May 3 2006: Microsoft outlines a broad offensive against Google as it lays out plans to insert the targeted advertising generated by its new AdCenter system into a range of digital services beyond internet search, from the Xbox 360 games console to mobile handsets.

May 1 2006: Microsoft scores an important and rare victory against Google, as Amazon begins using its technology to power its search unit.

April 30 2006: $30bn is wiped from Microsoft’s stock market value and share price fell by more than 11 per cent in one day after the company reveals a dramatic shift in strategy to boost its investment in the internet and other new markets. An estimated extra $2-2.5bn is earmarked for efforts to jump-start the flagging MSN online business to take on Google and Yahoo.

April 13 2006: Google opens yet another front in its competition with Microsoft’s traditional desktop software with the launch of a test version of an online calendar.

April 12 2006: Google adopts a Chinese name, Gu Ge, which means “harvest song”. The move is intended to help the company expand its presence in the world’s second most populous internet market.

March 24 2006:The launch of Google Finance, a website offering financial data and news, is a direct challenge to the well-established Yahoo Finance and Microsoft MSN Money.

March 10 2006: Google buys “Web 2.0” start-up Writely, an online word processor, for an undisclosed sum.

February 28 2006: Google’s chief financial officer, George Reyes, warns the company’s “growth will slow”, setting off a 13 per cent drop in the shares and a wider fall in US stock markets.

February 13 2006: Google shares fall almost 5 per cent to $345.13 after the influential business weekly Barron’s warns the company could face more competition over the next year.

February 3 2006: Amazon shares plunge nearly 11 per cent to $38.23 on disappointing fourth quarter earnings.

January 31 2006: Google shares lose more than 16 per cent in after-hours trading after its fourth quarter earnings fails to exceed Wall Street expectations.

January 17 2006: Yahoo shares fall 13 per cent after missing earnings expectations.

Early January 2006: Google enjoys a rash of positive comments from analysts. Bear Stearns raises its target from $360 to $550; Safa Rashtchy, a senior analyst at PiperJaffray, raises his to $600 from $450. Two days later, Mark Stahlman, an analyst at Caris & Company, says the company’s share price could go as high as $2,000. The shares end the first week of January at $465.66.

November 17 2005: Google’s share price rises above $400 for the first time, valuing it at $110bn - more than Cisco Systems and 10 times the value of General Motors.

October 19 2005: Google reports third quarter revenues of $1.048bn, compared with $942m expected by analysts. The shares rise 9 per cent to about $330.

October 6 2005: Sun Microsystems’ shares rise 9 per cent on news of a joint press conference with Google as investors hope the two will combine forces to take on Microsoft. The actual announcement is less dramatic. “The firmest plans were that Sun will use downloads of its Java software to help market Google’s Toolbar. Google will buy more Sun servers,” says the FT’s Lex.

September 14 2005: Google raises $4.18bn from a secondary share offer. Shares close at $303.

August 18 2005: Google announces plans to raise an additional $4bn via a secondary offering, a year after its controversial IPO.

July 2005: Microsoft files lawsuit against Google after the online seach engine poached a senior engineer from its rival to run its Chinese operations.

June 2005: Shares break through the $300 threshold for the first time after it launches a new video player to challenge established players Microsoft, Real Networks and Apple.

May 2005: Outlines aggressive plans for acquisions to fuel its rapid growth.

April 2005: Company doubles the storage capacity of its popular Gmail service and extends the reach of its search engine to mobile devices.

March 2005: Google steps up pressure on rivals Yahoo and Microsoft with the launch of its first official desktop search programme that gives computer users the ability to search for image, music and video files.

February 2005: Google becomes the most valuable internet company, exceeding the value of online auctioneer eBay, after revealing that earnings growth accelerated in the fourth quarter.

December 2004: Unveils ambitious agreement with a number of university libraries to scan millions of books and make them available online.

October 2004: Releases first quarterly earnings since becoming a public company which show revenues doubled since the previous year on the back of rapid online advertising growth.

August 19 2004: After a 2½-hour delay Google’s much anticipated debut gets under way. The shares close 18 per cent higher than the $85 IPO price.

August 18 2004: Price range slashed to $85-$95 a share. Shareholders reduce the number of shares they expect to sell by about 50 per cent to 5.5m, reducing the maximum size of the IPO to $1.9bn from about $3bn.

July 26 2004: IPO price range set at $108 to $135 a share.

April 29 2004: Announces IPO plans.

April 1 2004: Google announces a plan to take on Yahoo! and Microsoft with its own free email service.

February 2004: Stakes are raised as Yahoo says it is dropping Gooogle’s search engine in favour of its own search engine.

October 2003: The Financial Times reports in October that the company is considering an unusual auction system for a planned initial public offering.

2002: Google and AOL announce a search services and syndicated advertising agreement to provide results to AOL’s 34m members and visitors to AOL.com.

2001: The searches number rises to 100m per day. Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Novell and a former CTO at Sun Microsystems, joins Google as chairman of the board, and is later appointed chief executive as the co-founders Page and Brin become joint president.

2000: Google becomes the largest search engine on the web. By the end of the year, Google answers more than 60m searches per day.

1999: Google moves its headquarters to Mountain View, California and launches its destination site. The company performs 3m searches per day and has 39 employee.

1999: Google receives $25m in equity funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.

AOL/Netscape incorporates Google’s search technology into its Netcenter portal.

1998:The two founders start their own company with the encouragement of Yahoo! co-founder and fellow Stanford alumnus David Filo. Putting their studies on hold, Brin and Page raise $1m in funding from family, friends, and supporters to start Google. On September 7, 1998 Google is incorporated and moves to its first office in a friend’s Menlo Park, California garage with four employees. Google answers 10,000 search queries per day.

1996-1997: BackRub, the precursor to the Google search engine, is created.

1995: Sergey Brin and Larry Page meet at a gathering of Stanford University PhD computer science candidates. They later collaborate to develop technology that will become the foundation for the Google search engine.