The world's biggest search engine celebrates nearly three decades since its humble start in a garage.
On Friday, September 27, 2025, technology giant Google celebrated its 27th birthday. To mark the occasion, the company replaced its usual logo on its global search homepage with a special Doodle featuring its very first logo from 1998. This nostalgic image brought many users back to the early days of the internet.
Google confirmed the celebration on its Doodle page, stating, "This Doodle marks Google's 27th birthday. We’re celebrating by getting nostalgic with our first-ever logo. Search on."
From Stanford Project to Global Leader
The search engine was started in 1998 by two PhD students at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They began their work as a small research project operating from a rented garage in Menlo Park, California. The main goal of the founders was to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
The company's journey began with an earlier project named 'BackRub' before the name was changed to 'Google,' which is a slightly altered spelling of the mathematical term 'googol' (the number one followed by one hundred zeros).
Though the company was legally started in early September 1998, Google has officially chosen September 27th as the date to celebrate its anniversary for many years.
The choice of the vintage 1998 wordmark for the Doodle reminds people of the company's simple beginnings. The celebration serves as a proof that major breakthrough moments can start in very ordinary places. While looking back at its roots, Google is also continuously focusing on its future, which includes new areas of technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and making information even smarter and easier to use globally.
The company's focus remains on keeping information organized and useful, a mission that has now impacted billions of people around the world, including those who rely on Google daily across India.