main

Googol may sue Google

malebolgia   on 18 May 2004 - 17:07 · 59 comments & 3338 views

Advertisement (Why?)
Now that Google's IPO is running, the company is on the verge of being sued by the family of a man who invented the word 'Googol' to describe a very big number. Professor Edward Kasner came up with the word Googol, apparently at the suggestion of his 9-year-old nephew, Milton Sirotta. He used the term in the 1940s in his book, Mathematics and the Imagination. For the record a googol is 10 raised to the 100th power - or the number 1 followed by a hundred zeros.

In 1955 he died and much later a search engine called Google was born. His relatives claim that Kasner must be spinning in his grave. They believe Google has gained financially at their expense and they want to become IPO insiders to put his soul to rest. Hacks from the Baltimore Sun interviewed Kasner's great-niece Peri Fleisher who is coincidently a compensation specialist for a Silicon Valley firm. She admitted that she was only four when Kasner died, and could only just remember him.

News source: The Inquirer


ModBlog is a free and extremely unique blog hosting service. Instead of simply providing a journal system, ModBlog offers a wide range of features that create your own instant community. These features include your own forum, web-based chat, poll, bulletin, image gallery, private messaging system, and friends networking. No matter what your skill level, you'll be able to fully customize your ModBlog. From gorgeous pre-made templates to the ability to use your own images and colors to complete XML enhanced HTML control, ModBlog's wide range customization tools are unparalleled. You can further customize your ModBlog by loading optional features, changing the position of any part of your ModBlog, and setting a vast array of preferences. The tools to manage the content on your ModBlog are equally as powerful. Through web-based utilities or remote-updating applications, you can quickly make simple or fully HTML enabled dynamic blog entries. You are fully in command of your ModBlog by having controls to remove visitor created content, allowing or blocking specific members, among many other controls. The visitor side of your ModBlog equally as powerful, as they can comment and receive web-based or e-mail alerts on a variety of content, post on your forum, subscribe to your RSS feed, and add you to their friends list. Every area of ModBlog is truly powerful, and gets better all the time!

There is really no limit to what you can do with your ModBlog. ModBlog has been used for everything from a meeting point for groups to a full news site to a professional photographer's gallery. What really sets ModBlog apart is its very strong and friendly community. Using our community hub, My.ModBlog, all members can easily see new blog entries that are made, meet and help other members using our community forums, find others through our directory, view the newest and most popular ModBlogs, or just have a friendly conversation in the web-based chat area.

While all of that is entirely free, we do offer a variety of premium services for ModBlog, such as domain pointing, image hosting, and ad removal, but the free version is fully functional. Aside from one small banner ad, there are absolutely no strings attached. We will never do anything evil like send you junk mail or sell your information. ModBlog is truly blogging redefined. You really must signup for a free account to fully understand just how unique and amazing of a service it is! We look forward to having you part of the ModBlog community!

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 59 additional comments
(2 replies) #1 TruBD on 18 May 2004 - 17:16
people are just looking for ways to take money
#1.1 mohennessey on 18 May 2004 - 17:19
exactly
#1.2 bush on 18 May 2004 - 19:50
but it's not a bad way to do it.
#2 MaceX on 18 May 2004 - 17:28
everyone wants a piece of the pie
#3 Snollygoster on 18 May 2004 - 17:41
Most stupid excuse for suing someone I ever heard!
#4 longwilli on 18 May 2004 - 17:46
seems a little stupid, surely after it has been released as a number it becomes generic and not anyones property like hundred for example
#5 area91 on 18 May 2004 - 18:14
Well, I think it would be funny if Google lost.
(3 replies) #6 nw_raptor on 18 May 2004 - 18:24
well, he didnt invent google did he? just googol... people these days are amazing...
#6.1 Dayon on 19 May 2004 - 00:06
how can you invent a number. Numbers have, and always will exist in their infinite vastness.
#6.2 Andareed on 19 May 2004 - 01:01
He didn't invent a number, he just "invented" the name for it.

