... entire Web was loosely based on the premise of citation—after all, what is a link but a citation? If he could devise a method to count and qualify each backlink on the Web, as Page puts it "the Web would become a more valuable place."
PC Magazine has praised Google as among the Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines (1998) and awarded Google the Technical Excellence Award for Innovation in Web Application Development in 1999. In 2000, Google earned a Webby Award, a People's Voice Award for technical achievement, and in 2001, was awarded Outstanding Search Service, Best Image Search Engine, Best Design, Most Webmaster Friendly Search Engine, and Best Search Feature at the Search Engine Watch Awards." In 2002, Page was named a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow and along with Brin, was named by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Technology Review publication as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35, as part of its yearly TR100 listing (changed to "TR35" after 2005).
In 2003, both Page and Brin received a MBA from IE Business School, in an honorary capacity, "for embodying the entrepreneurial spirit and lending momentum to the creation of new businesses." In 2004, they received the Marconi Foundation's prize and were elected Fellows of the Marconi Foundation at Columbia University. In announcing their selection, John Jay Iselin, the Foundation's president, congratulated the two men for "their invention that has fundamentally changed the way information is retrieved today.". Page and Brin were also Award Recipients and National Finalists for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2003.
Also in 2004, X PRIZE chose Page as a trustee of their board and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In 2005, Brin and Page were elected Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2008 Page received the Communication Award from King Felipe at the Princess of Asturias Awards on behalf of Google.
In 2009, Page received an honorary doctorate from the University of Michigan during a graduation commencement ceremony. In 2011, he was ranked 24th on the Forbes list of billionaires, and as the 11th richest person in the U.S.
In 2015, Page's "Powerful People" profile on the Forbes site states that Google is "the most influential company of the digital era".
As of July 2014, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lists Page as the 17th richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $32.7 billion. At the completion of 2014, Fortune magazine named Page its "Businessperson of the Year," declaring him "the world’s most daring CEO".
In October 2015, Page was named number one in Forbes' "America's Most Popular Chief Executives", as voted by Google's employees.
In August 2017, Page was awarded honorary citizenship of Agrigento, Italy
Page was born on March 26, 1973, in East Lansing, Michigan. His mother was Jewish, and his maternal grandfather later made aliyah to Israel, but Page does not follow any formal religion. His father, Carl Victor Page, Sr., earned a PhD in computer science from the University of Michigan, when the field was being established, and BBC reporter Will Smale has described him as a "pioneer in computer science and artificial intelligence". He was a computer science professor at Michigan State University and Page's mother, Gloria, was an instructor in computer programming at Lyman Briggs College and at Michigan State University.
Page attended the Okemos Montessori School (now called Montessori Radmoor) in Okemos, Michigan, from 1975 to 1979, and graduated from East Lansing High School in 1991. He attended Interlochen Center for the Arts as a Saxophonist for two summers while in high school. Page holds a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering from the University of Michigan, with honors and a Master of Science in computer science from Stanford University. While at the University of Michigan, Page created an inkjet printer made of Lego bricks (literally a line plotter), after he thought it possible to print large posters cheaply with the use of inkjet cartridges—Page reverse-engineered the ink cartridge, and built all of the electronics and mechanics to drive it. Page served as the President of the Beta Epsilon chapter of the Eta Kappa Nu fraternity, and was a member of the 1993 "Maize & Blue" University of Michigan Solar Car team. As an undergrad at the University of Michigan, he proposed that the school replace its bus system with a PRT System which is essentially a driverless monorail with separate cars for every Passenger. He also developed a Business plan for a company that would use software to build a music synthesizer during this time.
Page and Brin used the former's basic HTML programming skills to set up a simple search page for users, as they did not have a web page developer to create anything visually elaborate. They also began using any computer part they could find to assemble the necessary computing power to handle searches by multiple users. As their search engine grew in popularity among Stanford users, it required additional servers to process the queries. In August 1996, the initial version of Google, still on the Stanford University website, was made available to Internet users.
