[COFF] Happy birthday, Google...

[COFF] Happy birthday, Google...

[dave]

Google was founded on this day in 1998, by a couple of uni students who 
went on to become millionaires; the verb "to google" has in fact entered 
the lexicon, but these days I use DuckDuckGo (remember: you are not 
Google's customer, but their product).

There is some confusion over the name "Google"; some say that someone 
couldn't spell the mathematical number "googol" (10**100), and others 
claim that is was a joke on their part, which I suspect is revisionist 
history.

I would appreciate a correction, and need I point out that a web reference 
may not cut the mustard?

Thanks.

-- Dave

[COFF] Happy birthday, Google...

[gtaylor]

On 09/03/2018 06:45 PM, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> There is some confusion over the name "Google"; some say that someone 
> couldn't spell the mathematical number "googol" (10**100), and others 
> claim that is was a joke on their part, which I suspect is revisionist 
> history.
> 
> I would appreciate a correction, and need I point out that a web 
> reference may not cut the mustard?

The official story inside Google is that the name discrepancy was on 
purpose.  I don't know the motivation behind it.  But I have no doubt 
that it was deliberate.



-- 
Grant. . . .
unix || die

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/pkcs7-signature
Size: 3982 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
URL: <http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/coff/attachments/20180903/c3d083c6/attachment.bin>

[COFF] Happy birthday, Google...

[grog]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2096 bytes --]

On Tuesday,  4 September 2018 at 10:45:14 +1000, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> Google was founded on this day in 1998, by a couple of uni students who
> went on to become millionaires; the verb "to google" has in fact entered
> the lexicon, but these days I use DuckDuckGo (remember: you are not
> Google's customer, but their product).
>
> There is some confusion over the name "Google"; some say that someone
> couldn't spell the mathematical number "googol" (10**100), and others
> claim that is was a joke on their part, which I suspect is revisionist
> history.
>
> I would appreciate a correction, and need I point out that a web
> reference may not cut the mustard?

In case of doubt about English words, I refer to the Oxford English
Dictionary.  This time they have surpassed themselves:

google, v.1

  intr. Of the ball: to have a ‘googly’ break and swerve. Of the
  bowler; to bowl a googly or googlies; also (trans.), to give a
  googly break to (a ball).

They do, however, have a second entry.  Note capitalization:

Google, v.2

   Etymology: < Google, a proprietary name for an Internet search engine launched in 1998.

   The name of the search engine was perhaps conceived as an
   alteration of googol n., with allusion to the large amount of
   information contained on the Internet.

    1. intr. To use the Google search engine to find information on
    the Internet.

     2. trans. To enter (a search term) into the Google search engine
     to find information on the Internet; to search for information
     about (a person or thing) in this way.

Greg
--
Sent from my desktop computer.
Finger grog at lemis.com for PGP public key.
See complete headers for address and phone numbers.
This message is digitally signed.  If your Microsoft mail program
reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 163 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/coff/attachments/20180904/42819270/attachment.sig>