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Google has turned 28, marking nearly three decades since Larry Page and Sergey Brin transformed a Stanford University research project into a global technology empire.
How Google began
Page and Brin began working on a search engine project at Stanford in the late 1990s, which was initially called "BackRub" and used an algorithm known as PageRank to rank web pages based on their links and relevance.
Where did the name 'Google' come from?
The name was later changed to Google, a reference to "googol", the mathematical term for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros.
Google Inc. was incorporated on September 4, 1998, after receiving an initial $100,000 investment from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, and September 27 was later recognised as the company's birthday.
Google's pivotal expansion
Google's expansion significantly increased after its initial public offering in 2004. The same year, it launched Gmail, initially offering 1 GB of free storage.
Google Maps followed the next year, and in 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion.
Two years later, it launched the Google Chrome web browser and introduced Android as an open-source mobile operating system.
From Google to Alphabet
Google underwent a major corporate restructuring in 2015 with the creation of Alphabet Inc. as its parent company. Sunday Pichai became Google's CEO as part of the revamp.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin's net worth
As Google becomes the biggest search engine in the world, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have become part of the world's richest individuals and remain key controlling shareholders and board members of Alphabet Inc.
Larry Page's net worth is estimated to be approximately $282.3 billion to $334.1 billion as of September 2026, ranking him among the top three richest individuals in the world.
Meanwhile, Sergey Brin's estimated net worth is approximately $274 billion as of 2026.
What is Sergey Brin up to?
It has been reported that Brin "unretired" and returned to working at Google following the explosion of generative AI and ChatGPT.
Besides involving himself with Google's AI efforts, he has personally donated over $1.5 billion toward Parkinson's disease research and other scientific causes.
Larry Page launches AI startup
Moreover, Page has kept a relatively low-profile but remains an Alphabet board member and major shareholder.
He also founded an artificial intelligence startup called Dynatomics, which focuses on revolutionising product manufacturing and advanced vehicle design.
