By Arpita Ghosh

Copyright timesnownews

The Google story started in 1995 at Stanford University when Larry Page visited the campus as a prospective graduate student. Sergey Brin, already a student, was assigned to show him around. By some accounts, they disagreed on nearly everything during that first meeting, but a year later they teamed up to build a search engine from their dorm rooms. They called it Backrub, a system that ranked web pages by analysing links. A New Name, A Bigger Vision Backrub was soon renamed Google, a play on the mathematical term “googol” — the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. The new name reflected their mission: to organize the world’s information and make it accessible and useful. Early Support and the Garage Days In August 1998, Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote the duo a $100,000 check. That investment turned Google into a company. Their first office was a rented garage in Menlo Park, California, owned by Susan Wojcicki, who would later become YouTube’s CEO. The setup included clunky computers, a ping pong table and bright blue carpet. Even the first Google server was built with Lego bricks. Culture and Growth Google’s unconventional spirit showed early. The first “Google Doodle” in 1998 was a stick figure added to the logo, telling users the team was away at the Burning Man festival. The company motto, “Don’t be evil,” captured that ethos. Over time, Google expanded rapidly, hiring engineers, creating a sales team and even welcoming its first company dog, Yoshka. The company soon left the garage for a larger headquarters in Mountain View, now known as the Googleplex. From Search Engine to Global Tech Giant What began as a student project is now a company with hundreds of products used by billions worldwide. From Gmail and Android to YouTube and Google Search, the mission to build technology for everyone continues. Google Turns 27: Birthday Milestone Google marks its 27th birthday this year. The company, founded in 1998, set out to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible. A Nod to the Past To celebrate, today’s Google Doodle features the company’s first-ever logo from 1998. It highlights how far Google has come since its garage days, reminding us that big ideas often start in ordinary places. The Doodle also connects past to present — from the vintage logo to Google’s latest innovations in artificial intelligence. Get Latest News live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Technology Science and around the world.