Google is rolling out one of its biggest home page changes to date.

It all started with BackRub, Google’s Predecessor 1996-1997

Google was first launched under the name BackRub.  In September 1997, Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the Google.com domain name. The two arrived at the name as a play on the mathematical figure, “googol,” which represents the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. The name embodied Larry and Sergey’s  mission to create an infinite amount of web resources.

Domain Name: GOOGLE.COM   Creation Date: 15-sep-1997   Expiration Date: 14-sep-2020

On Sept. 4, 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed for incorporation as Google Inc. — they had received a $100,000 check from an investor made out to Google, Inc., and needed to incorporate that name so they could legally deposit the check.

Here’s the home splash page we’ve seen for a while on Google.com

Of course on Christmas, New Years, and other holidays we’ve been greeted with Google Doodles, often animated.

The new Google “look” has been months in the making and it is still in a limited roll out.

Google is rolling out one of its biggest home page changes to date with navigation being the core change.

The revamp strips its front page of the black bar that currently runs horizontally along its top, and replaces it with a grey logo.

Even when a user is not signed in to his/her Google account, the user can still navigate to Google’s services through the drop-down menu displayed under the Google logo.

Google bar that will enable you to navigate quickly between our services, as well as share the right stuff with the right people easily on Google+.  (note direct from the Google Blog)

Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo.  Google will show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off to the next page.

Google wants to be your default everything, especially your search engine and homepage.

Google detects your browser and wants you to give it a #likesup by choosing Google ad the default search engine and make Google Your Homepage.  When you do, you get a nice STAR as a reward.  All part of The Liking Phenomenon that gives you visual rewards for actions and numbers that increment up and up and up.

Special thanks to Louis Gray at Google for all his work.  Busy guy, dad of three (twins) and dedicated to Google’s success.

It is not just the Google homepage that has users enraptured. 

Some people just can’t get enough of the Google blog. That much is clear from the latest insight into the Google blog’s traffic last year.

According to the Internet search giant, the single biggest day for the blog in 2011 came on September 11th, (the 10th anniversary )when the world paused to remember the tragic events of the 9/11 attacks ten years earlier.

On that occasion, Google’s blog – which honored the memory of 9/11 and its victims – saw a one-day record of 1,731,280 unique pageviews. Those are some serious numbers that increment up and up and up!  #likesup

Last year, the blog saw record traffic with nearly 20 million unique visitors. In 2011, Google published an impressive 471 posts, 17 more posts than it’s 2010 blog post inventory.

In addition to Google’s growing stature as a blogging giant, the company’s social media efforts are similarly on fire.

As Google announced on New Years Eve, “we’ll soon celebrate @google’s third anniversary on Twitter, and we hit the 4 million follower mark this month.”

To read the full list of Google’s impressive statistics for 2011 and to review the year’s most memorable Google content, click here on the GoogleBlog on Blogspot.

All the best to a Google-filled New Year!

Sherrie Rose, The Liking Authority

Likes UP on Google Plus