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CS547 Human-Computer Interaction Seminar  (Seminar on People, Computers, and Design)

Fridays 12:50-2:05 · Gates B01 · Open to the public
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Larry Page · Google
Google is not an anomaly: A blueprint for inventing and building innovative and successful user-centric products
January 11, 2002

Industry seems to largely ignore users and excitedly follow the technology trend bandwagon. This presents an enormous opportunity to build new and innovative products. Google has grown to be used by a 100 million people without any significant marketing expenditures; it has grown by meeting people's needs. This talk will present a blueprint for generating, evaluating, designing, and building new things that are both successful and significant. I will relate this blueprint to the learning we have done at Google. Also, I will enumerate some of the technology constants that help with designing new things but are not often taught. A brief update on Google will be presented, and time will be left for a free form question and answer period.


Larry Page is Co-founder and President, Products, of Google. The son of Michigan State University computer science professor Dr. Carl Victor Page, Larry's love of computers began at age six. While following in his father's footsteps in academics, Larry became an honors graduate from cross-state rival the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor's of science in engineering degree, with a concentration on computer engineering. During his time in Ann Arbor, Larry received numerous leadership awards for his efforts toward improving the College of Engineering, served as president of the University's Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society and built a programmable plotter and inkjet printer out of Legos.

Page, 29, met Sergey Brin while they were both Ph.D. candidates in computer science at Stanford University. In 1995 they started work on the research that led to Google. Together, they developed and ran Google, which began operating in 1998. The first paper they authored on Google, "The Anatomy of a Large Scale Hypertextual Search Engine" is now the 10th most accessed paper of all time according to the main computer science bibliography server. Page was the founding CEO, growing Google to over 200 employees and profitability before moving into his new role in April 2001.

Page has discussed business and technology on national broadcast programs including CNN and the Charlie Rose Show and as a speaker at numerous national and international forums, including The Churchill Club, the Wall Street Journal Technology Summit, The Commonwealth Club, Technologic Partners and PC Forum. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) for the University of Michigan College of Engineering.