{"id":187,"date":"2005-05-04T14:31:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-04T09:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/04\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T07:09:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:39:59","slug":"meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Meaning: What Does Google Mean? (Googol, 1 Followed by 100 Zeros)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google meaning: what does the name Google mean, and where did the name come from? Google&#8217;s name comes from <strong>googol<\/strong>, the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros. The founders chose it to reflect their mission to organise the huge amount of information on the web, and a famous spelling mistake gave us &#8220;Google&#8221; instead. Here&#8217;s the full story of the Google meaning, what a googol is, and how Google became a verb.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-59589\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-meaning-1024x634.jpg\" alt=\"Google meaning and googol\" width=\"760\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-meaning-1024x634.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-meaning-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-meaning-150x93.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-meaning-768x475.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-meaning.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> Google is a play on <strong>googol<\/strong>, the number 10<sup>100<\/sup> (1 followed by 100 zeros). It stands for the vast amount of information Google wanted to organise. &#8220;Google&#8221; isn&#8217;t an acronym, so it doesn&#8217;t stand for anything else.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ad80ee0c6ade\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ad80ee0c6ade\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#Googol_meaning_1_followed_by_100_zeros\" >Googol meaning: 1 followed by 100 zeros<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#Google_meaning_how_Google_got_its_name\" >Google meaning: how Google got its name<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#Googles_mission\" >Google&#8217;s mission<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#Google_dictionary_definition_google_as_a_verb\" >Google dictionary definition: google as a verb<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#Fun_facts_about_Google_and_googol\" >Fun facts about Google and googol<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#Frequently_asked_questions\" >Frequently asked questions<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#What_does_Google_stand_for\" >What does Google stand for?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#Who_invented_the_word_googol\" >Who invented the word googol?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/05\/meaning-of-google-googol-1-followed-by-100-zeros\/#Is_a_googol_bigger_than_infinity\" >Is a googol bigger than infinity?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Googol_meaning_1_followed_by_100_zeros\"><\/span>Googol meaning: 1 followed by 100 zeros<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A googol is 10<sup>100<\/sup>, written out as:<\/p>\n<p><code>10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000<\/code><\/p>\n<p>Yes, that&#8217;s 100 zeros. The name was coined in 1920 by nine-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Milton_Sirotta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Milton Sirotta<\/a>, nephew of the American mathematician <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Edward_Kasner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Edward Kasner<\/a>. Kasner asked his nephews to suggest a name for a huge number, and Milton came up with &#8220;googol&#8221;. Kasner popularised it in his 1940 book <em>Mathematics and the Imagination<\/em>, written with James Newman.<\/p>\n<p>A googol is larger than the estimated number of atoms in the observable universe, which is around 10<sup>80<\/sup>. An even bigger number, the <strong>googolplex<\/strong>, is 10 to the power of a googol. Google&#8217;s headquarters in Mountain View, the <strong>Googleplex<\/strong>, is named after it.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Google_meaning_how_Google_got_its_name\"><\/span>Google meaning: how Google got its name<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Larry Page and Sergey Brin started their search engine at Stanford University in 1996 under the name <strong>BackRub<\/strong>, because it analysed backlinks to rank pages. In 1997 they wanted a name that showed the scale of what they were indexing, and googol was suggested.<\/p>\n<p>According to the popular story, when fellow student Sean Anderson checked whether the domain was available, he typed <strong>google.com<\/strong> instead of googol.com. Page liked the misspelling, and the domain google.com was registered on 15 September 1997. Google Inc. was founded in September 1998. Google&#8217;s own <a href=\"https:\/\/about.google\/our-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Our Story<\/a> page tells more of its history.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Googles_mission\"><\/span>Google&#8217;s mission<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Google&#8217;s mission is &#8220;to organize the world&#8217;s information and make it universally accessible and useful&#8221;. The googol name reflects that goal of handling a seemingly infinite amount of information. Since 2015, Google has been part of the parent company Alphabet (named partly as a play on &#8220;alpha bet&#8221;), as we covered when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2015\/08\/google-part-of-new-company-alphabet\/\">Google became part of Alphabet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Google_dictionary_definition_google_as_a_verb\"><\/span>Google dictionary definition: google as a verb<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Google became so popular that its name turned into a verb. In 2006, both the Oxford English Dictionary and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/google\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Merriam-Webster<\/a> added &#8220;google&#8221;, meaning to search for information about someone or something on the internet, usually with the Google search engine. People now say &#8220;just google it&#8221; rather than &#8220;search for it&#8221;, whether they&#8217;re looking for facts, images or directions.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Fun_facts_about_Google_and_googol\"><\/span>Fun facts about Google and googol<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Google&#8217;s first logo, in 1998, had an exclamation mark, like Yahoo!.<\/li>\n<li>Gmail launched on 1 April 2004 and many people thought it was an April Fools&#8217; joke.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Googol&#8221; is often misspelled as &#8220;google&#8221;, and the reverse happens too.<\/li>\n<li>Google handles billions of searches every day, still far short of a googol.<\/li>\n<li>Google\u2019s 404 and error pages once featured a broken robot, and its Easter eggs, like \u201cdo a barrel roll\u201d, are still hidden in search.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Frequently_asked_questions\"><\/span>Frequently asked questions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_does_Google_stand_for\"><\/span>What does Google stand for?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Google doesn&#8217;t stand for anything. It isn&#8217;t an acronym. The name comes from googol, the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Who_invented_the_word_googol\"><\/span>Who invented the word googol?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Nine-year-old Milton Sirotta came up with it in 1920, and his uncle, mathematician Edward Kasner, made it popular.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_a_googol_bigger_than_infinity\"><\/span>Is a googol bigger than infinity?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>No. A googol is a finite number, however huge. Infinity isn&#8217;t a number at all, and even a googolplex is finite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google meaning: what does the name Google mean, and where did the name come from? Google&#8217;s name comes from googol,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":59589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-google","tag-popular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63374,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/63374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}