Google is celebrating its 28th birthday on September 27, 2026, with a special Doodle featuring a nostalgic version of its early logo and reflecting the company’s journey from a search engine to a global technology giant.
From Stanford to Google
Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were PhD students at Stanford University. The company was officially incorporated as Google Inc. on September 4, 1998.
According to Google, its formal beginnings can be traced to August 1998, when Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 cheque to Page and Brin, helping launch the company.
Google’s birthday date has changed over the years. In the early 2000s, the company marked its anniversary on different September dates. Since 2006, September 27 has been consistently used, although Google has not given a definitive explanation for choosing the date.
From Search Engine to Tech Giant
Over nearly three decades, Google has expanded well beyond search, developing major products including Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Android and Pixel smartphones.
The company has also made artificial intelligence a major focus through its Gemini platform. Google now operates under Alphabet Inc., created in 2015 as part of a corporate restructuring.
The 28th-birthday Doodle celebrates Google’s early identity while highlighting its transformation into one of the world’s biggest technology companies.
