Google turns 25: These 9 fun facts about the search giant will blow your mind

BackRub: the pre-Google era

Before it became the household name we know today, Google was originally known as “BackRub.” Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started this project during their Stanford University days in 1996. The name “BackRub” referred to their initial focus on analysing backlinks to determine website importance. Thankfully, they later switched to the more recognisable “Google.”

The five-minute internet apocalypse

Google rarely experiences downtime, but when it does, the world feels it. In a brief five-minute outage on August 16, 2013, all Google services went dark. The result? A staggering 40% drop in global internet traffic. This incident underscored just how reliant we are on Google’s services, from Search to Gmail and beyond.

J.Lo’s dress and the birth of Google Images

Jennifer Lopez’s jaw-dropping green Versace dress at the Grammy Awards in 2000 not only generated headlines but also sparked the world’s most popular image-searching tool. The dress became the most popular search query at the time, but people wanted images, not just text results. Enter Google Image search, created to meet this demand. The company rolled out the feature in 2001, starting with a whopping 250 million images right from day one.

“Google” officially becomes a verb

Google’s early interface. (Image: Google)

Google’s influence on our lives is so profound that it’s become a verb. In 2006, the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary officially recognised “google” as a verb. “Googling” is now the go-to phrase for searching the web, showing just how deeply Google is woven into our daily routines.

From garage to tech titan

A stereotypical Silicon Valley startup story, Google’s first office was a rented garage. The company operated out of Susan Wojcicki’s garage in Menlo Park, California, starting in September 1998. Wojcicki, now the CEO of YouTube, was Google’s first marketing manager. The garage was eventually purchased by Google and filled with candy, snacks, and lava lamps, making it an iconic part of Google’s history.

Gmail’s April Fool’s launch

Gmail, Google’s email service, was launched on April Fool’s Day in 2004. The announcement was worded such that many initially thought it was a prank. It turned out to be a brilliant double fake and marked the beginning of a service that now serves millions worldwide every day.

Googlers on gBikes

A GBike. (Image: Wikimedia Commons/Asoundd)

Google’s quirky culture extends to its campus, where employees ride colourful “gBikes” around the Googleplex. This unique commuter bike program began in 2007 with blue Huffys and has evolved into a fleet of primary-coloured beach cruisers equipped with baskets. What’s interesting is that none of these bikes have locks; employees simply borrow them and leave them conveniently close to office entryways for others to use.

YouTube deal over mozzarella sticks

Ever wondered where Google negotiated its acquisition of YouTube? The answer might surprise you. It wasn’t at a sleek corporate office but at a Denny’s in Palo Alto, California. Over mozzarella sticks and handshakes, YouTube’s co-founders and Google sealed the landmark $1.65 billion acquisition deal in 2006, a move that would transform YouTube into the Internet’s most-watched video platform.

Google Maps murder scare

It’s just water. (Image: Google Maps)

Back in 2013, internet sleuths excitedly picked up their magnifying glasses when a woman posted a screenshot on Facebook from Google Street View that appeared to show a man transporting a dead body. The shot included what looked like a trail of blood leading down a pier in Almere, a city in the Netherlands. The image quickly turned into a viral sensation sparking much debate – until the culprit was revealed to be a wet dog called Rama, and the ‘blood’ nothing but water.