The History Of Google Search

Google has become synonymous with the internet. “Just Google it” has become a verb we use daily.

It is no longer just another search engine but a tool to make our everyday lives better and more accessible. Over the years, Google has expanded the utility of its tools, giving us more than just a means to explore the World Wide Web. Being the most popular and visited global web-based search engine, Google has become omnipresent, almost a living being that we all require in our daily lives.

From learning new recipes, leveraging the powerful domain name through Google Ads, taking up DIY skills or exploring the deep, dark corners of the web, Google has enriched our lives more than we can count. That being said, have you ever wondered about the history of Google search and how it all began?

Let us answer some of your most pertinent questions about Google and its beginnings.

Founding Fathers Of Google Search Engine History

Before diving into the nitty-gritty of the first Google search’s details, let us find out about the founding fathers of Google: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google has fast grown into the world’s largest internet search engine, all thanks to the brilliance of these fascinating gentlemen.

Both Page and Brin were PhD students at California’s Stanford University. During his years as a Computer Science graduate, Larry Page dedicated effort to an intriguing research project dealing with search algorithms. In 1996, this search algorithm was given the curious name of “BackRub”.

While the invention of search engines is not a new one, Google, despite being a latecomer, would soon become one of the most popular platforms, marking when Google became popular for finding almost anything on the internet, even though it Repositioned several times in its infancy to optimise its internet search services before it finally settled in Mountain View, California.

The 2000 Google version expanded rapidly. By 2004, Google had made its first initial public offering and became one of the most prominent media companies globally.

The Journey Of Page And Brin

The Journey since the Google search engine started is a fascinating one. They met at University and began their journey together, keeping in touch even after graduating from their Computer Science programmes. Brin, known for his expertise in mathematics, and Page, with his ever-growing interest in learning more about the behaviour of linking on the internet, created an algorithm called PageRank.

This algorithm was named after Larry Page and explored the world of ranking search results. They ranked results based primarily on linking behaviour. These technologies fused, setting the stage for the Google search engine launch date on September 4, 1998, which was launched on Stanford’s private network in August 1996.

Their research paper, circulating around Silicon Valley, became immensely popular and was published under “ The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.”

How Larry Page And Sergey Brin Conceived The Name Google

Page and Brin were known for their creative brainwaves, and so, inspired by the multitude of links between web pages, they renamed their company to Google. So, why was it called googol? You may be wondering. Googol refers to a mathematical term (the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.)

The wordplay on the mathematical term googol (the number 1 followed by 100 zeros) was superbly apt for the company as it aligned perfectly with the vision of Page and Brin. Their newfound company represented this vision, then renamed Google, which would rewrite history by expertly assimilating information from the world and making it readily accessible on the web.

Google Decides To Take Another Leap Forward

As Google expanded as a company, it started to catch the attention of investors and the academic community. Google was incorporated in September, the year that co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim made the massive decision to invest $100,000 in the company. Long story short, that was the inception of Google Inc.

Through the initial years of Google, the duo Brin and Page had almost no financial support to bring their company to a well-known standing worldwide. The Sun Microsystems CEO’s investment greatly assisted the subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., enabling them to move out of their dorms and into their first office.

It may be surprising (or not) to know that Google’s first office was a garage in the Palo Alto area, Menlo Park, California, owned by Susan Wojcicki. What may be more surprising is that Wojcicki became Google’s employee number 16 and later served as CEO of YouTube from 2014 until stepping down in February 2023.

With not much else but some old, outdated computers, a ping pong table for entertainment, a plethora of Google services, and a bright, blue carpet as their only prized possession, Google began their business.

Hiring Eric Schmidt To “Supervise” Google

Although the company grew exponentially, Larry and Sergey concluded that the company needed “adult supervision” to reach its full potential. So, in 2001, Page and Brin hired Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Novell, to guide Google. With his experience and immense talent, Schmidt soon joined the board of directors and became the company’s Chairman in March 2001.

