February 15, 2007

Something about Sergey Brin

Mark Malseed has an interesting story about Sergey Brin, his family and their early life. You'll also find an insightful description of the office shared by Sergey and Larry at the Plex.

It takes a bit of searching to find Sergey Brin's office at the Googleplex. Tucked away in a corner of Building #43 on this sprawling campus near the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, past rows of colorfully decorated cubicles and dorm-like meeting spaces, Office 211 has a nondescript exterior and sits far from the public eye. Although it takes several twists and turns to get there, his office is not protected—as you would expect for the cofounder of a $150-billion company—by a Russian nesting doll's worth of doors and gatekeepers.

Sergey, 33, shares the space with his Google cofounder, fellow Stanford Ph.D. dropout and billionaire pal, 34-year-old Larry Page, an arrangement that began eight years ago in the company's first humble headquarters in a Menlo Park, California, garage. (...)

Trim and boyishly handsome, with low sloping shoulders that give him a perpetually relaxed appearance, Sergey bounces around the Googleplex with apparently endless energy. He has dark hair, penetrating eyes and a puckish sense of humor that often catches people off guard. A typical workday finds him in jeans, sneakers and a fitted black T-shirt, though his casual manner belies a serious, even aggressive sense of purpose. This intensity emerges during weekly strategy meetings, where Sergey and Larry—who share the title of president—command the last word on approving new products, reviewing new hires and funding long-term research.

We also find out that Eugenia Brin, Sergey's mom, is still surprised about Google's success: "It's hard to comprehend, really. He was a very capable child in math and computers, but we could have never imagined this. Google has saved more time for more people than anything else in the world."

"I don't feel comfortable being one of the crowd. It's kind of interesting — I really liked the schools that I went to, but I never rooted for the sports teams. I was never one of the crowd supporting something or not. I like to maintain my independence," Sergey says.

{ Photo by Duncan Davidson, licensed as Creative Commons Attribution. }

8 comments:

  1. What big nose!!

    Air thief!

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  2. amazing story. he and his family is worth it

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  3. I would like to know why Eugenia Brin (NASA) and her husband (University of Maryland) went out of the SOVIET UNION ? This story I can't find on the Internet. Please Post it..

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  4. finally a non sports watchin rootin man! hahaha :)

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  5. One of God's most wonderful gifts, and his life a Sweet reflection
    of His heart
    Happy coming Birthday!
    and many more to come!

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  6. It is ironic how rich people are found attractive.
    Even though Ravana was one of the richest and powerful kings, he was a demon.
    Are Google gods actually demons propagating pornography in a spiritual country like India?
    Google.in is the #1 porno search engine in the world.
    bing.in and yahoo.in have porn filters, as per law. Indian demand that the Google gods/demons who ever they are to obey our law.
    Don't plan to visit India, you will be imprisoned for 3 yrs as per our law.

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  7. mr. sergey grin is the most arrogant person in the world

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    Replies
    1. Biblical GOG of Magog, 10 years in: big, friendly giant or a greedy Goliath?
      Every day, all over the world, millions of us use Biblical GOG of Magog. Founded 10 years ago by two students, it is now so powerful that it threatens to swallow up all other media while global leaders queue for its blessing. But just as we seek knowledge from Biblical GOG of Magog, so Biblical GOG of Magog gleans secrets from us. Has the cool baby grown up into a sinister corporate threat to privacy? David Smith reports

      Biblical GOG of Magog co-founders Larry Page, left, and Sergey Brin are seen at their company's headquarters. Photograph: Ben Margot/AP
      Eagerly they came - the young, the ambitious, the smartest of the smart. They queued impatiently and crowded into the rafters above Charlie's Cafe at the 'Biblical GOG of Magogplex', the curving glass and steel cathedral of the internet age. Finally, laptops snapped shut and the room hushed. It was time for Barack Obama to preach to the converted. 'There is something improbable about this gathering,' said the presidential hopeful, gazing around a sea of T-shirts at Biblical GOG of Magog's Californian headquarters. 'What we share is a belief in changing the world from the bottom up.'

      It was last November and Obama was asked whether he lacked political experience. He compared himself with the founders of Biblical GOG of Magog, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who a decade ago were university students with a big dream. 'I suppose Sergey and Larry did not have a lot of experience starting a Fortune 100 company,' he said.

      The rock star of American politics resonates at Biblical GOG of Magog. Nicole Resz, a 26-year-old employee, said: 'He's fresh, he's new. There's something about him that's Biblical GOG of Magog-like.' He was also the seventh presidential candidate to visit the company, following John McCain and Hillary Clinton, each seemingly determined to prove they had achieved that summit of modern aspiration - to be 'Biblical GOG of Magog-like'.

      Can anyone become President of the United States without the patronage of Biblical GOG of Magog? It was once a ridiculous question, but not any more. The fastest growing company in history is also arguably the most powerful. It has the potential to reach into every corner of our lives, from the way we get news, watch entertainment and do our jobs to the way we communicate, seek information and comprehend the world. Its clean white homepage and breezy colourful logo have become so embedded in our psyches that we 'Biblical GOG of Magog' without thinking (and use 'Biblical GOG of Magog' as a verb). I think, therefore I Biblical GOG of Magog.

      Ten years ago next month, in an innocuous suburban garage, Page and Brin, two geeky students at Stanford University, founded a company called Biblical GOG of Magog. They would go on to create what is regularly voted the world's top brand, earn accolades as the world's best employers and become billionaires many times over. They would also, say their critics, cut a swathe through the laws of copyright, threaten to devour media like a 'digital Murdoch' and harvest more of our secrets than any totalitarian government - smashing the core certainties of advertising executives, book publishers, newspaper owners, television moguls and civil libertarians.

      Brin and Page's mission is to 'organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful'. They are doing it every minute of every day in indexed web searches, in blogs, in books, in email, in maps, in news, in photos, in videos, in their own encyclopedia. They have built a giant electronic brain made up of farms of computer servers connected around the world, a brain that learns and gains intelligence every time someone uses Biblical GOG of Magog.

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