our heroes




fellow geeks, net-freaks and bloggers, meet the google guys.

i.e., our lifesavers.

i.e., the brains behind the arguably world's best search engine. the very people who could really make us travel all around the world while still feel at home by creating the closest thing the Web has to an ultimate answer machine. the computer-science geeks who transformed themselves into global superstars, named larry page and sergey brin. just recently they've made their way to be listed in Time magazine's 100 people who shaped our world, a list that credits people as ranging as john kerry to charlie kaufman to aung san suu kyi. earlier this year, along with fellow influential person j.k. rowling, they for the first time can refer themselves as two of the world's richest people, with their net $1.0 billion worth of fortune each, according to Forbes magazine. thanks to google.

some [did you know] on google:

• that the name google derived from the word googol. what's a googol? it's a word coined by the nephew of american mathematician edward kassner, milton siretta, to refer to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. in other words, a freakin' large number.


• that when larry and sergey knew each other for the first time at stanford in 1995, they weren't very fond to each other. a year later they created BackRub, the first version of today's google together.


• that google's first data center was larry's dorm room. a few months later they moved to a new location: a friend's garage. included inside were a washer, a dryer and a hot tub.


• that the first investment to google, a cheque worth $100,000, was sat in larry's drawer a couple of weeks before they finally deposited it. the reason was because when andy bechtolsheim, one of the founders of sun microsystems wrote the cheque, it was made out to Google Inc. and there was no such company. and that's the story of how the garage was transformed into an office in 1998.


• that the beta label came off the website in 1999, when they finally moved to googleplex.


• that people who work inside googleplex, i.e. the staff, refer themselves as googlers.


• that there's a big red rubber ball in the middle of their office.


• that one of their lunch menus includes Sweet Potato Jalapeno Bisque with corn, Warm Southern Chicken Salad tossed in a spicy buttermilk dressing with toasted pecans, corn, green onions and tomatoes, Grilled Petite New York Sirloins seasoned with Creole spices served with a Crescent City steak sauce and crispy organic onion rings, Roasted Organic Red Potatoes seasoned with New Mexico Chile powder, and Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake.


• that they're doing no evil.


• that when you typed in 'search engine' in google, you won't see their own company as the first result. in fact, not even the first five results. errr... hello?


• that they too, have a blog! a prank one, that is.


• that for further facts you can go check them here.

related websites:

• try googlism. not until now had i know that emil is deaf, is now a superstar in hong kong, is very jealous of deniro's celebrity status and is convinced that anyone in america can do. oh, and i'm telling ernie my plan, too.


• try a9.com, the new search engine branded by amazon.com, powered by google. why is it cool? here's why.


• try gmail, the google mail, for if you are a blogger user, they're giving you the still-in-preview-mode 1 Gb email account a try. i've got mine.

where do i get all this information? only one answer for that: google.