See what Google’s original office looked like in 1998

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998, they rented Wojcicki’s garage in Palo Alto to make use of as their “world headquarters.”

During a Graduation speech 2014 at Johns Hopkins Universityshe described the circumstances that led to the fateful decision. She said she was newly married and had just bought the home, but could barely afford the mortgage. A mutual friend put her in contact with Page and Brin, who were still doctoral students at Stanford on the time.

“They seemed nice,” Wojcicki said. “Their idea sounded kind of crazy.”

The name of the brand new company seemed strange to her and she or he wasn’t sure what it meant, but that did not matter at that time.

“As long as you pay your rent on time, you can build your Googly thing here,” she remembered telling them.

At one point, she added, she ate pizza and M&Ms with them late at night. The Google co-founders talked about how their technology could change the world – and the way excited they were that there was a washer and dryer within the garage.

According to Google, the corporate expanded its workspaces to a few small bedrooms on the bottom floor when the workforce grew to 6 people.

In 2018, to mark the twentieth anniversary of Google’s founding, the corporate used archive footage to Recreate what the garage looked like in 1998.

The Street View team then released images of every room, allowing viewers to virtually explore the startup’s original office space in all its crowded glory.

The office also had a keyboard for music breaks and the obligatory table tennis table, which in the images was folded up and stored in a corner.

In a 2018 video accompanying the recreated office, Wojcicki said, “Wow, it’s incredible that it looks exactly the same. It’s like going back in time.”

Google also released a grainy original video of the garage, shot by the corporate’s sixth worker, engineer Harry Cheung, who has since develop into an angel investor.

After walking through the rooms together with his camera, he discovered Page working in front of a pc.

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