Google is giving users the chance to look round the garage where it first began.
In honor of the company’s 20th birthday, the search giant posted a Google Street View tour of the Menlo Park, California garage where it all began in 1998.
The firm painstakingly recreated the space down to every last detail – and included a secret room filled with classic Google memorabilia.
and use your mouse below to explore the garage
The garage that served as Google’s first headquarters was owned by none other than YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
It was there that Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page laid the foundations for what would later become one of Silicon Valley’s foremost tech behemoths.
‘To celebrate Google’s 20th birthday, today we invite you to travel back in time and take a virtual stroll through the original Google Garage in Street View – (almost) like it was 20 years ago,’ the firm wrote in a blog post.
After proceeding through the garage door, users are greeted by a slightly messy room complete with a retro ‘CRT’ monitor showing a vintage Google search bar.
The firm notes in a blog post that Brin and Page were particularly ecstatic that a washing machine and dryer were included in their rent.
Down the hall is the ‘main office’ where a whiteboard says ‘Google’s Worldwide Headquarters’ scrawled in black lettering.
In honor of its 20th birthday, the firm posted a Google Street View tour of the Menlo Park, California garage where it all began in 1998. It painstakingly recreated several details
The garage that served as Google’s first headquarters was owned by none other than YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. It was there that Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page laid the foundations for what would later become one of Silicon Valley’s foremost tech behemoths
Users are first greeted by a slightly messy garage. Down the hall is the ‘main office’ where a whiteboard says ‘Google’s Worldwide Headquarters’ scrawled in black lettering
There’s an array of desks with old school computers, including one with a cheeky Post-It note that says ‘User first!’
‘As the team grew to six people, they expanded their workspaces into three small bedrooms on the ground floor,’ Google noted in a blog post.
Among the Google artifacts, users can find a collapsible mini rainbow sphere, a surf-frog terrarium, a dinosaur, a ping pong table and a piano keyboard, the firm said.
Another whiteboard shows different versions of Google’s now-ubiquitous logo, while a jersey with Brin’s name on the back is draped over a desk chair.
There’s an array of desks with old school computers, including one with a cheeky Post-It note that says ‘User first!’ A whiteboard shows different examples of the firm’s ubiquitous logo
After users turn on a neon Google light, it reveals some classic Google memorabilia, such as two pairs of prototype glasses lying on a table in the garage, in reference to Google Glass
This chair includes a reference to Google’s first office dog Yoshka, complete with a leash and a staff ID. The firm hid a smattering of other ‘Easter eggs’ throughout the virtual tour
Google famously removed the exclamation mark from its logo in 1999, when it revamped the typeface and other elements from its wordmark.
It wouldn’t change the logo again until 2015, when it introduced a sans serif version.
The firm hid a smattering of ‘Easter eggs’ throughout the virtual tour that can be revealed with a bit of tinkering.
After users turn on a neon Google light, it reveals some classic Google memorabilia, such as two pairs of prototype glasses lying on a table in the garage, likely in reference to the firm’s Google Glass project.
The firm based this virtual tour off of real footage of the office that was captured by ‘Harry, Google’s sixth employee.’ Google used the space as its headquarters beginning in 1998
In the footage, Google cofounder Larry Page can be seen sitting in front of a vintage computer. The archival video takes users on a tour through the search giant’s original headquarters
Colorful bikes that are now used on Google’s Mountain View campus can be seen scattered throughout the rooms.
The firm based this virtual tour off of real footage of the office that was captured by ‘Harry, Google’s sixth employee,’ Google said.
Also as part of its 20th birthday, Google released a revamped version of its search engine.
The updates bring a news feed to its Google Search app, as well as new tools to help users revisit old searches and organize links and webpages.
20 YEARS OF GOOGLE
1995: Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford University, where grad student Brin gives prospective student Page a tour.
1996: The pair begin working on a new search engine for the Internet, which evolves to become Google.
1998: Google incorporates and moves into Susan Wojcicki’s garage in Menlo Park, California.
Google’s co-founders, CEO Larry Page, left, and Chairman Sergey Brin, rest on bean bags at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif in 2000, when the firm first moved into the area
1999: Page and Brin move their company to Mountain View, California, and hire the company’s first in-house chef to prepare meals for workers.
2001: Eric Schmidt is named CEO, with Page and Brin as presidents of products and technology.
2004: A few months after introducing Gmail, Google holds its first public stock offering.
In this Jan. 15, 2004, file photo Google co-founders Larry Page, bottom, and Sergey Brin are seen at company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif
2006: Google acquires YouTube for $1.6 billion.
2011: Larry Page becomes CEO, Schmidt becomes executive chairman.
2014: Google completes a controversial stock split that creates a new class of non-voting shares, cementing Page and Brin’s control as major voting stockholders.
2015: Page announces creation of new holding company, Alphabet, to include Google’s core business and other entities.
FILE- In this Aug. 19, 2004, file photo the sign outside the Nasdaq Marketsite shows a picture of Goggle staff attending the opening of the Nasdaq market in New York.