27 September 2008
September 27th - The day everyone finally wants cake
Google is 10 today as you might have seen from their special birthday logo or read on the Official Google Blog. Why today? Becuase September 27th is the day Google feels like eating cake.
As I wrote ealier this month, Google’s *real* birthday is generally thought to be on September 7 because that’s the day that Google Inc was officially created. However Google themselves say:
Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake.
That day is today and Google is 10 (or 13 or 9 depending on your point of view). In celebration, Google have created a special tenth birthday page which provides a way to waste a few minutes of your times by answering questions such as “When was the first vegetable garden planted on the Google campus?”.
Perhaps more usefully, Google has provided a timeline giving a history of the company so far including a link to an interesting article by Danny Sullivan back in 1998 giving an overview of state of search at the time and reviewing the up and coming new player - Google. He writes:
If you pay a visit, don’t be frightened by the interface. One thing Google needs is a good facelift. Relevancy scores and other extraneous information can obscure the actual listings — but I did say this was an experimental service, right?
Google have come far in their “ten” years and have perhaps grown faster than any company ever before them. Yet Google isn’t perfect and has made a few enemies and drawn criticism from some, as I wrote a few weeks ago in my article, ‘Does Google need to grow up?‘.
Certainly the last ten years have been very good ones for Google. Will the next few be quite a good? Google haven’t yet made any big mistakes (in my opinion) and have continued to grow year after year at a phenomenal rate. But as they stick their fingers into more and more pies and the company gets bigger, mistakes are going to become more likely, their enemies will become greater and stronger and growth will become harder.
6 Comments currently posted.
Shashin Parmar says:
Robert Kelly says:
Happy Birthday Google, I don’t think the web would be the same if Google was not about
Heny Ajona says:
I am Very Happy for the day Google is having its 10 years.
I was also born on the same day, but I am 42 years today, lets all enjoy the bigger cake I have never seen it my life. I hope to receive mails from Google since the company chose to have my birth day us their own. I think I need some explanation to that.
Thanks
Tyler Pittaway says:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOOGLE! Wow it’s incredible, I think the internet would be dull without the amazing search engine, 1st rate humor and colorful logo.
You and your team deserve all the best and I look forward to a quarter century!
kamal ahmad says:
I WISH “GOOGLE” REMAINS THE MOST AUTHENTECATED SEARCH ENGINE IN NEXT 10 YEARS.PLEASE ACCEPT MY SINCER FEELINGS AND CONGRATES
ON GOOGLES BIRTHDAY.
WISH U ALWAYS GOOD LUCK
"Motivate Thyself" says:
Thanks for bringing this info to our attention. Their random facts page was quite interesting. Now I know how they came up with their name!
I wish my heartiest feelings to GOOGLE & its TEAM for giving us such a wondrfull product. And I wish that google will grow more and more.