Google turns 21! Tech giant celebrates its birthday with a Doodle featuring throwback picture

Google, on Friday, celebrated its 21st birthday with a throwback picture of a bulky computer. The system monitor featured Google's search screen and showcases a timestamp dated to September 27, 1998. The tech giant, which is now one of the biggest companies in the world, began as a project by two Computer graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in their dorm room. Initially named Backrub, the search engine portal went through a number of developments to become what it is today. After a few years, a company named Sun Microsystems funded Backrub and that's how Google Inc. began as a legal entity with its first office in California.

In 2001, Google was granted a Patent for its technology and Page was listed as its investor. After this, the company went public. Over the years, Google released products like Google Docs, Gmail, Google Drive and one of the most-popular web browsers named Google Chrome.

In the coming years, Google acquired video streaming platform YouTube and forayed in the smartphone (Pixel), smart speaker (Google Home) and mobile computer hardware sectors.


Corporate restructuring came along in 2015 which made Alphabet Inc Google's parent company. Together, the two are one of the world's largest conglomerates.

As of this year, Google's estimated net worth is around $300 billion and its parent company is worth approximately $900 billion. Together, the two are worth over Amazon and Apple.

With over 60,000 employees in 50 countries, Google makes and contributes to hundreds of products that are used by billions globally.