Burning Man to PAC-MAN, a look at Google’s top doodles over 20 years

The Burning Man doodle was added to Google’s homepage in 1998, even before the company was incorporated. Since then doodles have been part of the homepage of the search engine, reveals the post. In fact, the Burning Man doodle was the “out of office” message for users from Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, reveals the blog.

First Google doodle series in 2000

The first Doodle series was in May 2000, when Google had the Google Aliens. These five Doodles were drawn by illustrator Ian David Marsden, and according to the blog, “this series was just for the LOLs,” and not to celebrate anything as such.

First international Google Doodle

The year 2000 was also the first time Google had an first international doodle, in this case to commemorate Bastille Day. The post also reveals that the doodle “was so well received” that Dennis Hwang, who had made the Doodle and was an intern at the firm, ending up getting appointed as Google’s first Chief Doodler. Since then, Doodles started appearing regularly on the Google homepage and the company has done many international doodles.

First animated Doodle

The first animated Google was in 2000 for Halloween by guest artist Lorie Loeb, according to the blog. It has a two jack-o-lanterns in place of the “O’s” in Google, and was punctuated by a scary spider dangling from the “L,” in keeping with the Halloween spirit.

First interactive game Doodle

This came in 2010, when Google decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary of PAC-MAN, on its homepage. The Doodle included the original game logic, graphics, sounds, and even the original bugs. It was built by Marcin Wichary, a designer/engineer.

Google’s PAC-MAN Doodle was the first interactive game to be part of the Doodle.

First live-action Doodle

This came in 2011, when Google celebrated Charlie Chaplin’s 122nd birthday on its homepage. The blogpost says that, “in order to stay as close to Chaplin’s original films as possible, it was recorded in Niles, California on the same set where many of his silent movies were filmed.”

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First Doodle slideshow

This was done in 2012 to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. This Doodle was inspired by the comics, and let the reader go through the story at their own pace. The Doodle told the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but in a more modern, comic book style format.

First organic Doodle

This was for Earth Day 2012 where some dedicated Doodlers rigged a camera to the roof of the building and actually grew an organic, colourful Google logo, which was then placed on the homepage.

Also Read: Google’s 20th Birthday: A doodle that walks down memory lane

First Doodle with a narrated poem

This was to celebrate Maya Angelou’s 90th Birthday, in 2018. It had celebrities like Alicia Keys, Martina McBride, and Oprah Winfrey narrate her iconic poem ‘Still I rise.’

The First VR/360 Doodle

This was also in 2018, when Google celebrated the life and works of French illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. The Doodle sets his character and his adventures in a virtual film set.

Most people featured in a Doodle

For International Women’s Day 2014, the Doodle had more than 100 women from all over the world feature in a video.

You can go to the Google Doodle blog post and check out all major doodles for the last 20 years. Google is also running another Doodle 4 Google competition on its website, and aspiring doodlers have one week to submit their entries.