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Google's initial name was "BackRub," a reference checking backlinks to rank sites for search results.
The name that stuck comes from the word "googol," a mathematical term for 10 to the power of 100.
A paper by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that formed Google's theoretical foundation is the 10th most downloaded paper at Stanford.
Both Brin and Page are the sons of university professors.
The famous motto, "Don't Be Evil," is seen by many as a dig at
Microsoft.
Google employs more than 10,000 workers worldwide.
Google encourages employees to spend 20% of their time on projects that strike their fancy.
This "Innovation Time Off" has yielded breakthroughs including Gmail, GoogleNews and AdSense.
Company bigwigs say half of new product launches come from the 20% freedom program.
Google has a Chief Culture Officer dedicated to keeping the innovative environment alive.
Google's headquarters in Mountain View is dubbed the Googleplex, which is the mathematical term of 10 to the power of googol.
Page has invested in Tesla Motors, which makes high-performance electric sports cars.
As an undergrad, Page was part of a design team that won a big solar-car race.
Google has a Klingon interface, and also supports Swedish Chef.
Google's Android provides developers and users an open source platform.
Google has acquired 59 companies since 2001.
Its first acquisition was of Deja, whose Usenet infrastructure became the backbone of Google Groups.
The largest acquisition was the $3.1B pick-up of DoubleClick to bolster its online advertising business.
The 2006 buy of YouTube for $1.65B put Google in the crosshairs of litigious media conglomerates.
The use of "google" as a verb became official in 2006, when the word was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Brin and Page are tied for 26th on Forbes' list of richest people; each is worth about $12B.
Google claims that it takes about 1 kJ of energy to answer the typical search query.
Rooftop solar panels adorning the Googleplex generate enough electricity to power 1,000 California homes.
Harper's estimates that Google's data center in The Dalles, Ore. sucks up enough energy to power the city of Tacoma, Wash.
Google's company chef used to cook for the Grateful Dead and for George Clinton.
The company spends $72 million per year to feed its employees two free meals per day.
Google rents goats to mow grass and clear fire-hazard brush at its Mountain View property.
Google's first investor, Andy Bechtolsheim, wrote a check for $100,000; Brin and Page had to file incorporation papers before they could cash it.
The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button costs Google $110 million per year by bypassing embedded ads.
To test Google's prototype, Page and Brin used a storage array made out of 10 4GB disks housed in a cabinet built from Lego knock-offs.
Gartner estimated in 2007 that Google had at least one million servers.
Gartner's estimate would mean Google runs 2% of the world's servers.
Sergey Brin married the younger sister of Susan Wojcicki, who rented out the garage used as Google's first HQ.
A VC subsidiary, Google Ventures, aims to invest $100 million by April 2010 in bleeding-edge tech companies.
Google holds a 65.4% market share in the search market. Microsoft's Bing only has 10%.
Google News sends online news sites a billion clicks per month.
Google formed its philanthropic arm, Google.org, in 2004 with $1 billion in the kitty.
Google.org's primary focus has been on global health and environmentalism.
Its first big project was the development of a plug-in hybrid electric car that can get 100 mpg.
April Fool's Day is big at Google; this year's brought CADIE, an AI said to insert subliminal messages into sales pitches and index the content of your brain.
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