Google has been the numero uno search engine and software giant. With several projects under its belt, it is indeed an influential name in the arena of software and the allied products. Probably, you may not be able to visualize a day without the use of any Google Products at least once. However, there is a confusion about the exactly when did Google was born. In fact, Google itself seems to be confused about its actual date of birth. We thought of addressing this confusion, and the result is this article. Let us find When is Google’s Birthday in the following paragraphs.
When is Google’s Birthday and why this confusion?
Well, Google’s Birthday has found itself shifting on several occasions. And the main source of this confusion is, strangely enough, Google itself. Astonished to find this claim? Well, read on to know more. The date that Google seems to have stuck to now is September 27. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion. The homepage of Google marks it as its official birthday. But Google itself does not seem to have a clear understanding of when it was actually started. Does that appear strange? We have proof to ascertain that. When Google celebrated its birthday in 2006, it did so on September 27. And it did so in 2005 on September, 26! If that was not enough, there is a history of confusions even before that. The year 2004 saw Google going live with its birthday doodle on September, 7, while a year before that in 2003 – the date was September, 8. Why this confusion?
But Google itself does not seem to have a clear understanding of when it was actually started. Does that appear strange? We have proof to ascertain that. When Google celebrated its birthday in 2006, it did so on September 27. And it did so in 2005 on September, 26! If that was not enough, there is a history of confusions even before that. The year 2004 saw Google going live with its birthday doodle on September, 7, while a year before that in 2003 – the date was September, 8. Why this confusion?
Which one is the exact date of birth for Google? Now that the company has further evolved as a subdivision of a larger company known as Alphabet, are we here to see any further confusion?
Leave the confusion aside. Let us check out the history of Google. Maybe this will give us an idea about how the company has evolved over the years and how old it is.
The History of Google
It was in the year 1995 that the founders of Google(please note that it was not yet Google back then) Larry Page and Sergey Brin met for the first time.
Larry Page was about to attend the graduation school in Stanford, while Brin was in the second year of graduation at the school. By January 1995 both of them started working on a new project. Interestingly, the project was not meant to be a search engine as it stands today. The project was started as part of the doctoral thesis that Page was pursuing. This search engine was called BackRub. BackRub was developed as a search engine that was based on the concept of citation. Citation, for the uninitiated, is the attention currency used for the academic purposes. Getting more citations would make your work more authoritative.
In fact, the initial plan was not to launch the search engine. The idea struck both Page and Brin that it would make a great search engine after the product went live. The plan went ahead to launch the first search engine based on the citation counts. Page and Brin were confident that the new search engine would be a fantastic consumer search engine. Unlike the earlier search engines which either presented either curated results or presented the results based on how many times the keyword was used. BackRub was the first search engine that presented the search results based on the relevance of the content.
The search engine was subsequently renamed to Google and went on to become a hit within a short span of time. Google is incidentally a word changed from Gogol which is a number represented by One followed by one hundred zeroes. The algorithm that Larry Page developed for ranking the web results was named in his honour as PageRank.
Google registered its domain name www.google.com was registered in the year 1997. The business was officially launched in 1998. That brings up four different Google start dates for us – 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998. However, for the date, we may still need to go through the history books, or else accept what Google states.
When exactly is the Google’s birthday, anyway?
Google officially considers 1998 as its launch year so as to calculate the age. That is precise because Google started its business in that year. However, by some records, the actual date of launching operations is September 7. That would probably explain why Google went wth a birthday Google in 2004 on September 7. Even then, the records indicate that Google as a company filed for incorporation on September 4 in 1998. By that logic, it would be apt to celebrate the birthday on September 4. The company launched a special event in India in 2016 on that date. Maybe that has some bearing over there. However, later on, Google shifted the date around a few times before finally settling down to September 27. In fact, September 27 was the date when the Google Doodle was first used in 2002 to celebrate its birthday and Google has continued to follow it up every year on the same day.
In any case, the software giant will become 19 years old this September and has become an adult. Let us cherish and bask in the glow!
The Google Doodles on the Birthday over the years
The first doodle appeared in the year 2002 on September, 27. Next year, the birthday was celebrated on September 8 in 2003.
The Birthday Doodles for the subsequent two years in 2005 and 2006 for the 6th and Seventh Birthday were as below.
Google Doodle on 6th Birthday on September 7th 2004 Google Doodle 7th Birthday on September 26 in 2005The further Doodles are as follows –
8th Birthday Doodle on Sept 27 in 2006 9th Birthday Doodle on 27th Sept., 2007 10th Birthday Doodle on 27th Sept., 2008The next set of doodles were quite interesting enough –
11th Birthday Doodle in 2009 on 27th Sept 12th Birthday Doodle on 27th Sept., 2010 13th Birthday Doodle in 2011 on 27th Sept 14th Birthday Doodle on Sept 27 in 2012 15th Birthday Doodle on 27th Sept., 2013 16th Birthday Doodle on 27th Sept 2014Here below are the 17th and 18th Birthday Doodles presented on September, 27 in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Also Check Google Gravity
How old is Google?
Well, if you consider that Google was actually founded in the year 1998, the software giant has grown up to be an adult in 2016. As on today, when this article is being published, the search engine monster is 19 years old. So, it has attained an age where it can drink and drive (hopefully, not do both!).
Well, jokes apart, since the Google services actually started in the year 1998, we can safely say that the company is 19 years old. There is no ambiguity about the year of launch of business, but the confusion is about the date or birth date alone!
The Final Thoughts
That was a little drill out to find the exact date of birth date of Google. We agree that there is a confusion about When is Google’s birthday. However, it should be noted that the confusion has been cleared by Google since the year 2006. The birthday is being celebrated on September 27 since the last ten years. We would expect the same date this year as well. Do not forget to check out the Google Doodle on September 27.
Do you have any other version for the use of September 27 as the birthday of Google? If you know the exact reasons for the choice that was finally made, do share them with us. If you know anything more about Google and its birthday, we will welcome to come up with your opinions and information through the comments here below. Your feedback means a lot for our readers and us.