Happy 13th Birthday Google!

If we’d known your birthday was coming up, Google, we’d have baked a cake (well, after Googling for the recipe).

Fortunately for us all, you reliably rendered your own.

On Tuesday, Google celebrates its 13th birthday with a simple and classy main-page “Doodle”: A homey, scrapbooked image of the colorful logo surrounded by an uber-traditional setting of cake, presents and balloons. A landmark worthy of Hallmark. The literal “Google Image.”

Google, in other words, has just hit its teenage years.

It seemed like just yesterday, Google, you were first squawking for our attention, mastering millions of new words by the day, forever in search of fresh (page) views. Our little bundle of split-second curiosity and streamlined verbosity. (Now, we just hope you can avoid that nasty awkward stage — especially as younger cousin facebook tries to play with some of your things.)

Can it really be 13 years since you, a behemoth of a Bay Area company, were incorporated by the “Google Guys” — Stanford’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin — and unleashed upon a fumbling wide world?

Thanks to dial-up being a distant memory, they grow up so fast.

Uncle Andy (Bechtolsheim) must be so proud. Not only did you make good on his seed money; you are now even a verb and a gerund.

Ah, the years of memories made by the Googleplex are enough to fill an entire flickr scrapbook — especially, of course, if we’ve linked it to our Google account.

Why, just look at the beginning of your PageRank phase, Google: We could literally mark the growth spurts.

And remember when — like opening your first lemonade stand — you began to sell ads associated with certain keywords? (More money, eh? Let us check our Google Wallet.)

Soon, savvy little adventurer that you were, your entire worldview began to expand — thanks to Google Maps and Google Earth and, Google-owned YouTube and of course, Google Blogger.

As you thrived, you were quite the irrepressible ball of Google Energy. And now, you reportedly have cornered about 90-percent of the worldwide Internet search market,

But then, it’s never about the destination, is it? The thrill is in the journey — the Search.

Congratulations, Google, and happy 13th Birthday!! We can only hope that when you get even bigger, perhaps even move away a bit, you’ll still write.

If not on Google+, then we hope at least via GMail.

And when you write, please remember to include a Doodle.

Sincerely, we just can’t get enough.

Via - The Washington Post