Scripts
P = Presenter; SB = Sergey Brin
P: It’s the fastest growing company in history, used by 400 million people a month. The Internet search engine Google has turned its founders from students to multibillionaires. Tonight, The Money Program does its own research on this extraordinary moneymaking machine and finds out how it’s changed the lives of countless millions of people who now inhabit “the World According to Google”. And these are the guys who made it all possible. Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, still in their early 30s, and each worth an estimated 6 billion pounds. Theirs is a dramatic tale which began 10 years ago when Larry and Sergey were both brilliant computer science students. The two met on a day out from Sergey’s university. Sergey was acting as a tour guide for some prospective students and Larry was in the group. Larry and Sergey developed a piece of software which they believed could revolutionize searching the Internet. Larry and Sergey always believed their system was a winner. Lunchtime hockey in the car park was all part of how Google was gonna be different.
SB: It’s a revolution, and you know, like the Industrial Revolution.
P: Inside, the office was a playground of lava lamps and bouncy balls. Sergey himself created the Google logo, with its childlike colors, to remind users that Google wanted to be a force for good. In 2000, Larry and Sergey hit the jackpot and turned the corner from successful search engine to successful business. Their secret? A special system of advertising. So how does it work? Well, if you’re trying to find out about, say, “Stonehenge”, here’s what you get. These are ordinary search results and over here is a list of ads. They’re from companies who have picked “Stonehenge” as a key word which triggers their ad to appear. They are businesses who all think someone searching for “Stonehenge” might also be interested in them. And that was how a humble student project became the fastest growing and one of the most profitable companies ever.