Persons of the Week: Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Feb. 20 -- Two young men in their 30s have had an extraordinary impact on people's lives … millions of people. Their universe got bigger this week, and thus so did the world's.

Most people know Sergey Brin's and Larry Page's invention well.

It's Google, the world's most popular Internet search engine. And this week, a billion new Web sites were added to the service.

"It is a tremendous responsibility for us to have all the eyes focused on what we do and give people exactly what they need when they ask for it," said Page.

His partner, Brin, said, "As we go forward, I hope we're going to continue to use technology to make really big differences in how people live and work."

Brin and Page's invention has become a touchstone of American culture.

"When we set out in the kind of early Web days, we didn't decide to do online horoscopes or invitation services, but search, which is about information, which can make a real difference in people's lives," said Brin.

The average Google search takes about a half second, driven by 10,000 interconnected Google computers.

Google is global.

It offers answers to questions like, "What's the speed of light?," and it provides everything you ever wanted to know about King Tut or a potential date. Google even allows users to ask questions in Chinese, Swedish or 100 other languages.

It has been said that even the CIA is a client of Google technology.

Started as Research Project

The search engine started as a research project when Page and Brin were students at Stanford University.

They didn't quite start in a garage. Instead, they started in Page's dorm room. But in the great tradition of invention, they later moved to a garage.

The pair borrowed money from professors, family and anyone they could. And their invention took off, as Page says, like a virus.

The two stumbled onto building a search engine; it wasn't their initial intention. Today they have 1,000 employees.