People are only just realizing what Google actually stands for after 26 years

Often hailed as the 'most powerful company in the world', Google's true meaning is a revelation to man y. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, computer scientists, launched Google in September 1998, revolutionizing internet usage.

Nowadays, "I Googled it" is a common phrase indicating how someone found out information, yet Google's scope extends beyond its search engine roots. It encompasses Gmail, YouTube, Workspace, and even its own tech products like Pixel phones, Pixel Watch, and Fitbit.

But even after 26 years since Google's inception, curiosity remains, with one Quora user recently asking: "Is Google an acronym? " The answer lies in a simple typo; Google is derived from 'Googol', which represents the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, chosen to symbolize their goal "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

• Barron Trump snubs father Donald in bold move that could impact presidential election
• Russia declares World War 3 in terrifying broadcast

Before becoming Google, the search engine was known as Backrub. According to a statement from Google: "The Google story begins in 1995 at Stanford University. Larry Page was considering Stanford for grad school and Sergey Brin, a student there, was assigned to show him around.

"By some accounts, they disagreed about nearly everything during that first meeting, but by the following year, they struck a partnership. Working from their dorm rooms, they built a search engine that used links to determine the importance of individual pages on the World Wide Web. They called this search engine Backrub. Soon after, Backrub was renamed Google (phew)," reports the Mirror .

For all the latest news straight to your inbox, sign up for our FREE newsletters here .

Despite this, some internet users argue Google stands for 'Global Organisation of Oriented Group Language of Earth'. However, this is considered to be false information due to the lack of evidence around the theory.

Commenting on the Quora user's post, one social media user said: "The name was chosen to signify the vast amount of information that the search engine can access. It is not an acronym formed from the initials of words." Another user added: "Google doesn't have any full form [but] many in the world assume and say Google stands for 'Global Organization of Oriented Language Experts."

For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here .