In 2004, it introduced some of our now-favourite Google products like Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive. Schmidt stayed in his position as CEO of the company for ten years, after which he cheekily announced that the company “no longer required adult supervision.”

Of course, this wasn’t before Schmidt became vice president and the company’s executive chairman, leaving the CEO spot wide open for Page. Honestly, there could be no person more befitting for the role of the company’s CEO than Page.

The (Failed) Relationship Between Yahoo And Google

Before Google became synonymous with the web and became the world’s most popular search engine, Yahoo was the number 1 search engine on the internet. However, by 2000, Google’s popularity grew immensely, and soon, it became the default search engine for Yahoo.

In early 2002, Yahoo made an ambitious bid to buy Google for $3 billion. Google confidently declined, asserting its worth was a cool $5 billion at least.

In the same year, Google would develop and release something that would change how we distribute and publish digital media on the web. Google released Google News, a popular content aggregation service that became a viral platform for browsing digital content online.

Learning About Google’s Parent Company: Alphabet

Not many people are aware that Google’s parent company is called Alphabet. The holding company, Alphabet, permitted Google’s expansion of its domain from a regular search engine to becoming a technology conglomerate. Alphabet, the parent company of Google Inc., has its headquarters in Mountain View, California.

It is heavily involved in several other business types, such as advertising services, software, hardware, cloud computing, phone, desktop, and mobile applications. It also provides business to several industries, which we will mention below -

• Calico: developed to fight age-related diseases.
• Google Ventures: provides funding to new companies with big ideas (like Google itself had)
• Google X: working on groundbreaking ideas and breakthroughs
• Nest: provides users with fascinating, intelligent home products
• Google Capital: investing in long-term technology trends
• Google: Ads, Google Maps, YouTube, Android, Google Search, Apps

Page released a memo where Google announced that the new design structure of Alphabet would essentially help the company be “cleaner and more accountable.” Furthermore, Page states that this structure will allow each business that Google owns to have more independence and freedom to grow, which everyone was looking forward to.

With luck, its investors accepted Alphabet’s new design structure well. How do we know this? The company saw its shares shoot up to 6% after the announcement.

Google’s Move Into Googleplex

By July, synonymous with 2003 Google, the company had begun to grow exponentially. The company hired engineers, had its sales and ads team, and introduced Google’s first company dog, Yoshka. But we’ll talk more about the adorable mutt in just a bit.

As Google’s workforce and business expanded, it began looking for a larger workspace to accommodate its 1,000+ employees. It soon shifted and moved to its new office, known as Googleplex. Now, Googleplex is the company’s largest campus. Moreover, it continues to expand and acquire additional buildings and spaces.

What About Yoshka?

Google has everything, even a dog! Yoshka is Google’s first company dog and its Top Dog. When the company relocated to its new office space (Googleplex), Yoshka was happy to join them. Moreover, Yoshka even had an official job at Google, interviewing new applicants (but unfortunately, no dogs) and later moving on to part-time consultation.

Unfortunately, Yoshka suffered a leg injury, which meant no more work and running around the Googleplex office.

Since Yoshka’s introduction into the company’s office, there has been a massive change in the atmosphere and vibe inside. Google thought to make its offices dog-friendly, encouraging workers to bring their dogs to work more often.

After Yoshka died in 2011, the company built a café in honour of its Top Dog. Yoshka’s Café, which the café was called, even had a small museum dedicated to the beautiful Leonberger. This museum proudly displays Yoshka’s official Google badge, fluffy ball, collar, and favourite toy.

Several dog parks on Mountain View’s campus are designed especially for Google’s workers’ beloved pets. One of its most popular dog parks is called The Googleplex. Furthermore, the company has a Google employee group and a message board called Doogler, which was created for its employees and their pets.

Google 2004 -Officially Launched Gmail Services

Paul Buchheit, a Google employee, decided to address a significant concern of the company: increased storage requirements and extensive internal communication. Buchheit had prior experience working with web-based email services and was confident in his skills to design a faster and more responsive email service using Ajax.

