Lawrence Edward Page
(born March 26, 1973) is an American businessman, computer engineer and computer scientist best known for co-founding
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
with
Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (; born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and businessman who co-founded Google with Larry Page. He was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on D ...
.
Page was chief executive officer of
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
from 1997 until August 2001 when he stepped down in favor of
Eric Schmidt
Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and former computer engineer who was the chief executive officer of Google from 2001 to 2011 and the company's chairman, executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. He also was the ...
, and then again from April 2011 until July 2015 when he became CEO of its newly formed parent organization
Alphabet Inc.
Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...
He held that post until December 4, 2019, when he and Brin stepped down from all executive positions and day-to-day roles within the company. He remains an Alphabet board member, employee, and controlling shareholder.
Page has an estimated net worth of $159 billion as of June 2025, according to the
''Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', and $148 billion according to ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'', making him the seventh-richest person in the world.
He has also invested in flying car startups
Kitty Hawk and Opener.
Page is the co-creator and namesake of
PageRank
PageRank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results. It is named after both the term "web page" and co-founder Larry Page. PageRank is a way of measuring the importance of website pages. Accordin ...
, a
search ranking algorithm for Google for which he received the
Marconi Prize
The Marconi Prize is an annual award recognizing achievements and advancements made in field of communications (radio, mobile, wireless, telecommunications, data communications, networks, and Internet). The prize is awarded by the Marconi Society ...
in 2004 along with co-writer
Brin.
Early life
Lawrence Edward Page was born on March 26, 1973, in
Lansing, Michigan
Lansing () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County, Michigan, Eaton County and nort ...
.
His mother is
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
;
his maternal grandfather later
immigrated
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...
to
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
,
though Page's household while growing up was secular.
His father, Carl Victor Page Sr., earned a PhD in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
from the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
reporter Will Smale described him as a "pioneer in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
and
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
". Page's paternal grandparents came from a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
background. Page's father was a
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
professor at
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
and his mother Gloria was an instructor in
computer programming
Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of proc ...
at
Lyman Briggs College
The Lyman Briggs College (LBC) is a residential college located at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. Established as a residential college in 1967, Lyman Briggs was a residential school within the College of Natura ...
at the same institution.
Larry's parents divorced when he was eight years old, but he maintained a good relationship both with his mother Gloria and his father's long-term partner and MSU professor Joyce Wildenthal.
When Larry Page was six years old, in 1979, his father brought home an
Exidy Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a home computer system released in 1978 by the video game company Exidy, of Sunnyvale, California, and later marketed as a small business computer system under their Exidy Systems subsidiary. Based on the Zilog Z80 and the general ...
computer, which Larry soon mastered and began using for schoolwork.
During an interview, Page recalled his childhood home "was usually a mess, with computers, science, and technology magazines and ''
Popular Science
Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...
'' magazines all over the place", an environment in which he immersed himself. Page was an avid reader during his youth, writing in his 2013 Google founders letter: "I remember spending a huge amount of time pouring
icover books and magazines". According to writer Nicholas Carlson, the combined influence of Page's home atmosphere and his attentive parents "fostered creativity and invention". Page also played instruments and studied
music composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...
while growing up. His parents sent him to music summer camp—
Interlochen Arts Camp
Interlochen Center for the Arts ( '; also known as I.C.A. or Inty) is a non-profit corporation which operates arts education institutions and performance venues. Established in 1928 by Joseph E. Maddy, Interlochen Center for the Arts is loc ...
in
Interlochen, Michigan
Interlochen ( ') is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Grand Traverse County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the population was 694, up from 583 at the 2010 census. The community is located w ...
, and Page has mentioned that his musical education inspired his impatience and obsession with speed in computing. "In some sense, I feel like music training led to the high-speed legacy of Google for me". In an interview Page said that "In music, you're very cognizant of time. Time is like the primary thing" and that "If you think about it from a music point of view, if you're a percussionist, you hit something, it's got to happen in
milliseconds
A millisecond (from '' milli-'' and second; symbol: ms) is a unit of time in the International System of Units equal to one thousandth (0.001 or 10−3 or 1/1000) of a second or 1000 microseconds.
A millisecond is to one second, as one second i ...
, fractions of a second".
Page was first attracted to computers when he was six years old, as he was able to "play with the stuff lying around"—first-generation personal computers—that had been left by his mother and father.
He became the "first kid in his elementary school to turn in an assignment from a
word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features.
Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...
".
[ His older brother Carl Victor Page Jr. also taught him to take things apart and before long he was taking "everything in his house apart to see how it worked". He said that "from a very early age, I also realized I wanted to invent things. So I became interested in technology and business. Probably from when I was 12, I knew I was going to start a company eventually."]
Education
Page attended Okemos Montessori
The Montessori method of education is a type of educational method that involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing ...
School (now called Montessori Radmoor) in Okemos, Michigan
Okemos ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Ingham County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population of the CDP was 25,121 at the 2020 census. Okemos is part of the urban area of Lansing–East Lansing, and is located nearby the campus ...
