Stanford University students Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded the now all pervading search engine Google in 1998. Specializing in thinking out of the box, they toyed with the idea of creating an interesting logo. Brin created a logo using computerized versions of the letters. Ruth Kedar is the one who created the now famous logo with its color scheme. Three earlier versions were rejected before the present one was adopted.
The first doodle was born out of the founders’ desire to attend the famed “Burning Man Festival”. The burning man was incorporated into the second ‘o’ of the Google logo.
This was so well received that the dauntless duo decided they would have another go at it for Thanksgiving (The two ‘o’s were replaced with jack ’o lanterns), contrary to popular belief that a logo should not be played about with. They hired professionals from outside to design doodles commemorating national festivals.
Dennis Hwang, an intern designed a logo for Bastille Day in 2000. Needless to say that became a huge hit, and Hwang was appointed chief doodler.
The search engine’s doodles are just as popular as itself today. As Google grew, so did their doodles popularity. Now there are doodles to commemorate people, sporting events like the Olympics, important events, highlight cultural trends, Google’s achievements, to celebrate birthdays of artists, scientists and other famous people, in additions to festivals.
Searching on Google is now a fun activity for most people. In fact there are many times I have opened the Google homepage just to see if any new doodle had been deployed. And I’m sure many of you must have done the same.
Some of the most famous doodles:
- Beginning of Spring
- Albert Einstein’s birthday
- 50th anniversary of DNA knowledge
- Birth anniversary of Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel
- Asterix & Obelix doodle
- Tribute to John Lennon
- Sesame Street doodle
- Freddie Mercury (animated, with music)
- 4th of July doodle with the letters in stars and stripes
- Mars Rover landing
Interactive Doodles
The doodle team has designed over 300 doodles for the US market; over 700 international designs were also created. Users can also send their doodle ideas to proposals@google.com. All requests are scrutinized carefully; so who knows? You might get lucky and your doodle may be the next one to be displayed!
The doodles represent the company’s love for constant innovation, and a reminder that you can have fun even when you are engaged in serious work.
Visit Official Google Doodle website to get Images and story behind the every Doodle.
This is a guest post by Ron Schiff of xfinityonline, a site that offers savings and current information on xfinitytv.
