By Harshit | 27 September 2025 | Mountain View, California | 10:00 AM EDT
Google, the search engine that grew into one of the most powerful technology companies in the world, is celebrating its 27th birthday today. To mark the occasion, the company has turned back the clock with a homepage doodle featuring its very first logo from 1998 — a colorful reminder of when Google was little more than a research project by two Stanford graduate students.
From a Garage to a Global Giant
The company’s origins trace back to a Menlo Park garage rented from Susan Wojcicki, who would later become the CEO of YouTube. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, then Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University, set out with one mission: to organize the overwhelming flood of information on the internet and make it universally accessible.
In 1998, Google was a scrappy startup competing with search engines like Yahoo, AltaVista, and Lycos. Few could have predicted that in less than three decades, it would become a household name powering billions of searches daily and transforming how humans access and use information.
Today, Google is far more than a search engine. Its reach spans Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Android, Chrome, Google Cloud, and cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies.
Why September 27 Became the “Birthday”
September 27 is not Google’s official founding date. The company was incorporated on September 4, 1998. However, after using September 27 for a celebratory doodle in the early 2000s, the date stuck as its “birthday.”
Much like people who celebrate a “party birthday” separate from their legal birth date, Google chose to prioritize tradition and fun over technical accuracy.
The Return of the First Logo
Today’s doodle showcases Google’s original 1998 logo — bold, chunky, and colorful, created using basic graphic tools. It lacks the polish of today’s design but reflects the vision of two young innovators who believed the internet could be made more accessible and useful.
That logo was less about branding perfection and more about ambition. It symbolized a work in progress that would go on to shape the digital era.
Looking Ahead: AI and Beyond
At 27, Google finds itself at the intersection of nostalgia and innovation. The company is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and quantum computing. Its AI assistant Gemini, updates to the Android ecosystem, and expansions in cloud services underscore its determination to stay ahead of rivals like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.
Still, the return of the old logo serves as a reminder of Google’s humble beginnings: a rented garage, a bold dream, and a name that would eventually change the world.
