As I launched my Google Chrome this morning, almost mechanically, to mark the beginning of my day ahead, a rather unusual sign greeted me.

Google's little birthday bash

As I launched my Google Chrome this morning, almost mechanically, to mark the beginning of my day ahead, a rather unusual sign greeted me.

My Google homepage sported a bright and modest little birthday cake in red and yellow with a slightly sidelined candle burning bright. Such things, at what are unearthly hours to those in our profession (read morning), made me stop and rub my eyes in nothing less than horror.

Before I reached out for my overloaded Gmail account, I checked to know what was making Google's day so bright and shining. The website, more than synonymous with search engines, had turned 12, and no, they weren't letting it go without the customary cake.

This made me smile a moment; even 'aww', pink icing and hearts too, perhaps in this case, would not have made them the object of contempt for longer than a day. After all the birthdays and tributes that Google made us stop and remember, surely, it could do with some flamboyance for its big day.

For those like me, who tried to click on the aforementioned birthday cake, were sent into a chain reaction of sorts that brought you back to the same cake. That apart, this birthday drove me into reminiscing 12 years back, when this lesser known toddler had barely entered our lives.

It was, then, one amongst others of its kind, and a luxury more than a necessity. Times soon changed and we did not realise when this modest acquaintance had become oddly close to, even dominant of, most parts of our lives (it took precedence over my toothbrush, even nightclothes).

In its many avatars including Chrome, Talk, Orkut, and the more recent Buzz, a day without Google became unimaginable.

The brainchild of Stanford graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin (I googled this one), and a rather pampered one at that, is now closing in on adolescence.

With teething troubles becoming a thing of the past, we are now witness to a child moving towards its teens, and the churning feeling in the gut is a given. Like anxious parents, we both await and dread what the little monster has in store for us.

In the meanwhile, let's all take a minute and wish Google many years of trends, scraps, and IMs. Now, blow out the candles and bring in the champagne, we say!

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