Sergey Brin’s Google is one of the best-known technological inventions of our time
A crowd of more than five thousand people for Google’s annual conference for web developers They eagerly awaited the event’s opening presentation filled the Moscone Center in San Francisco California on June 27 2012 They were there Sergey Brin the cofounder of Google stepped onto the stage wearing an unusual pair of glasses In some ways they looked like ordinary reading glasses but a small electronic device was affixed to one of the lenses Brin was wearing one of the first pairs of Google Glass an exciting and innovative product that he and his team at Google had created The glasses included a built-in computer display cameras and an internet connection Users could record everything they saw and heard and even livestream the scene directly to the internet Google which had started as an internet search engine was growing and expanding into a wide range of new high-tech products Google Glass was one of them We’ve got something pretty special for you Brin told his audience As he spoke a screen behind him showed an airship hovering over the streets of San Francisco A team 7
of skydivers each wearing Google Glass was ready to jump and stream the experience in real time This could go wrong in about 500 different ways Brin cautioned A rumble of laughter swept through the auditorium Brin and the crowd watched excitedly as the view shifted to the Google Glass worn by one of the jumpers The city of San Francisco stretched out below A roar filled the auditorium as the team jumped As Brin a recreational skydiver himself narrated the jumpers glided in high-tech wingsuits headed straight for the roof of the Moscone Center Sergey Brin watches a live feed as skydivers wearing Google Glass jump from a plane over San Francisco 8
The jumpers opened their parachutes landed safely on the roof and within minutes joined Brin on the stage This was the kind of spectacular headline-grabbing demonstrations that Brin loved and it had gone off perfectly Although Google Glass itself did not enjoy great success its introduction helped mark a period of transition in Google one of the world’s biggest companies Google had begun life as a web search business But Brin and his fellow cofounder Larry Page were no longer content just to produce web-based products They were branching out into new forms of technology and revolutionizing what was possible FROM MOSCOW TO MARYLAND Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin was born on August 21 1973 in Moscow Russia At the time Russia was part of the Soviet Union This powerful nation denied its citizens many rights and freedoms Sergey’s parents Mikhail and Eugenia Brin had both graduated from the University of Moscow Sergey’s father was an economist for a government agency His mother worked in a research lab The young family appeared to be well set for their future But there was one catch The Brins were Jewish At the time anti-Semitism prejudice against Jewish people was high in the Soviet Union Because the Soviet government discriminated against Jews Mikhail Brin worried that his son’s opportunities in school and future employment would be limited 9
