10 little facts about Google

Started as BackRub: It may be hard for some to think of a search engine other than Google, but the search behemoth did not begin with that name. When Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both with computer science degrees from Stanford, started their search engine, it was called BackRub. This search engine was operated from the servers of Stanford only, but soon took up more bandwidth than anticipated.

Google's geeky inspiration: Googol: Larry Page and Sergey Brin showed their geeky side while renaming the search engine they had incepted. They chose a pun on the numerical entity googol, which means 1 followed by 100 zeros. This figure represents the duo's aim to organise a huge amount of data on the internet.

Got funding from Sun co-founder: As a start-up, Google needed money and Andy Bechtolsheim, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, understood the potential of their venture. He wrote a cheque of $100,000 for Google Inc, a company that had not yet been formed. Soon, Larry Page and Sergey Brin got their company registered as Google Inc.

First employees: In 1998, Craig Silverstein, another computer science graduate from Stanford, became the first employee of Google. A year later, Larry Page and Sergey Brin recruited their first non-engineering employee - Omid Kordestani for sales.

First-ever doodle:Google marks special occasions with a redesigned iteration of its logo on its search home page called doodle. Over the years, they have acquired a following of their own and are widely lauded for their creativity. However, not many know how that first doodle was not a result of an innovation. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had gone to attend the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada and left a drawing in honour of the event to let users know of their absence in case of a server breakdown.

Don't be evil: Google's unofficial slogan is Don't Be Evil, a phrase suggested by two company employees. It was a jab at big companies that aim to make short-term profits at the expense of public interests. Google cites the 'Don't Be Evil' philosophy as the central pillar of its identity and one of its core values.

The first hardware: Google ventured into hardware for the first time in 2002, when it launched the Google Search Appliance. A small yellow coloured box, this device can be plugged into any intranet, document management system or website so that data can be searched easily in the network.

Google can search your desktop:In October 2004, Google Desktop Search was launched, a software which helps users search documents, emails, music, photos, files and programmes on their computers. However, this product was discontinued last year because of advent of cloud computing and web-based applications.

Google Earth-based rescue ops: In September 2005, rescue teams in the US used Google Earth to gauge the magnitude of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and determine the location of victims stranded in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Off to a bad start: Though Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Google, they did not get off to the best start. When Page was considering joining Stanford, Brin was assigned to give him a tour and some say they disagreed about almost everything the first they met.