Finally, Gmail was launched to the public on April 1 2004. This email service featured advanced search, 1 GB of storage, and several other fantastic features that most competitor web services lacked at the time. While most other companies offered a couple of mere megabytes as storage space, Google successfully captivated its billion audiences by offering a massive 1 GB of storage, which was unheard of at the time.

One Of The Most Important Steps In Google’s Journey: Going Public

After Google received its initial investment of $100,000 from Bechtolsheim, it subsided on many angel investments from several firms on the market, one of the significant ones being Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.

Other venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins invested in the company, which amounted to around 25 million dollars. What made Google’s IPO even more successful was the substantial advertising revenue generated by its web advertising products. This led to the company’s initial public offering on August 19, 2004.

Although Google initially priced each stock at just $85 for a share, it eventually raised $1.7 billion, significantly increasing the company’s market capitalisation and giving the company a total valuation reaching over 1 million times the initial investment.

The Next Big Move: Google Launched Google Maps

In 2005, with millions of searches per day, Google introduced Google Maps; Google said in a statement that “Maps can be useful and fun.” However, it wasn’t until 2009 that Google rolled out one of its most significant updates: GPS navigation for mobile phones. Users soon realised the importance of this feature on their mobile phones as they could easily navigate uncharted territories without distinct fear.

Google Buys YouTube

Several other giants on the market, like Yahoo and Viacom, attempted to acquire YouTube; however, Google’s efforts ( and its offer of $1.65 billion) finally enabled Google bought YouTube successfully in 2006.

Fortunately, Google acquired a YouTube deal, and the ensuing integration with a Google account benefited both parties. While Google could redirect most of the video-sharing site traffic towards itself, the latter successfully had access to Google’s tremendous resources, which it desperately required as a new company.

Acquisition Of DoubleClick

Google established the foundation of its advertising platform by introducing Google Ads in 2000, later rebranding to Google Ads, making it known as one of the most vital forces in web advertising. However, it wasn’t until April 2007 that Google finally built a solid foundation in the advertising market by acquiring DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. This enabled Google to display ads, which helped expand its reach even further across the internet.

Its acquisition of DoubleClick in April became its number one most expensive acquisition, until it acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in August 2011.

Google And Chrome

In September 2008, Google hired Mozilla Firefox developers to help them bring a specific vision to life: developing a fast and stable web browsing software, leveraging open source technologies for a reliable search engine. This saw the inception of the Google Chrome browser, which became the most popular web browser for mobile and computer systems globally in just four years.

Since its launch in 2008, Chrome has evolved into the world’s most dominant browser, now commanding over 65% of the global browser market. It has successfully become the most prominent driving force of the company, making Google Search what it is today, the most relevant and popular software.

In September 2005, Google made a wise and strategic decision to purchase Android for around $50 million. However, it wasn’t until September 2008 that it made another major announcement: the launch of the T-Mobile G1 or HTC Dream, The first mobile operating system-driven Android phone.

Several features of Google’s first Android smartphone have become the fundamental pillars of most mobile operating systems today. These include notification features, integration with Google’s services, open software technology, etc.

Welcoming Nexus One

Motorola, Samsung, and HTC conducted several experiments that were not entirely aesthetic or functional as Android devices began gaining popularity. Although these brands ran Google’s Android software, it was buried under unsightly and sometimes confusing hardware akin to navigating without a search bar.

Well, all that changed with the introduction of the Nexus One. Although HTC built it, it used Google’s technology and was a near-perfect example of what Google envisioned for its Android devices.

2010: The Good And The Bad For Google

The beginning of 2010 wasn’t the best of times for Google, as it was shocked to discover an extremely sophisticated phishing attack on the internal infrastructure of its Chinese website. This led to the company being forced to rapidly switch its gears, even though it knew it would be a risky move. However, it wasn’t long before Alphabet’s subsidiary encountered these issues, leading to Google being banned from China.

