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June 15, 2007

Strange But True!

Q. Has the “Googol” search engine performed a google searches yet? Or should that be, Has the “Google” search engine performed a googol searches yet? And what are all these searches about anyway?

A. Googol is the fabulously Big number, 1 followed by 100 zeros, named by a relative of mathematician Edward Kasner, says John Battelle in “The Search.” But at barely 5 billion Google searches daily, don't expect a googol googlings anytime soon: Even at a billion every second since the birth of the universe 10 billion years ago, that would amount to only 1026 — that is, not even a bite out of a googol's 10100. Interestingly, the Google inventors confused the two words and thought they had chosen the name of the Big number for their new engine.


 
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