Following are highlights of 2004 from the Google perspective. All links are to blog entries. Enjoy the reminiscence.

JAN: Google hires Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to organize IPO, hoping to raise $40B.
FEB: Google releases social networking site Orkut, not realizing at the time how extremely short-lived would be the buzz.
FEB: Google shoots down Booble, a parody porn search engine.
FEB: Google makes Microsoft froth at the mouth, motivating Bill Gates to admit defeat, then promise eventual victory.
FEB: Google's index reaches six-million pages.
FEB: Yahoo! (inevitably) dumps Google for its own search engine based on Inktomi technology.
MAR: Yahoo! continues cutting the cord, dropping Google in Australia and New Zealand.
MAR: Google is accused of anti-semiticism because an anti-Jewish site is listed forst for the keyword jew.
MAR:Google subtly updates its appearance. Froogle is added to the main selection of services.
MAR: Gmail. Launched. World. Changed. (Remember the hoax rumors?)
APR: Google sets a new AdWords policy regarding trademarks: Trademarked terms are not allowed within the ad copy, but trademarks may be used as keywords to trip the ads. This policy will cause Google much trouble during the year, and finally be vindicated in a landmark December victory over insurance company Geico.
APR: A judge refuses to scrap Overture's lawsuit against Google, leading to an Overture victory and a licensing deal whereby Google must pay to continue deploying AdWords.
MAY: In May, Google was still doddering over its much-delayed IPO, and drops Goldman Sachs from the short list of lead underwriters.
MAY: Google AdWords introduces image ads, dramatically expanding the once text-only system.
MAY: CNN switches from Google ad syndication to Yahoo!/Overture service, signalling Yahoo!'s rising star against its adversary.
MAY: Gmail Swap is founded to manage the tremendous demand for Gmail invitations. Soon enough, the Net would be glutted with them.
MAY: Google tops the Wired 40 list.
JUN: The Google IPO remains stalled, and Merrill Lynch drops off the underwriter list.
JUN: Google forbids Gmail account selling.
JUL: Google acquires image software company Picasa, and immediately makes the product free.
AUG: Google loses the patent suit brought by Overture, and pays its settlement partly with IPO shares.
AUG: IPO. Launched. Wall Street. Changed. (The initial street price is $85. within a few months GOOG stock would touch $200.)
SEP: Google updates Google Local to better compete with Yahoo! Local.
SEP: Google's founder, Brin and Page, win the Marconi Award, named after the inventor of radio.
SEP: Google takes tremendous heat for omitting state-banned news sources from Google News in China. the company explains that providing non-working links would damage the user experience.
OCT: Rumors of a Google browser pick up steam.
OCT: Google Print, the book-scanning project, ramps up. In December, Google will create agreements with several leading university and municipal libraries.
OCT: Google launches Desktop Search; security issues will dominate press coverage after the initial joy wears off.
OCT: A report circulates of Google saving a soldier's life.
OCT: Google acquires satellite imaging firm Keyhole. The implications are not yet manifested.
NOV: Google publishes a new AdWords guideline policy, finally clarifying what advertisers cannot promote. Like bingo and brass knuckles. Really.
NOV: The index hits eight-billion pages.
NOV: Sergey Brin confesses, with embarrassment, that Google Images rarely gets updated.
NOV: Google opens a software engineering office in Kirkland, WA, close to Redmond, the better to scavenge Microsoft for talent.
NOV: Google Scholar launches.
DEC: Google Groups officially launches version 2, to poor reviews. (Well, at least one poor review, on this blog.)
DEC: Yahoo!'s Overture division meekly settles its portion of the Geico trademark infringement case, leaving Google to soldier on alone.
DEC: Security issues surrounding Google Desktop become intense, and the Gartner Group flatly recommends avoiding the product in corporate environments.
DEC: Google beats Geico roundly in court, winning a summary judgment of the main trial points, forcing Overture into the humiliating position of having settled the case prematurely and unnecessarily.
DEC: Google is criticized for responding sluggishly to the Santy.a virus, which launched its attacks from Google listings.