Google – the most popular search engine in the world needs no introduction. With over 93.18% of the worldwide market share (as of March 2023), Google handles 9 billion searches every day. Let’s take a deeper dive to know how old is Google, its history, and some interesting facts about it.
Table of Contents
How old is Google?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin officially founded Google on September 4, 1998, after they moved to their first office – a garage in suburban Menlo Park, California that was owned by the former CEO of Youtube – Susan Wojcicki.
Also read: How old is the internet?
A look back into history
Now that we have known how old is Google today, let’s traverse the patch back to history and find out more about its initial days.
- January 1996: Google first began as a research project
Back in 1995, Larry was considering Standford University for his grad school, and Sergey Brin – already a student there was assigned to show him around. Later in January 1996, Google began as a Ph.D. project by the duo.
Wikipedia also mentions Scott Hassan as an “unofficial third” who wrote most of Google’s original source code but later quit before Google was officially founded.
- PageRank and BackRub – that led to Google
Contrary to the then-popular search engines that ranked the results based on the number of times the search term would appear on the page, Larry Page developed a new algorithm – PageRank.
PageRank (which was influenced by RankDex) determined the ranking and the relevance of the website based on the number and the importance (authority) of pages that linked back to the website – also referred to as backlinks today.
As Hassan began writing and implementing the codes for PageRank – Larry and Sergey nicknamed their new search engine project – BackRub.
- BackRub to Google… or Googol?
The founder duo later changed the name from BackRub to Google. If you are wondering “what does Google stand for” or the “original meaning of Google”, here’s what it is:
Google is a misspelling of the word googol – which means one followed by a hundred zeros (10100). The name was chosen as it caters to the idea of organizing information worldwide and making it accessible universally.
Some facts about Google
- Who is the CEO of Google?
Sundar Pichai is the present CEO of Google (from October 2, 2015 – present date).
- Does Google have a parent company?
Alphabet Inc. is the parent company of Google – a multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in Mountain View, California.
- When did Google turn 18?
Google was officially founded on September 04, 1998, and turned 18 on September 04, 2016.
- Where is Google located in the world?
The corporate headquarters of Google is the Googleplex – located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.
- How old is Google 1?
- What was the first Google search?
The first Google search was Gerhard Casper. Gerhard was the former president of Standford University from 1992 – 2000.
- What is Google’s real name?
The full name of Google is Google LLC – a subsidiary of the parent company Alphabet. Its original name was Google Inc. (formerly) from 1998-2017.
- What is Google’s oldest name?
Google – which started as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, was named Backrub initially. It was soon renamed Google.
- How old is Google?
Frequently asked questions
1) How old is Google chan?
Google-chan – also known as Chrome-chan is a personification of Google as a webcomic character in I Made A Comic About Internet Explorer written by Merryweathery. However, the age of Google-chan hasn’t been mentioned in the comic.
2) How old is Google Chrome?
Google Chrome – the web browser was first released on September 02, 2008, and is 16 years 2 months 18 days old today.3) How old is Google Classroom?
Google Classroom – the learning platform for educational institutions was first announced on May 06, 2014, and is 10 years 6 months 14 days old today.4) How old is Google Maps?
Google Maps was first launched on February 08, 2005, and is 19 years 9 months 12 days old today.5) How old is Google Assistant?
Google Assistant – the AI-powered virtual assistant was first unveiled on May 18, 2016, during a Google developer conference and is 8 years 6 months 2 days old today.