Google Then and Now
Today marks the seventh anniversary of Google, which was officially founded on September 7, 1998.
Cruising the Wayback machine for Google is instructive. The first search page in the archives for the company is from December 2, 1998. The graphics are a little cruder, but the basic pattern and interface is in place.
On the earliest Google company info page in the Wayback machine (from 1999), you'll find these tidbits:
"Google Inc. is not at present a publicly traded company, and we are currently unable to speculate on whether or when our privately-held status might change." [Comment: ...but I bet they already had a plan...]
"10^100 (a gigantic number) is a googol, but we liked the spelling "Google" better. We picked the name "Google" because our goal is to make huge quantities of information available to everyone." [Comment: ...but not, apparently, all information, such as that about Google execs...Click here for a googol FAQ]
It's fun to see how far Google has come in such a short time, and fun to speculate about how far Google may go in the next seven years!
Posted by Harold Davis at September 7, 2005 11:59 AM
