Page 176 - (DK) The Business Book
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174 SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
hen British computer world’s largest search engine.
IN CONTEXT scientist Tim Berners- By 2013, Google employed 30,000
W Lee harnessed the people worldwide, of whom around
FOCUS
Internet to develop the World Wide 53 percent worked in research and
Internet business
Web, he was simply creating a development, which may explain
KEY DATES way of sharing information. It was the company’s phenomenal growth.
1974 US computer scientists not viewed as a money-making
Vent Cerf and Bob Kahn exercise. However, the Internet’s Doing business on the web
design the first Transmission disruptive power soon became clear: As two-way communication over
Control Program, enabling it would change business and our the Internet became a reality
computers to talk to each other. way of life, enabling commerce to during the 1990s, organizations
be conducted by a profusion of began to see the potential offered
1977 The first electronic mail individuals and organizations. by the new e-commerce platform.
(“email”) is sent, via the US Early search engines were The first books were sold online
Department of Defense’s invented as an increasing amount in 1992, and in 1994 Pizza Hut in
ARPANET. of information became available on Santa Cruz, California enabled
the web. Larry Page and Sergey people to order a pizza delivery
1991 The World Wide Web
Brin, two US computer science via the Internet.
(WWW), the first widely
students, designed a search engine The idea of online selling took off
accessible system to share
that could quickly search all the in 1995 when Jeff Bezos dispatched
data files via the Internet, is
available documents and generate the first book sold by Amazon.com,
released by Tim Berners-Lee.
highly relevant results. In then located in his Seattle garage.
1993 Netscape launches September 1998 they set up a Around the same time, software
Mosaic, the first commercial work space in a friend’s garage and programmer Pierre Omidyar was
Internet browser. opened a bank account in the name starting a simple website called
of Google Inc. The soon-to-be giant AuctionWeb from his San Jose
2013 More than two million
company began, as Page said, with living room. The first product he
third-party sellers use Amazon
no more than “a computer and a posted for sale was a broken laser
to reach their customers. part-time person.” pointer. It sold for $14.83. Omidyar
Within a year Google had 40 recognized the Internet’s power to
employees, and in June 2000 reach individual customers,
announced its first billion-URL anywhere in the world, when he
index, making it officially the checked whether the buyer
Larry Page Born in 1973 in Michigan, created a search engine called
Lawrence (Larry) Page was BackRub, which operated on
exposed to computer technology Stanford servers until it outgrew
at an early age; his father was a their capacity. The pair worked
pioneer in computer science and together on a bigger and better
his mother taught computer version, which they named
programming. Page studied Google after the mathematical
engineering at the University of term “Googol”—the number 1
Michigan and then completed a followed by 100 zeros. Page and
Masters in computer engineering Brin were jointly awarded the
at Stanford University. Marconi Prize in 2004, and Page
On his first visit to the campus, was elected to the US National
Page was shown around by fellow Academy of Engineering in
postgraduate student Sergey Brin, 2004. Today Google is the
who would later be the co-founder world’s most popular search
of Google. During a research engine, handling more than 5
project in 1997, Page and Brin billion search queries every day.