, from ages two to seven (1975 to 1979). He attended East Lansing High School
East Lansing High School is a public high school in the city of East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It is managed by the East Lansing Public Schools district.
The school is located about a mile north of the Michigan State University campu ...
, graduating in 1991. In summer school, he attended Interlochen Center for the Arts
Interlochen Center for the Arts ( '; also known as I.C.A. or Inty) is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit corporation which operates Visual arts education, arts education institutions and Music venue, performance venues. Established in 1928 b ...
at Interlochen, Michigan
Interlochen ( ') is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Grand Traverse County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the population was 694, up from 583 at the 2010 census. The community is located w ...
, playing flute but mainly saxophone for two summers.
Page received a Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
with a major in computer engineering
Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software.
It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science.
Computer engi ...
with honors from the University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in 1995 and a Master of Science
A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...
in computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
from Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
in 1998.
While at the University of Michigan, Page created an inkjet printer
Inkjet printing is a type of printer (computing), computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper or plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range f ...
made of Lego
Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...
bricks (literally a line plotter), after he thought it possible to print large posters cheaply with the use of inkjet cartridges—Page reverse-engineer
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...
ed the ink cartridge
An ink cartridge or inkjet cartridge is a component of an inkjet printer that contains ink to be deposited onto paper during printing. It consists of one or more ink reservoirs and can include Inkjet printer#Underlying business model, electronic ...
and built the electronics
Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...
and mechanics
Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...
to drive it. Page served as the president of the Beta Epsilon chapter of the Eta Kappa Nu
Eta Kappa Nu () or IEEE-HKN is the international honor society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Joining HKN is by invitation only. Membership is a lifelong designation for individuals who have distinguished them ...
honor society, and was a member of the 1993 "Maize & Blue" University of Michigan Solar Car team. As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, he proposed that the school replace its bus system with a personal rapid-transit system, which is essentially a driverless monorail
A monorail is a Rail transport, railway in which the track consists of a single rail or beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, the term refers to the style ...
with separate cars for every passenger. He also developed a business plan for a company that would use software to build a music synthesizer
Algorithmic composition is the technique of using algorithms to create music.
Algorithms (or, at the very least, formal sets of rules) have been used to compose music for centuries; the procedures used to plot voice-leading in Western counterpo ...
during this time.
PhD studies and research
After enrolling in a computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
PhD program at Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, Page was in search of a dissertation theme and considered exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...
, understanding its link structure as a huge graph
Graph may refer to:
Mathematics
*Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges
**Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties
*Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discret ...
. His supervisor, Terry Winograd
Terry Allen Winograd (born February 24, 1946) is an American computer scientist. He is a professor at Stanford University, and co-director of the Stanford Human–Computer Interaction Group. He is known within the philosophy of mind and artificia ...
, encouraged him to pursue the idea, and Page recalled in 2008 that it was the best advice he had ever received. He also considered doing research on telepresence
Telepresence is the appearance or sensation of a person being present at a place other than their true location, via telerobotics or video.
Telepresence requires that the users' senses interact with specific stimuli in order to provide the feeli ...
and self-driving car
A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. They are sometimes called robotaxis, though this term refers specifica ...
s during this time.
Page focused on the problem of finding out which web pages linked to a given page, considering the number and nature of such backlinks as valuable information for that page. The role of citation
A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose o ...
s in academic publishing
Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes Research, academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or Thesis, theses. The part of academic written output that is n ...
would also become pertinent for the research. Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (; born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and businessman who co-founded Google with Larry Page. He was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on D ...
, a fellow Stanford PhD student, would soon join Page's research project, nicknamed " BackRub." Together, the pair authored a research paper titled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertext
Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typic ...
ual Web Search Engine", which became one of the most downloaded scientific documents in the history of the Internet at the time.
John Battelle
John Linwood Battelle (born November 4, 1965) is an entrepreneur, author and journalist. Best known for his work creating media properties, Battelle helped launch ''Wired'' in the 1990s and launched '' The Industry Standard ''during the dot-com ...
, co-founder of ''Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
'' magazine, wrote that Page had reasoned that:
" heentire Web was loosely based on the premise of citation—after all, what is a link but a citation? If he could devise a method to count and qualify each backlink on the Web, as Page puts it "the Web would become a more valuable place.""
Battelle further described how Page and Brin began working together on the project:
"At the time Page conceived of BackRub, the Web comprised an estimated 10 million documents, with an untold number of links between them. The computing resources required to crawl such a beast were well beyond the usual bounds of a student project. Unaware of exactly what he was getting into, Page began building his crawler. The idea's complexity and scale lured Brin to the job. A polymath
A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
who had jumped from project to project without settling on a thesis topic, he found the premise behind BackRub fascinating. "I talked to lots of research groups" around the school, Brin recalls, "and this was the most exciting project, both because it tackled the Web, which represents human knowledge, and because I liked Larry.""
