: 5, Funny

      My father told me, when I was 15, that I owe my existance to a combination of some very loud crickets and the impossibility of easily obtaining contraception in Cairo in 1969. My parents decided to "Risk it".

      This explains a lot about my life. I haven't shot up a KFC yet, although I do eat there a lot.

      Maybe this is the next /. poll?

      I was...

      • Planned
      • Unplanned, but my parents have figured out the cause.
      • Unplanned, and my parents still haven't figured out the cause.
      • Found under a bush.
      • Brought into this world by the gentle hands of CowboyNeal.

      Stephen

      --
      "Don't write down to your readers, the only people less intelligent than you can't read" - Sign on Newspaper Office Wall
  6. In case it's slashdotted... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:_Uc4KUIPqXIC: www.google.com/+Google&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

    1. Re:In case it's slashdotted... by Soul-Burn666 · · Score: 5, Funny

      The funny thing is this quote from the page:

      "Google is not affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content."

      --
      ^_^
  7. Sue Sue Sue! by raile · · Score: 5, Funny
    Larry Page: "Lucas Pereira: 'You idiots, you spelled [Googol] wrong!' But this was good, because google.com was available and googol.com was not. Now most people spell 'Googol' 'Google', so it worked out OK in the end."
    It's time to sic the Google lawyers on googol.com for "brand confusion", or whatever they're calling it these days.
  8. Re:accidents by Lord_Slepnir · · Score: 5, Funny
    If I wanted something, it would magically appear on the first link.

    Sounds like you're feeling lucky.

  9. Page has a big ego by wheeljack · · Score: 5, Funny

    why else would he have named Googles core technology "Page Rank"...

  10. Re:really? by n.wegner · · Score: 5, Funny

    I do believe the cupboard was 'a rockin', not stationary.

  11. Another story by M.C.+Hampster · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard another story about this web site that was supposed to be a discussion board featuring intelligent discussions on the subject of science and technology and instead turned into Slashdot.

    Ok, mod me down now.

    --
    Forget the whales - save the babies.
  12. Alimony by siskbc · · Score: 5, Funny
    yeah, alimony's a real bitch, aint it?

    Well, it's recipient usually is...

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

  13. For those who don't read the articles: by fishdan · · Score: 5, Funny
    Larry Page: "Google has been profitable since the first quarter of 2001. Why did we make becoming profitable such a priority? It's good that we did, because we might well be gone if we hadn't. The real reason is that we became profitable in the first quarter of 2001 because Sergey Brin made it a priority. You see, Sergey would try to go out on dates. He would call up women. And to impress them he would say, 'I'm the president of a money-losing dot-com.' But in Palo Alto in 2000, a huge number of people were presidents of money-losing dot-coms. And so they would not call him back. And he thought, 'If only I were president of a money-making dot-com, things would be very different...'"

    What I need to know is has more advancements in science come as a result of an accident or as the result of some guy trying to impress chicks. And what is the overlap?

    --
    Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
  14. My Lucky Accident... by Sun+Tzu · · Score: 5, Funny
    This reminds me of the time I was trying to write a data storage system and accidently invented a combination compression and encryption algorithm far faster and more space-efficient than anything the world has ever known. Currently, it is one-way only ... but when I get the decompression / decryption working, I'll be rich!!! Muahahahahahahahahaha!!!

    Send us your Linux Sysadmin articles.

    --
    Geeky modern art T-shirts
  15. Wha's the big deal about google? by tundog · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would be cool if that "i"m feeling lucky" button actually took you to a web page, but I tried it a couple of times and it seems its broken on my client. Every time I'd do a search for a "search engine" the page would just reload.

    --
    All your base are belong to us!
  16. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bill Gates: Windows Was An Accident
    from the packaging-pure-evil dept.

    Bill Gates writes: "Microsoft® Windows® wasn't originally intended to be an operating system at all. We were trying to put pure evil into a software form. After we finally got a working build, we executed it. First nothing seemed to happen. Then the PC rebooted - and loaded Windows®. Our precious had replaced the operating system on the disk with itself, and immediately we realized we had succeeded in our mission. This was going to make us rich, rich, RICH!"

    ( Read More... )