Google celebrates with a cake

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Google is celebrating its 12th birthday with a one-candled cake designed by American Pop artist, Wayne Thiebaud.

On September 27 the internet giant replaced its regular logo with a painting of a cake. The illustration was created by Wayne Thiebaud, an artist whose most noted works include images of cakes, pastries and diner food. His paintings have become Pop art icons around the world.

Google has had a vivid history of internet firsts and web-based milestones, some of which include Google being named Top Search Engine in 1998, the hiring of Google's first employee (Craig Silverstein in 1998), the opening of Google's first international office in Tokyo (2001), and the Queen of England launching a channel on YouTube (2006).

For an almost-complete history of the company's past and to find out the answers to puzzling Google questions like, "Where did the name 'Google' come from?", "How did Google actually make Radiohead even more geeky?" and "Which animals attacked the T-Rex at the Googleplex?" you can view the Google history website the company made to celebrate its 10th birthday, http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/.

Other big birthday celebrations in the tech world include Facebook on Feburary 4, Twitter on March 21, Apple on April 1, Microsoft on April 4 and the Internet on October 27.