The word "Googol" was coined in the 1920s. There's speculation that the child who came up with it was inspired by a Comic book character called "Barney Google" who was famous at that time.
> how likely is it that Sirotta came up with the world “googol” on his own, and was not influenced by the massively successful comic strip of the same name, which was EVERYwhere (comics, cartoons, toys, you name it)? I say the odds are extremely unlikely, to the point where I think it’s safe enough to say that he DID get the term from the comic strip
To be honest, that's just wild (and a bit arrogant) speculation on the part of the author. I knew about the comic book, so I expected at least an ounce of evidence, not just the author convincing himself...
The word "Googol" was coined in the 1920s. There's speculation that the child who came up with it was inspired by a Comic book character called "Barney Google" who was famous at that time.