Google's first name was BackRub, back when the search engine lived on Stanford's servers and could be found at backrub.stanford.edu. BackRub's logo was a scan of Larry Page's hand.From BackRub's FAQ:
Your logo is upside down: Why is the light source obviously below the image? It looks quite unnatural...
The logo is simply a scan of my hand, from a flatbed scanner converted to black and white. The back in the picture is the scanner cover, and the shadows are from the scanner light.
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