Elvie #109
Apr09
on April 9, 2025
at 3:30 pm
This strip first appeared in issue #269 of Linux Magazine. This is a bit of speculative fiction that looks at the naming of Google, and wonders if there might have been some other reason for that choice, apart from the one usually cited.
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↓ Transcript
[Panel 1, caption: "The Legend": Young versions of Larry Page and Sergey Brin are shown creating their infamous website. They're smartly dressed, with a poster of Einstein on the wall]
Larry: We should name our new search engine "googol" -- it's the name of a huge mathematical quantity… suggesting we're indexing a massive amount of the web
Sergey: I've just registered google.com
[Panel 2, caption: "The Reality": Similar setup, except that they're now 'frat boys', drinking beer, with posters of sports and a bikini-clad woman on the wall]
Larry: Let's be honest -- our new search engine will mostly be used for finding porn to ogle at. We should give it a name to
reflect that
Sergey: Well then, how about "go, ogle"?
Larry: We should name our new search engine "googol" -- it's the name of a huge mathematical quantity… suggesting we're indexing a massive amount of the web
Sergey: I've just registered google.com
[Panel 2, caption: "The Reality": Similar setup, except that they're now 'frat boys', drinking beer, with posters of sports and a bikini-clad woman on the wall]
Larry: Let's be honest -- our new search engine will mostly be used for finding porn to ogle at. We should give it a name to
reflect that
Sergey: Well then, how about "go, ogle"?
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