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Google is letting people take a virtual tour inside the modest garage that served as its first headquarters

Isobel Asher Hamilton,Isobel Asher Hamilton   

Google is letting people take a virtual tour inside the modest garage that served as its first headquarters
Tech2 min read

Google Garage

Google Maps

You can take a virtual tour to the garage where Google was born.

  • Google has recreated the modest garage that served as its first headquarters to celebrate 20 years of Google Search.
  • The virtual tour can be found through Google Street View, and allows users to peer into the cluttered space that gave rise to the most popular search engine in the world.
  • You can also find easter eggs within the map by turning on a neon light and opening a trap door.

To celebrate 20 years of Google Search, Google is taking users inside the place where it was born - a garage.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page used Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park, California, as Google's original headquarters in 1998.

As well as the usual birthday doodle, Google has done up the garage to take it back in time, letting users explore Brin and Page's original base of operations. You can find the map on Google Street View, or via this blog post.

As you enter the garage, you can find a desktop computer displaying Google's beta version, complete with the exclamation mark.

The garage is pretty cluttered, but in a blog post, Google said Brin and Page were particularly happy to get a washing machine and dryer included in their rent.

While exploring the garage Business Insider also spotted a fluffy elephant and hippo among the items strewn around the boxes and computers.

You can explore a bit further down the hallway to find a bedroom-turned-main-office with "Google Worldwide Headquarters" written on a whiteboard.

Google Worldwide Headquarters

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Google Worldwide Headquarters, as it was in 1998.

Inside the headquarters you can see an allusion to the 1998 logo change, which removed the exclamation mark.

Google logo

Google maps

"Google" or "Google!"

There are easter eggs to be found if, as you explore, you turn on a neon "Google" sign and open a trapdoor.

Upon returning to the garage after doing this, Business Insider found a pair of modded glasses sitting on the table, which could be a nod to Brin's Google Glass project.

Google glasses

Google

These glasses appeared in Susan's garage.

We also found a reference to Google's first office dog Yoshka, as a cushion appeared on a chair complete with a lead and staff ID.

Yoshka

Google Maps

The cushion, lead, and ID all point to Google's first office dog, Yoshka.

There are doubtless plenty more in-jokes to be found by roving around Susan's garage.

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