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On January 25, 2006, Google, Inc. announced that it would provide access to the internet in China through a new portal: Google.cn. At the same time, Google executives agreed to censor all search results that included content considered objectionable by the Chinese Government. This decision was announced in the wake of Google's recent refusal to provide user information to the US Government case against child pornography.
Wall Street's response confirmed the profit potential of the venture, as the company's share price rose 3.6 percent in just one day ([18] Ottawa Citizen , 2006). However, the company's announcement brought strong reaction from the press and human rights organizations as well. Within days, headlines across the USA and around the world accused Google of abandoning its principles in pursuit of profit.
Two kids in a sand box
As a graduate student at Stanford University, Sergey Brin led a tour for a prospective classmate, Larry Page. Both were strong-willed and very opinionated and disliked each other immediately. Soon, however, they were practically inseparable because of a shared interest in technology. For years, the two PhD students in computer science worked to develop a search engine they believed would revolutionize the use of the internet. One of Page's Stanford professors literally laughed at his assertion that he could change the way early search engines were working.
By 1998, the duo founded a company known as BackRub, a name meant to reflect the technology's use of backward links to find useful websites. BackRub operated out of a dorm room until the duo received their first investment, a check for $100,000 from an angel investor. Within two weeks, they rented out space in a friend's garage and officially founded Google, Inc. By definition, Google refers to the number one followed by 100 zeros and was meant to represent the vast amount of data available on the internet. The company was founded with a mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useable."[1]
By 1999, less than one year later, Page and Brin had secured more than $25 million in venture capital funds. Google had grown to just over 60 employees, and began to develop its own unique culture. During that same year, the company relocated to the...