Google Weblog

April 08, 2004: Sergey Brin in Drag - EXCLUSIVE

Privacy advocates have often discussed Google allows your past to haunt you. Any careless mistake or childish prank is preserved on the Internet, forever, available for anyone curious enough to do a Google search.

Well, the problem has really hit home -- so to speak -- for Google's own founder, Sergey Brin, whose college website once included a photo of him in drag.

It's tempting to laugh about how this will completely derail Google's IPO, and joke about how good Sergey looks in a Speedo, but I think we as a society need to move beyond our embarrassment, and admit that all founders of major companies did some pretty silly things in college -- the only difference is that Sergey was dumb enough to put them on the Web for all eternity.

Thanks to alterego for the tip about the pictures.

Posted by Aaron Swartz on April 08, 2004 10:33 AM