Google Turns 28: The Story Behind 28 Years of Search, Innovation and AI

Google is celebrating its 28th birthday on September 27, 2026, with a nostalgic Doodle that brings back the look of its early logo. The celebration marks another milestone for a company that began as a search-engine project by Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The story began in the mid-1990s, when Page and Brin worked on an early search engine called Backrub. Their approach focused on analysing links between webpages to determine their importance. The project eventually became Google, a name inspired by the mathematical term “googol.”

One of the most notable moments came in 1998, when Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 cheque to “Google Inc.” The company had not yet been legally incorporated, so Page and Brin formally established Google Inc. to deposit the investment. At the time, the team was operating from a garage in Menlo Park, California.

Google’s early principles also remain part of its story. Its “Ten things we know to be true” included ideas such as focusing on users, prioritising speed and continually improving its products.

Interestingly, September 27 is not Google’s official incorporation date. Google was legally incorporated on September 4, 1998, while September 27 became the company’s consistently observed birthday from 2006 onward.

Today, Google’s ecosystem extends far beyond Search, covering products such as Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Android and its growing Gemini AI ecosystem. Its 28th birthday is therefore less about one product and more about the evolution of a technology company that has helped shape how billions of people access information.

Akash Takes

Google’s 28-year journey shows how a focused technology problem can evolve into an enormous ecosystem. The next chapter is increasingly being shaped by AI, making Google’s transformation from search engine to AI-powered technology platform particularly significant for marketers, creators and businesses.

Source: Google