Interesting Facts about Microsoft, Apple and Google

It is hard to imagine our lives without having products/services rendered by tech giants Microsoft, Apple and Google at our fingertips. These three are the world’s most valuable brands. These companies have as much interesting facts as their products.

Here are a few of them:

Microsoft

• Microsoft was originally called “Micro-Soft”. Windows was originally called “Interface Manager”.
• Microsoft has split its stock nine times since it went public back in March 1986. Put very, very simply, a company will generally split its stock when its share price becomes too high.
• The name of its search engine “˜Bing’ has its origins in Bingo. Just like the game, it was meant to suggest that something looked for has been found or realized. “˜Bang’ was also proposed because it was memorable, short, and easy to spell. Finally, Bing was chosen for the same reasons.
• Microsoft is one of the largest corporate collectors of artworks with over 5,000 contemporary pieces including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, ceramics, studio glass, and multimedia works. Microsoft gathers arts from local artists, up-and-coming artists and big names.
• Microsoft has a reputation in the industry for asking off-beat, off-the-wall questions during its job interview. The most oft-quoted question is: "Why is a manhole cover round?" Whether this particular example is genuine, or an urban legend, it's certainly true that Microsoft employs a very unusual, and forward-thinking interview process. 

Apple

• The bite in Apple's logo was added so it wouldn't be confused with a cherry. The original logo included Isaac Newton perching under an apple tree. That was eventually switched to the one we know today, a simple apple.
• A rare Apple-1 computer built in Steve Job’s garage in 1976 was sold at an auction in 2014 for US$905,000.
• Apple’s cofounder had sold all his shares for $800. Today they would have been worth US$35 billion.
• Apple has more operating cash than US treasury.
• Its brand worth US$118.9 billion. It is the world’s most valuable brand.
• Every Apple iPhone ad displays the time as 9:41 AM, the time Steve Jobs unveiled it in 2007.
• Apple recovered 2,204 pounds of gold from broken iPhones in 2015. That’s worth about US$40 million.
• Apple could buy Disney or Coca-Cola and pay in cash.

Google

• The simple design caused people to just sit there looking at the screen during initial tests. Test users were actually waiting for the “rest of the page to load”. To solve that particular problem, the Google Copyright message was added as a line as an end of page marker.
• “To google” became a verb in 2006 when both Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary as well as the Oxford English Dictionary recognized it. It of course means – to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet.
• Google’s core search engine ranking system is called PageRank. Each page is assigned a rank that determines its ranking in the search engine results. But the term is not taken from its function; it’s actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.
• Google has photographed more than five million miles of road for its Street View maps.
• Google has been acquiring, on average, more than one company per week since 2010. 
• Google HQ rents goats from California Grazing to mow their lawns and fields. The employees think that it’s a lot cuter to watch goats do the mowing than lawn mowers. 
• Google has a pet T-rex, named Stan, which lives at their California headquarters. Founders bought it to remind the employees to not let Google go extinct.
• Google is a wedding planner. Plan your special day with Google Wedding.