Here's a brief overview of Google's 25 years of existence as a major driving force in all things technology.

Google Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Today, September 27, the technology giant Google celebrated 25 years as a company. To mark this special event, Google has revealed a new doodle that shows the history of Google logos over the years, and added a new confetti Easter egg that rings every time you search for something related to the birthday.

Google’s logos over the years. (Image: Google)

“Twenty-five years ago, we launched Google Search to help you find answers to questions big and small. Since then, billions of people have turned to our products to do just that – satisfy their curiosity,” Google said.

Highlights of the last 25 years

Over the course of 25 years, Google has changed as a company and introduced numerous new products and additions to searches. For example, in 2001 the company introduced Google image search and the ability to search for images. Google also introduced the “Did you mean” feature in 2001, prompting users to correct their spelling.

Later in 2006, Google introduced the Google Translate feature, which makes it easy for people to quickly translate one language to another. At first, the feature was limited to translating between Arabic and English, but now Google Translate works in over 100 languages.

Next, in 2008, Google released its mobile app on the iPhone, adding features like autocomplete and “my location”. Another major launch in 2008 was Google Voice, which allows users to make voice searches. Today, Google notes that “voice search is particularly popular in India, where the proportion of Indians who make daily voice queries is almost twice the global average.”

In 2017, Google introduced Google Lens, which showcased its machine learning capabilities and ability to recognize objects and later convert them into search queries. And now, “Lens sees more than 12 billion visual searches per month,” Google said.

Google also introduced quality-of-life features such as Hum to Search, which allows users to hum a song that’s stuck in their head incessantly. In 2020, Google used machine learning expertise to implement this feature.

And now, in 2023, Google has finally shifted its focus to creative AI-based experiences with Google Bard and its LLMs like PaLM 2 and the upcoming Gemini.