Google Celebrates 28th Birthday With Nostalgic Doodle From Its Early Days

Google is celebrating its 28th birthday today, September 27, 2026, marking another year since the company began its journey. To mark the occasion, Google has featured a special Doodle on its homepage. The artwork shows a nostalgic logo from Google's early days and celebrates the company's 28th birthday.

Google was officially incorporated on September 4, 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were then PhD students at Stanford University.

According to official information shared by Google, the company was effectively born in August 1998 when Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 check to Larry Page and Sergey Brin. This marked the formal beginning of Google Inc.

The reason for celebrating the birthday on September 27 is not entirely clear, and even Google has changed the date over the years. In the early 2000s, the company marked its birthday on different dates in September, possibly linked to early milestones or public announcements.

But since 2006, September 27 has been consistently used, possibly to commemorate a major achievement in web indexing that happened around the same time.

Regardless of the chosen date, Google uses its birthday celebration to reflect on how far it has come. From a search engine, the company has grown into a global tech powerhouse with products including Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Android and Pixel phones.

Google also continues its work in AI through its Gemini platform. Today, the company operates under its parent company, Alphabet Inc., which was formed in 2015 to manage its growing range of services.