Happy Birthday Google!
22 years ago today, a search engine was founded by two students called Larry Page and Sergey Brin. That search engine is in fact Google, which is now the worlds most popular search engine, ranking above the likes of Bing, Baidu and even Yahoo!
To celebrate Google’s 22nd Birthday, we’ve compiled our favourite 22 Google Doodles:
What Are Google Doodles?
As described by the search engine itself,
“Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.”
More than 4,000 unique Doodles have been created since 1998, with a team of illustrators or “Doodlers” and engineers behind the creations. Despite this, the very first Google Doodle was in fact “a bit of a joke”, and looked like this:
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216th Anniversary Of the First-Ever Parachute Jump
This Doodle was created in order to celebrate the 216th anniversary of the first ever parachute jump, performed by Jacque Garnerin in October 1797.
2. Erwin Schrodinger’s 126th Birthday
Using mathematical equations to “describe the likelihood of finding an electron in a certain position”, Erwin Schrodinger went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933 before becoming Director at Ireland’s Institute for Advanced Studies.
3. 30th Anniversary Of Pac Man
Originally named “Puck-Man” Pack Man turned 30 years old in 2010 and Google didn’t let the occasion go a miss. This Google Doodle enabled users to interact with a basic very of the game on Google’s Home Page.
4. 46th Anniversary of Star Trek
Google took the famous Star Trek line “Live Long and Prosper” quite literally, celebrating the films 46th anniversary in the most Google way possible; with a Google Doodle.
5. Earth Day 2013
In an attempt to help “save the planet” Google celebrates Earth Day with a new Doodle each year. Our favourite, however, is this one from 2013, showing us what the world could look like if we took care of the environment!
6. Canoe 2012 Summer Olympics
To celebrate the London 2012 Olympics, Google created a series of themed Doodles, including this one: The Canoe 2012 Summer Olympics. Users could paddle themselves down their way down the racing water, avoiding rocks and gliding through goals using the keyboard. Play here.
7. 150th Anniversary Of The London Tube
London Underground or the “tube” was the world’s very first electric railway deep underground, serving transport across England including in London, Buckinghamshire, Herfordshire and Essex. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Tube, Google created a very fitting map of the underground that spelt out the search engines name.
8. Happy Valentine’s Day From Google & Robert Indiana
Courtesy of the Morgan Art Foundation, Google rolled out this creative Doodle on Valentine’s Day in 2011.
9. The 42nd Anniversary Of Rio-Niterol Bridge Opening
Otherwise called the Presidente Costa e Silva Bridge, the Rio-Niterol Bridge is 9 miles long, connecting the city of Rio de Janeiro with Niteroi located on the east of Guanabara Bay. This Google Doodle celebrates two things: the 42nd anniversary of the bridge and that fact that it is the longest bridge in Latin America – and the world – to date!
10. Juno Reaches Jupiter
Google saluted NASA’s Juno Mission with a Google Doodle and Tweet on 5th July 2016.
Our #GoogleDoodle salutes @NASAJuno as it reaches Jupiter. Bravo, Juno! 👏🎉📷https://t.co/ohF7sOv1Vf pic.twitter.com/iArZFAtBzA
— Google (@Google) July 5, 2016
11. Celebrating The Studio For Electronic Music
Google celebrated The Studio for Electronic Music in Germany on 18th October 2017 with this fun, quirky Doodle recognising the three composers; Robert Beyer, Herbert Eimethe and Wener Meyer-Eppler.
12. Jules Verne’s 183rd Birthday
Famous for his novels “Around the World in Eighty Days” and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, Google celebrated Jules Verne’s 183rd birthday with a Doodle that captured a sense of exploration.
13. 100th Birthday Of Taro Okamoto
A Google Doodle specifically created for Japan showcases the creativity of Taro Okamoto, a Japanese artist famous for his abstract and “avant-garde paintings”.
14. 199th Anniversary Of The First Documented Ice Cream Sundae
We all scream for ice cream! Google celebrated the 199th anniversary of the FIRST documented ice cream sundae in April 2011 with this vintage 1950 design.
15. 20th Anniversary Of Wallace & Gromit
Google celebrated the second decade of Wallace and Gromit with a Doodle which showcases the two characters at the work bench. At the time, this particular Doodle was one of three Doodles to be created outside of the search engines HQ!
16. First Day Of School (2011)
Happy first day of school! Google marked the beginning of the new school year in 2011 with this creative pencil-sharpening design.
17. 25th Anniversary Of Tetris
Tile-matching puzzle video game Tetris received its very own Google Doodle in 2009 when it turned 25.
18. Freddie Mercury’s 65th Birthday
British singer-songwriter Freddie Mercury is a legend in Google’s eyes, celebrating his 65th birthday with a Doodle that could be seen around the world on 5th September 2012.
19. Agatha Christie’s 120th Birthday
Known for her 66 detective novels and short story collections, writer Agatha Christie’s 120th birthday was celebrated on 15th September 2010 with this Doodle:
20. 50th Anniversary Of The First Man In Space
Google honoured the historic Apollo 11 Mission with a space-themed Doodle on 20th July 2019, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing.
21. Google’s 21st Birthday
Of course, we couldn’t leave out Google’s very own 21st Birthday Doodle! 22 years ago on this day, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Larry Page published a paper about launching a prototype of a “large scale search engine”. 7,665 days later, Google is the most popular search engine with 70% of the search engine share.
22. New Year’s Day 2020
Google welcomed the new year with this Doodle and quote: “Wherever you are today, whether or not the skies are clear, we hope at least your vision for the year will be 20/20!”
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