As a bit of trivia, it's actually used in "Back to the Future". Doc uses "one in a googol plex" one time
#6.3 datr on 19 May 2004 - 21:42
Actually a googolplex is another number it is 10 to the power of a googol which is a very very large number. I don't quite remember but I think it would take a computer something like 8 years to process and write out a googolplex. Also googolplex was also developed by another mathmatician, not Edward Kasner.
(2 replies) #7 Adam0431 on 18 May 2004 - 18:24
you never know in this country....look at the Lady who sued Mcdonalds cause she was to stupid to be careful with hot coffee
#7.1 hafu8 on 18 May 2004 - 20:35
actually, the McDonalds case was won because McDonalds was aware that they were overheating coffee well above acceptable temperatures. This was because their research showed most people took their coffee to work before drinking it. By overheating the coffee they allowed it to still be nice and hot by the time the customer was ready to drink it sereval minutes later. So, it was a somewhat good concept, but its implementation just didn't work out at all for them.
#7.2 Octol on 19 May 2004 - 09:01
The McDonald's case was won because a jury decided to give away some of McDonald's money. Period.

How can McDonald's conceivably be held responsible for some stupid woman's own clumsiness? Could she reasonably contend that she had never previously purchased coffee at McDonald's and therefore didn't know the coffee was hot? I call bullsh*t on that one!

Personally, I think McDonald's sucks the big weenie and should probably be sued into bankruptcy for the horrid crap that they sell. But not for this. In this case I don't like the precedent that was set. McDonald's other failings notwithstanding, this was not their fault and the case should have been laughed out of court for the pathetic joke that it was.

Unfortunately, as long as those who profit from both sides of any lawsuit are in complete control of our legal system, the frivolous lawsuits will continue. Until, that is, the entire nation has been sued into bankruptcy.

C'est la Vie!
#8 allfive6 on 18 May 2004 - 18:28
dumbest damn think ever .if your going to sue at be man enough to say it is for money not to put someone soul to rest.
#9 Whoa on 18 May 2004 - 18:29
these people suck. they people should be fined for their stupid excuse for sueing others
#10 Yvo on 18 May 2004 - 18:40
welcome to america, where people can sue other people (incl. themselves) for anything.
(3 replies) #11 Garrett Socling on 18 May 2004 - 18:43
I believe the correct term for this is :

wtf?
#11.1 Drimo on 18 May 2004 - 18:56
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
#11.2 Smeg on 18 May 2004 - 23:10
Lima Oscar Lima
#11.3 BOOGSoftball™ on 28 May 2004 - 14:24
Lahrd glahrious lahrd.
(6 replies) #12 lostspyder on 18 May 2004 - 19:13
/me runs off to pattent PI (3.142

imagine who i could all sue, round table manifactures..... Anything that uses a sinasoidal signal.... every math book publisher in the world, it would be great!
#12.1 markjensen on 18 May 2004 - 20:22
QUOTE (#12.0)
/me runs off to pattent PI (3.142

Maybe you should sue your school! That number is not PI.
#12.2 Noxerus on 18 May 2004 - 21:27
Weeeeeeeee!

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862
089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811
174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337
867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066
063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469
519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495
673518857527248912279381830119491...

500 digits
#12.3 Jon on 18 May 2004 - 22:07
QUOTE (#12.1)
Maybe you should sue your school! That number is not PI.

hahahahah nice
#12.4 Geo on 19 May 2004 - 01:30
It is... just rounded
#12.5 dotnetjunkie on 19 May 2004 - 01:35
No, it is NOT!
How dumb are you that you can't even round a number properly?
Rounded, it is 3,1416 which is a whole lot different from 3,1428!!
#12.6 Worm of Doom on 19 May 2004 - 09:37
It's amazing how many people were taught at school that pi is 22/7... technically 3.1428 isn't even that because it should be 3.1429 (rounded)
#13 Briandl79 on 18 May 2004 - 19:28
I agree that if a word is a word in the dictionary it seems strange that you could sue someone for using it in a business name.

Having said that it seems a bit unfair that Google can then go around and threaten companies that use the term Google in their business name. I'm not saying it's totally unfair because they did create that variation of the word but it does seem a little unfair...
#14 Trajik 2600 on 18 May 2004 - 19:28
I'm gonna sue SBC because I have a dead relative named Susan Brittiney Charleston. How DARE they profit off of my dead relative! She must be spinning in her grave!
#15 mayamaniac on 18 May 2004 - 20:27
Only in the America. Damn, our judicial system sucks.
#16 Saadu on 18 May 2004 - 20:29
well suck my hairy brown thumb
#17 Sydd on 18 May 2004 - 20:46
Hah....the family who's sueing must be getting poor so they want to sue google to get some $$$
#18 Porthos SG1 on 18 May 2004 - 21:45
Google was founded in 1998. If this issue was/is so important, why the heck would they wait six years to sue? Answer is, because Google is making money.

