Google quietly invented these 3 programming languages, and one powers Docker and Kubernetes

Published Oct 15, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT Ever since he got his first smartphone, the legendary Nokia 6600, back in 2005, Goran became obsessed with technology. This obsession had only gotten worse after he received his first gaming PC a couple of months later. He fell in love with video games in the early '90s, shortly after embarking on his gaming journey with the Sega Master System II and SNES. Since then, he has built dozens of PCs, played thousands of games, and authored hundreds of articles about PC hardware, gaming hardware, and video games. He knows everything there is to know about the PC gaming and PC hardware space, and while his console gaming knowledge isn't as comprehensive, he considers himself a console veteran. Goran has almost a decade of experience writing about tech and video games for numerous web publications including TechSpot, TechPowerUp, and EsportsHeadlines. He has been writing for How-To Geek since December 2022. When he isn't gaming or deciding which component of his PC to upgrade next, you can find him strolling around Novi Sad while listening to music and contemplating what to play next. Google is one of the biggest software companies out there, best known for Google Search, Android, and its internet ad business. But engineers at Google didn’t only create a bunch of products. They also created tools used to build some of those products in the form of full-fledged programming languages. The company has at least 10 programming languages under its belt, with the three below leading the pack in importance. Go (Golang) The language behind Docker and Kubernetes Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek Go, also known as Golang, was born at Google in 2007. The main reason why Google’s engineers (Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson, one of the co-creators of Unix) started building it was the complexity of the older languages Google used to create its massive-scale projects. Unlike the languages Google’s engineers previously used, such as C++, Go is simple to read and write, which is important when you build a large project where many people cooperate. Go also compiles very quickly, so developers spend less time waiting on their code. Another important feature of the language is that it’s designed to run many tasks at once, which is a must since the servers running Go-based products constantly handle tons of requests. Google officially announced Go in late 2009, with the 1.0 version shipping in early 2012. The language took off relatively quickly due to its speed, reliability, small and simple syntax, and features such as goroutines that make running many tasks at once not only simple but also cheap. At one point, Go climbed to number 7 on the TIOBE index (a major index of the most popular programming languages), and as of this writing, it sits at a respectable 11th place. That’s not surprising, considering that some major projects use Go. Docker, used by developers and in homelabs across the world, is arguably the most famous software written in Go. Kubernetes, which manages containers like the ones Docker creates, is also written in Go. Google still uses Go for its in-house projects as well. For example, if you’ve ever downloaded Chrome, it came from a server written in Go. Go is also used in parts of Google Cloud, and it’s by far the most popular language developed by Google. Dart The would-be JavaScript killer that found a second life with Flutter Credit: Bobby Jack | How-To Geek Google had lofty goals for Dart. The language started as a project that aimed to “ultimately replace JavaScript as the lingua franca of web development on the open web platform,” but the popularity of JavaScript and the fact that most of the web relies on it prevented Dart from taking over, despite JavaScript’s many flaws. Anyway, Dart was reportedly known as Dash before a leaked Google email spilled the beans about the project. The language was officially unveiled in late 2011, with the 1.0 version shipping in late 2013. As I’ve said, its initial goal was too ambitious. Google planned to build a Dart VM (virtual machine) into Chrome, but critics argued it would fragment the web, and the company dropped the plan in 2015. From then on, Google focused on converting Dart code to JavaScript so it could run in any browser. Despite never succeeding in its original goal, Dart is still alive and kicking. In fact, the latest TIOBE index ranks it at a solid 27th place, which is mostly thanks to Flutter. Google’s popular app-building framework runs on Dart, and its most important feature lets developers write an app once and then release it on any major platform, including Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, macOS, and the web. Aside from Flutter, Google also used Dart to rebuild its AdWords interface (now Google Ads) in 2016, which still uses it a decade later. Carbon An experimental language with the lofty goal of succeeding C++ While Dart didn’t manage to topple JavaScript, Google still has big plans for its homegrown programming languages. Its newest brainchild, dubbed Carbon, is developed by a team led by Google engineer Chandler Carruth, with the ultimate goal of Carbon replacing C++. If Dart’s goal was lofty, Carbon’s is shooting through the stratosphere, since C++ is one of the most widely used languages in the world, powering everything from the web browser you’re reading this piece on to your favorite video games. Still, the inherent flaws of C++, such as the fact that it’s very hard to modernize and that its infamous memory-related bugs can be exploited, make Carbon’s goal more than just a pipe dream. Couple that with Carbon being able to coexist with C++, allowing developers to gradually switch to Carbon while still using C++, and Google’s latest language could be a more practical way to replace C++ than Rust, which doesn’t work nearly as seamlessly with existing C++ code. With all that said, Carbon is still in early development, so don’t expect to use it for real projects anytime soon, unless you work at Google, since the company is already testing it in some internal pilot programs. I still decided to include it because if it takes off, Carbon could usher in a new programming era, allowing developers to move on from C++ after using it for more than 40 years. That is, if we don’t all become vibe coders by the time Carbon's ready to ship. There are a number of smaller Google languages you’ve probably never heard of Google’s big three programming languages are just a drop in the bucket when it comes to languages developed by the company. Google has also developed a bunch of smaller ones, used to solve specific problems engineers at Google regularly run into. For example, you’ve got Starlark, a kind of Python “dialect” used to configure Bazel, Google’s software building and testing tool. Then there’s Jsonnet, whose goal is to make writing configuration files easier. And CEL (Common Expression Language) is a tiny and simple language for writing rules, such as security policies, designed to always run quickly. Google also invented some languages that didn’t make it, such as Simple, a beginner-friendly language that would allow inexperienced developers to build Android apps. It was quietly abandoned, and a year later, Google launched App Inventor, a drag-and-drop tool with the same goal, before handing it over to MIT in 2011.