Search engine development
To convert the backlink data gathered by BackRub's web crawler
Web crawler, sometimes called a spider or spiderbot and often shortened to crawler, is an Internet bot that systematically browses the World Wide Web and that is typically operated by search engines for the purpose of Web indexing (''web spider ...
into a measure of importance for a given web page, Brin and Page developed the PageRank algorithm, and realized that it could be used to build a search engine
A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...
far superior to existing ones. The algorithm relied on a new technology that analyzed the relevance of the backlink
From the point of view of a given web resource (referent), a backlink is a regular hyperlink on another web resource (the referrer) that points to the referent. A ''web resource'' may be (for example) a website, web page, or web directory.
A ba ...
s that connected one web page to another.[Moschovitis Group. ''The Internet: A Historical Encyclopedia'', ABC-CLIO, 2005.]
Combining their ideas, the pair began utilizing Page's dormitory room as a machine laboratory, and extracted spare parts from inexpensive computers to create a device that they used to connect the now nascent search engine with Stanford's broadband campus network. After filling Page's room with equipment, they then converted Brin's dorm room into an office and programming center, where they tested their new search engine designs on the Web. The rapid growth of their project caused Stanford's computing infrastructure to experience problems.
Page and Brin used the former's basic HTML
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...
programming skills to set up a simple search page for users, as they did not have a web page developer to create anything visually elaborate. They also began using any computer part they could find to assemble the necessary computing power to handle searches by multiple users. As their search engine grew in popularity among Stanford users, it required additional server
Server may refer to:
Computing
*Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides requested information for other programs or devices, called clients.
Role
* Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending custome ...
s to process the queries. In August 1996, the initial version of Google, still on the Stanford University website, was made available to Internet users.
By early 1997, the BackRub page described the state as follows:
BackRub already exhibited the rudimentary functions and characteristics of a search engine: a query input was entered and it provided a list of backlinks ranked by importance. Page recalled: "We realized that we had a querying tool. It gave you a good overall ranking of pages and ordering of follow-up pages." Page said that in mid-1998 they finally realized the further potential of their project: "Pretty soon, we had 10,000 searches a day. And we figured, maybe this is real."
Page and Brin's vision has been compared to that of Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who invented the movable type, movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's inven ...
, the inventor of modern printing:
"In 1440, Johannes Gutenberg introduced Europe to the mechanical printing press, printing Bibles for mass consumption. The technology allowed for books and manuscripts – originally replicated by hand – to be printed at a much faster rate, thus spreading knowledge and helping to usher in the European Renaissance ..Google has done a similar job."
The comparison was also noted by the authors of ''The Google Story'': "Not since Gutenberg ..has any new invention empowered individuals, and transformed access to information
Access may refer to:
Companies and organizations
* ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network
* Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom
* Access Co., a Japanese software company
* Access International Advisors, a h ...
, as profoundly as Google." Also, not long after the two "cooked up their new engine for web searches, they began thinking about information that was at the time beyond the web" such as digitizing books and expanding health information.
Google
1998–2000
Founding
Mark Malseed wrote in a 2003 feature story
A feature story is a piece of non-fiction writing about news covering a single topic in detail. A feature story is a type of soft news, primarily focused on entertainment rather than a higher level of professionalism. The main subtypes are ...
:"Soliciting funds from faculty members, family and friends, Brin and Page scraped together enough to buy some servers and rent that famous garage in Menlo Park
Menlo Park may refer to:
Places
*Menlo Park, New Jersey, a section of Edison, New Jersey, location of Thomas Edison's laboratories
**Menlo Park Mall, a shopping mall in Edison
**Menlo Park Terrace, New Jersey, a section of nearby Woodbridge Townsh ...
. oon after Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim
Andreas Maria Maximilian Freiherr von Mauchenheim genannt Bechtolsheim (born 30 September 1955) is a German electrical engineer, entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 and was its chief hardware designer. he's 68th w ...
wrote a $100,000 cheque to "Google, Inc." The only problem was, "Google, Inc." did not yet exist—the company hadn't yet been incorporated. For two weeks, as they handled the paperwork, the young men had nowhere to deposit the money."
In 1998, Brin and Page incorporated Google, Inc. with the initial domain name of "Googol
A googol is the large number 10100 or ten to the power of one hundred. In decimal notation, it is written as the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros: 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, ...
", derived from a number that consists of one followed by one hundred zeros representing the vast amount of data that the search engine was intended to explore. Using the garage in their friend Susan Wojcicki
Susan Diane Wojcicki ( ; July 5, 1968 – August 9, 2024) was an American business executive who was the chief executive officer of YouTube from 2014 to 2023. Her net worth was estimated at $765 million in 2022.
Wojcicki worked in the te ...
's Menlo Park
Menlo Park may refer to:
Places
*Menlo Park, New Jersey, a section of Edison, New Jersey, location of Thomas Edison's laboratories
**Menlo Park Mall, a shopping mall in Edison
**Menlo Park Terrace, New Jersey, a section of nearby Woodbridge Townsh ...
home for $1,700 a month, Page and Brin were able to successfully build the Google search engine. Following inception, Page appointed himself as CEO, while Brin, named Google's co-founder, was Google's president. Writer Nicholas Carlson wrote in 2014:"The pair's mission was 'to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." With a US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
1-million loan from friends and family, the inaugural team moved into a Mountain View office by the start of 2000. In 1999, Page experimented with smaller servers so Google could fit more into each square meter of the third-party warehouses the company rented for their servers. This eventually led to a search engine that ran much faster than Google's competitors at the time."
