Highlights:
- Google was initially called “BackRub” when it was started in a dorm at Stanford University
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin were the two bright minds behind the company’s initial success
- They began with a vision where all of the information available on the World Wide Web accessible to everyone
The date 27th of October holds great significance in the tech world as it was today when Google was founded. 27th October 2023 marks the 25th birthday of the tech giant. The journey of this US-based tech giant had a humble beginning and where it stands today is nothing short of remarkable.
Towards the end of the 20th century, two bright minds at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, crossed paths in a computer science program during their doctorate. Little did they know that what they were about to collaborate on would change the digital landscape for good.
The project was initially called “BackRub” and was eventually turned into the search engine we now know as Google.
Larry Page worked on the mathematical intricacies of the World Wide Web’s (www) link structure and laid the foundation for a revolutionary search algorithm that made Google the search giant we know today. By the year 1998, their project had evolved into Google.
The name Google was name inspired by ‘Googol’- a mathematical term that represents a very large number. ‘Googol’ was said to have been coined in the 1940s by the nine-year-old nephew of E. Kasner, an American mathematician, at his request.
In August of 1998, Google Inc. received its official birth certificate in the form of a $ 100,000 (₹ 41,26,000 in 1998) check from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Coming out from the humble dorm at Stanford, Page and Brin moved into their first “office” which was a rented garage in Menlo Park, California.
The office in the garage had both computers as well as a ping pong table, which had transitioned into their home for the next few years as they worked to realise their vision of a sorted internet.
Beyond Search
Today, Google has made an impact on the world way beyond the initial search engine phase with its products like Android, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube and many, many more. Google has become an integral part of the daily lives of billions of people from all over the world.
Google’s dominance in online advertisement began in 2000 when it launched AdWords in October of that year. Google also spread its influence in the tech world when it became the default search engine for Yahoo in the same year.
Google never stopped developing, in 2004 it announced Gmail which offered a staggering 1 GB of storage capacity, more than any other platform at the time. Gmail instantly became part of our lives and pushed back the competition from the likes of YahooMail and Microsoft’s Hotmail.
It was in August of 2004 that Google went public.
Google still kept on innovating, in August of 2005 it ventured into mobile after it acquired Android as well as launched Google Talk, an instant messaging service. In 2006 Google acquired YouTube which cemented their entry into the online video domain.
Google’s acquisition spree continued as it bought DoubleClick in 2007, expanding its influence in online advertising, and introduced Universal search in 2007 which allowed users to access a wide range of content types in one search.
15 years ago, in 2008, Google unveiled its first Android powered mobile phone called T-Mobile G1 as well as Google introduced its own web browser Chrome.
In the years to come the world saw the launch of Google Glass, the acquisition of mapping startup Waze, and the creation of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, with Sundar Pichai taking the helm as CEO of Google.
In a blog post, Earlier this month, Chief Operating Officer of Google & Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, shared his thoughts on the company’s future and was particular about the domain of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Google is entering its next quarter-century where it is contending with other powerhouses in every product segment.
As of today, the biggest opportunity in tech is AI and Google is not just trying to tap into it but has become one of the biggest names in this field.
The coming quarter of the 21st century will definitely demand even more innovation and impact from Google to retain its top spot which we are sure the company will be able to do.
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