51 Fascinating Facts About Google

Google hasn't only changed the way we search the web, it's changed the way we live, speak, even think.

More than 3.5 billion Google searches are conducted every day, spanning more than 150 languages and 190 countries. Gmail represents 53 percent of all email accounts in the U.S., more than every other service combined. Google Maps uses satellite, aerial and street-level imagery to chart 12 million miles of roads and deliver the best routes. And with Google Translate, lost tourists can hold up their phones and decipher signs in 20 different languages.

Archaeologists even discovered lost Egyptian pyramids using Google Earth.

That's not even considering the companies Google has bought: The company purchased YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Today, it's worth $100 billion and is the second-largest search engine in the world—after Google, of course.

Since Google snatched up Android in 2005 for an estimated $50 million, it can now determine traffic patterns by measuring how fast Android phones are moving on the road.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin started out modestly as Stanford Ph.D. students looking for a way to rank web pages based on how often other sites linked back to them. (They initially called the site "Backrub" but wisely incorporated as Google on September 4, 1998.) Today Brin and Page are worth billions, but they're not resting on their laurels. They're continuing to improve Google's search capabilities and find new ways for the company to change our lives.

Page has joked that if making money had been the object, "we would have sold the company a long time ago and ended up on a beach."

"Obviously, everyone wants to be successful," said Brin, "but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world."

How much do you really know about Google? Slide through to find out dozens of fascinating facts, plus some fun tips and tricks to using the the world's most popular website.