The Captivating Creativity Of Google Doodles

Essentially the portal to the rest of the internet, Google has seen plenty of change over time. From the omission of the exclamation point at the end of its title to its recent font change, we’ve seen the website grow quite a bit over its eighteen year history. And one change in particular that has developed greatly over time while being the first thing many people see as soon as they boot up their computer is Google Doodles, the creative remixes of the the website’s logo.

Strangely enough, the very first iteration of a Google Doodle was in celebration of Burning Man all the way back in 1998. The doodle was used as a way of subtly letting fans of the website know the founders would be at the festival. Little did they know it would grow into such an online phenomenon.

11111The wonder of Google Doodles is not only in its celebration of different events, but its creative ways of sharing information. The doodles have celebrated everything from Grandparents Day to PopEye creator E.C. Segar’s birthday. However, these celebrations aren’t always relegated to still images and remixes of their iconic logo. For Day Of The Dead 2014, the site premiered a wonderful animated video as their Google Doodle, further raising the bar for their creative series of logos.  

But besides marking historical events and holidays, Google Doodles have become ahead of the curve in interactivity. A great example of this is the “2016 Doodle Fruit Games”, a series of minigames celebrating the Rio Olympics.

And that was hardly the first time Google Doodles have experimented with interactivity, For legendary guitar designer Les Paul’s 96th birthday, Google celebrated by combining his classic guitar model with their logo, creating an interactive hybrid people could use to strum and even record their own music. And people definitely took advantage of that ability, with over 5 years of music recorded in just two days.

333However, one of the most memorable interactive Google Doodles also had one of the most far-reaching consequences. On May 21, 2010, Google premiered its PacMan 30th anniversary doodle, with a fully functioning version of the game included in its own logo. Sounds fun, right? Well, naturally, a lot of people were visiting the page from work computers. And that may or may not have resulted in $120 million in lost productivity.

For a huge website such as Google, putting in the extra work to incorporate these creative logo designs adds a simple level of charm to a huge company. The extra charisma of Google Doodles is just one of the many reasons the site is the number one most visited website in the world. And for most of us, it’s the first site we see as we get our day started. So why not start the day right with a Doctor Who 50th Anniversary game?

Picture of By Anthony Elio

By Anthony Elio

Anthony Elio is the Assistant Editor for Innovation & Tech Today. Outside of writing, he is a drummer, podcast host, sandwich enthusiast, and amateur self-describer.

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