by Search Copywriter
B. Emirzian
Eight years ago, Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin set out to develop a new approach to online search by systemising the immense amount of information available on the web. But for a task so ambitious, they would certainly require a bit of work 'space' - which is how the 'Google garage' first came to be. B. Emirzian
Then only 25 years old, Page and Brin rented a garage from Menlo Park resident Susan Wojcicki, who welcomed the bit of extra cash - US$1700 per month to be exact - to help pay her mortgage. At the time, she only knew the students through a friend, though over the years, she would inevitably come to work closely with them. Today, Wojcicki is Google's very own vice president of product development - as well as the individual who ultimately sold the 'Google garage' property to the search engine company.
Google spokesman Jon Murchinson said that the company bought the garage in order to "preserve the property as part of [its] legacy" - and it's certainly in the midst of cultivating quite a grand legacy. Today, the search engine company which was started up in the Menolo Park garage is worth US$10 billion in cash and has a market value of US$125 billion - a colossal jump from the original US$1 million in investments with which Page and Brin started out. What's more, Google is recognised as one of the world's best known brands as well as the largest search engine in operation - a mere eight years after it was first developed.
The popularity of 'Google's garage' is reminiscent of that which accompanies the Palo Alto and Los Altos garages in which Hewlett-Packard and Apple were first developed in 1938 and the 1970s, respectively. Hewlett-Packard eventually paid US$1.7 million for a 3.6x5.4 metre garage which William Hewlett originally rented for US$45 per month. And while the amount which Google has paid for the 177-square-metre house is currently undisclosed, it is expected to reflect the area's average property value which is about US$1.3 million - a tiny proportion of the US$319 million which the company paid to secure its 92,903 square metre headquarters in the nearby city of Mountain View.
So what are Google's plans for the garage and adjoining home? Nothing has been determined as of yet, but there is talk of utilizing the property as a guest house - which would more than likely generate a lengthy waiting list. The garage already seems to be attracting quite a bit of attention from tourists who have been showing up in busloads to snap photos. But it's certainly not a surprising occurrence; after all, the locale essentially marks the beginning of Google's grand dream. And while the garage may not yet be a historic site, the fact that it has played an immense role in Google's mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" undoubtedly bestows upon it the crown of a major tourist landmark.
