Google turns 12; celebrates with cake

Wondering why Google's homepage is sporting a birthday cake? It's because the search engine is officially turning 12.

According to Mashable, Google, always coy about its inception, has in the past celebrated Sept. 7 as its birthday. To make matters more confusing, the site registered the Google domain on Sept. 15. The social media rounds are marking today as the cyber juggernaut's official acknowledgment of Sept. 27 being the historic day.

The man behind the birthday cake? Wayne Thiebaud, an American artist, and for at least a day, the most famous man with a last name pronounced "Tee-bo" - apologies to third-string Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. Thiebaud, 89, hasn't given into this whole Internet fad yet, so he doesn't have a personal website, (or at least one easily found using everyone's favorite search engine), but according to Wikipedia, he's known for simple renditions of everyday objects, such as bubble gum machines.

Also on the homepage, Google is linking to the five winners of its $10M, 10^100 project. According to Google, the five organizations competed against more than 150,000 submissions from more than 170 countries.

The coolest part of the project? How simple the ideas are conceptually - although executing the ideas might not be so simple. Among the winners is "Make government more transparent" and "Make educational content available online for free." Each of the five winners will receive some portion of the $10M in project funds from Google.

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