US-based computer scientist and entrepreneur Sergey Brin co-founded Google Inc. with Larry Page in 1998.
Prematurely leaving the Soviet Union, Brin settled in the United States.
Before deciding to get a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University, he majored in math and computer science.
Information retrieval from unstructured sources, web crawlers, and large data set mining were all of particular interest to him in his role as a researcher.
He worked with his coworker Larry Page on a research project.
The two individuals hit it off intellectually and immediately started testing their innovative search engine concepts on the school’s computers. The National Science Foundation funded their inaugural project, called “BackRub.”
PageRank, Google’s method for determining page rankings, was created by Brin and Page in tandem.
After their project operated effectively for many months on university computers, the pair decided to do business for themselves.
They put off getting their doctorates and launched Google Inc. in California with a $100,000 payment from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim.
Childhood & Early Life
In Moscow, Jewish parents Michael and Eugenia Brin gave birth to Sergey Brin. His father was a mathematics professor, while his mother was a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center researcher. In Maryland, Brin attended Paint Branch Montessori School. His family fled Russia when he was six years old since Jews couldn’t finish their education and pursue their intended careers in Moscow. His father required him to do his math homework at home. After high school, he studied mathematics and computer science at the University of Maryland. Thanks to a graduate grant from the National Science Foundation, he was able to enroll at Stanford University for his computer science doctoral studies.
Founding of Google Inc.
- While completing research for their thesis, Sergey Brin and Larry Page conceived about Google for the first time. Brin and Page want to understand more about the mathematical underpinnings of the World Wide Web.
- They began cooperating on the “BackRub” research project. Initially, a web crawler was used to search the Internet, beginning with the Stanford homepage. Page and Brin devised the PageRank algorithm. After studying BackRub’s output using this methodology, they determined that a search engine based on PageRank would provide superior results to the current approaches. They tested their idea by utilizing the computers at their university with success. Their experiment ran for many months on computers at Stanford. The endeavor first used the university’s website, which was located at google.stanford.edu.
- In 1997, they bought the domain name google.com. The company was founded on September 4, 1998, in a friend’s garage in Menlo Park, California. Andy Bechtolsheim, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, sent a $100,000 check to Google to provide the company with its inaugural cash. In 1999, the company employed eight people and moved to Palo Alto, California, a more conducive to its growth. The office complex is known as the “Googleplex.” Google became one of the fastest-growing online companies in the world in the years that followed by releasing several new features, purchasing several other internet businesses, and forging commercial alliances.
Major Works
- Sergey Brin’s greatest accomplishment to date is undoubtedly the launch of Google. He started the company with two other people back in 1998, and in that time, it has been very successful. Brin and Page have revolutionized the process of finding information on the web.
- org, the non-profit arm of Google, Inc., was founded in 2004 to tackle societal challenges. It develops tools to help in international efforts to improve areas, including education, the energy problem, hunger alleviation, and more.
Awards & Achievements
- Larry Page and Brin were included in the MIT Technology Review TR100 list of the top 100 innovators under age 35 in 2002.
- Brin and Page were national finalists for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2003 and award winners.
- They were awarded the Marconi Foundation Prize in 2004, the “Highest Award in Engineering,” and were chosen as Columbia University’s Marconi Foundation Fellows. The Foundation’s president, John Jay Iselin, complimented the two men on their innovation, which has significantly altered how information is accessed in the modern day.”
- At a ceremony in Chicago, Illinois, Brin and Larry Page both won the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award in 2004.
- Brin and Page were ranked fifth on Forbes’ list of the world’s most influential individuals in November 2009.
- Brin was honored with induction into the National Academy of Engineering in February of the same year. This award is among the highest professional distinctions given to an engineer and recognizes those who have made remarkable contributions to engineering research and practice. For his “leadership in the creation of quick indexing and retrieval of important information from the World Wide Web,” he was specially chosen.
- The National Science Foundation included several prior honors in their “Profiles” of Fellows: he spoke at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design Conference and the World Economic Forum. In the Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines list published by PC Magazine in 1998, Google received high marks. In 1999, Google also received the Technical Excellence Award for Innovation in Web Application Development. Awarded Outstanding Search Service, Best Image Search Engine, Best Design, Most Webmaster Friendly Search Engine, and Best Search Feature at the Search Engine Watch Awards in 2001, Google received a Webby Award and a People’s Voice Award for technological excellence in 2000.
- According to Forbes, as of May 2021, Brin has an estimated net worth of $95.6 billion, making him the ninth-richest person in the world.
Personal History and Legacy
- In 2007, Sergey Brin wed Anne Wojcicki, a co-founder of 23andMe. In 2008, the couple welcomed a boy, and in 2011, a daughter.
- Sergey Brin’s marriage was ruined due to an affair with Google Glass marketing manager Amanda Rosenberg. He and Anne split up in 2013 and divorced the following year.
- The Brin Wojcicki Foundation, which raises money for charitable projects, is headed by Sergey Brin and his ex-wife.
Trivia
The word “Gogool,” the greatest number, is a play on the name “Google.”
He has a mutation in the LRRK2 gene that makes him more likely to get Parkinson’s disease later in life.
He and Larry Page share ownership of a Dornier Alpha Jet and a modified Boeing 767-200.
