Larry Page, born in East Lansing in 1973, is an American computer engineer and businessman who co-founded Google.
In collaboration with Russian-born American computer scientist and businessman Sergey Brin, Page created Google, which today is the world’s leading search engine. Page is also CEO of the technology company Alphabet.
Larry Page’s early interest in computers and business
Larry Page was born in the town of East Lansing in 1973. His parents were university professors of Computer Science at the University of Michigan.
A deep interest in technology soon arose in him. In fact, the biography of the inventor Nikola Tesla had a special impact on his way of understanding technology. Thus, Tesla became a source of inspiration for Page, who admired him for his creativity and his way of commercializing technology.
So Larry Page continued his studies, graduating from the University of Michigan and earning his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Precisely, in 1995, during his university period at Stanford, he met Sergey Brin, together with whom he would create Google.
The original idea of Google sprung up in Page’s mind when, one day, upon waking up abruptly from a dream, a doubt assailed him: was it possible to download the entire web?
The concern spurred Page and together with his partner Brin they began to work on BackRub, which would eventually become the Google search engine. Both computer scientists intended to create an easy-to-use search engine that would group information in an orderly manner.
The key to Page and Brin’s success lay in an algorithm they called Page Rank. Shortly after, the popularity of Google would increase until reaching spectacular quotas. In fact, Google’s growth would not have been possible without the $100,000 contribution from Andy Bechtolsheim, thanks to which they were able to acquire new servers.
The name of Google, founded in 1998, is due to the fact that it bears a certain resemblance to “Gúgol” which means 10 raised to 100. Both partners had to organize an enormous amount of information structured in ones and zeros.
Google’s success
Brin and Page continued their Google business venture, serving as president and CEO, respectively. By June 2000, the popular search engine had become the most complete on the web.
Such success eventually attracted the attention and investment of Silicon Valley companies. Thus, the new investors would appoint Eric Schmidt as the new CEO due to his broader professional career.
Under Eric Schmidt’s leadership, Google experienced tremendous growth and in 2005 acquired Android for $50 million. In this way, the company would end up creating the first software for mobile phone devices.
The wide acceptance of Android made its software become the main mobile operating system. Such was the popularity that Android was positioned ahead of the prestigious Apple in the mobile phone market.
However, in 2011, after the departure of Eric Schmidt, Larry Page returned to being the CEO of the Google company. Thus, with Page taking the helm of the company, his staff turned to the development of Google, YouTube and AdWords. Also under the direction of Page in 2011 the social network Google Plus was created.
Page and Brin’s company not only opted for social networks, but also launched new products in the hardware area. This is how Chromebook emerged, a laptop designed to operate with Google’s own software.
However, in 2014, Page decided to leave his position as CEO of Google and take on an advisory role. In fact, Google ended up being a subsidiary under the protection of the Alphabet company of which Larry Page was its executive director (until December 2019).
As CEO of the technology company Alphabet, Page was primarily concerned with researching new technologies and selecting and recruiting new talent.
