Google’s dilemma

If you are not sure when the search engine was launched, there is no point Googling it

Google's 18th birthday doodle. Courtesy: Google

Google celebrated its 18th birthday yesterday with an animated festive doodle on its home page, showing the Google “G” inflating a balloon and twisting it into the full name of the company. Yet, no one seems to know when it was born, not even Google.

The technology giant filed for incorporation on September 4, 1998, but for reasons unknown, since 2006 it has been celebrating its birthday on September 27. A year before, it marked the occasion on September 26. And in 2004, Google’s birthday doodle was on September 7. The year before that, the birthday doodle went online on September 8. Surprisingly, there is nothing in the company’s history to indicate the significance of any of these dates.

It’s hard to imagine that the search engine that we rely on to tell us anything we want to know can’t even give a straight answer to this simple question. This is perhaps a message that we shouldn’t trust all the information we find online.