One of the best surprises you can find when opening your Google browser is the Google Doodle, more commonly known as “those fun games that look like the Google logo.” Each year, roughly 400 Google Doodles are released, with 50-100 being animated and around 12 being fully interactive. With so many ingrained into the internet, it’s fun to step back and look at the evolution of the Google Doodles, starting in 1998.
1998
The first Google Doodle was released in 1998, created by Google’s founder, Larry Page. Page created this little doodle with little thought of the legacy it would leave behind. He created it with the intention of using it as an “out of office” message when he attended the Burning Man festival. Something I would never have thought to correlate with the founder of a business as large as Google.
2000
In the year 2000, the first Google Doodle series was created featuring a small band of aliens. Throughout the five-part series, the aliens were rearranged to show them slowly abducting the Google Logo. The last part of the series showed the logo placed, bizarrely, on the moon. Google series are now a staple in the Google Doodle franchise, with its most popular being the Magic Cat Academy saga and the Moon phases series.
2009
The early 2000s were a busy year for the artist at Google, for they also released the first of many Halloween Doodles. Later, seasonal Doodles became a Google staple that users look forward to. Most famously, Google created the first animated Doodle featuring soft swaying vines.
2010
Only a year later, the first Google Doodle game was released to the public, one that would later become iconic: Pac-Man. Taking their own spin on the classic arcade game, the Google logo was transformed into a neon path for the player to lead Pac-Man through, with hopes of getting the highest score possible.
2011
With the first game gaining popularity, the first videos were created. The three videos were meant to be happy birthday messages to Charlie Chaplin, Freddie Mercury, and Lucille Ball. These videos always included one live-action one using the Google staff in both a comedic and engaging manner.
2011-2021
The most drastic change from the original Google Doodle has to be the Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence Doodles. Surprisingly, Google’s AI Doodle was later nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Original Interactive Program category. This futuristic twist on the once simple Google Doodle is both welcome and surprising. By keeping the constant flow of simple designers, browser users stayed hooked no matter the magnitude.
Overall, Google Doodles have come a long way from the original “out-of-office message.” While they’ve changed, they’ve also kept their original charm, creating a nostalgic yet modern feel. After such technological advancements, it’s exciting to wonder where Google Doodles will take us next.
