Google Turns 8 - or Does It?

February 4, 2007 by Derek Vaughan

Sometime in the month of September, Google will celebrate its eighth birthday. On September 27, 2006 the Google home page displayed a graphic incorporated into the Google logo that portrays a cupcake with lit candles in the shape of the roman numerals ``VIII`` designating the number eight. One would suppose that this means that September 27, 2006 marks the ``official`` 8th birthday of the search engine company. However, according to information recently published at search engine resource site, Search Engine Watch, there has been some confusion about exactly when the company was founded.

Regardless of the controversy, it is clear that the company which has revolutionized the search engine business has come a long way since it began its mission to ``organize the world`s information and make it universally accessible and useful``.

The Search Engine Watch blog notes that there have been conflicting entries at Google which indicate the different `birth dates`` for the company.

Google`s support page one year ago stated:

``Google`s official birthday is September 7, 1998. If Google were a person, it would have started elementary school late last summer (around August 19), and today it would have just finished the first grade. In other words, we`re just getting started. To discover more about Google`s history, please visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html.``

As of the writing of this article, the same page now reads:

``Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake. For more on Google`s history: http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html.``

However, the source of all core Internet knowledge, Wikipedia, lists the official Google story as follows under the search term, ``Google``:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG and LSE: GGEA) is an American public corporation, first incorporated as a privately held corporation on 27 September 1998, that designed and manages the Internet`s most used search engine.

Here is a link to the Google blog on its 8th birthday as well, http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-long-is-8-years-in-internet-time.html.

On this eighth anniversary of the founding of Google, the hosting experts at Cheap Hosting Directory spoke with one of the search industry`s most noted and influencial community leaders, Mr. Brett Tabke, the CEO of WebmasterWorld.com to get his take Google`s rise to search engine dominance and report it to HostSearch readers. Here are a few of the things that Mr. Tabke had to say.

``Boy, they grew up in a hurry. Of any web company out there, these guys went from a little `mom and pop` organization running out of a dorm room, to being a Fortune 50 company almost overnight. How Google was able to handle that growth in the early days and not fall apart is just amazing. People are always pointing out how good their search engine is and how good their algorythm is, but they are equally as talented on the business side as well.``

Congratulations to Google on becoming 8 years young!

Derek Vaughan is a feature writer and web hosting expert who`s work appears courtesy of the Hosting News.