When is Google's birthday?

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Google Doodle celebrates the internet giant's 17th birthday on September 27, but the date has varied over the years

Google's 17th birthday Doodle Photo: Google

Google is celebrating its 17th birthday with a commemorative Doodleharking back to the web of the 1990s.

The image, featuring a retro, plastic PC, lava lamp and even 1998's "Google!" Logo, features on Google's homepage on September 27, which the internet giant has retroactively chosen as its birthday.

However, not even Google seems to really know when it was formed. Since 2006, it has celebrated its birthday on September 27, but the year before that, had it as September 26.

Google's 13th birthday Doodle

In 2004, its 6th birthday Doodle went online on September 7 and in the year before that, it was September 8.

In fact, none of these dates seem to have any particular relevance. The company's history has its incorporation date in 1998 - the nearest thing to a corporate birthday - as September 4.

Google alluded to this confusion in 2013, admitting it had celebrated its birthday on four different dates, but September 27 now seems to have stuck. The company may have just chosen the date because it was whatthe first birthday Doodle in 2002 used.

The 17th birthday Google will appear in almost every country in the world,according to the Doodle blog, with the USA one big exception.

Google's 10th birthday Doodle

However, this may well change next year, as Google splits itself up into a group of companies all under the umbrella company "Alphabet"

The move will see the company's main money spinners such as search and Android remain part of a company called Google, but parts of the company such as its research division X and life sciences business will be separately incorporated.

This year's Doodle comes after the company changed its famous logo to a more rounded design.

Google has celebrated its birthday with a Doodle every year since its fourth birthday in 2002. However, the first Doodle, for the Burning Man festival in 1998, actually occurred before the company was technically founded.

AT A GLANCE

Google Doodle

First Doodle, August 30th 1998

1998 Google logo combined with the Burning Man festival graphic

As Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page headed to the Burning Man dadaist arts festival, they switched the search engine's logo as a jokey 'out of office' message

First animated Doodle, January 4th 2010

Sir Isaac Newton's birth

Google's first animated logo comemmorated the birth anniversary of Sir Isaac Newton

First interactive Doodle, May 21st 2010

Pac Man day

Google's celebration of Pac Man's birth was so wildly popular that the interactive logo was given its own permanent page

The Doodlers

Ryan Germick

A team of 10 'Doodlers', 4 engineers, 2 producers (and 3 dogs) led by designer Ryan Germick. Founded in 2009, they're based at Google HQ, California

How busy are they?

The team now produces around 400 Doodles each year, around 50-100 of which will be animated, and around 12 will be fully interactive. They plan around 18 months in advance.

Any constraints?

The Google logo must be recognizable and it can't be above a certain size

Longest-serving Doodler

Dennis Hwang. Pic: JOHN D MCHUGH/AFP/Getty Images

Dennis Hwang designed the Bastille Day 2000 Doodle. Although now Google's webmaster Dennis still designs around 50 festive logos a year - he also created the GMail logo.