A few months down the line, Oracle decided to file a lawsuit over Android. After a decade-long legal battle, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-2 in Google’s favour in April 2021, determining that Google’s use of Java APIs constituted fair use.

That said, by the end of 2010, Google rolled out seven Toyota Priuses, packed with sensational features that would amaze audiences worldwide. These hybrid cars, a part of the company’s search history, were designed to be the company’s first self-driving cars, loaded with sensors and artificial intelligence to assist them.

Since then, Google has continued its research into self-driving technology with enterprises like Cisco Systems and IBM.

Launching Google’s Operating System

The next couple of years were significant for Google as it began rolling out all types of new software, systems, and products that would eventually blow the minds of its audiences. One of the significant launches in 2011 was an open-source system developed by Google that would host web apps: Chrome OS.

Soon enough, Google launched Chromebooks, which are still prevalent and a significant driver in the education industry.

Google And Its Failures

1. Google+

Inspired by Facebook and its growing popularity amongst consumers, Google decided to launch Google+. The only issue was that it created an invite-only network for sharing and viewing links and pictures and chatting with a close group of friends on Hangouts.

Unfortunately, audiences did not welcome Google+ with the same enthusiasm as they did for Facebook. After years of attempted redesigns and restructuring, Google finally decided to let go of the idea. So, although Google+ remains an entity on the internet, its user profiles are primarily inactive.

2. Google Buzz

A similar situation occurred when Google tried to launch Google Buzz, which lasted 22 months. The company attempted to clone Twitter; unfortunately, it added no significant features to draw audiences away from Twitter and towards Google Buzz.

Although these are not the most relevant of Google’s failures, there are a few others that audiences remember (and some that they don’t). These include -

• Google Labs (2006 to 2011)
• Google Now (2012 to 2016)
• Orkut (2004 to 2014)
• Google Allo (2016 to 2019)
• Picasa (2002 to 2016)
• Google Goggles (2010 to 2018)

Google X: Its Most Interesting Project

Google X is by far one of the fascinating divisions of Alphabet. They have designed and developed several experimental hardware like Google Glass, one of Google’s most famous products. Even though Brin was stoked to show off the wonders of Project Glass, it was quickly shut down due to privacy and safety risks.

2013: The Beginning And End Of Certain Google Products

2013 elicits mixed feelings from audiences. While this year saw the shutting down of the beloved Google Reader, it also saw the announcement of Google Chromecast. That said, Google has barely added any updates to Chromecast since its launch, and audiences often wonder why that is. However, it remains one of the stream’s most straightforward and affordable ways.

Stepping Into The AI Territory

By 2014, Google LLC had acquired DeepMind, an AI firm based in London. This was a brilliant move, as it slowly but surely made Google a leader in Artificial Intelligence technology.

2015: The Birth Of Alphabet And A Fresh Face

2015 marked a pivotal moment in Google’s history. The company underwent a major restructuring, creating Alphabet Inc. as its parent company. This wasn’t just corporate shuffling. It was a strategic move that allowed Google to focus on its core search and advertising business while other ventures like self-driving cars (Waymo), life sciences (Verily), and smart home tech (Nest) operated independently under the Alphabet umbrella.

The same year saw Google unveil a fresh, modern logo, waving goodbye to the serif font, hello friendlier sans-serif. It was the company’s biggest visual rebrand since its founding, reflecting its evolution from a search engine into a technology ecosystem.

Perhaps most importantly, Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google. The soft-spoken engineer from Chennai, India, who had previously led the development of Chrome and Android, was now steering the ship. It would prove to be one of the company’s best decisions.

RankBrain And The AI Revolution In Search (2015–2019)

While everyone was distracted by the Alphabet announcement, something quietly revolutionary was happening behind the scenes. In October 2015, Google revealed that RankBrain had been processing search queries for months. This machine learning system marked the first time artificial intelligence was integrated into Google’s core search algorithm.

