The 25-year-long rise of Google, from college dorm to internet powerhouse

Reuters || Shining BD

Published: 9/27/2023 5:04:14 AM

The logo of Google is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 14, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

Two Stanford University students came up with the idea to build an internet search engine that would rank and organise web pages more than 25 years ago while brainstorming in their dorm.
Originally known as BackRub, the startup developed into Google, one of the most valuable and significant businesses in the world.

Today, billions of people use Google's products, such as Gmail and search, and its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are among the wealthiest people on the planet.

Here are some milestones in the history of the tech giant, whose parent is now known as Alphabet:

YEAR	EVENT
1995-1996	Page and Brin meet at Stanford University and create a search engine named BackRub.
1998	The startup, now renamed Google, gets $100,000 in funding from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim.
1999	Google announces $25 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins in its very first press release, and officially announces the term "Googlers" to the world.
June 2000	Google becomes the default search engine provider for Yahoo, one of the most popular websites at the time.
October 2000	Launches AdWords, the online advertising platform that would become core to Google's business.
2001	Eric Schmidt is named Google's chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors.
April 2004	Google announces it is testing the release of Gmail, with up to 1GB of storage capacity.
August 2004	Launches initial public offering of roughly 19.6 million shares, at an opening price of $85 per share.
February 2005	Launches Google Maps for desktop.
August 2005	Acquires mobile startup Android. Launches Google Talk instant messaging service.
2006	Buys online video service YouTube for $1.65 billion.
April 2007	Announces acquisition of web ad supplier DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
May 2007	Introduces universal search that lets users access search results across all content types, like images, videos and news, at once.
September 2008	Debuts first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 or HTC Dream. Launches Google Chrome web browser.
January 2010	Launches smartphone, Nexus One, co-developed with HTC.
March 2010	Stops censoring search results in China, leading to its banning in the country.
October 2010	Google tests out its first self-driving vehicles with a small fleet of Toyota Prius cars in California.
June 2011	Launches Google+ social networking service, which was shut down in 2018.
August 2011	Announces acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which includes Motorola's cellphone and TV set-top box businesses, for $12.5 billion.
2012	Launches Google Glass.
2013	Announces acquisition of Israeli mapping startup Waze for about $1 billion.
2014	Announces in January that it will acquire AI firm DeepMind. In the same month, announces a $3.2 billion deal to buy smart thermostat and smoke alarm maker Nest Labs.
2015	Announces plans to create a new publicly listed company, Alphabet, which will house Google and other units, including YouTube and research and venture capital businesses. Sundar Pichai named CEO of Google.
October 2016	Launches the first Pixel smartphone.
November 2016	Launches Google Home smart speaker.
June 2017	The European Commission fines Google 2.42 billion euros for violating the neutrality of its search.
February 2018	Google reports full-year sales of over $100 billion a year for the first time.
July 2018	The European Commission fines Google 4.34 billion euros for anti-competitive practices with respect to its Android operating system.
March 2019	The European Commission imposes a 1.49 billion euros fine for anti-competitive practices with respect to the company's online advertising business.
June 2019	Google announces acquisition of analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion.
November 2019	Announces acquisition of Fitbit for $2.1 billion.
December 2019	Co-founders Page and Brin announce they are stepping down as CEO and president, respectively; Pichai becomes CEO of Alphabet.
2020	Alphabet hits $1 trillion in market capitalization.
January 2023	The company cuts 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce.
February 2023	Google announces Bard, a generative AI-powered chatbot that can produce text content and fetch information off the internet. However, a factual error in the AI tool's demo tanks Alphabet shares, erasing $100 billion from the company's market capitalization. Susan Wojcicki, one of Google's first employees, steps down as YouTube CEO; Neal Mohan replaces her.
March 2023	Begins rolling out Bard to some users.