This month marks Google‘s 25th anniversary, which marks a quarter-century of innovations that have altered the way that we search for information online and is being celebrated by the company. Google has gone a long way since its days as a simple competitor in the search engine market. Today, the company is a dominant force in the field of global technology.
The internet giant reflected on its contributions to society, particularly those made with Google Search, in a press statement that was made public. It said: “Over the years, we’ve continued to innovate and make Google Search better every day. From creating entirely new ways to search to helping millions of businesses connect with customers through search listings and ads (starting with a local lobster business advertising via AdWords in 2001) to having some fun with Doodles and easter eggs — it’s been quite a journey.”
Read also: Five ways Google is boosting African search capacities
About Google
Google LLC is an American multinational technology firm with a focus on quantum computing, cloud computing, computer software, internet advertising, search engine technology, and consumer electronics.
There are two main parts of Google. One is a search engine that is favoured by the majority of people worldwide. The second is a self-serve advertising network that makes money off of that search engine and the numerous digital properties that Google owns.
25 biggest moments for Google
2001 was a big year for Google in many ways.
Google Images was made because of Jennifer Lopez’s famous Versace dress at the 2000 Grammy Awards. Before this, search results were only text, which made it hard to find pictures. Google Images changed that by letting people look for images directly. There is a page just for image search.
The tech giant came up with “Did you mean?” to help people spell. This was one of the first times Google used machine learning to help users find useful results even when they misspelt their search terms.
2002: News on Google
Google News was made because people needed news right away after the 9/11 strikes. This feature gathered news from a variety of sources and gave important information at the right time.
Easter Eggs in 2003
Google added fun Easter eggs to Search to make it a little more interesting. Millions of users have been amused by these secret surprises, such as the answer to “what is the meaning of life?”
2004: Fill in the blanks
Autocomplete, which was first called “Google Suggest,” changed the way people searched by guessing what they were looking for as they wrote. This feature has become an important part of Google Search because it saves time and effort by cutting down on how much you have to type.
Local Information in 2004
Google Local added maps, directions, and reviews to business listings, which changed how people find local companies. It has become a must-have for millions of people who want to find out about services near them.
Google Translate started in 2006
Google Translate started in 2006 to break down language barriers by translating text from one language to another. Today, it supports more than 100 languages, making it easier for people all over the world to talk to each other.
Google Trends for 2006
Google Trends shows how search habits have changed over time. It has become a useful tool for journalists, researchers, and brands because it gives information about how searches change over time.
2007: Google Search
It came up with Universal Search, which combined links, images, videos, and local results into a single, easy-to-use way to search.
2008: Google App for Mobile
With features like Autocomplete and results based on where you are, the Google Mobile App for iPhones made it easier to search on mobile devices. Now, it’s also available on Android, where users can use it to do things like do their math homework with Lens or use visual translation tools.
Voice Search in 2008
Voice Search, which lets people search by voice, was made by the tech giant. Since then, it has become more well-known, especially in India.
2009: Hotlines for emergencies
In 2009, it made emergency hotlines more visible, which helped people find important information during emergencies. Since this start, new features have been added, such as emergency hotlines for things like preventing suicide.
2011: Look for a picture
Users could use pictures to search with Search by Image, which made it easier to find information about things that could be seen. With this, users can upload any picture or image URL and look for it to find out what it is and where else it is on the web. This made room for another search tool called Lens.
2012: The Knowledge Graph
By linking people, places, and things, the Knowledge Graph made it easy to find quick answers and gave search results more depth. It has a lot of information about people, places, and things around the world, as well as how they are connected to each other. This makes it easier to find answers quickly.
2015: Well-Known Times
It added Popular Times to Search and Maps in 2015 to help users find the busiest times for places like shops and restaurants.
2016: Find out
Find a personalised feed that lets users look at content that’s relevant to their hobbies right inside the Google app.
2017: Lens
Google Lens turned the camera into a search tool that lets you look for things based on what you see. With it, all you have to do is turn on your camera to look at things in a picture, compare them to things in other pictures, and rank the other pictures based on how similar and important they are to the first picture. More than 12 billion image searches happen every month on Lens now.
2018: Predictions of Floods
In 2018, the tech giant added this feature. It uses forecasting models and AI to predict floods, giving communities in flood-prone areas important information.
2019: BERT
It released BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), an open-source method for training language-understanding models that uses neural networks. This will help Search understand language better, take context into account, and give more correct results in over 70 languages.
2020: Graph of Shopping
Google made shopping online more complete by letting retailers and brands show off their goods. The Shopping Graph, a set of data that is based on AI, was made public. This is a set of data that is constantly updated by AI and includes 35 billion product listings, sellers, names, reviews, and local stock.
2020: Search to Hum
Hum to Search made it easy for people to find music by letting them find songs by humming or singing a melody. Then you can find out more about the song and the artist.
About the Year 2021:
“About this result” was added so that users could learn more about the search results and make better choices. It tells you why a result is being shown to you and gives you more information about the content and where it came from. This is based on what information literacy experts say are the best practises. It’s available right now in all languages. It is possible to search.
2022: Searching
Google came up with Multisearch, a new way to search that lets you use both words and images at the same time. This makes searching better. Multisearch was first released in the U.S., but it is now available on mobile devices around the world, in all languages and places where Lens is available.
Search Labs and Search Generative Experience (SGE) in 2023.
Google’s Search Labs and SGE added generative AI to search, which lets users learn more about topics with AI-powered overviews and natural questions to ask next. With Search Labs, people can try out experiments in their early stages and give comments to the teams working on them.
At last,
As Google marks its 25th birthday, these milestones show how the company has worked to make search easier, more useful, and more fun for people all over the world. From results based on text to visual searches and features driven by AI,