In September 1998, Google was created in a garage by two Stanford University students – a humble beginning to say the least.
Who would have thought a quarter of century later it would be the world’s most used search engine with unprecedented access to our personal data?
To mark its 25 birthday, Google has packed its site with Easter Eggs, including a new Google Doodle – a temporary alteration of its logo – with ’25’ in place of where the two Os would normally be.
Meanwhile, if you enter ‘Google 25th birthday’ into the search bar, colourful confetti will rain down over your results.
The tech giant has also brought back its ‘birthday surprise spinner’, which lets you play interactive games from its archives, including Pac-man, Snake and Tic-tac-toe.
The new Google Doodle – a temporary alteration of the Google logo – has ’25’ in place of where the two Os would be
The Google birthday surprise spinner chooses a an interactive games for users to play from the search engine’s archives
Searching ‘Google birthday surprise spinner’ will bring up the multi-coloured carnival wheel at the top of the search results.
It will automatically start spinning and select a game for you, although you can opt to spin again if you want to play something else.
Google has also published a gallery of 25 changes made to its search product since it launched, including Images in 2001, Voice Search in 2006 and Lens in 2017.
And a new video shows how the search capabilities have evolved in the past quarter century, assisted by artificial intelligence (AI).
Search ‘how to cut a pineapple’ on Google in 1998 and you’d perhaps be given a few sites, but do so today and you’ll be inundated with a slew of images, explainer videos, recipes and more.
In a blog post today, Google has thanked the public for ’25 years of curiosity’ that has fueled the company’s astonishing success.
‘We love dreaming up new ways that technology can be helpful to you every day, and are endlessly inspired by what you’ve used it to achieve,’ it says.
‘We’re also humbled by the opportunities ahead, and the potential for AI to help us continue to deliver on our mission and improve the lives of even more people around the world.
Search ‘how to cut a pineapple’ on Google in 1998 and you’d perhaps be given a few websites
But enter the same query so today and you’ll be inundated with images, explainer videos, blog posts, recipes and more
‘From all of us at Google, thanks for an amazing 25 years. Here’s to many more years of curiosity.’
Although it is now a multi-billion-dollar company and owner of the world’s dominant web-based search engine, Google’s origins were far more modest.
Google was officially launched in September 1998 by Stanford University Larry Page and Sergey Brin to market Google Search.
The duo used the garage of Susan Wojcicki (now known as former CEO of YouTube) in California as their first office.
Their search project had originally been called BackRub – a questionable choice – but luckily it was changed to its now world-famous name prior to launch.
‘Google’ is a misspelling of the word googol, which is a term for the number one followed by one hundred zeros (as die-hard fans of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ will likely know).
Despite Google celebrating its birthday on September 27, papers to incorporate the company were actually filed on September 4, 1998.
The company became incorporated three days later and the domain was registered on September 15, so why it now celebrates today’s date is unclear.
Originally Google was a single-product company with only Google Search to its name, but now its hardware and software seem to permeate every corner of our lives.
Online innovations subsequently launched include Google Maps, Google Street View and Google Earth, as well as its Chrome web browser, Gmail email service and video conferencing platform Google Meet.
Google founders Larry Page (left) and Sergey Brin (right) in their first office, Susan Wojcicki’s garage, back in 1999
Google Beta: How the multi-billion-dollar company’s world-famous search function looked 25 years ago
Its Android operating system is one of the two dominant software for smartphones today’s (along with Apple’s iOS).
But unlike iOS, Android is run on phones made by multiple companies, including Samsung, Xiaomi, Nothing and Google itself.
The first official Google phone – the Google Pixel – was released in 2016, although before this it collaborated with HTC on the Nexus One.
Google even has a physical presence in our living rooms thanks to smart speaker products in its Google Nest range, powered by Google Assistant.
Meanwhile, Google Glass, released in 2013, was one of the first smart glasses on the market, bringing information right in front of people’s eyeballs.
