Monday, September 27, 2010

Is Google the Betty White of the Internet?

Google turns 12 years old today, which in dog years is pretty old...and in technology years is just about ancient.

The search engine giant is celebrating its birthday with a birthday cake logo on its home page, but that should come as no surprise seeing as how Google is just as well-known for its special logos as its search capabilities.

But what's most surprising isn't just that Google has survived, but that it has reemerged over the past year or two as an online titan. This brings me to why I titled this post the way I did.

Here's the comparison: Betty White was a star years ago, then sort of faded in the minds of the general public (basically fell off the face of the earth) but over the last few months has been everywhere with her surge of renewed popularity.

Likewise, Google enjoyed great success early but declined slightly with the social media boom of Facebook and Twitter, only to rise back through the online ranks with innovations to its search and mail services and the success of the Android OS.

So although 12 years old seems pretty young, surviving and thriving in the fast-paced and highly-competitive Internet technology field is definitely worth celebrating.