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47 free Google trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free Google trivia questions with answers. Did you know Google processes over 8.5 billion searches daily? Test your knowledge of the world's most dominant search engine with our 47-question Google trivia quiz. From Sergey Brin and Larry Page's Stanford dorm room origins to today's AI innovations, you'll discover fascinating facts about the company that changed how we find information online.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Google incorporated?
1998
Google was incorporated in 1998, with the papers signed on September 4, two years after Page and Brin began the search project as Ph.D. research.
Q 02Who co-founded Google alongside Larry Page?
Sergey Brin
The two still control 56% of shareholder voting power through super-voting stock while owning about 14% of the shares.
Q 03What did the founders call their search engine when they built it in 1996?
BackRub
The name referred to the system's analysis of backlinks; it became Google in 1997.
Q 04The name 'Google' is a play on what mathematical term?
Googol
Googol, 10 to the 100th, was misspelled into Google; the heirs of Edward Kasner, who popularised the term, considered suing over the name in 2004 but never filed.
Q 05Larry Page and Sergey Brin met as Ph.D. students in 1995 and built their 'BackRub' search prototype at which university?
Stanford
Stanford is where Page and Brin met in 1995; their 1996 research prototype, BackRub, ranked pages by counting the links pointing at them.
Q 06Where was Google's first office when the company was incorporated?
A friend's garage in Menlo Park
Google's first office was a friend's garage in Menlo Park, rented from Susan Wojcicki, who later became a Google executive and CEO of YouTube.
Q 07Who did Google's founders hire as chief executive in 2001, at their investors' urging?
Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt, then chief executive of Novell, became Google's CEO in August 2001 at the urging of investors Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia; Larry Page moved to president of products.
Q 08In what year did Google launch Gmail?
2004
It was announced on April 1 as an invitation-only beta and did not drop the beta label until 2009.
Q 09How much free storage did Gmail famously offer when it launched as a beta?
1 GB
The figure was so generous for the era that many assumed the announcement was an April Fools' prank.
Q 10How much did Google pay to acquire YouTube in 2006?
$1.65 billion
$1.65 billion in Google stock bought YouTube; the deal closed in November 2006, and the founders were ex-PayPal employees who had grown rich in the eBay buyout.
Q 11What year was Google Maps launched?
2005
2005 was the year: Google Maps launched on February 8, 2005, built on work by Danish brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen at Where 2 Technologies, which Google acquired in 2004.
Q 12What is the name of Google's web browser, launched in 2008?
Chrome
The Windows-only beta shipped in 43 languages; by 2026 it held about 71% of worldwide usage share.
Q 13What mobile operating system does Google develop?
Android
Android: Google bought Android Inc. in July 2005, and the first Android phone, the HTC Dream sold as the T-Mobile G1, shipped in October 2008.
Which social network from the company shut down for consumers in April 2019 after a data-exposure bug?
Q 21What happens when you search 'do a barrel roll' on Google?
The whole page spins 360 degrees
The whole page spins 360 degrees; searching 'Z or R twice' does the same, a nod to the button combo Peppy Hare demands in Nintendo's Star Fox 64.
Q 22Which arcade classic became Google's first playable Doodle in May 2010?
Pac-Man
Pac-Man: built with Namco for the game's 30th anniversary on May 21, 2010, the doodle was so popular that Google kept it permanently at google.com/pacman.
Q 23Which pixelated animal stars in Chrome's offline endless-runner game?
A Tyrannosaurus rex
Plus
Google+ (Plus) launched in June 2011 as a Facebook rival and never caught on; after the data-exposure bug its API closed in March 2019 and the consumer service shut on April 2.
Q 15Google Translate's 2006 engine trained on European Parliament text and which other body's?
The United Nations
The United Nations: Google's 2006 statistical engine learned from millions of words of UN and European Parliament proceedings, which exist as aligned translations in many languages.
Q 16Google's suite of public hosting services, which began with App Engine in 2008, is formally called Google what?
Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Platform grew from App Engine, previewed in April 2008 and generally available in September 2011; Compute Engine virtual machines followed in 2012.
Q 17Which Google product, launched in five US cities in 2007, lets users explore roads through panoramic imagery shot from camera cars?
Street View
Street View launched in five US cities in 2007 and has since used snowmobiles, trolleys and backpack rigs to reach places cars cannot.
Q 18In what year did Google fold itself into a new parent, Alphabet Inc.?
2015
Google announced Alphabet in August 2015 and completed the reorganisation on October 2, 2015, so its moonshot units could sit beside Google rather than inside it.
Q 19What nickname does Google's headquarters campus at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway go by?
The Googleplex
The Googleplex mashes 'Google' with 'complex', as in a complex of buildings, with a wink at a famously enormous number.
Q 20What is Google's unofficial corporate motto that guided the company for years?
Don't be evil
It appeared in the 2004 IPO prospectus; when Alphabet was formed its own code of conduct went with 'Do the right thing' instead.
Its designer named the character the 'Lonely T-Rex'; on the browser's 10th birthday in 2018 a cake and party hat were added as an Easter egg.
Q 24Which Alphabet subsidiary was renamed from Google Life Sciences in December 2015?
Verily
Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) is Alphabet's life sciences subsidiary. It focuses on using technology to improve health outcomes. Calico is a separate Alphabet subsidiary focused on aging and longevity research.
Q 25In what city is Google's headquarters located?
Mountain View
Mountain View: Google leased the 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway campus from Silicon Graphics in 2003 and bought it outright in 2006 for about $319 million.
Q 26Ruth Kedar's 1999 Google logo used primary colours except for a secondary colour on which letter?
The l
The green 'l' was meant to signal that Google doesn't follow the rules; the wordmark used the serif font Catull until 2015.
Q 27Charlie Ayers, Google's first executive chef, had earlier cooked for which rock band?
Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead: Ayers had cooked for the band before joining Google in 1999; by the time he left in 2006 his team served about 4,000 lunches and dinners a day across ten campus cafes.
Q 28Which AI research lab did Google acquire in 2014 for approximately $500 million?
DeepMind
Google acquired DeepMind Technologies, the London AI lab founded by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman, in January 2014 for approximately $500 million.
Q 29Which navigation app did Google acquire in 2013 for about $1 billion?
Waze
Waze, the Israeli crowdsourced navigation app that began as FreeMap Israel in 2006, joined Google in June 2013 and kept running as a separate product alongside Google Maps.
Q 30Which handset maker's 17,000 patents led Google to pay $12.5 billion for it in 2011?
Motorola Mobility
Motorola Mobility: Google announced the $12.5 billion deal in August 2011, then sold the handset business to Lenovo in 2014 for $2.91 billion while keeping most of the patents.