Happy Birthday Google!

Google celebrates its 12 birthday today with a birthday cake drawing by the Los Angeles artist Wayne Thiebaud.

Google.com was registered as a domain name on September 15, 1997, and the company later incorporated on September 4, 1998. No one is sure why Google chose to celebrate today, September 27th. Google had their 10th birthday on the 26th of September, and they have had other celebrations on the 7th.

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They met during college at Stanford University, where both were working towards their Ph.D. they named the search engine ‘Google’, as play on the word ‘googol’, the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros. Brin designed the first Google logo, which resembled Yahoos logo, “Google!” Since then the Google logo has changed, and is often tailor-made for holidays and other current events. On the 30th anniversary of Pac Man, for example, Google’s logo became an interactive version of the game.

In the last twelve years Google has come a long way. Continuously making the list as one of Forbes “best companies to work for”, it has been listed number 1 twice. Google credits its casual work atmosphere as a key ingredient in obtaining this honor. “Work should be challenging, and the challenge should be fun” is one of their many beliefs. Having remarkable growth over 12 years, Google has a net profit of $6.520 billion, and assets around $40.497 billion.

Google’s search engine was followed by numerous computer applications including Google Earth, the web browser Google Chrome, the Picasa photo organizational tool. Google has also purchased the internet video site “You Tube” and the internet advertising company “Double Click”. Google is now entering the arena of mobile phones with “Google Nexus One”.

Where will Google go over the next 12 years?