Google

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Google logo 1997
by Sergey Brin (pre-launch version)

Project name: "BackRub" (1996)

Name: "Google" (1997)

Category: Internet

Subcategory: Search engines

Developers: Larry Page, Sergey Brin

Project developed since: March 1996

Domain registered on: September 15, 1997

Released: September 1998 - Stanford University, California, USA

Programming languages: C, C++, Java, Python

Features: The Google search engine has two important features that help it produce high precision results. First, it makes use of the link structure of the Web to calculate a quality ranking for each web page. This ranking is called PageRank. Second, Google utilizes link to improve search results.

Interesting facts: Initially, Google was nicknamed "BackRub" because the technology checks backlinks to determine a site's importance. The following name "Google" is a play on the word "googol", the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. In September 1998, the same month that Google was incorporated, its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up office in Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park. Susan Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 as the company's first marketing manager. Google recently celebrates its birthday on 27 September, but the date has varied over the years.

Slogan (1997): «Search the web using Google!»

Property: Google Inc.

Website: http://www.google.com

BackRub, the Google prototype (March 1996, http://backrub.stanford.edu/backrub.html)

Google home page demo (1997, http://backrub.stanford.edu)

Google home page on Stanford's website (1997-98, http://google.stanford.edu)

Google, first official home page (September 1998, http://www.google.com)

Google logo evolution 1997-98 by Sergey Brin (at the bottom in its official launch)

The first Google "Doodle" (August 1998): a stick figure in the logo announcing to site visitors that the entire staff was playing hooky at the Burning Man Festival

Google started in Susan Wojcicki's rented garage

The scientists and entrepreneurs who invented Google. Left: Lawrence "Larry" Page (East Lansing, March 26, 1973), right: Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin (Moscow, August 21, 1973).

Google in its advanced version (September 2015)

Google celebrates 25th anniversary (1998-2023) with a special Doodle that shows the evolution of the company's logos over the years

Blogger

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Blogger logo 1999

Name: "Blogger"

Category: Internet

Subcategory: Blog host

Registered: June 22, 1999

Released: August 23, 1999

Developer / Founder: Pyra Labs (founded by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, acquired by Google in 2003)

Place of develop: 350 Townsend Street, San Francisco, California, USA (Pyra Labs Headquarters)

Programming language: Python

Subdomain: .blogspot.com

Features: Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. Generally, the blogs are hosted at a subdomain of blogspot.com. Blogs can also be hosted in the registered custom domain of the blogger (like www.example.com). So blogspot.com domain publishings will be redirected to the custom domain. Blogger cannot be installed on a web server. One has to use DNS facilities to redirect a custom URL to a blogspot domain. Blogger allows its users to choose from various templates and then customize them. Users may also choose to create their own templates using CSS.

Interesting facts: Blogger was developed by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra. Pyra was co-founded by Evan Williams, computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur, also co-founder of Twitter, and Meg Hourihan, Internet entrepreneur, also co-founder of Kinja news aggregator. The company's first product, also named "Pyra", was a web application which would combine a project manager, contact manager, and to-do list. In 1999, while still in beta, the rudiments of Pyra were repurposed into an in-house tool which became Blogger. The service was made available to the public on August 23, 1999. Much of this coding was done by Paul Bausch and Matthew Haughey. In February 2003 Blogger was acquired by Google.

Slogan (2000): «Amphetamines for your website»

Property: Pyra.com Ltd., Google Inc.

Website: https://www.blogger.com

Blogger, Pyra Labs launches the service from its website (see: Monday, August 23, 1999)

Blogger, about page on Pyra website (screenshot February 2000)

Blogger, the first home page (screenshot October 1999)

Blogger, restyled home page (screenshot November 2000)

Blogger, official announcement of acquisition by Google in February 2003: «Big news: Yes folks, it's true. As you may have read, Blogger's parent company, Pyra Labs, was purchased by Google» (screenshot March 2003)

Founders of Pyra Labs, the company that created Blogger in 1999

Evan Williams, computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur, also co-founder of Twitter, and Meg Hourihan, Internet entrepreneur, also co-founder of Kinja news aggregator.

Blogger in its advanced version (2015)