By June 2000, Google had indexed one billion Internet URLs ( Uniform Resource Locators), making it the most comprehensive search engine on the Web at the time. The company cited NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...
Research Institute data in its June 26 press release, stating that "there are more than 1 billion web pages online today", with Google "providing access to 560 million full-text indexed web pages and 500 million partially indexed URLs."
Early management style
During his first tenure as CEO, Page embarked on an attempt to fire all of Google's project managers in 2001. Page's plan involved all of Google's engineers reporting to a VP of engineering, who would then report directly to him—Page explained that he did not like non-engineers supervising engineers due to their limited technical knowledge. Page even documented his management tenets for his team to use as a reference:
* Do not delegate: Do everything you can yourself to make things go faster.
* Do not get in the way if you're not adding value. Let the people doing the work talk to each other while you go do something else.
* Do not be a bureaucrat
A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government.
The term ''bureaucrat'' derives from "bureaucracy", wh ...
.
* Ideas are more important than age. Just because someone is junior does not mean they do not deserve respect and cooperation.
* The worst thing you can do is stop someone from doing something by saying, "No. Period." If you say no, you have to help them find a better way to get it done.
Even though Page's new model was unsustainable and led to disgruntlement among the affected employees, his issue with engineers being managed by non-engineering staff gained traction. Page also believed that the faster Google's search engine returned answers, the more it would be used. He fretted over milliseconds
A millisecond (from '' milli-'' and second; symbol: ms) is a unit of time in the International System of Units equal to one thousandth (0.001 or 10−3 or 1/1000) of a second or 1000 microseconds.
A millisecond is to one second, as one second i ...
and pushed his engineers—from those who developed algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...
s to those who built data center
A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.
Since IT operations are crucial for busines ...
s—to think about lag times. He also pushed for keeping Google's home page famously sparse in its design because it would help the page load faster.
2001–2011
Changes in management and expansion
Before Silicon Valley's two most prominent investors, Kleiner Perkins
Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...
and Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...
, agreed to invest a combined total of $50 million in Google, they applied pressure on Page to step down as CEO so that a more experienced leader could build a "world-class management team." Page eventually became amenable to the idea after meeting with other technology CEOs, including Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
and Intel's Andrew Grove
Andrew "Andy" Stephen Grove (born Gróf András István; 2 September 1936 – 21 March 2016) was a Hungarian-American businessman and engineer who served as the third CEO of Intel Corporation. He escaped from the Hungarian People's Republic dur ...
. Eric Schmidt
Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and former computer engineer who was the chief executive officer of Google from 2001 to 2011 and the company's chairman, executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. He also was the ...
, who had been hired as chairman of Google in March 2001, left his full-time position as the CEO of Novell
Novell, Inc. () was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as NetWare. Novell technolog ...
to take the same role at Google in August of the same year, and Page moved aside to assume the president of products role.
Under Schmidt's leadership, Google underwent a period of major growth and expansion, which included its initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
(IPO) on August 20, 2004. He always acted in consultation with Page and Brin when he embarked on initiatives such as the hiring of an executive team and the creation of a sales force management system
Sales force management systems (also sales force automation (SFA) systems) are information systems used in customer relationship management (CRM) marketing and management that help automate some sales and sales force management
Customer rela ...
. Page remained the boss at Google in the eyes of the employees, as he gave final approval on all new hires, and it was Page who provided the signature for the IPO, the latter making him a billionaire at the age of 30.
Page led the acquisition of Android
Android most commonly refers to:
*Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google
* Android TV, a operating system developed ...
for $50 million in 2005 to fulfill his ambition to place handheld computers in the possession of consumers so that they could access Google anywhere. The purchase was made without Schmidt's knowledge, but the CEO was not perturbed by the relatively small acquisition. Page became passionate about Android and spent large amounts of time with Android CEO and cofounder Andy Rubin
Andrew E. Rubin (born March 13, 1963) is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. Rubin founded Danger Inc. in 1999 and left in 2003; Danger was eventually acquired by Microsoft in 2008. Rubin founded Android Inc. ...
. By September 2008, T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
launched the G1, the first phone using Android software and, by 2010, 17.2% of the handset market consisted of Android sales, overtaking Apple for the first time. Android became the world's most popular mobile operating system shortly afterward.
Assumption of CEO position at Google
Following a January 2011 announcement, Page officially became the chief executive of Google on April 4, 2011, while Schmidt stepped down to become executive chairman. By this time, Google had over $180 billion market capitalization and more than 24,000 employees. Reporter Max Nisen described the decade prior to Page's second appointment as Google's CEO as Page's "lost decade" saying that while he exerted significant influence at Google via product development and other operations, he became increasingly disconnected and less responsive over time.
Schmidt announced the end of his tenure as CEO on January 20, 2011, jokingly tweeting on Twitter: "Adult-supervision no longer needed."
