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 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!
The wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton (appeared in select countries)
"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." Source: Google
"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
"Every match has winners and losers, but, in the end, it's the dance off amongst fans that really matters." Source: Google
"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
"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." Source: Google
"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