RankBrain wasn’t just another algorithm update. It represented a fundamental shift in how Google understood your searches. Rather than relying solely on matching keywords, Google could now interpret the intent behind queries it had never seen before. Considering that roughly 15% of daily searches are completely new, this was no small feat.

But Google was only getting started. In 2018, the company announced that RankBrain was now the third most important ranking factor, right up there with content and links.

Mobilegeddon And The Mobile-First Revolution

April 21, 2015: a date that sent shivers down the spines of webmasters everywhere. Google rolled out its mobile-friendly algorithm update, affectionately dubbed “Mobilegeddon” by the SEO community. Websites that weren’t optimised for mobile devices suddenly found themselves tumbling down the rankings.

This was Google’s way of saying, “The future is mobile, mate. Get on board or get left behind.”

The mobile push intensified in 2016 when Google announced mobile-first indexing. This meant Google would primarily use the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking. By March 2021, the transition was complete, and mobile-first indexing became the default for all websites.

BERT: When Google Learned To Read

October 2019 brought what Google called the biggest leap forward in search understanding in five years. BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) wasn’t just an algorithm. It was Google’s crash course in understanding human language.

Before BERT, Google processed words in a query one at a time, from left to right. BERT changed this by analysing words in relation to all the other words in a sentence. Suddenly, Google could understand the difference between “2019 brazil traveller to usa need a visa” (someone from Brazil asking about travelling to the USA) and “usa traveller to brazil need visa” (an American asking about travelling to Brazil).

The prepositions “to” and “from” finally meant something to Google.

From Pixels To Smart Homes: Google’s Hardware Push (2016–2020)

In October 2016, Google did something it had never done before. It designed and built its own smartphone from scratch. The Pixel wasn’t just another Android phone; it was Google’s vision of what a smartphone should be. “Made by Google” became the new tagline, and the tech world paid attention.

The Pixel’s camera became legendary, consistently outperforming competitors despite having fewer megapixels. Google’s secret weapon? Computational photography powered by AI. While others were cramming more lenses into phones, Google was proving that software smarts could beat hardware brawn.

Google Home And The Assistant Wars

Also in 2016, Google threw its hat into the smart speaker ring with Google Home and Google Assistant. The timing couldn’t have been better. Amazon’s Alexa had proven there was a market for voice-controlled smart speakers, and Google had the AI chops to compete.

Google Assistant quickly proved itself to be the brainiest of the bunch. While Alexa was great at ordering toilet paper from Amazon, Google Assistant could handle complex, multi-part questions and tap into Google’s vast knowledge graph. “Hey Google, what’s the weather like in Melbourne this weekend, and should I bring an umbrella?” No worries, mate.

The Nest acquisition from 2014 finally came into its own, with Google rebranding its smart home lineup under Nest. Thermostats, cameras, doorbells and smoke detectors. Google was building an ecosystem where everything talked to everything.

When The Law Came Knocking: Google’s Antitrust Battles (2017–2024)

While Google was busy innovating, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic were sharpening their pencils. The European Commission fired first, hitting Google with a record €2.42 billion fine in June 2017 for favouring its own shopping comparison service in search results.

But the EU wasn’t done. In 2018 came another whopper: a €4.34 billion fine for illegal practices regarding Android. Google had been requiring phone manufacturers to pre-install Chrome and Google Search as a condition of licensing the Play Store. The EU said this stifled competition.

A third EU fine of €1.49 billion arrived in March 2019 over advertising practices. All up, the European Commission had fined Google more than €8 billion in just three years. Ouch.

The US Department Of Justice Steps In

In October 2020, the US Department of Justice filed its own antitrust lawsuit against Google. The accusation? That Google had illegally maintained monopolies in search and search advertising through exclusionary agreements, particularly the billions it paid Apple to be the default search engine on iPhones and Safari.

After years of legal proceedings, Judge Amit Mehta delivered a landmark ruling in August 2024: Google had violated antitrust law and operated as an illegal monopolist. It was the most significant antitrust decision against a tech company since the Microsoft case in 2001.