2011–2013
As Google's new CEO, Page's two key goals were the development of greater autonomy for the executives overseeing the most important divisions, and higher levels of collaboration, communication, and unity among the teams. Then Page also formed what the media called the "L-Team", a group of senior vice-presidents who reported directly to him and worked near his office for a portion of the working week. Additionally, he reorganized the company's senior management, placing a CEO-like manager at the top of Google's most important product divisions, including YouTube, AdWords
Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, and videos to web users. It can place ads in the res ...
, and Google Search
Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the World Wide Web, Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze an ...
.
Following a more cohesive team environment, Page declared a new "zero tolerance for fighting" policy that contrasted with his approach during the early days of Google, when he would use his harsh and intense arguments with Brin as an exemplar for senior management. Page had changed his thinking during his time away from the CEO role, as he eventually concluded that ambitious goals required a harmonious team dynamic. As part of Page's collaborative rejuvenation process, Google's products and applications were consolidated and underwent an aesthetic
Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...
overhaul.
Changes and consolidation process
At least 70 of Google's products, features and services were eventually shut down by March 2013, while the appearance and nature of the remaining ones were unified. Jon Wiley, lead designer of Google Search at the time, codenamed Page's redesign overhaul, which officially commenced on April 4, 2011, "Project Kennedy", based on Page's use of the term "moonshots" to describe ambitious projects in a January 2013 ''Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
'' interview. An initiative named "Kanna" previously attempted to create a uniform design aesthetic for Google's range of products, but it was too difficult at that point in the company's history for one team to drive such change. Matias Duarte, senior director of the Android
Android most commonly refers to:
*Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google
* Android TV, a operating system developed ...
user experience when "Kennedy" started, explained in 2013 that "Google passionately cares about design." Page proceeded to consult with the Google Creative Lab design team, based in New York City, to find an answer to his question of what a "cohesive vision" of Google might look like.
The eventual results of "Kennedy" which were progressively rolled out from June 2011 until January 2013, were described by The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...
technology publication as focused upon "refinement, white space, cleanliness, elasticity, usefulness, and most of all simplicity." The final products were aligned with Page's aim for a consistent suite of products that can "move fast", and "Kennedy" was called a "design revolution" by Duarte. Page's "UXA" (user/graphics interface) design team then emerged from the "Kennedy" project, tasked with "designing and developing a true UI framework that transforms Google's application software
Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not operating, administering or programming the computer. An application (app, application program, software application) is any program that can be categorized as ...
into a beautiful, mature, accessible and consistent platform for its users." Unspoken of in public, the small UXA unit was designed to ensure that "Kennedy" became an "institution."
Acquisition strategy and new products
When acquiring products and companies for Google, Page asked whether the business acquisition
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...
passed the toothbrush test as an initial qualifier, asking the question "Is it something you will use once or twice a day, and does it make your life better?". This approach looked for usefulness above profitability, and long-term potential over near-term financial gain, which has been noted as rare in business acquiring processes.
With Facebook's influence rapidly expanding during the start of Page's second tenure, he finally responded to the intensive competition with Google's own social network, Google+
Google+ (sometimes written as Google Plus, stylized as G+ or g+) was a Social networking service, social network owned and operated by Google until it ceased operations in 2019. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challe ...
, in mid-2011. After several delays, the social network was released through a very limited field test and was led by Vic Gundotra
Vivek Paul "Vic" Gundotra (born 14 June 1969) is an Indian-born American businessman who served as the Senior Vice President, Social for Google until 24 April 2014. Prior to joining Google, he was a general manager at Microsoft.
Career
Gundot ...
, Google's then senior vice president of social.
In August 2011, Page announced that Google would spend $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility LLC, marketing as Motorola, is an American consumer electronics manufacturer primarily producing smartphones and other mobile devices running Android (operating system), Android. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese te ...
. The purchase was primarily motivated by Google's need to secure patents
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
to protect Android from lawsuits by companies including Apple Inc
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer ...
. Page wrote on Google's official blog on August 15, 2011, that "companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to 'protect competition and innovation in the open source software
Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...
community' ..Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies". In 2014, Page sold Motorola Mobility for $2.9 billion to Personal Computer maker, Lenovo which represented a loss in value of $9.5 billion over two years.
Page also ventured into hardware and Google unveiled the Chromebook
Chromebook (sometimes stylized in lowercase as chromebook) is a line of laptops, desktops, tablets and all-in-one computers that run ChromeOS, a proprietary operating system developed by Google.
Chromebooks are optimised for web access. They al ...
in May 2012. The hardware product was a laptop that ran on a Google operating system, ChromeOS
ChromeOS, sometimes styled as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is an operating system designed and developed by Google. It is derived from the open-source operating system and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user ...
.
2013–2015
In January 2013, Page participated in a rare interview with ''Wired
Wired may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976
* ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993
* ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017
* "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street''
* "Wired ...
'', in which writer Steven Levy discussed Page's "10X" mentality—Google employees are expected to create products and services that are at least 10 times better than those of its competitors—in the introductory blurb
A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dust jacket of a book. With the development ...
