| YEAR |
EVENT |
| 1995-1996 |
Page and Brin meet at Stanford University and create a search engine named BackRub. |
| 1998 |
The startup, now renamed Google, gets $100,000 in funding from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim. |
| 1999 |
Google announces $25 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins in its very first press release, and officially announces the term “Googlers” to the world. |
| June 2000 |
Google becomes the default search engine provider for Yahoo, one of the most popular websites at the time. |
| October 2000 |
Launches AdWords, the online advertising platform that would become core to Google’s business. |
| 2001 |
Eric Schmidt is named Google’s chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors. |
| April 2004 |
Google announces it is testing the release of Gmail, with up to 1GB of storage capacity. |
| August 2004 |
Launches initial public offering of roughly 19.6 million shares, at an opening price of $85 per share. |
| February 2005 |
Launches Google Maps for desktop. |
| August 2005 |
Acquires mobile startup Android.Launches Google Talk instant messaging service. |
| 2006 |
Buys online video service YouTube for $1.65 billion. |
| April 2007 |
Announces acquisition of web ad supplier DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. |
| May 2007 |
Introduces universal search that lets users access search results across all content types, like images, videos and news, at once. |
| September 2008 |
Debuts first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 or HTC Dream.Launches Google Chrome web browser. |
| January 2010 |
Launches smartphone, Nexus One, co-developed with HTC. |
| March 2010 |
Stops censoring search results in China, leading to its banning in the country. |
| October 2010 |
Google tests out its first self-driving vehicles with a small fleet of Toyota Prius cars in California. |
| June 2011 |
Launches Google+ social networking service, which was shut down in 2018. |
| August 2011 |
Announces acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which includes Motorola’s cellphone and TV set-top box businesses, for $12.5 billion. |
| 2012 |
Launches Google Glass. |
| 2013 |
Announces acquisition of Israeli mapping startup Waze for about $1 billion. |
| 2014 |
Announces in January that it will acquire AI firm DeepMind.In the same month, announces a $3.2 billion deal to buy smart thermostat and smoke alarm maker Nest Labs. |
| 2015 |
Announces plans to create a new publicly listed company, Alphabet, which will house Google and other units, including YouTube and research and venture capital businesses. Sundar Pichai named CEO of Google. |
| October 2016 |
Launches the first Pixel smartphone. |
| November 2016 |
Launches Google Home smart speaker. |
| June 2017 |
The European Commission fines Google 2.42 billion euros for violating the neutrality of its search. |
| February 2018 |
Google reports full-year sales of over $100 billion a year for the first time. |
| July 2018 |
The European Commission fines Google 4.34 billion euros for anti-competitive practices with respect to its Android operating system. |
| March 2019 |
The European Commission imposes a 1.49 billion euros fine for anti-competitive practices with respect to the company’s online advertising business. |
| June 2019 |
Google announces acquisition of analytics startup Looker for $2.6 billion. |
| November 2019 |
Announces acquisition of Fitbit for $2.1 billion. |
| December 2019 |
Co-founders Page and Brin announce they are stepping down as CEO and president, respectively; Pichai becomes CEO of Alphabet. |
| 2020 |
Alphabet hits $1 trillion in market capitalization. |
| January 2023 |
The company cuts 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce. |
| February 2023 |
Google announces Bard, a generative AI-powered chatbot that can produce text content and fetch information off the internet. However, a factual error in the AI tool’s demo tanks Alphabet shares, erasing $100 billion from the company’s market capitalization. Susan Wojcicki, one of Google’s first employees, steps down as YouTube CEO; Neal Mohan replaces her. |
| March 2023 |
Begins rolling out Bard to some users. |
