Google celebrates its 13th birthday with a simple doodle

The teen years are troubling for any software company but if that business happens to be Google, puberty will result in a level of success which is clear of facial blemishes and breaking voices.

September 27 is the official birthday of Google, the company which reinvented the internet, brought us quick and easy search capabilities and moved us into the cloud. Google filed for incorporation on 4 September 1998, registered the “Google.com” domain 15 September and officially celebrates its birthday on the 27th. Google celebrated its birthday with a claymation doodle.

Listed below is a timeline of Google’s top innovations, illustrating how the California-based search giant has managed success after success for over a decade.

• Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford in 1995.
• Google launched as Backrub.com in 1996. Soon after this they filed for incorporation as “Google” a simplification of “googol” which is a number this long.
• The first Google homepage launched thanks to a US$100 000 cheque from Andy Bechtolsheim.
• Google kept growing until it was too large for its original offices in Susan Wojcicki’s garage. It moved to its first Mountain View location in 1999.
• In 2000, Google reached the one-billion URL index mark and launched AdWords – this signalled the beginning of paid keyword searching. In 2003, Google would acquire AdSense and all but take over the keyword market.
• 2004 was a landmark year for Google. One of its most-loved products, Gmail launches as a closed beta on April fool’s day and cloud computing is introduced to us without anyone realising it.
• YouTube is snatched up by Google for US$1.6 billion in 2006. Google also releases Gchat, an application which allows Gmail users to talk to their contacts while browsing their inbox.
• Android is announced in 2007 – the first free mobile OS. Currently, Android is the most popular smartphone OS in the US.
• 2008 is the year that Google launched Chrome, another open-source product, this time a web browser with advanced capabilities.
• Not every project is a success for Google and the 2009 release of Wave was seen as a flop for the usually triumphant search company.
• Google+ was launched this year and has become an immense success for Google after they failed with their previous social media offering, Google Buzz. This is also the year that Google is moving into the hardware arena with a ferocious push – their US$12.5-billion Motorola Mobility purchase should guide them down an interesting new path.

Happy 13th birthday Google, we don’t know where we would be without you.