What search engine was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998?

The search engine that revolutionized how we find information online was born from a research project by two Stanford University graduate students. Larry Page and Sergey Brin began their collaboration in 1995, developing an innovative approach to organizing the burgeoning World Wide Web. Their vision culminated in the official launch of their company in September 1998.

Initially, their project was nicknamed "BackRub" because it analyzed "back links" to determine the importance of websites. This groundbreaking PageRank algorithm, which measured a site's relevance based on the number and quality of links pointing to it, was a significant departure from earlier search engines that often simply counted keyword density. The name "Google" itself is a deliberate misspelling of "googol," a mathematical term for the number one followed by 100 zeros, chosen to reflect their mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the internet.

From humble beginnings in a Menlo Park garage, Google rapidly expanded, fueled by its superior search results and a clear mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." This commitment to providing relevant information quickly allowed it to become the most used web-based search engine, profoundly impacting how billions of people access and interact with digital content daily.