Google becomes 25 years old today. Read about the tech giant’s journey, which began in a simple dorm room.

Two brilliant individuals, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, met when enrolled as PhD students at Stanford University in the middle of the 1990s.

Google turns 25 on September 27, 2023, which is a significant milestone in the tech sector. This American global technology company’s adventure began in the most unlikely of circumstances, and the entire journey has been nothing short of miraculous.

As PhD students in the computer science program at Stanford University in the middle of the 1990s, two brilliant brains named Larry Page and Sergey Brin met. They had no idea that their collaboration would forever alter the digital environment of the planet. They started a research project named “BackRub,” which eventually developed into the Google search engine that we are all familiar with.

In-depth mathematical analysis of the link structure of the World Wide Web was conducted by Larry Page. He created the groundwork for a ground-breaking search algorithm that turned Google into the dominant search engine it is today. By 1998, their idea had changed into Google, which takes its name from the mathematics word “googol,” which denotes an extremely huge number.

In the form of a $100,000 check from Andy Bechtolsheim, a Sun Microsystems co-founder, Google Inc. acquired its legal birth certificate in August 1998. A rented garage in Menlo Park, California, served as Page and Brin’s initial “office” after leaving their dorm room at Stanford. They spent the following few years living at the office, which included a ping pong table and computers, as they strove to actualize their dream of a sorted internet.

Beyond Search

Google’s influence today goes far beyond just its search engine. With services like YouTube, Android, Gmail, and Google Maps, Google has ingrained itself into the lives of billions of people all over the world.

When Google replaced Yahoo as the company’s primary search engine in 2000, its impact in the computer industry grew. The introduction of Ad Words in October 2000 laid the groundwork for Google’s hegemony in internet advertising.

The following significant advancement occurred in 2004 when Google revealed that Gmail will give a mind-boggling 1GB of storage space. This made Gmail a crucial component of our lives and assisted in fending off competition from services like Yahoo Mail and Microsoft’s Hotmail. In the same year, in August, the company became public.

Birth of Google’s Android and YouTube

Google continued to innovate beyond just search and email. In 2005, it entered the smart phone market by acquiring Android and introducing Google Talk. The 2006 purchase of YouTube marked Google’s foray into the internet video market.

With the addition of Double Click in 2007, Google’s acquisition spree kept on and increased its impact in internet marketing. Users may access a variety of material kinds in one search thanks to the 2007 introduction of universal search.

The T-Mobile G1, Google’s first Android phone, was unveiled in 2008 together with the Chrome web browser. In the years that followed, Google Glass was introduced, Waze was purchased, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, was established. Sundar Pichai was appointed Google’s CEO.

Google’s Future

Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a blog post earlier this month in which he discussed the company’s prospects, in particular the opportunities presented by AI.

In the next 25 years, Google will compete against other industry titans across all product categories. Google is already one of the leading companies in this industry, and AI is one of the main opportunities it is attempting to capitalize on. For Google to keep its top position for the next 25 years there may be an even greater need for innovation and influence.