Larry Page

Larry Page (born March 26, 1973, East Lansing, Michigan, U.S.) is an American computer scientist and entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, created the online search engine Google, one of the most popular websites on the Internet.

Page, whose father was a professor of computer science at Michigan State University, received a computer engineering degree from the University of Michigan in 1995 and entered into the doctorate program at Stanford University, where he met Brin. Both Page and Brin were interested in improving how users parsed the massive amounts of data offered by the Internet. Working from Page’s dormitory room, they devised a new type of search engine algorithm called PageRank that leveraged Web users’ ranking abilities by tracking each site’s “backing links”—that is, the number of other pages linked to them. Such a system enabled the search engine to determine the authority of Web pages based on how often they were backlinked.

In order to further their search engine, Page and Brin raised about $1 million in outside financing from investors, family, and friends. They called their expanded search engine Google, a name derived from a misspelling of the word googol (a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros). By September 1998 the two had founded Google Inc., with Page as chief executive officer (CEO), and had established a patent for their PageRank system. The next year Google received $25 million of venture capital funding and was processing 500,000 queries per day.

“We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search.”

—Larry Page

Page stepped down as CEO in 2001 to become president of products. He was replaced as CEO by technology executive Eric Schmidt. However, both Page and Brin remained closely involved in running Google operations. By 2004 the search engine was being used 200 million times a day. In August 2004 Google issued its initial public offering (IPO), which netted Page more than $3.8 billion. In an acquisition reflecting the company’s efforts to expand its services beyond Internet searches, in 2006 Google purchased the video streaming service YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. In 2011 Page resumed his duties as Google’s CEO, and Schmidt became executive chair. Google was restructured in August 2015 as a subsidiary of the newly created holding company Alphabet, and Page became CEO of Alphabet. He left the post in December 2019 but continued to serve on Alphabet’s board of directors.

Sergey Brin (born August 21, 1973, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) is an American computer scientist and entrepreneur who created, along with Larry Page, the online search engine Google, one of the most successful sites on the Internet.

Brin’s family moved from Moscow to the United States in 1979. After receiving degrees (1993) in computer science and mathematics at the University of Maryland, he entered Stanford University’s graduate program, where he met Page, a fellow graduate student. The two were both intrigued by the idea of enhancing the ability to extract meaning from the mass of data accumulating on the Internet. They began working from Page’s dormitory room to devise a new type of search technology that leveraged Web users’ own ranking abilities by tracking each site’s “backing links”—that is, the number of other pages linked to them. Brin received a master’s degree in 1995, but he went on leave from Stanford’s doctorate program to continue working on the search engine.

In mid-1998 Brin and Page began receiving outside financing, and they ultimately raised about $1 million from investors and from family and friends. They called their updated search engine Google—a name derived from a misspelling of the originally planned name, googol (a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros)—and created the corporation Google Inc. Brin became the company’s president of technology, and by mid-1999, when Google received $25 million of venture capital funding, the search engine was processing 500,000 queries per day. Technology executive Eric Schmidt replaced Page as chief executive officer of Google in 2001. However, Google was in effect led by the trio of Brin, Page, and Schmidt. By 2004 users were accessing the Web site 200 million times a day (roughly 138,000 queries per minute). On August 19, 2004, Google Inc. issued its initial public offering (IPO), which netted more than $3.8 billion dollars for Brin.

In 2006 Google acquired YouTube, the Web’s most popular site for user-submitted streaming videos, for $1.65 billion in stock. The move reflected the company’s efforts to expand its services beyond Internet searches. That same year Google was criticized for agreeing to comply with the Chinese government’s censorship requirements—blocking Web sites extolling democracy, for example, or those covering the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Brin defended the decision, saying that Google’s ability to supply some, albeit restricted, information was better than supplying none. In April 2011 Brin relinquished his duties as president of technology to become director of special projects. Google was reorganized in August 2015 to become a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., a newly created holding company with Brin as its president. In December 2019 he left the post, though he continued to serve on Alphabet’s board of directors.