Curiosity

Curiosity is a funny thing. I think I am a curious person. I am interested in knowing things. I have always been that way. Often times when I am curious I ask questions.

I have never met Larry Page or Sergey Brin. These are not household names, but they have shaped the world in profound ways. They are meta-examples of curiosity.

It started in Stanford University where they were students. Two curious students who have gone on to establish the largest American company (by market capitalization) that is not part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

As of late June, 2008 their company had over 19,000 full time employees. Just 10 years earlier in 1998,they incorporated as a privately held company. 4 years ago in their initial public offering they raised nearly 2 billion dollars bringing their worth to 23 billion dollars.

Everyday they help satisfy my curiosity by steering me toward answers on their web site http://www.google.com/.

Their headquarters is called the Googleplex and is located in Mountain View, California.

I am curious.

I would have loved to have been there in the Stanford dorm room when Larry looked at Sergey and said, "Hey Serge...let's create an internet search, web based e-mail, online mapping, office productivity social networking and video sharing website."

"Say what?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about."

And the rest is history.

Everyday, Larry and Sergey make my job easier. I simply go to their website and ask a question. They are never busy, they never say, "that was a dumb question," they never make me feel stupid for posing questions.

I googled "Google" today during a break in the action. Here is what popped up on my screen..."Personalized Results (I like that phrase) 1-10 of about 2,730,000,000

Now I am really curious. How long would it take to get through all of those "Personalized Results?"

Fortunately, I do not have to sift through all of that, after all Larry and Sergey have 19,000 employees to care for the data.

My thanks goes to Larry and Sergey and the 19,000 employees at the Googleplex. These words that I am writing take the Personalized Results up to 2,730,000, 001.

Who says we can't make a difference? Just curious!