---
title: "Which came first, Google or JavaScript?"
description: "Google vs JavaScript: JavaScript came first, by 3 years — 1995 against 1998. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/google-vs-javascript/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Google or JavaScript?

**Which came first, Google or JavaScript?: JavaScript**

1995 — 3 years before Google

JavaScript came first, by 3 years. Brendan Eich wrote it in ten days for Netscape Navigator.

## Side by side

|  | Google | JavaScript |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1998 | 1995 |
| Date | 1998-09-04 | — |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | Google Inc. was incorporated in a garage in Menlo Park. | Brendan Eich wrote it in ten days for Netscape Navigator. |

## Google

The date used here is the incorporation, 4 September 1998. Two others compete: the research project called BackRub began at Stanford in 1996, and the google.com domain was registered on 15 September 1997. Google itself has celebrated its birthday on four different September dates over the years, which is a fair indication that no single one is correct. It is younger than Amazon, eBay and Netflix.

## JavaScript

JavaScript was written in about ten days in May 1995, shipped in Netscape Navigator 2.0 later that year, and was called LiveScript until December, when Netscape renamed it as part of a marketing deal with Sun. It has nothing to do with Java beyond some borrowed syntax. Standardisation as ECMAScript followed in 1997, and the language spent a decade being treated as a toy before it became the most widely deployed programming language in the world.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Google or JavaScript?

JavaScript, by 3 years — 1995 against 1998.

### When did Google start?

1998. Google Inc. was incorporated in a garage in Menlo Park.

### When did JavaScript start?

1995. Brendan Eich wrote it in ten days for Netscape Navigator.

## Related pages

- [Apple or JavaScript?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/apple-vs-javascript/)
- [Apple or Google?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/apple-vs-google/)
- [the internet (ARPANET) or JavaScript?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/arpanet-vs-javascript/)
- [the internet (ARPANET) or Google?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/arpanet-vs-google/)
- [email or JavaScript?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/email-vs-javascript/)
- [email or Google?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/email-vs-google/)
- [Java or JavaScript?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/java-vs-javascript/)
- [JavaScript or Microsoft?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/javascript-vs-microsoft/)
- [JavaScript or the Macintosh?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/javascript-vs-macintosh/)
- [JavaScript or Windows?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/javascript-vs-windows/)
- [JavaScript or the World Wide Web?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/javascript-vs-world-wide-web/)
- [JavaScript or Python?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/javascript-vs-python/)

## Sources

- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]