Sixteen years ago today, Google was born in a now legendary Palo Alto, CA, garage. In honor of the tech-iversary, we've compiled 30 of our favorite Google doodles.
A way to celebrate the birthdays of pop culture legends and national milestones, the Google Doodle is a nod to the playful side of the company via a day-long redesign of its corporate logo on the site's homepage. The Google Doodle concept started while the search giant was still in its infancy and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin added a stick figure to the logo [1] as a way of saying they were out of the office attending Burning Man in the Nevada desert. Over 1,000 doodles have appeared on Google homepages in the US and abroad in the years since.
A team of Google designers work on the doodles, but they are open to receiving suggestions and doodles themselves from the public. Click on for some major inspiration!
August 10, 2012
Interactive Olympics soccer game [3]
May 9, 2011
76th birthday of Roger Hargreaves [4]
September 8, 2012
46th anniversary of Star Trek's first broadcast [5]
June 9, 2011
Les Paul's 96th birthday music-making doodle [6]
August 6, 2011
Lucille Ball's 100th birthday [7]
June 6, 2012
79th anniversary of the first drive-in movie [8]
March 6, 2011
Will Eisner's 94th birthday [9]
June 2, 2012
Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee [10]
July 24, 2012
Amelia Earhart's 115th birthday [11]
June 5, 2011
Richard Scarry's birthday [12]
April 12, 2011
50th anniversary of first man in space [13]
August 15, 2012
Julia Child's 100th birthday [14]
September 5, 2011
Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday video and doodles [15]
April 29, 2011
The wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton [16] (appeared in select countries)
March 8, 2013
International Women's Day [17]
Argentina vs. Switzerland
Source: Google [18]
Streets of Rio
"Inspiration from the streets of Rio straight to the homepage."
Source: Google [19]
Soccer at the Beach
Source: Google [20]
Chile vs. Brazil
"Viva Chile and Brazil — may the best team win!"
Source: Google [21]
Talking to Reporters
Source: Google [22]
US vs. Germany
"May the best team win in today's USA vs. Germany showdown!"
Source: Google [23]
Japan vs. Colombia
"Japanese tech fans come up against a Colombian vulture!"
Source: Google [24]
France vs. Nigeria
"The ground staff are ready for France vs. Nigeria!"
Source: Google [25]
Dance Party
"The World Cup opening ceremony was so inspiring — and what an unbeleafable coincidence — our next doodle has a dancing tree person too. Congrats Brazil!
Want to keep dancing? Here's an alternate version [26]."
Source: Google [27]
Mexico vs. Cameroon
"We were so startled by the luchador in this doodle, we got the Cameroon flag wrong on the first go! #realTimeDoodleProblems
Well played, Mexico!"
Source: Google [28]
Spain vs. Netherlands
"Fans of Spain and Netherlands go head to head!"
Source: Google [29]
Chile vs. Australia
"Every match has winners and losers, but, in the end, it's the dance off amongst fans that really matters."
Source: Google [30]
Fútbol Practice
"Practice make perfect — that's why you'll see our letters working on their skills from time to time. Looks easy? You try bouncing a ball on your head in an infinite loop!"
Source: Google [31]
Uruguay vs. Costa Rica
"The only thing more stressful than launching real time doodles is coaching a team in the World Cup. Follow the Uruguay vs Costa Rica game's story through the Doodle [32]."
Source: Google [33]
England vs. Italy
"Join us for the rumble in the jungle! England v Italy."
Source: Google [34]
World Cup Meets Father's Day
"Having a ball with my dad on Father's Day [35]!"
Source: Google [36]
Brazilian Way of Life
"Enjoy your Sunday with some Samba and an agua de coco!"
Source: Google [37]
Germany vs. Portugal
Source: Google [38]
The Wave
"The football/soccer craze is making waves for . . . just about everyone."
Source: Google [39]
US vs. Ghana
"USA and Ghanaian eagles go beak to beak. What an eggcellent game."
Source: Google [40]
Paul the Octopus
"Here we have an artist's rendition of the late Paul the Octopus — perhaps the most famous of all psychic cephalopods — trying to choose the winner in the World Cup match from that big aquarium in the sky. Who will it be?? Only Paul knows."
Source: Google [41]