25 years ago, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were attending the Burning Man festival and decided to add a whimsical stick figure to the second “O” in the Google logo to indicate their out-of-office status to employees. The first Google Doodle was born then, on August 30, 1998. But it wasn’t until two years later that the Doodles became a mainstay of the Google logo and a way to celebrate impactful people, historical events, important dates, and other cultural gems like pizzas and bubble teas.
Today, 25 years later, I can’t imagine how boring the web would be if we didn’t have the delightful little moments of discovery each time a new Doodle pops up on the Google Search page. Is it a static image or a video? Maybe an animation? Or is it interactive? Or could it be a full-fledged game? It’s safe to say we’ve seen so many excellent Doodles over the years.