Stories
Google at 28: From BackRub to AI Giant, Tracing Its Evolution
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Storyboard•27-09-2026, 11:01
Google at 28: From BackRub to AI Giant, Tracing Its Evolution
- •Google celebrates its 28th birthday, marking its journey from a Stanford PhD project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to a global technology leader.
- •Initially named BackRub, the search engine used PageRank to organize web pages, leading to Google Inc.'s incorporation on September 4, 1998, after a $100,000 investment from Andy Bechtolsheim.
- •Post-2004 public listing, Google rapidly expanded, launching Gmail (2004), Google Maps (2005), acquiring YouTube (2006), and introducing Chrome and Android (2008).
- •The company restructured in 2015, forming Alphabet Inc. as its parent, with Sundar Pichai becoming Google's CEO, separating core internet businesses from other ventures.
- •Artificial intelligence, including BERT and the Gemini family of models, has become central to Google's products, alongside its extensive ecosystem in education through Google Scholar, Google Classroom, and YouTube.
Key Questions Answered
The name Google was derived from googol, which is a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. Although Google Inc. was formally incorporated on September 4, 1998, the company later designated September 27 for its annual birthday celebrations.
Google acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. This acquisition became a major part of Google's expanding product ecosystem, which also grew to include services like Gmail, Google Maps, and Chrome.
Google's generative AI efforts are centered around the Gemini family of models. Gemini is designed to handle various types of information while supporting tasks like reasoning, coding, and content creation across Google's services.