By early 1997, the BackRub page described the state as follows:
PC Magazine has praised Google as among the Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines (1998) and awarded Google the Technical Excellence Award for Innovation in Web Application Development in 1999. In 2000, Google earned a Webby Award, a People's Voice Award for technical achievement, and in 2001, was awarded Outstanding Search Service, Best Image Search Engine, Best Design, Most Webmaster Friendly Search Engine, and Best Search Feature at the Search Engine Watch Awards." In 2002, Page was named a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow and along with Brin, was named by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Technology Review publication as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35, as part of its yearly TR100 listing (changed to "TR35" after 2005).
By June 2000, Google had indexed one billion Internet URLs, or Uniform Resource Locators, making it the most comprehensive search engine on the Web at the time. The company cited NEC Research Institute data in its June 26 press release, stating that "there are more than 1 billion web pages online today," with Google "providing access to 560 million full-text indexed web pages and 500 million partially indexed URLs."
During his first tenure as CEO, Page embarked on a passed attempt to fire all of Google's project managers in 2001. Page's plan involved all of Google’s Engineers reporting to a VP of engineering, who would then report directly to him—Page explained that he didn’t like non-engineers supervising Engineers due to their limited technical knowledge. Page even documented his management tenets for his team to use as a reference:
In 2003, both Page and Brin received a MBA from IE Business School, in an honorary capacity, "for embodying the entrepreneurial spirit and lending momentum to the creation of new businesses." In 2004, they received the Marconi Foundation's prize and were elected Fellows of the Marconi Foundation at Columbia University. In announcing their selection, John Jay Iselin, the Foundation's President, congratulated the two men for "their invention that has fundamentally changed the way information is retrieved today.". Page and Brin were also Award Recipients and National Finalists for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2003.
Also in 2004, X PRIZE chose Page as a trustee of their board and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In 2005, Brin and Page were elected Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
On February 18, 2005, Page was granted the deed on a 9000-sq ft Spanish Colonial Revival architecture house in Palo Alto, California designed by American artistic polymath Pedro Joseph de Lemos, a former curator of the Stanford Art Museum and founder of the Carmel Art Institute, after the historic building had been on the market for years with an asking price of US$7.95 million. A two-story stucco archway spans the driveway and the home features intricate stucco work, as well as stone and tile in California Arts and Crafts movement style built to resemble de Lemos family's castle in Spain. The hacienda was constructed between 1931-41 by de Lemos. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2007, Page married Lucinda Southworth on Necker Island, the Caribbean island owned by Richard Branson. Southworth is a research scientist and the sister of Actress and model Carrie Southworth. Page and Southworth have two children, born in 2009 and 2011.
In 2008 Page received the Communication Award from King Felipe at the Princess of Asturias Awards on behalf of Google.
In 2011, Page became the owner of the US$ 45 million 193-ft superyacht 'Senses', which comes equipped with a helipad, gym, multi-level sun decks, ten luxury suites, a crew of 14 and interior design by famed French designer Philippe Starck. 'Senses' also has extensive ocean exploration capabilities, the superyacht was created to explore the world’s oceans in comfort and it carries a very comprehensive inventory of equipment for that purpose. 'Senses' was built by Fr. Schweers Shipyard in Germany at their Berne shipyard. 'Senses' features a displacement steel hull and a steel/aluminium superstructure, with teak decks. 'Senses' is equipped with an ultra-modern stabilization system which reduces the free surface effect and results in a smoother cruising experience underway.
Page also ventured into hardware and Google unveiled the Chromebook in May 2012. The hardware product was a laptop that ran on a Google operating system, Chrome OS.
In October 2013, Business Insider reported that Page's paralyzed vocal cords are caused by an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and prevented him from undertaking Google quarterly earnings conference calls for an indefinite period.
As of July 2014, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index lists Page as the 17th richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $32.7 billion. At the completion of 2014, Fortune magazine named Page its "Businessperson of the Year," declaring him "the world’s most daring CEO".
In October 2015, Page was named number one in Forbes' "America's Most Popular Chief Executives", as voted by Google's employees.
In August 2017, Page was awarded honorary citizenship of Agrigento, Italy
As of February 11, 2018, Page was the ninth-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $51 billion.
Page wrote that the motivation behind the reorganization is to make Google "cleaner and more accountable." He also wrote that there was a Desire to improve "the transparency and oversight of what we’re doing," and to allow greater control of unrelated companies previously within the Google ecosystem.
