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Google Turns 10

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the we'll-always-be-older-and-poorer dept.

Ian Lamont writes "It was on September 7, 1998 that Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc., aiming to provide a better search engine. You can see what it looked like here. Google had a relatively good search engine technology that succeeded in burying many late 1990s competitors, and it eventually developed a successful advertising model and pledged to operate on a 'don't be evil' philosophy. The company now has nearly 20,000 employees and a $150 billion market value, and has been acquiring or developing a host of groundbreaking technologies. When did you start using its search engine? Is the world a better place because of Google?"

7 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. pictures by toby · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those curious, like I was, here are the original Google server pictures missing from the Wayback Machine's archive.

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    you had me at #!
    1. Re:pictures by miller60 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Even better. Here's a pictorial history of Google's servers (be sure to scroll down).

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      RichM
      Data Center Knowledge
    2. Re:pictures by 32771 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uh that reminds me:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs

      I wonder whether it inspired anyone.

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      Je me souviens.
  2. Hell Yes by hoofinasia · · Score: 3, Informative

    Xprize, Summer of code, etc. Google is definitely a great company. Sure Gmail is Creepy and they've taken heat for their TOS, but they are still a stand-up, innovative company in my mind. And god-by-every-name bless those guys for their green mindedness and showing its possible for a billionaire corp to do some good.

    However, that doesn't mean they won't be next generation's Microsoft. Remember, MS had the little guy advantage for a while, and was innovative and even generous with the charities. But plenty hate them now.

  3. Re:People use Google because... by atari2600 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Google doesn't want you to say Google.

  4. Minimal Page Size by jbezorg · · Score: 4, Informative

    I started using Google as my home page because of it's minimal page size. If I opened a browser I was either going to use a bookmark or was going to do a search. Not having to wait for the overhead that the other search engines had was a bonus to search results that were on par with other search engines.

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    I've lost all my marbles except one & It's fun to test angular & centripetal acceleration in my skull
  5. Google doesn't want you to say Google by falconwolf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually TFA says Google doesn't want people to use, say "googling" as a term for generic searches. As it says, there are serious, by business standards, concerns with using the term. It dilutes the trademark. Xerox had the same problem when people started using "xerox" to mean copying or duplicating. You only xerox on a Xerox machine. I skate with inline skates, the skates are Roller Blades, so when I use them I say roller blading. If the skate were not Roller Blades I wouldn't use the term "roller blading".

    Falcon

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    Should there be a Law?