Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford. (Larry, 22, a U Michigan grad, is considering the school; Sergey, 21, is assigned to show him around.) According to some accounts, they disagree about most everything during this first meeting.
1996
Larry and Sergey, now Stanford computer science grad students, begin collaborating on a search engine called BackRub.
BackRub operates on Stanford servers for more than a year -- eventually taking up too much bandwidth to suit the university.
1997
Larry and Sergey decide that the BackRub search engine needs a new name. After some brainstorming, they go with Google -- a play on the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. The use of the term reflects their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.
1998
August
Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim writes a check for $100,000 to an entity that doesn't exist yet: a company called Google Inc.
September
Google sets up workspace in Susan Wojcicki's garage at 232 Santa Margarita, Menlo Park.
Google files for incorporation in California on September 4. Shortly thereafter, Larry and Sergey open a bank account in the newly-established company's name and deposit Andy Bechtolsheim's check.
Larry and Sergey hire Craig Silverstein as their first employee; he's a fellow computer science grad student at Stanford.
December
"PC Magazine" reports that Google "has an uncanny knack for returning extremely relevant results" and recognizes us as the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998.
1999
February
We outgrow our garage office and move to new digs at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto with just 8 employees.
April
Yoshka, our first "company" dog, comes to work with our senior vice president of operations, Urs Hoelzle.
May
Omid Kordestani joins to run sales -- the first non-engineering hire.
June
Our first press release announces a $25 million round from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins; John Doerr and Michael Moritz join the board. The release quotes Moritz describing "Googlers" as "people who use Google."
August
We move to our first Mountain View location: 2400 E. Bayshore. Mountain View is a few miles south of Stanford University, and north of the older towns of Silicon Valley: Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose.
November
Charlie Ayers joins as Google's first chef. He wins the job in a cook-off judged by the company's 40 employees. Previous claim to fame: catering for the Grateful Dead.
2000
April
On April Fool's Day, we announce the MentalPlex: Google's ability to read your mind as you visualize the search results you want. Thus begins our annual foray in the Silicon Valley tradition of April 1 hoaxes.
May
The first 10 language versions of Google.com are released: French, German, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish.
We win our first Webby Awards: Technical Achievement (voted by judges) and Peoples' Voice (voted by users).
June
We forge a partnership with Yahoo! to become their default search provider.
We announce the first billion-URL index and therefore Google becomes the world's largest search engine.
September
We start offering search in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, bringing our total number of supported languages to 15.
October
Google AdWords launches with 350 customers. The self-service ad program promises online activation with a credit card, keyword targeting and performance feedback.
December
Google Toolbar is released. It's a browser plug-in that makes it possible to search without visiting the Google homepage.
1996
Larry and Sergey, now Stanford computer science grad students, begin collaborating on a search engine called BackRub.
BackRub operates on Stanford servers for more than a year -- eventually taking up too much bandwidth to suit the university.
1997
Larry and Sergey decide that the BackRub search engine needs a new name. After some brainstorming, they go with Google -- a play on the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. The use of the term reflects their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.
1998
August
Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim writes a check for $100,000 to an entity that doesn't exist yet: a company called Google Inc.
September
Google sets up workspace in Susan Wojcicki's garage at 232 Santa Margarita, Menlo Park.
Google files for incorporation in California on September 4. Shortly thereafter, Larry and Sergey open a bank account in the newly-established company's name and deposit Andy Bechtolsheim's check.
Larry and Sergey hire Craig Silverstein as their first employee; he's a fellow computer science grad student at Stanford.
December
"PC Magazine" reports that Google "has an uncanny knack for returning extremely relevant results" and recognizes us as the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998.
1999
February
We outgrow our garage office and move to new digs at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto with just 8 employees.
April
Yoshka, our first "company" dog, comes to work with our senior vice president of operations, Urs Hoelzle.
May
Omid Kordestani joins to run sales -- the first non-engineering hire.
June
Our first press release announces a $25 million round from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins; John Doerr and Michael Moritz join the board. The release quotes Moritz describing "Googlers" as "people who use Google."
August
We move to our first Mountain View location: 2400 E. Bayshore. Mountain View is a few miles south of Stanford University, and north of the older towns of Silicon Valley: Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose.
November
Charlie Ayers joins as Google's first chef. He wins the job in a cook-off judged by the company's 40 employees. Previous claim to fame: catering for the Grateful Dead.
2000
April
On April Fool's Day, we announce the MentalPlex: Google's ability to read your mind as you visualize the search results you want. Thus begins our annual foray in the Silicon Valley tradition of April 1 hoaxes.
May
The first 10 language versions of Google.com are released: French, German, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish.
We win our first Webby Awards: Technical Achievement (voted by judges) and Peoples' Voice (voted by users).
June
We forge a partnership with Yahoo! to become their default search provider.
We announce the first billion-URL index and therefore Google becomes the world's largest search engine.
September
We start offering search in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, bringing our total number of supported languages to 15.
October
Google AdWords launches with 350 customers. The self-service ad program promises online activation with a credit card, keyword targeting and performance feedback.
December
Google Toolbar is released. It's a browser plug-in that makes it possible to search without visiting the Google homepage.
