LARRY PAGE; A computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur.

Larry Page, born as Lawrence Page, is an American entrepreneur and computer scientist who, along with Sergey Brin, co-founded Google Inc., the search engine giant that offers a wide range of internet products and services. Google initiated as an online search firm and gradually expanded its operations to other internet related areas. As the son of computer professionals, Larry’s fascination with computers started at an early age. As a child, he showed a keen interest in technology, business, and innovation

While studying Computer Science at Stanford University, he met Sergey Brin with whose assistance he created a search engine that returned results based on relevancy. Larry and Brin launched the company under the name ‘Google Inc’ in 1998. They both served as co-presidents until 2001 when Eric Schmidt was appointed as Chairman and CEO of Google. In 2011, Larry officially became the CEO of Google, while Schmidt continues to serve as executive chairman. Larry is also a member of the Board of Directors of the company. He has an interest in renewable energy technology and philanthropy. Google.org, the philanthropic branch of the company, was set up in 2004. It basically deals with issues of climate change and renewable energy.

During his Ph.D. at Stanford, he met fellow researcher Sergey Brin while working on a research project in 1995. By 1996 they had built a search engine – initially called ‘BackRub.’ It was operated on Stanford servers for many months.

Larry and Brin decided to incorporate their project as a company. Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim played a significant role in financing the company as he wrote a check for $100,000 to the entity that had not even come into existence as yet.
In September 1998, the project, now renamed as ‘Google,’ was officially incorporated as a company. Eric Schmidt was appointed as the CEO in 2001, while Page and Brin became the presidents of products and technology, respectively.

In 2004, Google launched Orkut, a social networking site, and introduced Google Desktop search. The same year, Google held its Initial Public Offering (IPO), which made Page and Brin billionaires. The philanthropic wing of Google, Google.org, was formed to contribute towards social issues and causes.
The year 2005 was quite productive for Google. Google Maps, Blogger Mobile, Google Reader, and iGoogle were released that year. The next year, Google acquired Youtube and introduced the chat feature in Gmail.
Google entered into a partnership with China Mobile and Salesforce.com in 2007. The company also signed partnerships to make Google Apps for Education freely available to thousands of students in Kenya and Rwanda.
In 2008, Google launched Google Sites and a new version of Google Earth. Google Health, a personal health information centralization service, was also released in the same year, but the service was discontinued in 2011 when it was unable to achieve the desired impact.

iCase for Mac was launched in January 2009, followed by Google Latitude and the latest version of Google Earth. Google Ventures, a venture capital fund for supporting new technology companies, was also introduced the same year.
In 2010, Google acquired Aardvark and Picnik. The Google Apps Marketplace, a new online store for integrated business applications, was launched to enable customers to easily manage cloud applications.
In January 2011, Larry Page was made the CEO. Eric Schmidt, the former CEO, continues to serve the company as Executive Chairman. Google acquired Admeld and Zagat intending to provide improvised services to its clients.

Larry Page’s most prominent work is the formation of Google. Google, founded in 1998, is the world’s leading search engine, serving millions of users worldwide. Besides search, Google offers many other products and services like Gmail, Blogger, Google Maps, Picasa, etc.
The charitable arm of the company, Google.org, was formed in 2004. The organization is dedicated to finding technological solutions to help address global challenges like hunger and poverty.
In 2002, Page and Brin were named in the MIT Technology Review TR100 for being among the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
The World Economic Forum named Page as a Global Leader for Tomorrow in 2002.

Larry and Brin received the prestigious Marconi Foundation Prize (2004), which is given to honor significant contributions in science and technology. They were also elected Fellow of the Marconi Foundation at Columbia University.

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Aniqa Mazhar

Aniqa Mazhar is a graduate of QAU in Biochemistry. She has taught sciences to O levels and is currently planning for her MS in Food Technology. Aniqa’s hobbies are reading, watching movies, writing, calligraphy, long walks, and nature photography.

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