Historical Figure
Sergey Brin
b. 1973
American computer scientist (born 1973)
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"TED Talk on Google Search" — February 2004
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Biography
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin 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 December 3, 2019. He and Page remain at Alphabet as co-founders, controlling shareholders, and board members. Brin is a centibillionaire and among the richest people in the world.
Timeline
The story of Sergey Brin, told in moments.
Net worth exceeds $100 billion. Stepped down from day-to-day operations in 2019 but remains a controlling shareholder. His search engine processes over 8.5 billion queries per day.
Met Larry Page at a Stanford orientation weekend. They disagreed about almost everything. "We both found each other obnoxious," Brin later said. They started collaborating on a search algorithm anyway.
Incorporated Google with Larry Page. Their first office was a garage in Menlo Park, rented from Susan Wojcicki. Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote them a $100,000 check before the company legally existed.
Google went public at $85 per share. The IPO raised $1.67 billion. Brin and Page used a Dutch auction process that Wall Street bankers hated. The stock tripled within a year.
Google restructured as Alphabet Inc. Brin became president of Alphabet, overseeing the "moonshot" projects. Self-driving cars, life-extension research, internet-beaming balloons. He gravitated toward problems that sounded impossible.
In Their Own Words (5)
Having come from a totalitarian country, the Soviet Union, and having seen the hardships that my family endured–both while there and trying to leave—I certainly am particularly sensitive to the stifling of individual liberties.
Quartz: "Without Sergey Brin, Google has lost its healthy fear of authoritarianism" (6 August 2018), 2018
... whenever I have met with our elected officials they are invariably thoughtful, well-meaning people. And yet collectively 90% of their effort seems to be focused on how to stick it to the other party.
Hall, Kevin (November 6, 2012). "Google's Sergey Brin calls on U.S. politicians to ditch their parties". Dvice.com (Syfy). Retrieved 2012-11-12., 2012
When it’s too easy to get money, then you get a lot of noise mixed in with the real innovation and entrepreneurship. Tough times bring out the best parts of Silicon Valley.
Guynn, Jessica (September 17, 2008). "Google's Schmidt, Page and Brin hold court at Zeitgeist". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-01-07., 2008
We came up with the notion that not all web pages are created equal. People are – but not web pages.
Guest lecture, UC Berkeley Oct. 5, 2005 – 40 min., 2005
re gmail, great user experience has helped other email systems (others have increased storage etc). there are areas that have been overlooked in industry, much as search was overlooked in the 90's. thinks they have technology, distribution infrastructure to address those things.
Conversation: Sergey Brin of Google (October 7, 2005), 2005
Artifacts (6)
He ought not to risk further hardships in his present state of health.
to send Shackleton home on the relief ship Morning, which had arrived in McMurdo Sound in January. Scott wrote: "He ought not to risk further hardships in his present state of health." There is...
[if] he does not go back sick he will go back in disgrace
bert Armitage claimed that there had been a falling-out on the southern journey, and that Scott had told the ship's doctor that "[if] he does not go back sick he will go back in disgrace". There is no...
Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency[,] but[,] when di...
ress to the British Science Association, one of Shackleton's contemporaries, Sir Raymond Priestley, said: "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency[,] but[,] when disaster...
All the money that was ever minted would not have bought that biscuit and the re...
n. At one point, Shackleton gave his one biscuit allotted for the day to the ailing Frank Wild, who wrote in his diary: "All the money that was ever minted would not have bought that biscuit and the...
I never learned much geography at school [...] Literature, too, consisted in the...
ish himself as a scholar, and was said to be "bored" by his studies. He was quoted later as saying: "I never learned much geography at school [...] Literature, too, consisted in the dissection, the...
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