GoogleDoodle
Latest
Google's Halloween game puts a ghoulish twist on 'Slither.io'
Head on over to Google.com today and you'll be able to play an interactive doodle game to mark Halloween. Great Ghoul Duel is a team multiplayer showdown set in a haunted house that sees two squads of neon ghosts munching "spirit flames". Each little light you eat gets added to your tail, with players snatching them from one another en route to depositing them in their respective zones for points. The team with the highest score at the end wins.
Google's best Doodles of the last 20 years
It's hard to believe Google is about to turn 20 years old. And while the company has changed drastically in the past two decades, going from being a simple search engine to a global tech titan, there's one thing that's been there from the very first day: the homepage Doodle. Since 1998, Google has kept its site looking fresh by creating different variations of its logo, inspired by cultural icons, events and phenomenons such as Pac-Man, the birth of hip-hop and more. More than 2,000 Doodles have adorned Google's homepage, each with a unique charm. But there are some that have stood out from the rest and will forever be embedded in people's memories. Let's take a look at the best and most important Google Doodles from the past 20 years.
Google's first VR Doodle honors filmmaker Georges Méliès
Visit the Google home page today (May 3rd) and you'll find an unusual Doodle of a stick-thin man with a pristine suit. Click and you'll be presented with a YouTube player that brings the quirky figure -- French filmmaker Georges Méliès -- and his creations to life in a wonderfully animated 360-degree short. Google is calling it a VR Doodle, which it is, sort of. Back to the Moon will be part of the Spotlight Stories app, which works with Cardboard and Daydream headsets. It will also be available for high-end VR headsets, such as the HTC Vive, through Steam and Viveport.
Google Doodle honors the first modern recording studio
Google is celebrating the 66th anniversary of what's considered the first modern recording studio with a Doodle. Back in 1951, a group of composers founded the Studio for Electronic Music as part of the West German Broadcasting radio. It was ran by and hosted a multitude of forward-thinking musicians at the time, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, an electronic music pioneer and one of the most important composers of the 20th-21st centuries.
Google unwraps 19 past Doodle games for its 19th birthday
Google is no stranger to celebrations. In the past, the festivities have brought new features for Google Photos, and Google Earth, and a montage (with a Rickrolling twist) for YouTube's tenth anniversary. Today, the party is coming to its Doodle. To mark 19 years of company history, the latest Google Doodle packs 19 surprises from the past. You'll be able to play a bunch of games, including tic-tac-toe, piñata, and cricket. And access awesome interactive Doodles from the archives, including the lauded DJ and music composition tools launched earlier this year. There's even a Snake easter egg lurking in the mix, which offers a colorful take on the mobile gaming classic that's every bit as addictive. Simply spin the wheel to start playing. And, if you don't like the result, spin again.
Today's Google Doodle teaches you to scratch and mix on turntables
Google's doodles are an outlet for the company's playful urges. And, even though they've become all too common, the redesigns still manage to pack the odd surprise. Take today's offering, which resembles New York's iconic street graffiti. But, that's not all, click the pulsing play icon at its centre, and the logo transforms into an interactive turntable. Now, you can play DJ, spinning a bunch of records that were instrumental to the creation of hip-hop. An accompanying video tutorial boasts narration from graffiti artist and TV presenter Fab 5 Freddy.
Today's Google Doodle lets you compose your own music
If you're looking to lose half an hour in service of making your own music, head on over to Google and click on today's doodle. The company is celebrating the 117th birthday of Oskar Fischinger, the German-born artist and filmmaker who created geometric animations using paper and card. As Google's Leon Hong explains, Fischinger's work left him "awed and puzzled," making him wonder "how could he make such magic without computers?"
Google sneaks Olympic-themed minigames into its mobile app
The 2016 Rio Olympics officially kicks off today with the opening ceremony, and Google's already got the fever. In addition to peppering search results with easy-access schedules, stats, highlights and other pertinent info, big G wants to indulge our competitive sides, too. The 2016 Doodle FruitGames is a collection of seven colorful tap-and-tilt titles playable within the Google app for Android and iOS until August 21st, when the Olympics draw to a close.
Your kid's Google Doodle can win them a $30K scholarship
If you frequent the Google home page (and really who doesn't), you're familiar with Google Doodles; the search giant's series of art based on the company's logo that commemorates a date or person. Now it's opening up its homepage to one lucky kid. Beginning today, its annual "Doodle 4 Google" competition is accepting entries from US students K-12 for the chance to win a $30,000 scholarship. The theme is, "What makes me...me." Future college graduates can use any material they want and are encouraged to use a medium to showcases their uniqueness. The winning design will be featured on the site for one day. Entries must be submitted by December 7, 2015. So if you want to make a huge dent in your future college tuition, it's a good idea to get those creative juices flowing.
Google's Venn diagram doodle is where logic and whimsy intersect
Venn diagrams are a high-school math rite of passage, teaching us (to hate) the logical relations between sets. Google has now honored their creator, John Venn, with his own interactive Google Doodle. Mountain View said it was going for "sound logic and silliness" by letting you pick between five objects in two sets to see what they have in common. For instance, the relationship between "Transport" and "Thrives in Cold" as shown above is "Zamboni," the ice-rink vehicle honored in a previous Doodle. You can try the other 24 possibilities yourself today at Google.com, or check some of the better Doodles from the past here.
