Stanford dorm to $4trillion co: Google's 28th bday

On this day, Google marks its 28th birthday with a special Doodle that pays homage to the company's humble beginnings. The artwork showcases a nostalgic version of Google's original logo, a reminder of the company's roots in a Stanford University dorm room. The story of Google began in 1995 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford, and although they initially disagreed, they eventually collaborated to create a search engine that worked differently from others by analyzing links between web pages.

This early project was called Backrub. By 1998, Google had garnered attention beyond Stanford, leading to Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim writing a check for $100,000 to a company called Google Inc. Despite the fictional nature of the company on paper, Page and Brin legally formed Google the following day to deposit the funds.

The company's initial operations took place in a garage in Menlo Park, California, owned by Susan Wojcicki, who would later become YouTube's CEO. From that small space, Google built its first team and established a unique company culture, including quirky traditions like using Lego to build its first server and employing a dog named Yoshka.

The tradition of Google Doodles began with a stick figure drawn behind the second "O" in the logo in 1998, commemorating the team's absence at the Burning Man festival. Over the years, Doodles have celebrated various events and achievements, turning into a long-running tradition. Today, Google operates hundreds of products used by billions daily, from Search and Gmail to YouTube and Android.

From a $100,000 cheque and a rented garage to a company now valued at over $4 trillion, Google's journey remains one of the most remarkable and documented stories in modern technology.