I think the gaming industry should sue Google for using a name simalar to "moogle". Sheesh!
#19 mr_da3m0n on 18 May 2004 - 21:47
Well, lets start googleplex.com instead, so we can extend in procedures.
#20 ripgut on 18 May 2004 - 21:55
They should send all the sue happy lawyers to Iraq instead of our soldiers
#21 Fredde87 on 18 May 2004 - 22:02
remember this... The 10 million question on who wants to be a millionair (where the mayor cheated) was "What term is used for 1 and hundra 0?"....

that just popped into my head when I read this article...
#22 skaife on 18 May 2004 - 22:04
Wtf?
How is this going to work, they can't say they have some sort of trademark/copyright/patent on the word.
And why would anybody want to sue Google anyway, they're such an awesome company...

What nutcases
#23 Cube on 18 May 2004 - 22:44
that is so f***ing stupid
#24 Smeg on 18 May 2004 - 23:12
if anything they should be suing whoever put Googol in the dictionary
#25 Khaavren on 18 May 2004 - 23:23
how in the @%( can you copyright a number?
#26 Dayon on 19 May 2004 - 00:04
Isn't the ending in googol stressed a bit differently than in google? At least, that's how I pronounce it.
#27 Blurb on 19 May 2004 - 00:51
Best make money quick scam ever...

Why didn't I think of it...oh wait...darn, why can't I be related...
#28 Geo on 19 May 2004 - 01:32
LMAO
Im gonna sue George W. Bush for having the same first name...
Or wouldnt it work? hes older than me
#29 IndoShindo on 19 May 2004 - 01:52
thats like the descendants of the person who create the first window (..yes actual glass in a wall to see through) suing microsoft for calling their system windows ... if you don't trademark your word for selling purposes your not entitled to any money .. those idoits will find that out soon enough after they lose and have huge lawyer bills to pay
#30 MegaManXcalibur on 19 May 2004 - 02:05
In future news the family of the man who invented the word thousand is on the verge of sueing most every software company in the world since they use the word thousand in many program names (Visual Studio .NET 2003, Quickboosk 2004, Notron Antivirus 2004, ect.).
#31 dannymp3 on 19 May 2004 - 03:27
Wait... so did the person who invented "pi" the number 3.14 and so on sue for the creator of the food "pie" ? Or vice versa. Which ever came first. Just because it sounds the same doesn't mean it had the same intention. Heh, this is funny.

Hmm... piiiieeeeee.
(1 reply) #32 Richard Davison on 19 May 2004 - 04:04
Just like a burgaler suing a person for having their doors locked. Only in America =
#32.1 Octol on 19 May 2004 - 09:14
Don't laugh! A burglar recently sued a homeowner—and won—because he injured himself while committing a burglary!
#33 DOGglee on 19 May 2004 - 05:57
lame relatives
#34 Wisbo on 19 May 2004 - 09:02
anything to get money.... some people are so selfish
#35 Winston on 19 May 2004 - 10:13
fu*ckin stupid, im gonna name myself microsoft, so when i die i might tell my family to talk to bill about it :p
#36 max_ireland on 19 May 2004 - 11:12
FRUITLOOP ALERT!!!!
(1 reply) #37 obsolete on 19 May 2004 - 12:19
Why the hell dont they go and sue WWW.GOOGOL.COM
#37.1 kwyjibo on 19 May 2004 - 12:53
QUOTE (#37.0)
Why the hell dont they go and sue WWW.GOOGOL.COM

Not enough of a payout. Gotta go for the deep pockets.
#38 ghos on 19 May 2004 - 13:42
Do they even make any money off the name googol? This just shows how this country is going to pot. People sue over every last thing. Like the lady in Mcdonalds, she won and that makes it even worse that you can win money for your own human failings. However I don't feel this suit has merit. I think the name of a number is essentially public domain. You can't profit off of it.
(1 reply) #39 SHS on 19 May 2004 - 14:56
Well this no diff then Windows vs Lindows
#39.1 ec4912 on 19 May 2004 - 16:50
Microsoft didn't wait until Lindows became very profitable. Why did the family wait until now? Not the same thing.
#40 cswadner on 20 May 2004 - 01:58
OMFG, how gay is this..... wtf do these people think they are doing. I highly doubt google is gonna go and overhaul their whole name just over a little naming dispute

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Advertisement (Why?)