Google turned 20 years old on September 4 but is only now coming around to celebrate its birthday. Google is marking its 20th anniversary with a special doodle which is sure to evoke nostalgia. The new doodle can be viewed by visiting Google from desktops, mobiles or on the company’s YouTube channel. It starts off by playing the reminiscent old tune of a dial-up internet connection being established and the old Google webpage from the time when the company was named “Google!”. The short clip takes the users on a short journey of the most notable search terms of recent times like what will happen on Y2K?, is Pluto still a planet?, 2012 on the Mayan calendar, and more.
The company also thanks its users for bringing it to the point where it is the most popular search engine in use today. “Google wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for you: a curious crowd that comes to Search with all of life’s questions. Today’s birthday Doodle is dedicated to you, and the 20 years of searches that represent the inquisitiveness of people everywhere,” Google states in a blog post. One can also see the search trends all the way back from 1998 till now on a webpage which comes with a neat feature to generate an insight at random from the search terms. You can visit the website here.
Alongside the new doodle, Google is also 20 years of its existence by sharing some of its most popular easter eggs on Search. Try typing Do a barrel roll or Atari Breakout in the Google Search to find two of the many easter eggs hidden in Search. Some of the easter eggs have quite an interesting story of how they came into existence. For example, Mike Buchanan is the Google Engineer who created the barrel roll easter egg and it is said to have been coded in a matter of hours. Buchanan says that he just made it as “just one more little Easter Egg” and never expected it to be so much popular than the previous ones. You can learn more about these Search easter egg terms and their stories here.