The Early Stages
1995 - Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the creators of Google, meet at Stanford for the first time.
1996 - Page and Brin begin collaborating on a search engine called BackRub.
1997 - Page and Brin decide that the BackRub search engine needs a new name. Google is the name they came up with. It is 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.
Getting Started
1998-
In September, Page and Brin set up a workspace in a friend's garage. They later hire Craig Silverstein as their first employee.
In December, PC Magazine reports that Google “has an uncanny knack for returning extremely relevant results” and recognizes it as the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998.
Expanding
1999-
In February, Google outgrows the garage office space and moves with eight employees.
Google's first press release announces a $25 million round from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins; John Doerr and Michael Moritz join the board. They release quotes Moritz describing "Googlers" as "people who use Google."
Partnerships
2000-
In May, the first 10 language versions (after English of course) of Google are released: French, German, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish.
In June, Google forged a partnership with Yahoo! to become their default search provider. Google announces the first billion-URL index and therefore, Google becomes the world’s largest search engine.
During September Google starts offering searchs in Chinese, Japanese and Korean
When December rolls around, Google Toolbar is released. It’s a browser plug-in that makes it possible to search the web using Google without visiting the Google homepage.
Not Done Yet
In July of 2001, Google Image Search is launched. It offers access to 250 million images.
American Dialect Society members vote “google” the “most useful” Word of the Year for 2002.
April Fools!
2000- On April Fools' Day, Google announces the MentalPlex: Google's ability to read your mind as you visualize the search results you want. Thus begins their annual tradition of April Fools hoaxes.
2002- For April Fools' Day, Google announces that pigeons power their search results.
2004- For April Fools' Day, Google announces plans to open the Googlunaplex, a new research facility on the Moon.
Google and You
In 2002 Google News launches with 4000 news sources.
Later on, Google made it possible for you to search for stuff to buy with Froogle (later called Google Product Search).
Google launchs Google Print (which later becomes Google Book Search), indexing small excerpts from books to appear in search results.
