Event · Advertising and business
Red Hat, the first commercial customer
In 1999, before AdWords existed, Google's business model was licensing its search technology to other sites. Red Hat, the Linux distributor, was its first commercial customer, drawn in part by the fact that Google ran its servers on Linux.
There is no official image with documented origin for this record yet. The museum prefers showing no image to using one of uncertain origin.
1999
Red Hat, first commercial search customer
Event · Advertising and business · Concluded
What the sources say
Historical captures
No archived capture has been located for this record yet.
Sources
- Google History (copy of the old corporate history page) — Google, republished on Google Groups (enewz). Source secondary · accessed November 2, 2026 · look for a copy on the Internet Archive
Text attributed to the old corporate page; the original Wayback capture still needs to be located. - Google, Inc. History — FundingUniverse (International Directory of Company Histories). Source secondary · accessed November 2, 2026 · look for a copy on the Internet Archive
What still needs documenting
- Contract date and terms
- Red Hat or Google announcement of the deal
On GD
GD has followed Google since 2006. Search GD for “Red Hat” (in Portuguese)
How to cite
"Red Hat, the first commercial customer", Google Museum (GD), https://gd.eurisko.com.br/museu/en/collection/red-hat-primeiro-cliente-1999/, CC BY 4.0. Reviewed on November 2, 2026.
ID: red-hat-primeiro-cliente-1999 · Reviewed on November 2, 2026