10 Neat Facts About Google Posted by Alex in Blog & Internet, Neatorama Only on November 3, 2009 at 3:44 am
Sure, everybody knows that Google was created by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin who became gazillionaires. But did you know that Google's first storage device was cobbled together with LEGO? Or that Google's first investor wrote a $100,000 check even before the company officially existed? Or that it has its own 「official」 Google dog?
大家都知道Google是由史丹佛大學博士生Larry Page和Sergey Brin創建的，他們現在都成了百億富翁。但你知道Google的第一台儲存設備是與樂高積木一起拼起來的嗎？或你知道早在公司正式成立前，Google的第一位投資者寫了張10萬美金的支票？且Google有一條Google狗？
Neatorama presents the Top 10 Neat Facts About Google:
趣聞部落格將為你列出十個Google鮮為人知的歷史趣事：
1. Before Google, There Was BackRub
In 1996, graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked on a research project to understand the link structure of the World Wide Web. They're particularly interested in determining the importance of a given web page based on its backlinks or how many other web pages link to it (which later became the concept behind Google's 「PageRank」 algorithm). The project was named BackRub (yes, a play on the word 「backlink」).
1. Google的前身是Backrub。
在1996年，Larry Page和Sergey Brin兩位研究生研究著網際網路的連接結構，他們特別感興趣於根據其反向連接或多少互連網頁來決定特定網頁的重要性，這個研究實際上成為後來Google「PageRank」算法的重要概念。其研究項目命名為 Backrub，是對 Backlink 的一個惡搞。
2. The Original Google Computer Storage
Larry and Sergey needed large amount of disk space to test their PageRank algo, but the largest hard disks available at the time were only 4 GB. So they assembled 10 of these drives together.
While he was an undergrad at Michigan University, Larry had built a programmable plotter out of LEGO, so it's only natural that he used the colorful bricks to create Google's first computer storage!
2. Google電腦最原始的儲存設備
Larry Page和Sergey Brin需要大量的儲存空間來測試他們的PageRank算法，但是那時最大的硬碟容量僅為4G。於是他們把10個這樣的硬碟組合在一起，這便是1996年時Google的第一個計電腦存儲設備。
然而Larry還只是密西根大學的研究生，他在樂高積木中建造了一個可程式化的繪圖儀器，很自然地用彩色磚塊來創建 Google 第一台電腦儲存設備。
3. Google's First Investor
Sun Microsystem co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim knew a good thing when he saw it. After talking to Larry and Sergey about Google for 30 minutes, he whipped out his checkbook and wrote a check for $100,000, made out to 「Google, Inc.」 Problem was, Google, Inc. hasn't existed yet!
Oh, by the way, the Sun in Sun Microsystem stands for 「Stanford University Network.」
3. Google的第一個投資者
當Sun系統的共同創始人Andy Bechtolsheim 看見Google時，就知道它很有前景。在和Larry Page和Sergey Brin就Google談了30分鐘後，他就寫了張給 「Google, Inc.」的10萬美元的支票，而事實上，Google, Inc. 這一名稱那時還不存在呢！
喔！順道一提的是，Sun 系統的 Sun 是「Stanford University Network.」的縮寫。
4. Google Garage
Talk about getting lucky tenants. In 1998, Susan Wojcicki rented her garage to two Stanford students – you know who they are – for $1,700 a month to help out with the mortgage. That turned out to be a life-changing decision for Susan – it got her a key early job at Google which translated to a top executive position later on, introduced a future husband to her younger sister Anne, and created a mini cottage industry for the rest of her family.
In 2006, Google bought the house which had become a tourist attraction (the busloads of people who show up to take pictures were so annoying that Google decided not to publish the address – though ironically, you can still Google Map it.)
4. Google車庫
說到獲得幸運房客，在1998年，Susan Wojcicki 把她的車庫租給了兩位史丹佛的學生，你知道是誰，Larry Page和Sergey Brin，用每月的1700美元租金用來支付房貸。Susan 的這一舉動改變了她一生的命運，她隨後不久在Google有了關鍵性工作的職位，後來成 了頂級行政人員，並且還給她妹妹Ann介紹了一個未來的丈夫，還為她家庭的其他成員創立了一個小型房產企業。
在2006年，Google買下了那所房子，現在已經成了一個旅遊景點 。（由於大量的觀光客相當煩人，Google決定不公佈它的地址，但諷刺的是，你依然可以使用Google 地圖找到它。）
5. Google's First Dog
Despite the Internet's obsession with cats, dogs rule Google. In 1999, a Leonberger breed named Yoshka came to work with Google's first VP of Engineering Urs Hölzle and became the company's 「first」 dog.
If you must know, Leonbergers are big dogs with lionesque mane that look really majestic. They are, however, useless as guard dogs because they're much too kind and gentle.
5. Google的第一隻狗
在Google裡，狗是老大。在1999年，一條叫Yoshka的蘭伯格犬和Google的第一個工程副總裁Urs Hölzle一起來到Google上班，並且成為了Google的第一隻狗。
而蘭柏格犬是有著獅子般的鬃毛，看起來非常威嚴，真的，然而他們太溫柔太紳士了，以至於是相當無用的看守犬。
6. Just How Many Servers Does Google Have?
Good question. Nobody outside the company knows, and Google ain't talkin'. The company's famously secretive when it comes to its data centers (Heck, no one even knows for sure how many data centers the company has!)
Recently, Google Fellow Jeff Dean gave a revealing talk on large-scale computing systems in which he discussed technical details of a new storage and computation system called Spanner, which is designed for up to 10 million servers. Skynet, anyone?
6. Google到底有多少伺服器？
好問題。Google公司外沒有人知道Google究竟有多少伺服器，Google也從來不談論這個話題。公司最著名的秘密當屬數據中心，沒有人知道他們究竟有多少個數據中心。
近來，Google的員工Jeff Dean在討論叫做Spanner的新計算和儲存系統的技術細節時，透漏了這個系統是為1千萬個伺服器等級來設計的。天網，還有嗎？
