Speaking at Google's developer's conference in San Francisco today, Sergey Brin launched some fresh nomenclature into the jargony culture of computer programmers: "Page's Law." He was trying to make a point about the speed of Google's Web apps; instead he's done co-founder Larry Page a huge favor.

"Page's Law" seems destined to become a common companion term to "Moore's Law," a widely-used tech aphorism that says, roughly speaking, that computers double in speed every year or two.

Page's Law is the inverse: It says software gets twice as slow every 18 months. This helps explain why your computer seems to get slower as it ages, even though the hardware inside remains unchanged.

Brin explains the concept in the clip above. He adds that Google plans to reverse this trend and optimize its code. Whatever; the important thing is that it helps his buddy Larry get his name into the history books, in case this Google thing doesn't work out.