8 Sep 2008

Google celebrates 10th birthday

4:23 pm on 8 September 2008

The internet search engine Google is celebrating its tenth birthday today.

The company was set up by two graduate students at Stanford University, who promised it would be of benefit to all internet users.

At $US1700 a month, a humble garage in the heart of Silicon Valley was Google's first office space.

The business was started by Larry Page and Serge Brin with laudable aims: to organise all the world's information and make it universally acceptable and useful, and to do it better than anyone else.

Today Google is one of the most recognised brands on the planet with a market value of nearly $US160 billion, it employs more than 19,000 people worldwide.

Its core business as the world's No 1 search engine boasts 70% of the market.