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Google Celebrates Its 20th Birthday by Highlighting Its Most Popular Searches

By
Natasha Bach
Natasha Bach
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By
Natasha Bach
Natasha Bach
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 27, 2018, 10:42 AM ET

Google is celebrating its 20th birthday on Thursday, and to mark the occasion, the search company released a video Google Doodle to highlight some of the most popular Google searches from all over the world over the past 20 years.

Among them? An early search for “what is Google,” Y2K, the most popular sport in the world, whether Pluto is still a planet, and translation for the word “love.”

But that’s not all. Google also launched an interactive ‘20 Years with Google,’ which highlights various facts from its history of searches, such as “We searched for sauce in 2009 and 2010 more than ever” and “The peak number of searches for Monopoly was in 1999.”

🎉 #SearchIs20 🎉 

Explore popular searches over the last two decades in today's birthday video #GoogleDoodle.

— Google (@Google) September 27, 2018

We’re feeling…20! 🎈 #SearchIs20 pic.twitter.com/OSD3SG7jOd

— Google (@Google) September 27, 2018

And if you still haven’t had enough of Google’s stroll down memory lane, the search giant has also highlighted 20 “notable Doodles” from throughout its history. Some of the Google Doodles it picked out include the very first, unofficial Doodle, which marked founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s trip to Burning Man; the first international Doodle, marking Bastille Day in 2000; the first interactive game Doodle, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of PAC-MAN in 2013; and the first VR Doodle, which told the story of Georges Méliès’ life earlier this year.

A Google birthday celebration also wouldn’t be complete without a few Easter eggs. For a limited time, if you search any words that are more 1998 than 2018 on Google, you might end up with a result that reads “It’s 2018! Did you mean: [word]?”

Hint: try looking up what Y2K, clip art, or a chat room is on Google, and don’t be surprised when you get results for “how does cryptocurrency work,” “gif,” or “text the group.”

Google celebrated its 19th anniversary in 2017 with an interactive “Google Birthday Surprise Spinner” and shared 19 of its favorite Google Doodles.

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By Natasha Bach
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