20 years of Google Germany
Between Helene Fischer and toilet paper
It no longer looks like this in the Google office in Hamburg.
© Google LLC
Google Germany celebrates its 20th birthday on October 10th. Here are milestones from the internet giant and popular search terms from two decades.
It was 20 years ago on October 10th that it all started in a small rental office in Hamburg: Google opened its first office in Germany there. But why did you choose the Hanseatic city? And what else has happened in the past two decades?
Some milestones from 20 years
Officially, the reason for choosing the location has little to do with logistics or the like. Holger Meyer, the first employee in Germany, simply lived in Hamburg. Such considerations are unthinkable today, because according to the global corporation, the company now has around 2,500 employees in Germany alone.
In 2003, Google moved to ABC Street. In addition to the main office in Hamburg, there are now offices in Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt am Main. In the same year Google News was introduced, in April 2006 Google Maps followed in Germany, among others, and in October the popular video platform YouTube became part of the company. The Google Chrome browser was launched in December 2008, and from the end of 2010 users were the first town in Germany to be able to view Oberstaufen using Street View.
In 2012, Gmail became Gmail in Germany, Chromebooks were available for the first time in March 2013 and the Chromecast streaming player followed in March 2014. The Pixel smartphone finally came onto the market in October 2016 and the smart speaker Google Home in July 2017. Consumers in Germany have been able to pay with Google Pay since mid-2018.
All kinds of search queries
In 20 years there will be quite a few interesting and curious search queries. When Google Germany launched in 2001, searches for “Harry Potter”, “Lord of the Rings” and the video game “Moorhuhn” were popular. The three most wanted bands back then were the Beatles, ahead of U2 and NSYNC. Meanwhile, Amazon, Ikea, Nokia, Sony and BMW were among the most sought-after retailers and brands. The former tennis player Anna Kournikova (40) dominated the inquiries in the field of sports.
A pop angel led the list of the most wanted personalities and stars together with a rapper in recent years. From 2006 to 2008, Bushido (43) was searched for particularly often, and in 2013, 2015 and 2019 for Helene Fischer (37). Former US President Donald Trump (75) was ahead in 2017 and 2020. Other most wanted people: Michael Jackson (2009), Lena Meyer-Landrut (2010), Justin Bieber (2011), Cro (2012), Michael Schumacher (2014), Sarah Engels (2016) and Daniel Küblböck (2018). No statistics are available for Germany for the years 2001 to 2005.
In addition to “Moorhuhn” there have been many other unusual trend search terms in the past 20 years. In 2004 the little crocodile “Schnappi” was popular, in 2009 not only the “scrapping bonus” was the “litter box” and in 2010 the “Vuvuzela” for the soccer world championship. Trends like “The Device” (2011), “Gangnam Style” (2012), the “Harlem Shake” (2013) and “Fidget Spinner” (2017) could not be missing. And in 2020, citizens didn’t just look for “toilet paper” in the supermarket.