Google – massive internet search engine and corporate web ‘good guy’ – has celebrated its 10th birthday.

We’ve all used Google for all of our searching needs (in fact I’ve used it right now to research for this report!) and it’s become so much a part of our daily lives that it is even used as a verb in the Oxford Dictionary – “I’ll google that information for you, sir.”

Ten years ago, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the company in a friend’s garage in Menlo Park, California, much in the same vain as Bill Gates and the other guy (who really remembers Paul Allen?).

Unlike its competitors, Google is a company that was not only able to continually build its popularity year on year, but it was able to make buckets of money through subtle per-click advertising initiatives that have become the envy of the corporate world – all without losing its loyal users (an issue that social networking sites are grappling with at the moment).

The company’s idiom, “Don’t be evil”, along with its relaxed working environment, has made it the most sought after workplace in the world. It’s also been criticised at various times over privacy issues, and its long-standing feud with the other IT world monolith – Microsoft.

But what’s next for Google? Rumours of world domination are probably over stated, however, as the release of its new web browser, Chrome, seems to indicate, expect another jab at the Microsoft monster.