Throughout Google’s 25-year history, the Google Doodle has grown into an iconic and beloved way for the search engine to celebrate holidays, historical moments, or notable figures.
A Google Doodle is a themed illustration or artwork that temporarily replaces the Google search logo on the search engine’s homepage. Over time, the doodles have been elevated from simplistic drawings to elaborate artworks or even interactive games that both inform and entertain the billions of people who use Google across the world.
In the past, the Google Doodle has marked events like Pi Day, the 30th anniversary of the world wide web’s creation, the 136th birthday of author Virginia Woolf, and even Google’s own birthday (September 27, 1998).
The Google Doodle is also known for drawing attention to more obscure figures and events: It has celebrated days like the 96th birthday of David Warren, who invented the black boxes used in aircraft; the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Moscow Metro, and the 121st anniversary of the publication of the first Japanese railway timetable.
Google typically sticks to historical figures or events for its doodles. Although Google Doodles sometimes appear for celebrations rooted in a particular religion, like Holi, Tu B’Av, or Valentine’s Day, the company eschews including religious symbols in those illustrations. This official policy means you won’t see designs for major holidays like Easter or Kwanzaa.
If Google Doodles aren’t your thing, you may be out of luck. Google Doodles can’t be removed, hidden, or disabled. You’ll just have to wait until the next day when it reverts to the standard Google logo.
Here’s what to know about where the iconic Google Doodles come from, how to make one, and how they’ve changed over the years:
What was the first Google Doodle?
The very first Google Doodle was created by Google’s founders in 1998. The illustration served as an out-of-office message for Larry Page and Sergey Brin to denote that they were attending the Burning Man festival.
But over the years, the Google Doodle has evolved to be more than just a simple logo and transformed to be interactive and fun.
How to make a Google Doodle
As part of Google’s computer science education offerings, Google offers a short tutorial on how users can program their very own Google Doodles.
But if you’re a student between kindergarten and grade 12, Google holds a Doodle for Google contest for students to create their own Google Doodle artwork and submit it for a chance to win awards, scholarships, and Google hardware and swag. The winner gets to have their artwork featured on Google’s homepage for 24 hours.
To enter the student competition, create your artwork out of any materials you like (Google even accepts pieces made from “crayons, clay, to found objects”) and write an artist’s statement. You can submit your Google Doodle by mail or upload it as a jpg or png file.
The 2023 Doodle for Google winner was Rebecca Wu, a sixth grader from Washington DC. Rebecca’s Doodle, “My Sweetest Memories,” ended up on the Google homepage and reflected her gratitude for her sisters and the memories they’ve created together.
Rebecca Wu/Google
What is a Google Doodle game?
Google has occasionally included interactive games in its Google Doodles. Some like Snake, have been simplistic classics. But others are elaborate and complex.
For instance, Google Doodle chose to commemorate the fictional time traveler Dr. Who by celebrating the 50th anniversary of the TV series.
The Doctor Who Google Doodle launched in 2013 worldwide and featured an interactive game that was notoriously difficult to complete.
Google has come a long way, and now has over a dozen interactive Google games from past doodles that you can play. From Pac Man to Rubik’s Cube, here are our top 10 Google Doodle Games:
- Pac Man
- Snake
- Dr. Who
- Garden Gnomes
- Scoville
- Quick, Draw!
- Halloween
- Fischinger
- Pony Express
- Cricket
To find and play these games, simply search them up in Google.
Quick tip: Google archives old Doodle games on its dedicated Google Doodle page. You can browse the Google Doodle archive anytime to find old games and doodles. There’s even a tool to enter your birthday and see the doodles Google has published on that day in past years.