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Google Turns 25

LOOK IT UP People use Google to search the Internet on a smartphone or computer. MOHSSEN ASSANIMOGHADDAM—PICTURE ALLIANCE/GETTY IMAGES

This year, Google celebrates its 25th anniversary. When the tech company was started, in 1998, the Internet was new. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page wanted to improve how searches worked. So they invented a search engine that ranked websites by how often they were visited.

Google is now a giant in the tech industry. It makes software for smartphones and robots. And it has used AI to develop self-driving cars, among other inventions.

The company is also using AI to improve its search engine. Page predicted this more than 20 years ago. Artificial intelligence would “be the ultimate version of Google,” he told Manufacturing Intellect in 2000. “If we had the ultimate search engine, it would understand everything on the web.”