How to Google Works.

Web History - Google

In 1995-1996

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. 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.

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 reflectsn their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.

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In 1998 

Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim writes a check for $100,000 to an entity that doesn't exist yet: a company called Google Inc. 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.

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.

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In 2000

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. first 10 language versions of Google.com are released: French, German, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish.

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. 

Google Ad Words launches with 350 customers. The self-service ad program promises online activation with a credit card, keyword targeting and performance feedback.
Our first public acquisition: Deja.com's Usenet Discussion Service, an archive of 500 million Usenet discussions dating back to 1995. We add search and browse features and launch it as Google Groups.

Eric Schmidt is named chairman of the board of directors. Google.com is available in 26 languages. Image Search launches, offering access to 250 million images.

Google Open first international office, in Tokyo. Eric Schmidt becomes our CEO. Larry and Sergey are named presidents of products and technology, respectively.

A new partnership with Universo Online makes Google the major search service for millions of Latin Americans.

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In 2002

Klingon becomes one of 72 language interfaces. The first Google hardware is released, it's a yellow box called the Google Search Appliance that businesses can plug into their computer network to enable search capabilities for their own documents. Google release a major overhaul for Ad Words, including new cost-per-click pricing. Google News launches with 4000 news sources. Google open first Australian office in Sydney.

Users can now search for stuff to buy with Froogle (later called Google Product Search).

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In 2003

Team member travels to a charity book fair in Phoenix, Arizona, to acquire books for testing non-destructive scanning techniques. After countless rounds of experimentation, the team develops a scanning method that's much gentler than current common high-speed processes. At the same time, the team's software engineers make progress toward resolving the tricky technical issues they encounter processing information from books that contain odd type sizes, unusual fonts or other unexpected peculiarities – in 430 different languages. 

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In 2004

Established in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, the mission of the Bodleian library at Oxford University has always been to serve not just the university community but the entire world. The team visits the renowned library and is overwhelmed by the warm reception they receive. During a tour of the stacks, the librarians bring out centuries-old "uncut" books that have only rarely seen the light of day.

The visit is inspiring, and follow-up meetings and discussions lead to a formal partnership to digitize the library's incomparable collection of more than one million 19th-century public domain books within three years. 

In December, we announce the beginning of the "Google Print" Library Project, made possible by partnerships with Harvard, the University of Michigan, the New York Public Library, Oxford and Stanford. The combined collections at these extraordinary libraries are estimated to exceed 15 million volumes.

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