How six memorable tech companies got their names

Just imagine if instead of "Googling" something, you "BackRubbed" it.

Google Just imagine if instead of "Googling" something, you "BackRubbed" it.

Crazy as it sounds, it could have happened. When Larry Page and Sergey Brin first started working on their search engine at Stanford, the two dubbed the creation "BackRub." (I think it's best if we don't ask why.)

Depending upon whom you ask, Page and Brin accidentally misspelled the word, spelled it wrong on purpose, or spelled it wrong in order to cash a (figuratively speaking) googol-sized check. According to that last account, Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote Page and Brin a $100,000 check to help get their business started -- but he wrote it out to "Google" instead of "Googol." Page and Brin, as the story goes, incorporated their company with the unusual spelling as a result.

Of course, they might have just gone with Google because googol.com was already taken. The domain has been registered since 1995. According to current DNS records, it belongs to a "Mrs. Jello" of Livingston, New Jersey.

Don't believe me? Google it.

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