Happy 13th Birthday Google! I can see that your fearless teenage streak has started to show colors already. Not that you didn't have it before but let's face it, you weren't that brave or successful as far as socializing was concerned. I am sure that this birthday, with Google Plus on your side and social bullies like Facebook getting a little intimidated with your new avatar, you have a long long way to go. Cheers to that! 

13 years ago, two very determined Stanford university students set out to create something that they themselves wouldn't have imagined in their wildest dreams. A company that has changed the way world acquires information and knowledge, a product that has completely revolutionized the world of internet. And today they celebrate their 13th birthday.


Although there is a little bit of mystery involved as far the date of Google's birthday is concerned. As per their timeline, the first Doodle celebrating Google's birthday appeared in 2001 on 27th September. In 2003 and 2004  however, they celebrated their birthday on 7th September; the date was changed back to 27th in 2005 and hasn't changed since.

Rumor has it, that 7th was the date when Google was officially incorporated, but according to their timeline, Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed for incorporation on 15th September 1998. 27th September is believed to be the day when Google announced that their search engine indexed record-breaking pages. There is another important date in Google's history that falls in September: 15 Sep'97, when Google.com was registered as a domain. So why did they decide to celebrate their birthday on 7th September for two years and change it back? Well no one knows, I even tried to “Google It' and they didn't have the answer either. :P

Nevertheless, let's have a look at some of their past birthday Doodles with some interesting quotes about Google and by people who own or work with Google:




4th Birthday: 27th Sept 2002

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"I think Google should be like a Swiss Army knife: clean, simple, the tool you want to take everywhere." -Marissa Mayer 

5th Birthday: 7th Sept 2003













6th Birthday: 7th Sept 2004

 “I ACTUALLY think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions, they want Google to tell them what they should be doing next." -Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google.

7th Birthday: 27th Sept 2005

"With Google I'm starting to burn out on knowing the answer to everything. People in the year 2020 are going to be nostalgic for the sensation of feeling clueless." -Doug Coupland.

8th Birthday: 27th Sept 2006

"If you think that you can GOOGLE everything you want from life, then you need to rethink what exactly the things you need in life." -Mina Tadros

9th Birthday: 27th Sept 2007

"Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine." -Sergey Brin, Google's Co-Founder.

10th Birthday: 27th Sept 2008

"The only thing Google has failed to do, so far, is fail." -John Battelle 

"Google is a global Rorschach test. We see in it what we want to see. Google has built an infrastructure that makes a lot of dreams closer to reality." -John Battelle

12th Birthday: 27th Sept 2010

"Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards." -Steve Ballmer 

13th Birthday: 27th Sept 2011

“Computers will clearly handle the things we aren't good at, and we will handle the things computers clearly aren't good at.” Eric Schmidt. Executive Chairman Google.

I love their 11th birthday Doodle for its simplicity and wittiness. Which one of these Doodles is your favorite?

You may also like to check out:

15 Fun Facts About Google, Its Culture & History