Google... the interesting and the Bizarre.

This coming Wednesday as part of my job I will be giving a PowerPoint presentation on the subject of stress in the workplace. Pressure is part of everyday life including work, but excessive pressure can lead to stress which in turn undermines performance, and can make people ill.
So in preparing this presentation involved considerable use of Google and it got me thinking how now we all take it's services for granted, if you go back to the late 1990's and think of all the search engines that existed then, and if you needed to find any info for a task, such as a presentation, you would have to use 3 or 4 different search engines to find all your facts, but Google is a one stop shop. So I did a little research on Google of course and found some interesting facts and figures.

1. How long does it usually takes Google to search its database? Ans: 0.5 seconds
2. Number of languages in which you can have the Google home page set up, including Urdu, Latin and Klingon. Ans: 88.
   
3. Google was the first search engine to use a cookie, this expires in 2038. This cookie places a unique ID number on your hard disk. Anytime you land on a Google page, you get a Google cookie if you don't already have one. If you have one, they read and record your unique ID number.
4. The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Infact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.
5. Google is so confident that they can deliver the goods that they've developed the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Press this button on Google's main search page after entering your search terms and you will be instantly transported to the first web page returned for your search results.

I do like a bit of trivia....................

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Natalie Goldberg