Google Doodle celebrates company’s 23rd birthday w/ a cake

Kyle Bradshaw | Sep 26 2021 - 3:00 am PT

Google is celebrating its 23rd birthday with an animated homepage Doodle that features a chocolate frosted cake.

While Google, as a company, was technically founded on September 4, 1998 — with the search engine’s history actually dating back into 1996 — the company has, perhaps arbitrarily, chosen September 27 as the day to celebrate its birthday.

The founders’ — Sergey Brin and Larry Page — goal was to build a search engine for the incredibly large set of information that the internet was rapidly becoming. Even the name, “Google,” reflects that, as a play on the exceedingly large number, 10¹⁰⁰, which mathematicians refer to as a “googol.” Beyond that, Google’s headquarters, now known as the “Googleplex,” is a play on an even larger number, “googolplex,” which is 10 to the power of googol.

The latest Google.com homepage Doodle — a tradition that started in August 1998 to celebrate the Burning Man festival, days before the company was even founded — features the letters of “Google” covered in chocolate frosting and sprinkles.

The letter “l” is a flickering candle that sits atop a two-tiered cake, on which “23” is written. After a few seconds, the bottom tier of the cake is revealed to have a goofy, cartoon face, as an arm reaches out to lift the top tier as if saying hello.

In some parts of the world, Google is also celebrating its 23rd birthday with special deals from the Google Store. These deals will also unlock a promotional item/discount to be used when the Pixel 6 launches, presumably next month.