I think google doesn't have info about page dates prior to 2001. I think the actual date must be 1999 as linked by the parent post.

http://www.google.co.in/search?q=www.google.com&hl=en...

PS: I'm the one who should apologize.

Yeah. Here is the archive history for linked guidelines in the rediff article - http://wayback.archive.org/web/20060815000000*/http://www.do... Dates back to 2000 at least. So must be from 1999

Is the policy still applicable if it doesn't seem to be updated?