Google was a misspelling — the most valuable brand name in history was a typo

In 1996, Stanford PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin created a search engine that analyzed backlinks to rank web pages. They called it BackRub — a name that accurately described the technology but was not suitable for a company. In 1997, they decided to rename it. They wanted a name that suggested vast quantities of data.

Page and Brin brainstormed with friends and colleagues. Sean Anderson, an office manager, suggested 'googolplex,' the mathematical term for 10 raised to the power of 10 raised to the power of 100. Page shortened it to 'googol' (10 to the 100th power). Anderson checked whether the domain was available. He typed 'google.com' instead of 'googol.com' — a simple typo.

Page liked the misspelled name. 'Google' was whimsical, easy to remember, and available as a domain. They registered google.com on September 15, 1997. The typo never got corrected. The company was incorporated as Google Inc. in 1998. The name was a spelling mistake that became a brand.

Google is now one of the most valuable companies in the world, worth over $2 trillion as of 2024. The name 'Google' has entered the dictionary as a verb. A typo by a friend checking domain availability became the most recognizable brand name in technology. The founders never intended 'Google' — they just never fixed the mistake.