From 'Googol' to Google, how search engine got its name

For some people, it was due to a 'spelling error' while others believe it was a shorter version of “googols”.

New Delhi: Many stories about how Google got its name have been doing the rounds on the internet on the eve of its 18th birthday.

For some, it got its name due to a 'spelling error' while others believe it is a shorten version of “googols”, which is said to be first to have been considered.

According to one author, the name Google was probably the result of a misspelling by a close associate of Larry Page, the co-founder of the tech giant.

So the story goes that in 1996, Page was brainstorming on a name that would represent voluminous data, with Sean Anderson, a graduate student.

Anderson suggested 'googolplex' to which Page responded saying, "googol!".

'Googol' refers to a number represented as 1 followed by 100 zeroes.

Anderson misspelled 'googol' as 'google', but Page liked it and got it registered.

However, another story has a slightly different version. Though, it also suggests that Google was derived from the word "googol", it differs in that the name was coined by Anderson.

It claimed that the name "googol" was first coined by a nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner.

According to the story, Kasner had asked Milton Sirotta, then nine-year-old, to invent a name for a very large number. And Milton called it googol, which later became popular.