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Happy 11th Birthday Google

Search giant Google has turned the grand old age of 11, but what has happened over those years to make it the tech star it is today? We chart the major events in Google's history.

By Jennifer Scott, 28 Sep 2009 at 13:36

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Yesterday, Google celebrated its 11th birthday and gave the site an unusual misspelled logo to mark the occasion.

IT PRO has decided to mark it in our own way with a timeline of significant events from the site’s past.

From the beginning…

January 1996 – Google begins as a research project for Larry Page and Sergey Brin whilst they studied for PhDs at Stanford University.

September 1998 – The idea turned into Google Inc, an incorporated company thanks to $1.1 million of investment.

2000 – Google began selling AdWords which has become the main and massive source of revenue for the company ever since.

April 2004 – The beta of Gmail is released on an invitation-only basis.

2006 – Google becomes such a common word in the English language that it is added as a verb to the Oxford English Dictionary.

2006 – Google buys internet video site YouTube for $1.65 billion.

August 2007 – Google officially becomes the most used search engine with 53.6 per cent market share.

September 2008 – T-Mobile launches the first phone to be based on Google’s Android platform called the G1.

September 2008 – Google launches its own web browser named Chrome.

March 2009 – The controversial Street View is released, visually mapping 25 cities in the UK, road by road.

July 2009 – Gmail and Google apps finally come out of the beta stage.

July 2009 – The company confirms it is developing a Linux-based operating system named after its Chrome web browser.

Where the internet giant goes from here is anyone’s guess but it has earned its place in the tech world elite and promises to keep us writing and talking about it for years to come. Happy birthday Google!