"I am sometimes something of a lazy person, so when I end up spending a lot of time using something myself — as I did with Google in the earliest of days, I knew it was a big deal," said Brin.
The competition to be the search engine of choice is fierce. Yahoo and Microsoft want to be No 1, and Google is now rumored to be going public this year. Enter "Google IPO" on the search engine, and there are 224,000 pages on it alone.
An Early Start
So who are Brin and Page?
Brin was born in Moscow, and his family came to America in 1979. His father was a math teacher, but he became a university professor in the United States.
"It was really for my father and my mother about having opportunity," Brin said.
Page's father taught computer science, and as a result, Page got his first computer when he was 6 years old.
Said Page: "I remember turning in my first assignment in elementary school using the computer and the teachers were kind of confused that I had printed it."
The two men live and work well. And to attract a competent and loyal staff, they had to make the office a place where people wanted to be.
"The food that we have here on campus is one of the best decisions we ever made," said Brin.
Their chef is rumored to have once cooked for the Grateful Dead.
Page and Brin don't have much free time. Both are single and they eat a lot of dinners at work. But Brin does have an interesting hobby.
"I like to do a variety of acrobatic things," he said. "I even did flying trapeze for a little while. Right now I have a little bit of a back injury, so I'm focusing on more mental sports."
