Have you lost countless hours interacting with Google Doodles? I’m ashamed to admit the number of times I’ve actually forgotten what it was I wanted to search on Google, because I’ve become waylaid by a clever Doodle. Here’s our round-up of the best from the year to date.
Like most awesome ideas, the concept behind Google Doodle wasn’t so much planned, as it was an evolution. The first Google Doodle (above) was actually intended by Google founders Larry and Sergey as a comical “out of office” message to users, when the duo headed to the Burning Man Festival in 1998. The idea pretty much snowballed from there, to the brilliant Doodles we find on our search engine screens on days of significance (a very loose term when it comes to Google Doodles). This year we’ve been treated to some humdingers.
The Olympic Google Doodles from the past fortnight have been among some of the best of the year. Interactive and addictive, if they’ve taught me one thing, it’s that I’m athletically challenged, in both the real and virtual worlds.
Father’s and Mother’s Days around the world are celebrated at differing times, which means Google gets the chance to display several Doodles commemorating parents, and above and below are some of the examples from this year. At the top of the post is the rather sweet Doodle for Grandparents’ Day 2012.
Children’s Day is all about fun, so in celebration the doodlers at Google had a ball making their company’s logo virtually unreadable. Can you work out the letters in the image below?
Girls’ Day is a beautiful Japanese celebration, and in turn this year’s Google Doodle was equally stunning.
Our own Opera House was also given the Google treatment, to mark its eightieth birthday.
This year has marked significant birthday memorials for many literary giants of the past. Google honoured the two hundredth birthdays of British author and illustrator Edward Lear and writer Charles Dickens.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s easy to get lost in the interactive Google Doodles, like this recent edition – celebrating the birthday of inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, Dr Robert Moog.
Finally, we couldn’t go past this rather serene doodle, created in memory of Fredrich Frobel – a pioneer in early childhood education and creator of the first kindergarten. If you’re in the mood for some modern-day art appreciation, you can peruse the online museum of Google Doodles.
