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Sergey Brin

Sergey Brin: The Mastermind Behind the Google Revolution

Sergey Brin: The Mastermind Behind the Google Revolution

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Sergey Brin, born on August 21, 1973, in Moscow, Russia, immigrated to the United States at the age of six. His family moved to escape Jewish persecution in the Soviet Union, settling in Maryland. Brin’s early education was influenced heavily by his father, a mathematics professor, and his mother, a researcher at NASA. This academic environment nurtured his passion for science and technology.

Brin attended the University of Maryland, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. His academic prowess earned him a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation, leading him to Stanford University for his Ph.D. in computer science.

The Birth of Google

Sergey Brin: The Mastermind Behind the Google Revolution

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While at Stanford, Brin met Larry Page, a fellow Ph.D. student. Their shared interest in the World Wide Web and a mutual curiosity about how information could be organized and retrieved more efficiently led them to collaborate on a research project. This project, initially named “Backrub,” analyzed the relationships between websites and ranked them based on the number of other sites linking to them.

Their research laid the foundation for a revolutionary search engine. In 1998, Brin and Page founded Google Inc. with the mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Google’s search algorithm, known for its precision and speed, quickly gained popularity, leading to the company’s exponential growth.

Innovation and Expansion

Under Brin and Page’s leadership, Google expanded far beyond its original search engine function. They introduced groundbreaking products such as Google AdWords, transforming online advertising, and Google Maps, revolutionizing navigation. In 2004, Google went public, solidifying its status as a tech giant.

Brin also played a pivotal role in Google’s ambitious projects, including Google Glass, an early venture into wearable technology, and Project Loon, aimed at providing internet access to remote areas via high-altitude balloons. His interest in futuristic technologies extended to his co-founding of Google X, a semi-secret research and development facility dedicated to “moonshot” projects.

Personal Life and Philanthropy

Beyond his professional achievements, Brin is known for his philanthropic efforts. He and Page established the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, named after Brin and his ex-wife Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe. The foundation focuses on supporting scientific research, education, and human rights initiatives.

Brin’s personal journey is also marked by his commitment to health and wellness. Diagnosed with a gene mutation that increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease, he has funded significant research into the disease, demonstrating his dedication to using his resources for the greater good.

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Legacy and Impact

Sergey Brin’s story is one of vision, innovation, and resilience. From an immigrant’s journey to co-founding one of the most influential technology companies in history, his impact on the digital world is profound. His relentless pursuit of knowledge and passion for technology continues to inspire aspiring entrepreneurs and technologists around the globe. Brin’s legacy is a testament to the power of curiosity and the transformative potential of innovation.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin : The Intellectual Friendship Behind Google

Founder, Google, start-up, Story, Tech Story / By

It is a bit difficult to imagine that a college research project can land you to own one of the biggest companies in the world. But, why not? If you are applying your knowledge and efforts in the right direction, unusual things can happen to you. Same goes for the success story of two college mates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who joined their hands for a college project and are now leading the most powerful company in the world together.

Early Life

Larry Page was born on March 26, 1973, to Carl Victor Page Sr., a computer science professor, and Gloria Page, a computer programming instructor. He lived with his parents and elder brother in East Lansing, Michigan. He grew among the people, who loved computers, and eventually, developed an interest in the same, at an early age. After graduating from East Lansing High School in 1991, he joined the University of Michigan, and did a degree in Computer Science, followed by a master’s degree in the same from Stanford University.

On the other hand, Sergey Brin was just 6 years old when his parents brought him to the US, from the Soviet Union, in 1978. At that time his family has faced a tough time. He joined the Montessori School in Adelphi, Maryland for some time, but left the school to continued his education at home. Later, in 1993, Brin attended the University of Maryland and received a Bachelor’s degree in Science. In 1994, he went to the Stanford University to study Computer Science.

The BackRub Project

After his post-graduation, Larry enrolled in the PhD program, at the Stanford University. At the time he became interested in exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web. Larry met Brin during the orientation program for the new students and became close friends.

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Brin was looking for a topic for his PhD thesis project and found Larry’s project the most convincing. He joined Larry for the research and both published a research paper, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine”. Ultimately they developed BackRub a web crawler to crawl the backlinks on the web, along with the PageRank algorithm.

In the beginning, both turned their hostel rooms into their lab and office, to create a search engine, based on the PageRank algorithm. The search engine became very popular among the internet users at the university. In 1996, they released the initial version of Google for the users at the Stanford University.

Founding Google

Page admits that he understood the importance of the project only in mid-1998. The popularity of the search engine made him buy more servers to handle the searches. Brin and Larry received their first investment from Andy Bechtolsheim, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, who wrote them a cheque in the name of Google, Inc., worth $100,000. At the time, they did not have a registered company with that name.

In 1998, they finally officially registered Google, Inc. as their company, Larry becoming the CEO of the company and Brin the President of the company. By June 2000, Google became the most comprehensive search engine, indexing one billion Internet URLs. It grabbed the attention of many angel capitalists and raised funding in millions.

New Ventures & Acquisition

In 2005, Google acquired Android for $50 million. This acquisition mainly aimed at the convenience for the user to use Google at any place at any time. In 2008, Larry and Brin with T-Mobile launched the first phone embedded with Android OS, named G1. By 2010, Android became the most popular OS for smartphones beating Apple’s iOS.

Following the lead of Facebook, the team launched a social media platform Google+. The most important products of Google includes the AdWords, YouTube and Gmail. It also owns the Google Chrome web browser and unveiled a Chromebook laptop in 2012. Google as a company has also launched a series of smartphones that are as popular as its rival companies Apple and Samsung.

Personal Life

Both Page and Brin, live in Palo Alto, California, U.S. Page is married to Lucinda Southworth since the year 2007 and have two children with her. Brin was married to Anne Wojcicki for 8 years (from 2007 to 2015). They also have two children together.

Currently, Page is serving as the chief executive officer and Brin is the President in the Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc, that they co-founded in 2015.