Google announced the formation of Alphabet, an umbrella corporation that will separate the company’s internet search business from its forays into robotics, biotechnology, and other areas of innovation. Here are some of the most notable milestones in Google’s history:
1995: Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford University, where they become fast friends after discovering a common interest in owning and selling the personal information of millions of people
1998: Google abandons attempt to organize internet with Dewey Decimal System
2001: Google first cited in high school research paper bibliography
2004: Gmail launched, forever changing the way people attempt to trigger the release of dopamine by repeatedly clicking the refresh button
2006: Google acquires YouTube for $1.6 billion in effort to gain access to trove of “Master Of Puppets” drum tutorial videos
2007: Google campus Wi-Fi enabled
2008: 4,000 servers quietly dropped off at CIA headquarters
2009: Opening of Googleplex’s first prison
2012: First time person with Google Glass is silently flipped off behind their back
2015: Executives create new parent company Alphabet to answer criticisms that Google could stand to be more ominous and opaque
