On this day, the American search engine company Google Inc. was formally established, laying the foundation for what would become one of the world’s most influential technology firms. The company, founded by Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, began with the vision of organising the vast information on the internet and making it universally accessible and useful.
The origins
Page and Brin had been collaborating on search technology since the mid-1990s, developing a project originally called Backrub. Their innovation lay in ranking web pages by analysing the number and quality of links pointing to them, a system that proved more effective than existing search tools of the time. This approach would become the basis of the PageRank algorithm.
Formal incorporation
In 1998, the pair incorporated Google Inc. in California, giving their project the structure needed to attract investment and scale operations. Their first major backer was Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, who famously wrote a cheque for $100,000 after a brief product demonstration. That initial funding, along with growing interest in their search engine, enabled Google to move from a university dormitory to a Menlo Park garage that served as its first office.
Early growth
Google’s clean design and accurate results quickly distinguished it from competitors like AltaVista, Lycos, and Yahoo. By the early 2000s, it had become the dominant search engine, capturing millions of users worldwide. The company’s motto “Don’t be evil” reflected its early emphasis on user trust and product quality.
Impact on technology and business
The establishment of Google marked a turning point not just for search but for the broader technology industry. Over the following decades, the company expanded into online advertising, email, mapping, video sharing, and mobile operating systems, transforming into a global conglomerate under its parent company Alphabet Inc.
Legacy
What began as a small start-up in a California garage has since grown into a central pillar of the digital economy. The formal establishment of Google Inc. is now seen as a milestone in the history of the internet, shaping how billions of people access and use information every day.
REFH – Newshub, 2025-09-04
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