The proposed remedies made headlines worldwide, including the possibility of forcing Google to divest Chrome browser or parts of its Android business. As of early 2026, appeals and remedy negotiations continue, but one thing’s clear: the era of unchecked tech dominance is over.

COVID-19 And The Year Search Changed Forever (2020)

When the world shut down in March 2020, everyone turned to Google. “What is coronavirus?” “COVID symptoms.” “Where can I get tested?” “How to make sourdough bread.” (We all coped differently.)

Google responded rapidly, launching COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports using aggregated, anonymised location data to help public health officials understand how communities were moving during lockdowns. Working alongside Apple, Google also developed Exposure Notifications, a privacy-preserving contact tracing system built into Android and iOS.

Google Meet, previously a relatively obscure video conferencing tool, suddenly became essential. The company made it free for everyone in April 2020, and usage exploded from 100 million daily participants to over 300 million within months. The “You’re on mute” era had begun.

In October 2020, G Suite was rebranded to Google Workspace, reflecting its evolution from productivity apps into a comprehensive collaboration platform for the remote work revolution.

MUM And The Future Of Search Understanding (2021–2023)

If BERT taught Google to read, MUM (Multitask Unified Model) taught it to think across languages, formats, and concepts simultaneously. Announced at Google I/O in May 2021, MUM was described as 1,000 times more powerful than BERT.

MUM can understand information across 75 languages and multiple formats, including text, images and even video in the future. Ask Google to compare hiking conditions on Mount Fuji versus Mount Kilimanjaro, and MUM can synthesise information from Japanese and Swahili sources, analyse trail photos, and generate a comprehensive answer. Pretty clever, right?

The Helpful Content Update arrived in August 2022, targeting websites that produced content primarily to manipulate search rankings rather than help humans. Google was effectively saying, “Write for people, not algorithms.” Sites stuffed with AI-generated fluff suddenly found themselves in trouble.

Core Web Vitals, which became ranking factors in 2021, added user experience metrics to the equation. Slow, janky websites that annoyed visitors would now also annoy Google’s algorithms.

The Generative AI Arms Race (2022–2026)

November 30, 2022. The day that sent shockwaves through Google’s headquarters. OpenAI launched ChatGPT, and within five days, it had a million users. Within two months, 100 million. The internet had a new obsession, and it wasn’t Google.

Internally, Google declared a “code red”. For the first time in decades, something genuinely threatened Google’s dominance in organising the world’s information. The company had been working on similar technology for years (transformers, the “T” in GPT, were actually invented at Google), but had been cautious about public deployment.

Enter Bard, Stage Left

Google’s response came in February 2023 with the announcement of Bard, its experimental conversational AI service. The launch was... rocky, to say the least. A demo video showed Bard confidently providing an incorrect answer about the James Webb Space Telescope, and Alphabet’s stock promptly dropped $100 billion in value.

It was a humbling moment for a company that prided itself on search accuracy. But Google regrouped quickly.

Gemini Rises

In December 2023, Google unveiled Gemini, its most capable AI model. Unlike previous models, Gemini was “natively multimodal,” trained from the ground up to understand and reason across text, code, audio, images, and video.

Gemini came in three sizes: Ultra for highly complex tasks, Pro for a broad range of uses, and Nano for on-device tasks on mobile phones. In early 2024, Bard was rebranded as Gemini, and the AI was integrated across Google’s product suite, from Search to Gmail, Docs, and even Android phones.

By 2025, asking Gemini to summarise a 50-page PDF, analyse a spreadsheet, compose a thoughtful email reply, or explain a complex piece of code had become second nature for millions of users.

AI Overviews And The Transformation Of Search (2024–2026)

Perhaps the most dramatic change to Google Search itself came with AI Overviews, initially launched as “Search Generative Experience” (SGE) in May 2023 and rolled out more broadly in 2024.

