Some interesting facts about Google May 19
The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Infact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.
Rest of it:
http://alan.blog-city.com/an_evening_with_googles_marissa_mayer.htm