Google hits 'terrible teenage' years; Mixed bag to celebrate

Google celebrates its 13th birthday today with a low-key doodle, which can be found on display on the front page of the main search site.

The logo, transformed for one day only, falls in line with the search giant marking the day of anniversaries of births, deaths, inventions and public holidays. Its own birthday is no different; this year sporting a plasticine-filled room with a birthday cake and an exclamation point, which was once included in the original Google logo.

Now officially a teenager, expect a strop half way through the party, and a storming off moment as “everything is so unfair”, mostly because uninvited party guest Facebook is locked in bitter rivalry with the search giant.

While Google incorporated on 4th September 1998, and over a week later Google.com was registered, the search giant officially recognises its birthday today.

While comScore statistics show that U.S. web users spend more time on Facebook than any other website, Google still commands a 65 percent share of the global search market, according to StatCounter. But Microsoft’s integration of its Bing search engine in Facebook and Yahoo threatens the search dominance of Google.

Neilsen, however, suggests that Google has 90 percent of the search market. Either way, Google still reigns as the true winner of the search sphere.

But as with all teenage years, not just for high-school kids, the search giant has had its fair share of controversies and difficulties to face over the past few years. Even in the run-up to its relatively low-key anniversary, Google faces pressure from senators amid claims that the company ‘cooked’ links to favour its own products and services over competing others.

But amid the doom and gloom, today is a celebratory day for Google. Even with its recently opened-up Google+ social network, the company continues to enjoy growth by numbers, as the fastest growing social network the world has ever seen.

And before you ask, apparently there are thirteen candles on the cake, and not twelve.

Thanks to zdnet