Sep 27, 2021
Google's 23rd Birthday
This Doodle’s Key Themes
It’s said that one chance encounter can change the course of your life. In Google’s case, a chance encounter between two computer scientists changed the course of the Internet and the lives of millions.
In 1997, Sergey Brin, a graduate student at Stanford University, just so happened to be assigned to show Larry Page, who was considering Stanford for graduate school at the time, around campus. By the next year, the two Google co-founders were building a search engine together in their dorm rooms and developing their first prototype. In 1998, Google Inc. was officially born.
Every day, there are billions of searches on Google in more than 150 languages around the globe, and while much has changed from the early days of Google, from its first server housed in a cabinet built out of toy blocks to its servers now being housed in more than 20 data centers globally, its mission of making the world’s information accessible to everyone remains the same.
Happy 23rd Birthday, Google!
Drafts of the Doodle below
Where this Doodle appeared
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The very first Doodle launched as an “out of office” message of sorts when company founders Larry and Sergey went on vacation.
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The first Doodle launched in 1998, before Google was officially incorporated.
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The first same day Doodle was created in 2009 when water was discovered on the moon.
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Doodle for Google student contest winners have gone on to become professional artists
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The time it takes from sketch to launch for a Doodle varies widely: some have taken years and others just a few hours!
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Hundreds of Doodles launch around the world every year. Often, several different ones are live in different places at the same time!
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Our most frequently recurring Doodle character is Momo the Cat - named after a real-life team pet!
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