New Delhi: Google is marking its 28th birthday with a nostalgic Doodle that takes users back to the company’s early days, putting the spotlight on the journey from a small search project to one of the world’s most widely used technology companies.
The birthday celebration appeared on Google’s homepage on Sunday, featuring an early version of the Google logo as the company looks back at its beginnings. The occasion also highlights a curious detail about Google’s history while September 27 is celebrated as its birthday, the company was legally incorporated earlier in the month, on September 4, 1998.
Google was founded by Stanford University doctoral students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who began working on a search engine designed to make information on the rapidly expanding World Wide Web easier to find. Their early work eventually moved beyond the university setting and into a rented garage, where Google began taking shape as a business.
The company’s birthday tradition has become an annual moment to revisit that history. Google’s mission has centred on organising information and making it accessible and useful, even as the company’s products and reach have expanded dramatically.
That expansion now stretches far beyond web search. Google’s products and services include Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Android, Pixel devices and Gemini, its artificial intelligence platform. The company operates under Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company established in 2015.
The Doodle itself is part of another long running Google tradition. The first Doodle appeared in 1998, when Page and Brin altered the Google homepage logo to signal that they were away attending the Burning Man festival. What began as a simple message has since developed into a worldwide creative programme.
According to Google, more than 5,000 Doodles have been created over the decades, covering holidays, cultural events, important figures, sporting occasions and historical milestones. Doodles have evolved from static illustrations into animations, videos, interactive games and other digital experiences.
As Google celebrates 28 years, the latest Doodle offers a reminder of how dramatically the company has changed since its modest beginnings while bringing its early visual identity back to the homepage for another day.
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