An Alternative Meaning To The Name Google
Nowadays I find that the given meaning of brand names are always purported to be anything but the obvious.Google, founded in 1998, is said to have gotten its name from the word “googol.” Wikipedia says “[Founders] Page and Brin originally nicknamed their new search engine “BackRub”, because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site.Eventually, they changed the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of the word “googol” the number one followed by one hundred zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine wants to provide large quantities of information for people.” See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google.Perhaps that is why the “Google” symbol often has a series of “o”s.That is to represent the zeros of googol.However, in light of other possibilities this explanation seems almost like an afterthought.
An alternative explanation
My first impression when I heard the word “Google” and saw Google often drawing the two middle “o”s as eyes was that Google was named after the vernacular term “googly” i.e having “googly eyes” or very big eyes.
Many people may not know that long before the search engine Google came on the scene in 1998 there was a 1919 comic strip called “Barney Google”! It reportedly inspired the 1923 tune “Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes).” Note how the word “Google” was associated with the word “Googly” as in “Googly eyes” even way back then.See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Google_and_Snuffy_Smith.
Did the name “Google” come from the mathematical concept of “Googol” as reported or did it come from the idea of “Googly eyes?” Well, whatever is the origin of the term at least they changed it from “Backrub” to “Google” so now we can “Google” to find information rather than “Backrub” to find information.We want a message not a massage.