Google celebrates 18th birthday (but they don’t even know which day it is)
We’ve all heard the story. 18 years ago, Google was founded and incorporated in a small garage by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It’s an amazing example of the American dream, and Google has every reason to celebrate their birthday in the most awesome ways possible.
Funny thing, though: Google doesn’t even know when their birthday is. Today’s Google Doodle was made to celebrate the company’s 18th birthday. You would think that means the birthday is on September 27th as their event-specific Doodles are typically accurate when it comes to date.
But you might be surprised to learn that Google doesn’t even know if September 27th is their birthday. The company was officially incorporated on September 4th, 1998, so you would think that’s the day, but ever since Google has publicly celebrated its birthday using Google Doodles (2002), they’ve never used that date.
Doodles in the past have come on September 7th, September 8th, September 26th, and September 27th. September 27th was the day the original birthday Doodle was made in 2002, so it sounds like someone simply forgot when the actual “birthday” was. Even Ryan Germick — lead of the Doodle team — has no idea:
When’s Google’s birthday? I’m not sure even we know – we’ve celebrated on September 7th, 8th, 26th, and, most recently the 27th.
Still, while there’re some differing opinions about when to bust out the candles and cake, one fun fact is that our first doodle was posted even before Google was officially incorporated (August 30th, 1998 vs. September 4th, 1998).
So, it’s safe to say that Google’s birthday month is in September, but it could very well be any day you want it to be within this month. In any case, Google will celebrate on whichever day they want because does it really even matter? Nope! Happy Birthday, Google!