Google's Birthday

Search engine Google launched as a corporation in September 1998. "The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake." The Beta label was removed from Google on September 21, 1999

Mathematician Edward Kasner popularized the word googol in his book "Mathematics and the Imagination" co-authored with James Newman. It was Kasner's nephew who invented the word which refers to the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google chose the term to reflect the size of the index they would be creating.

My favorite use of the word is still from a Steve Martin bit. He talks of ever improving his stereo, to quadraphonic, then surround sound, dodecaphonic and finally googlephonic - the highest number of speakers before infinity. Then he reflects..."Maybe it's the needle."

Google's search engine result pages have become the focus of webmasters today as they compete for natural search traffic.