. Astro Teller
Eric "Astro" Teller (born 29 May 1970) is an American entrepreneur, computer scientist, and author, with expertise in the field of intelligent technology.
Early life and education
Teller was born in Cambridge, England, and raised in Evanston, ...
, the head of Google X
X Development LLC, doing business as X (formerly Google X), is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010. X has its headquarters about a mile and a half from Google's corporate ...
, explained to Levy that 10X is "just core to who he age
Age or AGE may refer to:
Time and its effects
* Age, the amount of time someone has been alive or something has existed
** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1
* Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older
...
is", while Page's "focus is on where the next 10X will come from." In his interview with Levy, Page referred to the success of YouTube and Android as examples of "crazy" ideas that investors were not initially interested in, saying: "If you're not doing some things that are crazy, then you're doing the wrong things." Page also stated he was "very happy" with the status of Google+, and discussed concerns over the Internet concerning the SOPA
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a proposed United States congressional bill to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods. Introduced on October 26, 20 ...
bill and an International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)In the other common languages of the ITU:
*
* is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information ...
proposal that had been recently introduced:"I do think the Internet's under much greater attack than it has been in the past. Governments are now afraid of the Internet because of the Middle East stuff, and so they're a little more willing to listen to what I see as a lot of commercial interests that just want to make money by restricting people's freedoms. But they've also seen a tremendous user reaction, like the backlash against SOPA. I think that governments fight users' freedoms at their peril."
At the May 2013 I/O developers conference in San Francisco, Page delivered a keynote address and said "We're at maybe 1% of what is possible. Despite the faster change, we're still moving slow relative to the opportunities we have. I think a lot of that is because of the negativity ..Every story I read is Google vs someone else. That's boring. We should be focusing on building the things that don't exist" and that he was "sad the Web isn't advancing as fast as it should be", citing a perceived focus on negativity and zero-sum games among some in the technology sector as a cause. In response to an audience question, Page noted an issue that Google had been experiencing with Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
, whereby the latter made its Outlook program interoperable with Google but did not allow for backward compatibility
In telecommunications and computing, backward compatibility (or backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, software, real-world product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with Input ...
—he referred to Microsoft's practice as "milking off". During the question-and-answer section of his keynote, Page expressed interest in Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the Western United States. The event's name comes from its ceremony on the penultimate night of the event: the ...
, which Brin had previously praised—it was a motivating factor for the latter during Schmidt's hiring process, as Brin liked that Schmidt had attended the week-long annual event.
In September 2013, Page launched the independent Calico
Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...
initiative, a R&D project in the field of biotechnology
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...
. Google announced that Calico seeks to innovate and make improvements in the field of human health, and appointed Art Levinson, chairman of Apple's board and former CEO of Genentech
Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It operates as an independent subsidiary of holding company Roche. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent cent ...
, to be the new division's CEO. Page's official statement read: "Illness and aging affect all our families. With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...
, I believe we can improve millions of lives."
Page participated in a March 2014 TedX conference that was held in Vancouver, British Columbia
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, Canada. The presentation was scripted by Page's chief PR executive Rachel Whetstone, and Google's CMO Lorraine Twohill, and a demonstration of an artificially intelligent computer program was displayed on a large screen.
Page responded to a question about corporations, noting that corporations largely get a "bad rap", which he stated was because they were probably doing the same incremental things they were doing "50 or 20 years ago". He went on to juxtapose that kind of incremental approach to his vision of Google counteracting calcification through driving technology innovation at a high rate. Page mentioned Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
and SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...
:"He usk
Usk () is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, northeast of Newport. It is located on the River Usk, which is spanned by an arched stone bridge at the western entrance to the town. Usk Castle, above the town, overlooks the ancient cr ...
wants to go to Mars to back up humanity. That's a worthy goal. We have a lot of employees at Google who've become pretty wealthy. You're working because you want to change the world
The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...
and make it better ..I'd like for us to help out more than we are."
Page also mentioned Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla (;["Tesla"](_blank)
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...
with regard to invention and commercialization:"Invention is not enough. ikolaTesla invented the electric power we use, but he struggled to get it out to people. ou have tocombine both things []... invention and innovation focus, plus ..a company that can really commercialize things and get them to people."
Page announced a major management restructure in October 2014 so that he would no longer need to be responsible for day-to-day product-related decision making. In a memo, Page said that Google's core businesses would be able to progress in a typical manner, while he could focus on the next generation of ambitious projects, including Google X
X Development LLC, doing business as X (formerly Google X), is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010. X has its headquarters about a mile and a half from Google's corporate ...
initiatives; access and energy, including Google Fiber
Google Fiber, Inc., sometimes stylized as GFiber, is a fiber broadband Internet service operated by Alphabet Inc. servicing a growing number of households in cities in 19 states across the United States. In mid-2016, Google Fiber was estimated ...
; smart-home automation through Nest Labs
Google Nest is a line of smart home products including smart speakers, smart displays, streaming devices, thermostats, smoke detectors, routers and security systems including smart doorbells, cameras and smart locks.
The Nest brand name ...
