Friday 11 October 2013

Celebrating 15 years of Google Search

15 years! Wow! Doesn't time fly? Google have recently celebrated 15 years of search and as part of the celebration have released their own Google Timeline.

Their timeline showcases some of the milestones and successes covered within just a decade and a half of Goggling (that's definitely right... I Googled it). Interestingly there nothing in there about privacy scandals or tax evasion, but nonetheless it's an interesting piece.

Here are my best bits...

  • 1 billion Android devices (Sept 2013) - as an avid fan of Android, despite the iPhone peer pressure, it did the heart good to hear of the 1 billionth device activation. GO TEAM ANDROID!
  • Google Play (Mar 2012) - making bus journeys bearable.
  • Google+ Pages (Nov 2011) - another social network for me to play with... yum yum yum
  • Chrome Experiments (Aug 2010) - this Arcadia Fire interactive was so amazing I must have watched it a thousand times. Brought the internet to life for me in a big way.
  • Google Chrome (Sept 2008) - MEOW! Welcome to sexy web browsing. Rendering IE obsolete almost overnight... because everything just works in Chrome.
  • Google Analytics (Nov 2005) - without it I wouldn't have a job... not that I'd be unemployed you understand... just working in a pub or something instead.
  • Google Maps (Feb 2005) - come on! Where would we be without it? Lost... that's where.
  • GMail (April 2004) - made it easy to email. Launched on April Fools' Day. Always updating and improving. If I didn't get so much junk I'd use it even more.
  • First Google Doodle (Aug 1998) - and who doesn't love a doodle? Interesting to see that the first one ever was a message to users saying that the developers were off partying at Burning Man... huh!
  • In the beginning (Early Years) - scroll to the bottom and check out the first draft of Google Search. Web Designer's nightmare. How far they've come.

OK, so it's a big list. But imagine a world without Google. Just for a second. It's a scary reality. We'd probably have to learn to use libraries again... the horror!

No comments:

Post a Comment