A garage? Has Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) finally lost it?

Not really. You see, when Larry Page and Sergey Brin built Google, they rented out a garage (the company was incorporated on September 7, 1998). It was about 1,900 square feet – and, of course, ultimately turned into a $125 billion empire.

It's something that happens with some frequency in Silicon Valley. For example, in 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started their legendary company from a modest garage (Hewlett-Packard Company, NYSE:HPQ, now owns it).

As for the Google garage, it is based in Menlo Park and will now become a Silicon Valley landmark of sorts. Oh, there is even a hot tub on the property. But, apparently, the co-founders did work tirelessly on their search engine.

On the Google corporate site, you can get some info on the early history.

The office offered several big advantages, including a washer and dryer and a hot tub. It also provided a parking space for the first employee hired by the new company: Craig Silverstein, now Google's director of technology.

Already Google.com, still in beta, was answering 10,000 search queries each day.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.