; and biotechnology
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...
innovations under Calico. Page maintained that he would continue as the unofficial "chief product officer". Subsequent to the announcement, the executives in charge of Google's core products reported to then Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai
Pichai Sundararajan (born June 10, 1972), better known as Sundar Pichai (pronounced: ), is an American business executive. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.
Pichai began his career as a mate ...
, who reported directly to Page.
In a November 2014 interview, Page stated that he prioritized the maintenance of his "deep knowledge" of Google's products and breadth of projects, as it had been a key motivating factor for team members. About his then role as the company's CEO, Page said: "I think my job as CEO—I feel like it's always to be pushing people ahead."
On August 10, 2015, Page announced on Google's official blog that Google had restructured into a number of subsidiaries of a new holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...
known as Alphabet Inc
Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...
with Page becoming CEO of Alphabet Inc
Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Alphabet is the world's third-largest technology company by revenue, after Amazon and Apple, the largest techno ...
and Sundar Pichai
Pichai Sundararajan (born June 10, 1972), better known as Sundar Pichai (pronounced: ), is an American business executive. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.
Pichai began his career as a mate ...
assuming the position of CEO of Google Inc. In his announcement, Page described the planned holding company as follows:"Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead. ..Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren't very related."
As well as explaining the origin of the company's name:"We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity's most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search! We also like that it means alpha‑bet (Alpha
Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...
is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for!"
Page wrote that the motivation behind the reorganization is to make Google "cleaner and more accountable." He also wrote that there was a desire to improve "the transparency and oversight of what we're doing" and to allow greater control of unrelated companies previously within the Google ecosystem.
Page has not been on any press conferences since 2015 and has not presented at product launches or earnings calls since 2013. The ''Bloomberg Businessweek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...
'' termed the reorganization into Alphabet a clever retirement plan allowing Page to retain control over Google, at the same time relinquishing all responsibilities over it. Executives at Alphabet describe Page as a "futurist", highly detached from day-to-day business dealings, and more focused on moon-shot projects. While some managers of Alphabet companies speak of Page as intensely involved, others say that his rare office check-ins are "akin to a royal visit".
2019
On December 3, 2019, Larry Page announced that he would step down from the position of Alphabet CEO and be replaced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Pichai also continued as Google CEO. Page and Google co-founder and Alphabet president Sergey Brin announced the change in a joint blog post, "With Alphabet now well-established, and Google and the Other Bets operating effectively as independent companies, it's the natural time to simplify our management structure. We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there's a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President."
Other interests
Page is an investor in Tesla Motors
Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...
co-founded by friend and fellow billionaire Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
. He has invested in renewable energy
Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...
technology, and with the help of Google.org
Google.org, founded in October 2005, is the charitable arm of Google, a multinational technology company. The organization has committed roughly US$100 million in investments and grants to nonprofits annually.
The organization is noted for severa ...
, Google's philanthropic arm, promotes the adoption of plug-in hybrid
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or simply plug-in hybrid is a type of hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a rechargeable battery pack that can be directly replenished via a charging cable plugged into an external electric power so ...
electric cars and other alternative energy investments. He also was a strategic backer in the Opener and Kitty Hawk startups, developing aerial vehicles for consumer travel. The company has ceased all activities. It was merged into the Wisk Aero joint venture with Boeing in September 2022. Page founded Dynatomics, a Palo Alto-based startup established in 2023, that uses artificial intelligence to optimize product manufacturing processes.
Page is interested in the socio-economic effects of advanced intelligent systems and how advanced digital technologies can be used to create abundance (as described in Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, Peter Diamandis' book), provide for people's needs, shorten the workweek, and mitigate the potential detrimental effects of technological unemployment.
Page helped to set up Singularity University, a transhumanism, transhumanist think-tank.
Personal life
In the early 2000s, Page briefly dated Marissa Mayer, American business leader and former CEO of Yahoo!, who was a Google employee at that time.
On February 18, 2005, Page bought a Spanish Colonial Revival architecture house in Palo Alto, California, designed by American artistic polymath
A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
Pedro Joseph de Lemos, a former curator of the Stanford Art Museum and founder of the Carmel Art Institute, after the historic building had been on the market for years with an asking price of US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
7.95 million. A two-story stucco archway spans the driveway and the home features intricate stucco work, as well as stone and tile in California Arts and Crafts movement style built to resemble de Lemos's family's castle in Spain. The Pedro de Lemos House was constructed between 1931 and 1941 by de Lemos. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2007, Page married Lucinda Southworth on Necker Island (British Virgin Islands), Necker Island, the Caribbean island owned by Richard Branson. Southworth is a research scientist and the sister of American actress and model Carrie Southworth. Page and Southworth have two children, born in 2009 and 2011 respectively.
