Happy 28th Birthday, Google!

On September 27, 2026, Google celebrates 28 years of organizing the world’s information, marking the day with a nostalgic homepage Doodle honoring its origins.

Before Google, There Was "BackRub"

In 1996, Stanford PhD candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin built "BackRub"—a system that ranked pages by analyzing backlinks, laying the foundation for PageRank. 

The Typo That Changed the Web

Searching for a name meaning massive data, they chose "Googol" (a 1 followed by 100 zeros). A misspelling while checking domain availability gave birth to "google.com" on September 15, 1997.

The Check They Couldn't Cash

In August 1998, Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 seed check to "Google Inc."—a company that didn't legally exist yet! 

Born in a California Garage

Google officially incorporated on September 4, 1998, setting up its very first official workspace in a Menlo Park garage using computers cobbled together from spare parts. 

Why Celebrate on September 27?

While incorporated on September 4, Google shifted its celebration date over the early years. Since 2006, September 27 has remained the official birthday, marking a historic web indexing milestone. 

More Than a Company—A Verb

By 2006, "to google" was officially added to both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster, cementing the brand into everyday language worldwide. 

Building a Global Tech Empire

From Gmail, Maps, and Chrome to YouTube and Android, Google outgrew search—restructuring under parent company Alphabet Inc. in 2015 to power billions of everyday interactions. 

Turning 28 in the Age of AI

28 years after starting as a Stanford research project, Google enters its next era with Gemini AI, continuing to reshape how humanity accesses and interacts with knowledge.