Today marks the 25th anniversary of Google! To celebrate, here are 25 exciting facts about the iconic search engine:

Google turns 25 today! Here are 25 fun facts about the iconic search …

1. The Birth of Google

Isn’t it hard to imagine a time before Google? That’s because, as of today, it has officially been 25 years since Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched this world-changing platform in 1996. Affordable Internet access became more widely available throughout the 90s, but a tool was needed to effectively navigate this vast wealth of information. Enter Google.

Originally named Backrub, the Stanford University project aimed at creating an Internet search engine that listed results according to the popularity of the pages, drawing web users into a whole new world of information access. Less than ten months after inception, Page and Brin realized they had created something remarkable and renamed their project Google, derived from ‘Googol’, signifying the large number of information the search engine could offer.

To set the scene, let’s rewind to September 4, 1997. You’re sitting at your computer (probably a bulky, white desktop), you open up your dial-up connection and type “http://www.google.com” into your browser for the first time.

• Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google in 1996.
• The project was initially named Backrub.
• Google derives from ‘Googol’, meaning a number with 100 zeros after it.
• It represented the vast amount of data the search engine will crawl.
• Page and Brin were Ph.D. students at Stanford University when they started this project.
• Google was originally hosted on the Stanford University website.

2. Google’s First Doodle

Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you’ve surely noticed Google’s frequently changing homepage artwork. These artworks or ‘Google Doodles’ have now become a part of our lives, commemorating events and personalities from across the globe. But do you recall the first-ever Google Doodle?

The inaugural doodle was an out-of-office message from Page and Brin to Google users. They were headed to the Burning Man festival in August 1998 and created a simple doodle of a Burning Man stick figure behind the second “o” in Google as their informal away message. And since then, the tradition has continued with a dedicated team creating doodles regularly.

Imagine firing up your browser one day in 1998 and being greeted by a stick figure drawn behind the “o” in Google, signifying that the founders were away at the Burning Man festival. That’s how Google Doodles began, folks!

• The first Google Doodle served as an out-of-office notice.
• It depicted the Burning Man symbol and was published in August 1998.
• The idea was to notify users that the founders were attending the Burning Man festival.
• Today, there’s a dedicated team for creating Google Doodles.
• Google Doodles are usually used to celebrate global events and notable individuals.
• Sometimes, interactive games are also made available as Doodles on the homepage.

3. The First Google Storage Was Made From Lego

When you think about technological giants like Google, sleek, cutting-edge hardware probably comes to mind. However, that wasn’t always the case. As a matter of fact, during Google’s early days, its initial storage system was built from children’s toys; specifically, Lego.

Why Lego? When the nascent search engine needed more storage to test its growing index of the web, the Stanford grad students built the storage compartments out of Lego blocks. The colorful bricks made it a cost-effective way to house hard disks and allowed easy expansion to accommodate more data.

Imagine a server built from Lego blocks housing 10 4GB hard drives! That’s approximately how much storage capacity Google had for its search engine in its very initial stage.

• Google’s first storage system was made from Lego blocks.
• This quirky setup comprised 10 4GB hard disk drives.
• The Lego structure allowed for a flexible, expandable, and economical setup.
• This demonstrates the resourcefulness of Page and Brin during Google’s early days.
• The discs were used to test the PageRank algorithm on a portion of the internet.
• Today, Google has numerous modern data centers around the world.

In Summary

Continue with remaining sections sharing more interesting facts about Google.