Google Search: A visual history
"To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." That was one of the primary goals Larry Page and Sergey Brin set when they launched Google in 1998 as a privately owned search company. Since then, the Mountain View-based outfit has branched out, creating a mobile operating system, mapping service, cloud-based productivity apps, branded devices and, now, smart thermostats. All of those offshoots, however, always point back to the company's original aim: search. That baseline service is something Google's been making refinements to ever since its inception. A practice that continues to this day, with the company constantly improving upon the usability and design of its search-based offerings. This means cleaning up a UI when needed, and launching new features that serve up that much-lauded universal accessibility in short order. What may come across as a small box centered in a vast expanse of white is, as you'll see, actually something that's constantly evolved since '98.
2014 Doodle 4 Google encourages kids to share ideas on how to make the world better
Google is one of a few companies that loves being involved in all kinds of different projects, one of which is Doodle 4 Google. In 2013, through the initiative, the Mountain View-based company challenged kids to shoot for the stars and describe their best day -- the results, to say the least, were quite creative and heartwarming. This year's version of Doodle 4 Google takes on a whole new theme: "If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place..." On its blog, the Chrome maker says the idea is to have "young artists think and dream big," adding that this is all about "curiosity, possibility and imagination." Submissions are being accepted as we speak and will have to be in by March 20th; as was the case last year, the winner will be receiving a $30,000 college scholarship and $50,000 Google for Education tech grant for the triumphant kid's school. Even better, the chosen Doodle is set to be featured on the almighty Google.com page. The 50 finalists, one from each US state, are going to be revealed on April 29th, after which Google will let the public decide which creation should take the highest honors and be crowned 2014 Doodle 4 Google champ. If you're interested in getting your little ones involved, then head over to this link here -- details on how to participate can be found there.
Google Doodle lauds computer programming pioneer Grace Hopper
If you're wondering what's up with today's Google Doodle, it's honoring Grace Hopper, the mathematician who pioneered the use of English-like programming languages. Prior to her work, computers were considered to be glorified calculators and were programmed with binary machine code, which kept the field limited to specialists. After working on computer tech used on the Manhattan Project during World War II, she developed the A-O system for the UNIVAC 1 in 1951, which is considered to be the first-ever computer compiler. That eventually formed the basis for COBOL, the first widely used English-like compiler that laid the foundation for most computer languages today. Hopper did further research for the Navy until the age of 79 (when she retired with the rank of rear admiral) and worked for DEC until she passed away in 1992 at the age of 85. As you can see in the video after the break, most of us should be so sharp now as she was at 80 with David Letterman.
Doctor Who's 50-year anniversary gets a playable Google Doodle
Celebrating 11 regenerations over 50 years, today's Doodle (or Whoodle?) is a downright charming mini-game based on everyone's favorite Sonic Screwdriver owner. While you'll get to start with your favorite incarnation of The Doctor, meeting an untimely end from a Dalek or Cyberman will mean restarting the level as a different curiously dressed Time Lord. Bite the dust once too often and you'll eventually have to continue playing as, ugh, Peter Davison. Give us your best times below -- our current record is 12:59.
Quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger gets Google Doodle, is definitely dead
Erwin Schrödinger, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who bent our minds with his quantum mechanics theories, is being celebrated today with a Google Doodle. He's perhaps best known for his "Schrödinger's Cat" thought experiment involving a feline that's both alive and dead until its box is opened. Though it had nothing to do with his famous wave equations describing the energy levels of atoms, he used the metaphor to criticize an interpretation of quantum mechanics that was becoming popular at the time. It helped prove that a quantum system could exist in two states at once until measured, and he took pains to point out it was reductio ad absurdum and unrelated to cat murder. The creatures have enough to worry about, after all.
Roswell incident's 66th birthday celebrated with interactive Google Doodle
Depending on your point of view, today's either the 66th anniversary of an Air Force experiment gone awry or an alien landing. With tongue firmly in its cheek, Google is celebrating the Roswell incident, the most (in)famous of alien encounters with one of its interactive doodles, in which you help an extra terrestrial rebuild his spaceship after it breaks apart in New Mexico. Once you've done that, you can then kick back with an X-Files box set or two -- assuming you're not into the adventures of doe-eyed alien teenage romance.
Happy 540th Birthday, Copernicus, have a Google Doodle
It may be obvious now, but when Heliocentrism was cooked up by Nicolaus Copernicus, he was branded a heretic. The idea that the Earth orbited the Sun, conceived without the aid of any equipment, would only be proved half a century later, when Galileo built a telescope and pointed it heavenward. Fortunately, ol' Nick's contribution hasn't been forgotten, and so today's Google Doodle shows the planets all gently orbiting our nearest star.
Google Now shows Google Doodles for art-loving Android users
Google Now holds a place for artwork, but it hasn't had much visual variety outside of major cities -- there's only so many times you can see a generic mountain landscape before boredom sets in. To our (admittedly mild) relief, Google has quietly spiced up the area for certain users. At least some of us running Jelly Bean now see an optimized version of the latest Google Doodle while we're busy dictating a search. Not everyone who's technically capable is seeing the Doodle at this stage, so don't be disheartened if there's still a generic backdrop. If the daily image becomes more ubiquitous, though, we'll have an extra reason to come back to Google Now for more than just weather or sports scores.
Google Doodle celebrates Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer
Today's Google Doogle celebrates the 197th birthday of Ada Lovelace, the pioneering mathematician who is regarded as the world's first computer programmer. Responsible for the first algorithm designed for Babbage's Difference Engine, even if the machine wasn't built in her lifetime, she envisaged a future where computers could create music and images. Every October, a day of celebration is held in her honor, designed to raise awareness for women's achievement in the fields of science and technology. If you'd like to know more about her story, head on over to Google and click on her portrait.
Google pays tribute to Star Trek with latest doodle, red shirts still can't catch a break
Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor not a Google logo.
