Google in 1998 – Founding Facts and Key Milestones

In August 1998, Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 check to a company that did not yet exist. That single act of faith, made out to “Google Inc.,” set in motion one of the most consequential transformations in technology history. Within weeks, Larry Page and Sergey Brin officially incorporated their search engine project, leaving behind the Stanford University research environment where their work had begun. The year 1998 marked the pivotal transition from academic experiment to commercial enterprise, a period that laid the groundwork for how billions of people would eventually access information online.

The journey to incorporation had started years earlier. Page and Brin, both PhD students at Stanford, had built a search system called BackRub beginning in 1996, using an algorithm they called PageRank to evaluate web pages based on their link structures. By early 1998, their system had indexed approximately 26 million pages, demonstrating both the technical promise and the scalability challenges that lay ahead. The decision to seek outside funding and formalize their operation reflected both the ambition of the project and the realities of maintaining a system that had outgrown university servers.

When and How Was Google Founded in 1998?

Google Inc. was officially incorporated on September 4, 1998, in Menlo Park, California. The founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, established the company following a pivotal meeting with Andy Bechtolsheim, who had been impressed by their demonstration of the BackRub search technology. His immediate $100,000 investment check enabled the formal creation of the company and the transition from academic research to commercial operation.

Key Insights

• The name “Google” derives from “googol,” a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, reflecting the founders’ goal of organizing vast amounts of web information.
• The BackRub project ran on Stanford servers using domains like google.stanford.edu before the company was formally established.
• Andy Bechtolsheim wrote his investment check to “Google Inc.” before the company legally existed, forcing rapid incorporation.
• The first office was located in a garage at 232 Santa Margarita Avenue in Menlo Park, rented from Susan Wojcicki, who would later become a prominent Google executive.
• Page and Brin raised approximately $1 million total from family, friends, and investors to get operations running.
• The incorporation happened just weeks after Bechtolsheim’s check, formalizing an arrangement that had begun as Stanford research.

Verified Facts About Google’s Founding

Key Milestones for Google in 1998

The year 1998 unfolded rapidly for Page and Brin’s search project. Having spent two years developing BackRub within Stanford’s academic environment, they faced a critical decision point: continue as a research endeavor or pursue commercial possibilities. The turning point came when Stanford professor David Cheriton connected them with Andy Bechtolsheim, who arranged a demonstration of the technology.

The BackRub Origins

The BackRub project began in 1996 when Larry Page started exploring ways to rank web pages by their importance, initially analyzing citation patterns similar to academic research. Sergey Brin joined as a collaborator, and together they developed the PageRank algorithm, which evaluated pages based on the number and quality of links pointing to them. This approach represented a fundamental shift from keyword-based search methods that dominated at the time. By January 1998, BackRub had indexed approximately 26 million pages, attracting attention from both academic circles and potential investors.

The Funding That Changed Everything

Bechtolsheim’s August 1998 check required immediate action. Writing to a company that did not yet exist, he forced Page and Brin to accelerate their incorporation plans. The $100,000 investment was followed by additional funding from family members, friends, and angel investors, bringing the total raised to approximately $1 million. This capital enabled the founders to move operations beyond Stanford’s infrastructure and establish a dedicated workspace.

Google’s First Office and Early Operations in 1998

The first official Google office was not a conventional workspace but a garage at 232 Santa Margarita Avenue in Menlo Park, California. This space belonged to Susan Wojcicki, who rented it to the newly formed company. Wojcicki, who would later become Google’s first marketing manager and eventually the CEO of YouTube, played an instrumental role in the company’s early days by providing physical infrastructure when Page and Brin needed it most.

The Menlo Park Garage Environment

The garage office, typical of Silicon Valley startup culture, symbolized the humble beginnings of what would become one of the world’s most valuable companies. Equipment was sparse, and operations were run from borrowed and inexpensive hardware. Despite these limitations, the team had access to something more valuable: a functioning search system that had proven capable of indexing tens of millions of web pages. The transition from dorm rooms and Stanford servers to a dedicated workspace marked Google’s emergence as a real company.

Operations and Technical Capacity

In 1998, Google’s search infrastructure could handle approximately 26 million web pages, a significant achievement for a system built with limited resources. The PageRank algorithm continued to differentiate Google’s results from competitors by considering the relationship between pages rather than relying solely on keyword frequency. This technical foundation would prove essential as internet usage expanded rapidly in subsequent years.

Timeline: Google’s First Year as a Company

The progression from research project to incorporated company happened within months, driven by technical achievement and investor interest. Below is an ordered sequence of key events from 1995 through 1999.

1. 1995 — Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford University, where Brin gives Page a campus tour while Page considers graduate studies there. Source: About Google
2. 1996 — Page and Brin launch the BackRub project, beginning development of what would become the PageRank algorithm. Source: Wikipedia
3. September 1997 — The domain google.com is registered, securing the name that would become globally recognized. Source: UpGrow
4. Early 1998 — BackRub indexes approximately 26 million web pages, attracting significant academic and investor attention. Source: About Google
5. August 1998 — Andy Bechtolsheim writes a $100,000 check to “Google Inc.,” prompting immediate incorporation plans. Source: Britannica
6. September 4, 1998 — Google Inc. is officially incorporated in Menlo Park, California. Source: About Google
7. Late 1998 — Operations move to the Menlo Park garage at 232 Santa Margarita Avenue. Source: Wikipedia
8. 1999 — Google receives $25 million in venture funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins, enabling significant expansion. Source: EBSCO

Established Facts Versus Uncertainties

Historical accounts generally align on the major events of 1998, but some details remain subjects of minor discrepancy among sources.

The Context of Google’s Founding

Google emerged during the height of the dot-com boom, a period characterized by rapid capitalization of internet ventures and heightened investor enthusiasm for technology companies. Existing search engines like Yahoo dominated consumer web navigation, but they relied heavily on human curation rather than algorithmic automation. Page and Brin’s approach, which evaluated pages based on link structure rather than editorial selection, represented a fundamentally different philosophy of information organization.

The decision to commercialize BackRub reflected both opportunity and necessity. Stanford’s infrastructure could not indefinitely support a system of 26 million pages, and the technical team needed resources beyond what academic funding could provide. Bechtolsheim’s investment validated the commercial potential of algorithmic search at a moment when the internet’s growth trajectory was becoming increasingly apparent to observers across the technology industry.

What the Founders Said

The historical record includes statements from the founders about their early vision and the circumstances surrounding Google’s incorporation. These accounts provide insight into the thinking that drove the transition from research to commerce.

The thing that really surprised us was the Web grew faster than we expected. We thought we had years to build a company. In six months, we went from nobody knowing about it to actually having investors and being an actual company.

— Larry Page, reflecting on Google’s early growth

We had been running this as a research project at Stanford, and it had grown to something that really needed its own infrastructure. The Bechtolsheim check made everything happen very quickly.

— Sergey Brin, describing the funding moment

Summary

Google’s incorporation on September 4, 1998, transformed a Stanford research project into a commercial enterprise. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, guided by an unexpected $100,000 investment from Andy Bechtolsheim, formalized operations in a Menlo Park garage previously owned by Susan Wojcicki. By that point, their BackRub search system had already indexed approximately 26 million web pages using the PageRank algorithm they developed. The decisions made in 1998—incorporating the company, securing funding, and establishing a dedicated workspace—created the foundation for the search engine that would eventually become integral to daily life for billions of users worldwide.

Frequently Asked Questions