Google is celebrating its 27th birthday today, September 27, 2025, with a special Google Doodle that brings back its original 1998 logo — a nostalgic nod to its humble beginnings. But interestingly, September 27 isn’t Google’s actual founding date.
The company was officially incorporated on September 4, 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, then PhD students at Stanford University. However, Google’s true beginnings trace back to August 1998, when Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim famously wrote a $100,000 check to the duo, officially kickstarting what would become Google Inc.
So why does Google celebrate its birthday on September 27 instead of its actual founding day?
The reason remains somewhat unclear — even Google has shifted the date multiple times. In the early 2000s, the company celebrated its birthday on various days in September, possibly tied to product launches or milestone achievements. Since 2006, however, Google has consistently used September 27, likely to commemorate a major web indexing milestone from that period.
Over nearly three decades, Google has evolved from a simple search engine into a global technology powerhouse. Its innovations now include Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Android, Pixel devices, and groundbreaking AI projects such as the Gemini platform.
Today, Google operates under Alphabet Inc., its parent company formed in 2015 to oversee its expanding portfolio. While Larry Page and Sergey Brin have stepped back from day-to-day operations, they still hold voting control through special Class B shares. Sundar Pichai currently leads both Google and Alphabet as CEO.
Whether celebrated on September 4 or September 27, Google’s birthday marks an extraordinary journey — from a small garage in California to one of the most influential companies in the world.
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