Why Google celebrates its birthday on September 27
What's the story
Today, Google is celebrating its 28th birthday, and the occasion has been marked with a special Doodle. The artwork features the first-ever beta version of the Google logo as a nostalgic tribute to its journey. However, there's a catch: Google's official incorporation date is September 4, 1998, not September 27. So why does the tech giant celebrate its birthday on a different day?
Logo history
Google's early days and 1st logo
Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, first met at Stanford University in 1995.
Their project, initially called "BackRub," was later rebranded as "Google," a playful misspelling of "googol."
The duo created their first logo in 1997 using GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) software. This early version had different color arrangement than the iconic Google scheme we know today.
It was primarily used between September 1997 and September 1998 when search engine was still in beta mode on Stanford servers.
Incorporation details
Incorporation and the 'index size war'
In August 1998, Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim invested $100,000 in Google, allowing the duo to officially incorporate Google Inc. on September 4 that year.
While this date is technically the company's anniversary, Google has been inconsistent about when it celebrated its birthday in its early years.
The permanent shift to September 27 as Google's birthday happened in the mid-2000s during an "index size war" with Yahoo.
Doodle meaning
The Doodle tradition and global impact
The birthday Doodle has been a tradition since 2002. Google published its first-ever birthday Doodle on September 27, 2002, marking its fourth anniversary.
However, it wasn't until 2006 that Google settled on September 27 as its official birthday.
This date now symbolizes not just a legal anniversary but also a celebration of the search engine's monumental scale, rapid growth, and global impact.