In 2009, Page began purchasing properties and tearing down homes adjacent to his home in Palo Alto to make room for a large ecohouse. The existing buildings were "deconstructed" and the materials donated for reuse. The ecohouse was designed to "minimize the impact on the environment." Page worked with an arborist to replace some trees that were in poor health with others that used less water to maintain. Page also applied for Green Point Certification, with points given for use of recycled and low or no-VOC (volatile organic compound) materials and for a roof garden with solar panels. The house's exterior features zinc cladding (construction), cladding and plenty of windows, including a wall of sliding-glass doors in the rear. It includes eco-friendly elements such as permeable paving in the parking court and a pervious path through the trees on the property. The house also observes other green home design features such as organic architecture building materials and low volatile organic compound paint.
In 2011, Page bought the $45-million superyacht ''Senses''. Later on, Page announced on his Google+
Google+ (sometimes written as Google Plus, stylized as G+ or g+) was a Social networking service, social network owned and operated by Google until it ceased operations in 2019. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challe ...
profile in May 2013 that his right vocal cord is paralyzed from a cold that he contracted the previous summer, while his left cord was paralyzed in 1999, and that the doctors were unable to identify the exact cause. The Google+ post also revealed that Page had made a large donation to a vocal-cord nerve-function research program at the Voice Health Institute in Boston. An anonymous source stated that the donation exceeded $20 million. In October 2013, ''Business Insider'' reported that Page's paralysis were caused by an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and prevented him from undertaking Google quarterly earnings conference calls for an indefinite period.
In November 2014, Page's family foundation, the Carl Victor Page Memorial Fund, reportedly holding assets in excess of a billion dollars at the end of 2013, gave $15 million to aid the effort against the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. Page wrote on his Google+ page that "My wife and I just donated $15 million ..Our hearts go out to everyone affected."
In August 2021 it was revealed that Page holds a New Zealand resident's visa and had traveled to the country on a Medical evacuation, medivac flight from Fiji for his son's treatment in New Zealand. The flight took place on January 12, 2021. Page had been living in Fiji with his family during the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, the Us virgin islands, US Virgin Islands tried several times to serve Page a subpoena in the lawsuit over JPMorgan Chase's links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Page has purchased multiple private islands across the Caribbean and South Pacific, including the Hans Lollik Island in 2014, Eustatia Island, Cayo Norte in 2018, and Tavarua in 2020.
Awards and accolades
1998–2009
* ''PC Magazine'' has praised Google as among the Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines (1998) and awarded Google the Technical Excellence Award for Innovation in Web Application Development in 1999. In 2000, Google earned a Webby Award, a People's Voice Award for technical achievement, and in 2001, was awarded Outstanding Search Service, Best Image Search Engine, Best Design, Most Webmaster Friendly Search Engine, and Best Search Feature at the Search Engine Watch Awards.
* In 2002, Page was named a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow and along with Brin, was named by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s ''Technology Review'' publication as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35, as part of its yearly TR35, TR100 listing (changed to "TR35" after 2005).
* In 2003, both Page and Brin received an MBA from IE Business School, in an Honorary degree, honorary capacity, "for embodying the entrepreneurial spirit and lending momentum to the creation of new businesses."
* In 2004, they received the Marconi Foundation's prize and were elected Fellows of the Marconi Foundation at Columbia University. In announcing their selection, John Jay Iselin, the Foundation's president, congratulated the two men for "their invention that has fundamentally changed the way information is retrieved today."
* In 2004, Page and Brin received the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement, American Academy of Achievement.
* Page and Brin were also Award Recipients and National Finalists for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2003.
* Also in 2004, X PRIZE chose Page as a trustee of their board and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
* In 2005, Brin and Page were elected Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
* In 2008 Page received the Princess of Asturias Awards#Communications and Humanities (Comunicación y Humanidades), Communication Award from Felipe VI of Spain, Prince Felipe at the Prince of Asturias Awards on behalf of Google.
2009–present
* In 2009, Page received an honorary doctorate from the University of Michigan during a graduation commencement ceremony. In 2011, he was ranked 24th on the Forbes list of billionaires, and as the 11th richest person in the U.S.
* In 2015, Page's "Powerful People" profile on the ''Forbes'' site states that Google is "the most influential company of the digital era".
* As of July 2014, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lists Page as the 17th richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $32.7 billion.
* At the completion of 2014, ''Fortune'' magazine named Page its "Businessperson of the Year", declaring him "the world's most daring CEO".
* In October 2015, Page was named number one on the ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' "America's Most Popular Chief Executives" list, as voted by Google's employees.
* In August 2017, Page was awarded honorary citizenship of Agrigento, Italy.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of Larry Page portrayed by actor Ben Feldman appeared in the Showtime (TV network), Showtime drama series Super Pumped (TV series), ''Super Pumped''.
References
External links
Larry Page
at Bloomberg L.P.
Larry Page
on ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Larry
1973 births
American billionaires
American computer businesspeople
American computer scientists
American corporate directors
American technology chief executives
American technology company founders
Business duos
Businesspeople from Michigan
American information technology businesspeople
Businesspeople in software
Directors of Google
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Google employees
Internet pioneers
Life extensionists
Living people
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Businesspeople from Palo Alto, California
People from East Lansing, Michigan
East Lansing High School alumni
Stanford University School of Engineering alumni
University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni
Webby Award winners
Directors of Alphabet Inc.