Happy birthday to Google, the world’s most popular search engine!
Google was founded 25 years ago today (4th September 2023) – by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford University students who wanted to organise the web in a better way. They named their project after the mathematical term ‘googol’, which means 1 followed by 100 zeros.
Since then, Google has grown into a global tech’ giant that offers not only search, but also email, maps, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and many other products and services.
Google has also acquired several companies, such as YouTube, Android, and Waze.
Some of the key moments in Google’s history
- Launching AdWords in 2000, which allowed advertisers to buy keywords and display ads on the search results page.
- Introducing Gmail in 2004, which offered users 1 GB of free storage and a fast and simple interface.
- Releasing Google Maps in 2005, which revolutionised the way people navigate and explore the world.
- Buying YouTube in 2006, which made Google the owner of the largest video-sharing platform on the web.
- Developing Chrome in 2008, which became the most widely used web browser in the world.
- Creating Android in 2010, which became the most popular operating system for smartphones and tablets.
- Launching Google+ in 2011, which was an attempt to compete with Facebook in the social networking space.
- Reorganising into Alphabet in 2015, which made Google a subsidiary of a larger holding company that oversees other ventures such as Waymo, Verily, and Calico.
- Unveiling ChatGPT in 2022, which is a conversational AI system that can generate natural and coherent responses to any text input.
Influential
Google remains one of the most influential and innovative companies in the world. It has changed the way we access information, communicate, entertain ourselves, and solve problems. It has also inspired many people to pursue their dreams and passions.
Google CEO says
As Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in his public memo on Google at 25: ‘We started with a simple mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That mission still guides us today. But we’ve also learned that our responsibility goes beyond that. We have a duty to create products that improve the lives of billions of people — not just today or tomorrow but for generations to come’.
Go google!