Larry Page and Sergey Brin revolutionized the way we search on the Internet. Their Google search engine is an expansive directory, and one of the most profitable businesses on the Internet. Here are some interesting facts about Larry Page.
Larry Page’s technological savvy stems from his family’s love of technology. His father was a computer science professor, and his mother taught computer programming.
Larry Page’s parents met at University of Michigan. Page’s Michigan roots run deep. In his 2005 University of Michigan address, Page quotes his father as having said 'Well, I'll pay for any school you want to go to-as long as it's Michigan.’
Pioneering and innovation run in Larry Page’s ancestry. The B'nai B'rith Magazine reports that Larry Page’s maternal grandfather was an early Jewish immigrant into Israel who settled in the desert town of Arad.
Larry’s first computer was an Exidy Sorcerer—in 1978! The Sorcerer boasted 2 MHz processor speed and about 8K in RAM. That is about as fast as a third-grader’s calculator nowadays!
A love and affinity for technology began early for Page. He was the first child in his grade school to turn in a word-processed homework assignment-when he was seven years old.
Larry Page loves inventors and inventions. He is particularly fond of the works of Nicola Tesla. If you don’t know who Nicola Tesla is, Google him!
Google was originally dubbed BackRub, and developed while Larry Page and Sergey Brin were doctoral students at Stanford. It is a good thing Larry Page and his co-founder changed the name. BackRub just doesn’t have the same marketing appeal.
Larry Page never graduated from the Stanford doctoral program. Google took off so quickly and rapidly --boasting 20% monthly growth the first year--and the young inventor simply did not have the time to graduate.
Larry Page’s education credentials are a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering University of Michigan and a Masters degree at Stanford University.
Even before he co-founded Google, Page was working on his leadership skills. While attending University of Michigan, Larry Page served as president of the University's Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society.
Page was the first recipient of the University of Michigan Alumni Society Recent Engineering Graduate Award. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) of the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and still serves as University of Michigan alumni.
Larry Page’s love for knowledge and invention did not end with his degrees. He was named a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow in 2002 as well as a "Young Innovator Who Will Create the Future" by MIT's Technology Review magazine.
Larry Page is a valuable and recognized member of the technology industry. He has been a speaker at the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference, The Wall Street Journal Technology Summit and the World Economic Forum and the Commonwealth Club.
Larry Page also serves as a trustee for the X PRIZE Foundation Board. X PRIZE. The mission of the X PRIZE Foundation is to develop competitions to create breakthroughs in space and related technologies for the benefit of humanity. Most recently, the X PRIZE offered a $10 million ANSARI X PRIZE purse to stimulate the development of a new generation of privately owned and operated spaceships.
Page is quoted by the X PRIZE Foundation as saying: "The ANSARI X PRIZE team has challenged, motivated and encouraged talented small teams to accomplish breakthroughs that benefit humanity." Page can be viewed as a down to earth guy with his eye on outer space. Believable, since Page and his co-founder already conquered Earth through inventions such as GoogleEarth.
The name Google is actually a play on googol, the mathematical term referring to 1 followed by 100 zeros.
Jokingly, Lucas Pereira once said “You idiots, you spelled [Googol] wrong!” Larry Page commented that “this was good, because google.com was available and googol.com was not.”
Larry Page likes to have fun and be creative. He served on the University of Michigan’s 1993 "Maize & Blue" University of Michigan Solar Car on the Electronics Team. The car won the Sunrayce in 1993.
Many report that Larry Page once built an inkjet printer out of Legos™. Yet according to Brad DeLong, Larry Page says that “Actually, they weren't even legos. The point was to save money by building cheaper disk-drive cases. They were knock-off duplos from CostCo.”
In an article with the San Francisco Chronicle, Larry Page states that he is most fond of Lego Mindstorms™ -- Lego building kits with little computers in them. Look out world, soon Legos™ will come programmed with Google search engines. Maybe that will help us figure out how to put the Lego™ kits together.
Microsoft could take a few tips from Larry Page. In an interview with Peter Jennings on ABC News, the Google co-founder is quoted stating “"We have a mantra: 'Don't be evil,' which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone," Page said. "So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing." Way cool, dude.
Larry Page drives a Toyota Prius. Not the kind of car you would expect from the co-founder of a multi-billion dollar corporation, but one you would expect from a nice Michigan boy.
Speaking of billions of dollars, in 2005 Forbes magazine ranked Larry Page as the 55th richest man in the world with an estimated $7 billion dollar worth.
In 2006, Forbes ranked Larry as the 27th richest person, with a net worth of an estimated $14 billion. Larry was 33 years old in 2006, and in one year his estimated net worth nearly doubled.
Yet with all this income, fame, and technology at his disposal, Larry Page is true to his roots in invention and philanthropy. The Washington Post reports that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are fighting poverty and disease in Africa, addressing energy and environmental issues, and assisting nonprofit groups by giving away free online advertising, and devoting $1 billion in a 20-year corporate commitment.
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