Google’s announcement in April that it would become a publicly held company electrified Wall Street, spurred new optimism in Silicon Valley and promised billions of dollars to co-founders Sergey Brin, MS ’95, PhD ’98, and Larry Page, MS ’98. After the dozens of media stories hyping the IPO, is there anything our readers don’t know about Google? We searched for a few facts to find out. Only one rule: no Googling allowed.
Sergey Brin was born in:
a) Moscow
b) Warsaw
c) San Mateo
The algorithm developed by Brin and Larry Page to execute Google searches is called:
a) PageFinder
b) Bloodhound
c) PageRank
True or false, Stanford owns the patent to the algorithm.
A googol, the namesake of the company, is expressed mathematically as:
a) 100 10
b) 10 100
c) 4,312
What do the IRS and Uma Thurman have in common?
a) both take part in dark dramas involving bills
b) both of them know where Quentin Tarantino lives
c) both were among the top five Google queries in April
d) all of the above
True or false, Stanford President John Hennessy is on Google’s board of directors.
Google’s company slogan is:
a) play to win
b) remember Enron
c) don’t be evil
d) all of the above
According to Google’s job listings, the company wants employees who have:
a) musical skills
b) an “inner geek” sensibility
c) good accountants
Answers: a; c; true; b; d; true; c; b
