5 Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About Google

Google – what a familiar name to every Internet user of the world. How many of you have set Google as your home page? How many of you will type “google.com” whenever want to SEARCH for something?

Google began in March 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Ph.D. students at Stanford working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). And now, it has become the most widely used web-based search engine in the world.

Here we bring you 5 fun facts about Google which are pretty interesting. Hopefully it cheers your day up!

1. The First Google Doodle

Google’s famous homepage “Doodles” (the changing Google logo graphics) are well known and enjoyed by millions around the world as a way to mark an event or anniversary. But did you know that the very first Google Doodle was designed as a kind of “out of office” message?

The first Google Doodle was a stick figure drawing, the idea was to let people know that Larry and Sergey (the founders) would attend the Burning man festival at Nevada for a few days (so that their users would know they were out of office and couldn’t fix technical issues like a server crash). This first ever Google Doodle was made in 1999.

There is a team of designers who are behind the doodles you see on Google.com. The main lead being Denis Hwang who is supported by Micheal Lopez, Ryan Germick, Susie Sahim and Jennifer Hom.

So, there are actually how many Google Doodles have been created so far? I have found this interesting video on YouTube, summarizing all Google Doodles for 10 years. Enjoy guys!

2. Google’s First Ever Tweet

Ever wonder what’s Google’s first ever Twitter post? Probably you need go to Google’s Twitter and keep pressing the “More” button to figure it out! We can tell you now – this message, sent in February 2009, reads “I’m 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010.”

For anyone not fluent in binary, here’s a hint — it’s a well known phrase from the company’s homepage.

Got it? Yes, it reads: “I’m feeling lucky”.

3. Google Rents Goats

Google rents out goats. Ha, this might be funny but it’s REAL! Google has rented a herd of goats from California Grazing to replace the lawn mowers that normally cut the grass in the fields around its headquarters.

How many goats are there?  There are 200 of them which roam around for a week eating the grass. Not only that, these goats will fertilize the land at the same time — yes, that way.

Google claims the goats will cost about the same as lawn mowers would. The lawn mowers are losing their job to goats!

4. Google’s Impact on Language

“Google” is in the dictionary! In 2006, Oxford English Dictionary added “google” as a verb to their lexicons.

What’s more? A Google staffer is commonly referred to as a “Googler”, while a new team member joins as a “Noogler”. Nooglers also used to wear a colorful hat with a spinner on top. According to a former employee, those hats are now pretty scarce in some offices, instead: “Every Noogler gets a yellow smiley balloon and a nameplate.”

5. The Google Logo Was Not Centered Until 2001

Google’s famously sparse homepage is considered a classic design in the online world. The Google logo, however, wasn’t actually centered on the page until March 31, 2001. As early users will remember, the homepage had a bias to the left-hand side, and even earlier — back in 1998 — Google sported a Yahoo-style exclamation mark.

This article is contributed by Amy-Mae Elliott and summarized by WOW.