“Doodle” means a scribble or a senseless picture. Google doodles are like postcards dedicated to landmark events. They include not only a beautiful design of the search engine homepage, but also contain animation or mini-games that can be tried out in the browser. A large team of artists and engineers create doodles.
Why Google doodles are created
They have no practical use. Sergey Brin and Larry Page created the first doodle as an unusual сue about their participation in the Burning Man festival.
When the next doodle was created in 2000, it was also accepted by the audience. Now it was dedicated to Bastille Day. During the time, log change/modification due to significant events became a tradition.
These elements have2 functions:
- entertaining – the main function of Google doodles. A funny logo allows keeping the mind off and relaxing in the middle of the workday;
- informational – a changed logo of the most popular search engine draws attention and more people become interested in why Google does this.
In general, doodles dispose of a good mood. For example, imagine that you’ve found a funny postcard for yourself from your boss at the workplace. Doodles have the same effect.
Frequency of doodle creation
There is no schedule for creating doodles. About 4000 doodles have been created. If the interval between the first and second one was 2 years, the logo has been changed regularly. Google does not miss any significant event.
Sometimes doodles are released every day, e.g., during the 2012 Olympic Games when the topic was mainly sports.
The interval between other doodles is a few days or weeks. This depends on the developers’ team that works on this task.
If we study the doodle archive, we can see that new doodles are released once a few days.
Topic
There are no strict requirements. Google makes its choice also considering the users’ opinion. There can be the following topics:
- significant historical events (e.g., the Independence Day or Bastille Day)
- significant dates for a certain country
- international holidays
- sports events
- celebrity birthdays
- game anniversaries (e.g, a game copy doodle was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man. Users could play the game in the browser.
Google is open for any offers for creating doodles. Please send your ideas to [email protected]. The team does not reply to e-mails as there are too many of them, but promise to consider all offers when creating the next logo.
Google doodle games
Here you can find the full list of doodles as Google keeps them all including games. Below you can find examples of some interesting games.
Tu Be’av Jewish holiday
This holiday is celebrated in July-August. Most traditions of celebrating it disappeared except the prohibition to say prayers for absolution on this day. Tu Be’av is called “the celebration of love,” so it is customary to rejoice on this day. Google decided to release a doodle dedicated to Tu Be’av.
The main character of this arcade is an armadillo who is heading to his girlfriend. He collects fruit and dodges obstacles on his way. There are some time limits for completed the levels. The user controls the character with the keyboard: movements with left and right arrows and jumps with the whitespace.
The invention of pH-monitoring by Danish biochemist Sørensen
Danish biochemist Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen is famous for inventing rules of pH monitoring. The term “pH” has been widely used since Sørensen released his works. Google created a doodle dedicated to this event.
The game is very simple, and it is impossible to lose. The player has to place 6 items by pH level (resemblance of the main achievement of the biochemist). If you place the item incorrectly, the scientist gives you a hint so you can make a mistake on purpose only.
Halloween 2016
In this game, you need to help the kitten overcome the ghosts by swiping in the shape of the symbols above their heads – and the enemy will be defeated!. At first, everything is very easy, but as you move on, there will be more enemies, and it will be harder to defeat them. The visual effects are on the ball, as for a doodle.
105th anniversary of Clara Rockmore
The doodle was released on March 9, 2019 – on the 105th anniversary of Clara Rockmore – US virtuoso and theremin player. The focus was made on her theremin skills. She was so talented that conductor Leopold Stokowski composed a concert for her and a symphonic orchestra.
The player can master the basic skills of playing the theremin and hear its unusual sound. This is easy – just follow the tracks displayed on the screen. It is impossible to lose here and the difficulty does not increase.
155th anniversary of PonyExpress
The doodle was released on April 14, 2015. It is dedicated to the first letter delivered by PonyExpress. Now, this logistics company is globally known. Its success story began in 1860 when the first parcel was delivered. Google decided to celebrate this date.
245th anniversary of Beethoven’s baptization
A mini-game dedicated to the 245th anniversary of the genius composer. The precise birthday of Beethoven is unknown, so Google chose the baptization day – the 17th of December. This doodle was released in 2015. It is focused on Beethoven’s evolving deafness that affected his musical career.
The user has to help Beethoven to restore the gone pieces by placing the fragments of music sheets in the right order. If s/he succeeds, s/he will hear an extract of one of the famous pieces.
114th anniversary of Eiji Tsuburaya
The doodle is dedicated to the famous Japanese visual effect director. Eiji Tsuburaya created visual effects for such movies as Godzilla and Ultraman series. He was an iconic figure for cinema, so on July 7, 2015, this mini-game appeared instead of the ordinary Google logo.
Roswell incident 66th anniversary
The doodle is dedicated to the incident that occurred in summer 1947 near Roswell. There are many versions that it was a UFO accident over the USA. In the 70s, this event was confabulated as there were no clear explanations of this event. The game was released on July 8, 2013.
The player shall help the alien who has suffered an accident to repair its spacecraft and continue his flight. This game is a classical quest – you need to collect items, interact with the environment. Some game moments are scary.
Qixi Festival
The doodle is dedicated to Chinese Qixi Festival. It was released on August 13, 2013. This holiday is a Chinese counterpart of Valentine’s Day. Qixi Festival was established as dignities of the legend about the love of shepherd Niulang and weaver Zhinü. They were separated by leaving on opposite river banks. Only once a year do magpies build a bridge so that they can rejoin.
Robert Moog’s 78th anniversary
This doodle was dedicated to Robert Moog’s 78th anniversary. He is famous due to inventing and developing the first synthesizer. New music genres emerged due to this device, and the doodle focuses on this. It was released on May 23, 2012.
This small game includes the synthesizer developed by Robert Moog’.It has 2 types of oscillators, different filters for working with sound. The player composes a melody by pressing the buttons. After this, its record can be listened to and shared in Google+ or by a link.
46th anniversary of Star Trek’s broadcast
This doodle was released on September 8, 2012. On this day in 1966, the first Star Track episode hit the screen. The series tells about the scientific-research mission of Enterprise spacecraft. Later the Universe was extended and augmented.
The game introduces the Enterprise crew. The player has to solve some tasks faced by the series characters. It is not an arcade but a very simple quest. The player needs to click on the interactive element with the cursor, and the characters will do everything themselves. Google letters are Star-Trek-styled.
Alan Turing’s 100th anniversary
This doodle was released on June 23, 2012. It is dedicated to Alan Turing’s 100th anniversary. He was an outstanding mathematician, cryptographer, and logician. Computer science is mainly based on his works. Alan was the founder of the first machine that can be considered the contemporary PC’s forefather. During the war, he showed outstanding abilities in the sphere of decryption of the enemy’s messages.
The game is based on logic. The player has to correct the cipher so that it would match the required one. S/he will see the cipher and the sequence of automatic steps and correct 2 figures.
Conclusion
Doodles do not harm. The design is performed so that the games and interactive elements would not distract the user from the working process. The information component is also very important.
Doodles are rather common now. Google regularly amuse its users. Although this element has appeared as a joke, currently, it is associated with the brand name.
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