Why is Google called Google?

The Google name was derived from the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros.


According to the founders of Google.com, they were thinking about a good name, something that would relate to arranging and organizing large amounts of data. It was mentioned that one of them said it would be like ‘googolplex’. Googol was a term which referred to 1 followed by 100 zeros, a very large number. They had it shortened to ‘Googol’ instead.

They tried to search it over the domain name registry database and found that it was available for use. However, one of the founders was not that good at spelling, and typed ‘Google’ instead. Since then, they had Google.com registered under Larry Page and Sergey Brin ‚ the domain name registration records show that the domain name was registered on September 15, 1997.

What was Google called before it was called Google? =)
Search engine Google was called BackRub by founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were developing the search engine at Stanford University after their graduation.

Could Google buy Twitter?

To know the hottest news we should read... no, not Google news, but Twitter!
Google is the leading search engine, but there's one area where the company's software prowess fails: real-time search.

It's an area that Twitter dominates, and savvy Internet users know to turn to the site first for the very latest news and discussions. That, combined with Twitter's ongoing struggles to turn a profit that matches its outsized Internet presence, has made Twitter a very attractive acquisition candidate.

Yahoo, Microsoft, News Corp. and Google are among the companies believed to be looking at Twitter. (Microsoft owns and publishes Top Stocks, an MSN Money site.) But perhaps Google might be the best match for the young company.

A lack of profitability did not stop Facebook from acquiring Instagram for $1 billion, and few believe that it will stop Twitter from also being snatched up.

Historically, the best acquisitions don't involve companies that could be profitable. They involve companies that are already making money. But just as YouTube fell into Google's hands as a streaming video infant with only hopes and dreams in its eyes, Twitter would do the same for its buyer.

But nobody knows which (if any) of the aforementioned corporations is most likely to gain control of the social media website...

Aaron Kessler of Raymond James has a similar viewpoint, though he believes that the company already pays Twitter to search tweets. Kessler thinks that it would make the most sense for Google to incorporate Twitter into the Google+ social network to expand its social media participation. But Kessler is also unsure that this deal will actually happen.

What do you think? Who is going to make the first move? I suggest we'll see soon ;)

Google Art Project. Visit a museum in a single click!

The Google Art Project has exponentially grown, adding virtual tours of 46 museums, 1 billion pixel images, zoom in features and thousands of works in dozens more countries.

The project provides access to more than 30,000 ultra-high resolution images of paintings, sculptures and photographs from 151 museums and other institutions in 40 countries. Google Art Project launched in February 2011 with about 1,000 artworks from such institutions as the Tate Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Uffizi in Florence and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

"From now on anyone can visit these great institutions with just the click of a mouse," Google President Margo Georgiadis said. "This project breaks down all of the barriers and allows people to study art in a seamless way."

It's all part of Google's ambitious effort to enable anyone with an Internet-connected device to check out the vast reservoir of human knowledge and creativity stored in libraries and museums around the world.

Google already has made digital copies of more than 15 million books during the past seven years, although it can only show snippets from many of them because of copyright restrictions. The company also has been scanning manuscripts and other documents in public and academic libraries.

Google Art Project also offers a virtual tour of 46 museums using the high-tech giant's Google Street technology. With images larger than a gigapixel (1 billion pixels), the zoom-in feature allows viewers to get inside cracks in the parchment and other details that are not visible to the naked eye.

Google hasn't disclosed how much its patronage of the arts is costing. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., can easily afford the expense with $45 billion in the bank.
GREAT JOB!!!

New account activity tool from Google

Google has released a new tool that allows us to look at our monthly activity on Google while signed in to its services. Users have a possibility to receive the reports by e-mail. Those who choose to receive the reports will receive a link directing them to sign in to their accounts for a summary of their online activity.

The report will tell users information such as how many e-mails they’ve sent and received in the past month, their Web history (if they’ve opted to have Google collect it), where they surf the Web, what browser they use, and information on accounts associated with their e-mail address. As people run more reports, the activity summary will also note changes in use over time.

If you notice sign-ins from countries where you haven’t been or devices you’ve never owned, you can change your password immediately.

For a more comprehensive look at your Google account activity, users can still sign in to Google Dashboard to look at all of their services.

P.S. Try it! Very convenient and interesting tool!

Want to escape for a vacation? Travel with Google Street View in the Amazon rain forest and Thailand!

Today I came to know what is Murphy's law =( The sun is shining, birds are singing, nature invites to the forest and me... being laid up with runny nose without any strength =(
But!!! I have Google and it's new Street View mapping projects, which make it possible to travel to Amazon rain forest or the cities of Thailand. As I always wanted to visit Thailand, it's a great chance to make my weekend more colorful.
Viewers can comfortably take a trip through the Amazon basin or witness the reconstruction of Thailand after last year’s devastating monsoon. The string of 50,000 images taken along the rivers capture give us a beautiful 360 degree view. If you’re unsure of where to look, Google offers various locations for “sightseeing.” You can walk down the paths of the largest developed community in the Amazon, or float down the Rio Negro. If you’re feeling adventurous, feel free to navigate the jungles or plot the location and take note of where Brazil nuts are harvested. =)
With its latest Street View images, Google brings more attention to the Amazon rain forest and its issues, namely the effects of deforestation on a grand scale, despite the potential for beauty that lies within.
On the other side of the globe, the roads of Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai have also received the Street View treatment, to much fanfare by The Tourism Authority of Thailand.
“We really want to show that Thailand isn’t still underwater,” David Marx, Google’s Tokyo-based communications manager, told Reuters. “People should see Thailand for what it is.”
So if you are bored at home and have no possibility to go outside, let's travel with Google!

ST. PATRICK’S DAY GOOGLE DOODLE. A MASTERPIECE!

New Google's Doodle impressed me a lot! Jennifer Hom, the author of the Doodle says that she wanted to go deeper than cliched shamrocks and leprechauns and wee pots o’ gold.
Her quest for the authentic led her to the “Book of Kells,” arguably the world’s greatest collection of illuminated manuscripts. Created by early medieval Celtic monks, the book now sits in Dublin, beheld and upheld as a national treasure.

Given the complexity of the Doodle, as well as her tight deadline, Hom knew she’d need to create the logo digitally. Working 40 hours over four days, she would sometimes zoom in by 300 percent to render those precise Celtic knots — closer than the Doodle artists typically work, she says, given their limited canvas of “300 to 400 pixels wide” and about “100 pixels tall.”
Here’s the Google illustrator’s step-by-step breakdown:

BRAVO!

Google services and applications. Alphabetically

A                     Google AdWords, Google Alerts, Google AdSence, Google Apps, Google Analytics B                     Blogger, Google books

C                     Chrome, Chromebook, Calendar, Google Checkout

D                     Google Docs, Doodles

E                     Google Earth

F                     Feed Burner (for Valia!) =) – connected with RSS

G                     Google Groups

H                     History of Google

I                      iGoogle

J                      Google Jobs

K                     Knol

L                     Google Latitude

M                    Google Maps

N                     Google News

O                     Orkut, Google Ocean (as a pert of Google Earth)

P                     Google Plus, Picasa, Panoramio, Google Apps Control Panel

Q                     Google Quick Scroll

R                     Google Reader

S                     Google Sites, Google Store, Google Storage, Google SketchUp

T                     Google Search Techniques, Google Translate, Google Talk, Google Toolbar

V                     Google Voice

W                    Google Webmaster, Google Wave

X                     Google X

Y                     Youtube

Z                     Google Zeitgeist