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All about USA 4, Unit 19, The Google Guys, SKIMMING FOR MAIN IDEAS

Quickly read to find the main idea of each paragraph, and then choose the letter of the best answer. The Google Guys -1- In 1996, two graduate students at Stanford University had a grand dream. Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to make information available to everybody, so they started a research project. Two years later, they started a company in a friend's garage. Today they are billionaires, and that company is Google. -2- Google is a search engine—a way of searching for information on the Internet. In 1996, there were a few search engines. Page and Brin believed they had a better technique to search the web, so they created Google. Google comes from the word googol, which is a 1 with 100 zeros after it. Everybody loved Google because it was fast and easy to use. More and more people began to use it, and the company grew quickly. Eventually, so many people used Google that in 2006 the verb "google" was added to the dictionary. Today, 70 to 80 percent of computer users use Google, and the Google search engine receives about a billion search requests a day. -3- Sergey Brin was born in Moscow, Russia, in August 1973. His family immigrated to the United States when he was six and settled in Maryland. Brin was interested in computers and math from a very young age, and his parents encouraged him. His father was a mathematics professor, and his mother worked for NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). In school, Brin was a star in the chess club and math team, but he also loved to have fun and play jokes on people. He received a Bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Maryland. He then went to Stanford and earned his Master's degree. From there, he entered Stanford's Ph.D. program. The rest is history -4- Larry Page was born in Lansing, Michigan, in March 1973. His parents were both computer scientists. As a boy, Page idolized Nikola Tesla, the inventor of the AC (alternating current) electrical system. He says he fell in love with computers at age six. He was a brilliant boy and was often smarter than even his best teachers. Everyone knew he would do something great one day. Page got a Bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan. He earned a Master's from Stanford before entering their Ph.D. program. When Page and Brin met, they didn't like each other very much, but soon they realized that they had an interest in common—making a better search engine. -5- Google's headquarters are in Mountain View, California. There are several buildings called "the Googleplex." Page and Brin didn't want their company to be like other big corporations. Their motto was "Do no evil." They didn't want the company to hurt people or the planet in any way. For example, the company uses solar energy—power from the sun—for its electricity. The main lobby of the headquarters is decorated with a piano and colorful lamps from the 1960s. The hallways are full of toys and sports equipment, such as exercise balls and bicycles. All the employees can use the company recreational facilities. There are exercise rooms, video games, and a roller rink. There's a pool table, Foosball, Ping-Pong, and even a baby grand piano! There are also free snacks and cereals, juices, sodas, and coffee. -6- Page and Brin never believed in a strict and formal atmosphere. If you visited Googleplex, you would see employees playing games and having fun. Of course, they also do work! But all Google engineers are encouraged to spend one day a week on any project that interests them. This has actually worked out very well for the company. Engineers created several new Google services during these times off. -7- Google also has a tradition of playing April Fool's jokes.* In 2002, they claimed that pigeons** were the secret behind their successful search engine. In 2004, they put up Google Lunar, which advertised jobs on the moon. In 2005, they advertised a new drink called Google Gulp that was supposed to improve the brain. Every year there is a clever new joke. One year, around the first of April, they brought out a new e-mail service called Gmail. Everyone thought it was a joke! -8- The success of Google and its founders is no joke, however. Google continues to grow and has bought several smaller companies. It continues to improve on products and services, and it goes on creating new ones, such as Google News, Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Video, and many more. Page and Brin, the "wonder boys," are now among the richest men in the world. Nevertheless, you can still catch Page going to work on his in-line skates or snapping together a robot with his Lego bricks. You can still see Brin with a mischievous look in his eye, thinking up a clever new trick.

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