Happy Birthday, Google, you're legally an adult now. According to the Google Doodle, anyway: the actual date that Google became a company is something of a point of contention. Google's own history says that it was incorporated in California on September 4th, 1998, with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin setting up shop in a garage office in Menlo Park. A little less than two decades later it's the most dominant search engine on the planet, it develops the world's most-used operating system, it sells more advertising than a billion Times Squares, and it never turns down a chance to make its logo look weird on the home page.
So why has the Google Doodle for the company's own birthday moved around so much - from the 27th way back in 2002, to September 7th, to the 8th, then back up to the 26th in 2005? Since 2006 the official date has remained stationary on the 27th, though if there's a particular reason why, none has been demonstrated. Maybe Google just wants to feel young for an extra three weeks.
Fans of Google-related minutia will know that the company's birthday isn't the only one it seems to struggle with - the date of Android's "birthday" is rather hopelessly muddled as well. (In case you're wondering, it will be at least another nine years or so before the little green robot can legally look at nudie pictures.) But you have to celebrate at some point I suppose, so many happy returns to the big G.
Source: Google.com