google in 1998

The exclamation mark nobody remembers

The whole 1998 layout has been re-moulded in clay, so those beveled buttons now dent inward like putty. Look at the logo. There is an exclamation point hanging off the end of it, and almost nobody recalls that until they see it again. The 1998 build was still a Stanford research project, the index claimed twenty five million pages, and the whole homepage fitted comfortably inside an 800 by 600 screen with room left over.

Type something in the box above and hit the pale clay button. The results come back as plain violet links with a lighter URL underneath, no images, no cards, no sidebar. That was the entire experience.

Details that make it feel right

Beveled buttons that press inward when clicked. A search box in Courier because that was the default. The scrolling violet marquee at the bottom, which was mandatory on any respectable page that year. A visitor counter with violet digits on black, ticking up to a number nobody could verify.

The lucky button behaves the way it used to as well, one highlighted result and a slightly faster search time, because the joke was always that luck was quicker than looking.

Why people still hunt for it

The google in 1998 easter egg ran as a real search trigger for years before quietly disappearing, which is why the query never died. People type old google, google 1998, or google in1998 into a modern search bar expecting the time machine to still be there. It is here instead.

Other things from the same shelf

Once you have had your fill of beveled buttons, google mirror messes with the same interface from a different angle by flipping everything backwards. google terminal strips the page down even further to a blinking cursor. And google gravity takes the modern layout and knocks it over.

If you would rather play something than look at something, google pac-man and google snake are both a click away. The index of everything sits under google easter eggs.

Fact check on the year

The company incorporated in September 1998 out of a garage in Menlo Park. The homepage at that point carried the Stanford line, the beta tag and the exclamation mark, all three of which are reproduced above. The stated index size shifted through the year, which is why the number in the counter looks oddly specific.