For the first time in Google’s history, search results were no longer just a list of links. At the top of many queries now sat an AI-generated summary, synthesising information from across the web into a coherent answer. Type “how has Google changed over time” and you might get a multi-paragraph response drawing from dozens of sources, complete with citations.

This fundamentally changed the search dynamic. Users could get comprehensive answers without clicking through to websites, sparking heated debates about the future of web publishing and SEO. Some publishers saw traffic drops; others found AI Overviews actually drove more curious users to their in-depth content.

Google’s guidelines evolved too. E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) became the gold standard for content quality. The extra “E” for Experience was added in late 2022, emphasising that Google valued first-hand knowledge, not just regurgitated information.

Google’s Failures: The Sequel

For all its successes, Google has never quite kicked its habit of launching products only to quietly kill them off. The years since 2014 added several notable entries to the Google Graveyard:

• Google Stadia (2019–2023): Google’s ambitious cloud gaming service promised to revolutionise gaming. Despite impressive technology, it struggled to attract game developers and players. Google shut it down in January 2023, refunding all hardware and game purchases.
• Inbox by Gmail (2014–2019): A brilliant, innovative email app that was ahead of its time. Many of its best features were eventually absorbed into Gmail proper.
• Hangouts (2013–2022): Once Google’s unified messaging solution, it was slowly cannibalised by Google Chat and Google Meet.
• Google Duo (2016–2022): The video calling app merged into Google Meet in 2022, ending years of confusing messaging app proliferation.
• Google Podcasts (2018–2024): Shut down in favour of YouTube Music, because why have one podcast app when you can have... zero?

Some things never change.

The Founders Step Back (2019)

In December 2019, Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced they were stepping back from their day-to-day roles at Alphabet. After 21 years, the duo who started it all in a garage were handing the reins to Sundar Pichai, who became CEO of both Google and Alphabet.

Their farewell letter was characteristically understated: “We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President.”

Page and Brin remain board members and controlling shareholders, but the Stanford PhD students who wanted to organise the world’s information had officially become tech elder statesmen.

Google Today: A Trillion-Dollar Behemoth (2025–2026)

As of January 2026, Alphabet’s market capitalisation sits at approximately $2.5 trillion, making it one of the most valuable companies in human history. Google Search processes over 8.5 billion queries per day, roughly one search for every person on Earth, every single day.

In 2025, Alphabet made its largest acquisition ever: Wiz, a cloud security company, for $32 billion. The deal reflected Google’s ambitions in cloud computing and enterprise security, areas where it competes fiercely with Amazon and Microsoft.

Chrome commands roughly 65% of the global browser market. Android runs on about 70% of the world’s smartphones. YouTube has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users. Gmail serves nearly 2 billion people. Maps is used by over a billion people monthly.

From two PhD students in a garage to a company whose services touch billions of lives daily. The history of Google is, in many ways, the history of the modern internet itself.

What Comes Next?

If there’s one constant in Google’s history, it’s change. The search engine that revolutionised how we find information in 1998 looks nothing like the AI-powered, multimodal, knowledge-synthesising system of 2026.

With quantum computing on the horizon (Google’s Willow quantum chip achieved major milestones in late 2024), ongoing AI advancement, and an ever-evolving regulatory landscape, the next chapter of Google’s story is far from written.

But one thing’s certain: whatever question you have next, there’s a good chance you’ll still “just Google it.”

Google also continues to build new and improved software into its search engine to improve users’ experience. From a Stanford research project in 1996 to a global technology juggernaut in 2026, Google’s journey is a testament to innovation, adaptation, and the endless human desire to know more.

Kristi Ray

Kristi, the proficient head of content production and editing at sitecentre®, joined our Sunshine Coast team in early 2021. With a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication from the University of the Sunshine Coast, she utilises her diverse copywriting skills to accelerate the production of top-notch, SEO-friendly content. Her vast experience and deep understanding of the field ensure high-quality output for our partners.

Find them on their website: sitecentre® and LinkedIn.