Google celebrates 16th birthday

Google celebrated 16 years on Saturday with a special doodle on their homepage depicting a birthday party with the Google letters. Google was a relative latecomer to the commercial Internet, not going online until September 27, 1998, a few years after most of today's major websites. Some argue, though, that Google's real birthday is September 7, the date it was incorporated as a company. But aside from that, it has developed a powerful online influence. What started as a simple search engine has gone on to become an Internet giant with features such as maps and news, along with its own email provider, social network and Web browser.