Lowey Bundy Sichol - From an Idea to Google: How Innovation at Google Changed the World

Copyright 2019 by Lowey Bundy Sichol

Illustrations copyright 2019 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Illustrations by C.S. Jennings

All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

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Cover design by Phil Caminiti

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Names: Sichol, Lowey Bundy, author.

Title: From an idea to Google / by Lowey Bundy Sichol.

Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2019] | Series: From an idea to... ; 4

Identifiers: LCCN 2018016633 | ISBN 9781328954916 (paper over board) | ISBN 9781328954923 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Google (Firm)Juvenile literature. | GoogleJuvenile literature. | Internet industryUnited StatesJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC HD9696.8.U64 G6666 2019 | DDC 338.7/61025040973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018016633

eISBN 978-0-358-05600-3
v1.0619

For everyone at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (past, present, and future).

A special thanks to Professor Kevin Lane Keller, who taught me at Tuck, employed me as a case writer, and has always provided unparalleled advice and guidance.

We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin

You probably use Google every day in one way or another. You undoubtedly look for information with Google Search. Maybe you also have a Gmail email account. You might post your schoolwork on Google Docs. And your parents probably get directions and check traffic through Google Maps.

Today, Google is the most popular website in the world. There are close to four million Google searches every minute, which comes out to over two trillion Google searches each year! And Google is much more than a search engineit owns more than a hundred different products that help make billions of peoples lives better and easier.

But before Google changed our lives, it was just an idea. An idea that two friends, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had while they were studying computer science at Stanford University. This is the story of Google and how it grew from an idea to the most valuable company in the world.

Larry Page was born on March 26, 1973, in East Lansing, Michigan, the hometown to Michigan State University. Larrys parents were dedicated and devoted to both Larry and his older brother, Carl Jr. They encouraged creativity and intellectual conversation, and they valued nothing more than a good education.

When I was younger and first started thinking about my future, I decided to either become a professor or start a company.Larry Page

Larrys father, Dr. Carl Page, was the first person in his family to graduate high school and attend college. A gifted mathematician, Carl studied engineering and was a pioneer in the field of computer science, earning one of the first computer science PhDs from the University of Michigan. Carl went on to teach computer science at Michigan State University.

Larrys mother, Gloria Page, was passionate about computer science as well. She taught computer programming at Lyman Briggs College, a residential college at Michigan State University.

As a child, Larry had the same distinctive characteristics he does todayshort, straight black hair, thick, dark eyebrows, and a big, toothy smile. Larry attended the Okemos Montessori School in Okemos, Michigan, where he had the freedom to self-direct his education and explore school subjects independently. The environment was perfect for quirky, quiet, and curious Larry.

Back at home, Larry was immersed in a world of computers. He explained, I was really lucky that my father was a computer science professor, which was unusual for someone my age. One day in 1978, Carl Page purchased and brought home the familys first computer, an Exidy Sorcerer. Larry remembers, It was huge, and it cost a lot of money, and we couldnt afford to eat well after that. As a young boy, Larry began experimenting with the Exidy Sorcerer. Larrys brother, Carl Jr., recalled, One of the early things I remember Larry doing was typing Frog and Toad Together into his computer, one word at a time.

As Larry got older, he became even more interested in computers. He started doing his homework on the familys latest computer and printing it out. His teachers were both amazed and confusedno child had ever done that before. When Carl Jr. came home from the University of Michigan with college-level computer homework, he let nine-year-old Larry help him try to solve it. Larry and Carl Jr. were a curious duo, often finding items in their house and taking them apart just to figure out how they worked. One day, Larry and Carl took apart all the familys power tools.

In addition to occasionally deconstructing power tools, Larry read books, as well as the computer, science, and technology magazines left around by his parents. When Larry was twelve years old, he read a book that brought him to tears, and would go on to make a big impact in his future. The book was about the brilliant inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla. Tesla was best known for inventing the alternating-current electrical system thats used today. However, Tesla never figured out how to create a sustainable business around his inventions and died with little money, fame, or success. Moved by Teslas tragic ending, Larry began to understand how innovation alone is not enough. The key to success was to combine innovative technologies with a successful business strategy.

Innovation: A revolutionary new way of doing something. This could be a new idea, a new method, or a new product.

Larry attended East Lansings MacDonald Middle School and then East Lansing High School. When he wasnt working hard at school or tinkering with computers, Larry enjoyed music. He played the saxophone and spent two summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts studying music composition. Over time, Larry developed a passion for time, rhythm, and speed in music, which eventually carried over to the way he thought about computing.