4th September 1998
Larry Page and Sergey Brin found Google

Google was founded by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The company was first incorporated as a privately held company on the 4th September 1998.

The initial idea that sparked Google was a new way of assessing the relevance of search results. Other search engines of the day typically ranked pages based on the frequency that search terms appeared on a page. Larry and Sergey's idea was to calculate a page's importance by looking at which other sites linked to it.

By 2002, Google was used for more than 90% of internet searches. Over the coming years, Google would provide more and more services including email, maps, payment services, games, and messaging services. This explosive growth led to Google, and its parent company Alphabet, becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Related information:

• Centre for Computing History: Google
• Google: From the garage to the Googleplex

Image:

• Original Google homepage, from 1998
  Credit: Google. Images remain the copyright of the original copyright holder. Used under fair use policy for educational purposes only.

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