google’s announcement in April that it would become a publicly held company electrified Wall Street, spurred new optimism in Silicon Valley and promised billions of dollars to co-founders Sergey Brin, MS ’95, PhD ’98, and Larry Page, MS ’98. After the dozens of media stories hyping the IPO, is there anything our readers don’t know about Google? We searched for a few facts to find out. Only one rule: no Googling allowed.

Sergey Brin was born in:
a) Moscow
b) Warsaw
c) San Mateo

The algorithm developed by Brin and Larry Page to execute Google searches is called:
a) PageFinder
b) Bloodhound
c) PageRank

True or false, Stanford owns the patent to the algorithm.

A googol, the namesake of the company, is expressed mathematically as:
a) 100 ¹⁰
b) 10 ¹⁰⁰
c) 4,312

What do the IRS and Uma Thurman have in common?
a) both take part in dark dramas
involving bills
b) both of them know where Quentin
Tarantino lives
c) both were among the top five Google
queries in April
d) all of the above

True or false, Stanford President John Hennessy is on Google’s board of directors.

Google’s company slogan is:
a) play to win
b) remember Enron
c) don’t be evil
d) all of the above

According to Google’s job listings, the company wants employees who have:
a) musical skills
b) an “inner geek” sensibility
c) good accountants

Answers: a; c; true; b; d; true; c; b

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