Google Doodles: The First of Many Firsts
On August 19, 2004, Google Inc made its trading debut in the public market. 11 years later, it has much to celebrate
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Can you imagine a life without Google?
Picture if you dare a world where you must flip through pages and pages of inventories and dictionaries, visit actual physical libraries, do it all yourselves – just to source out a nugget of information. THAT’s the black hole that our lives would resemble were it not for the masterpiece that we revere – Google.
Now that we’ve established that life without Google is pretty unimaginable, jump to the Google tab immediately. What’s the first thing you see?
That’s right – that delightful, colourful thing called the Google doodle.
Designed differently on different days – all to capture the one event of the day that Google deems noteworthy – the Google doodle is today officially 11 years old.
To mark the birthday of the beloved doodle, therefore, let’s take a look at some of the ‘firsts’ of many first Google doodles.
30 Aug,1998: First Ever Google Doodle
Believe it or not, the first Google doodle ever was a pretty ‘spur-of-the-moment’ idea. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page designed a logo that showed the ‘Burning Man’ – meant to symbolise the Burning Man Festival in 1998. The Burning Man Festival is an alternate festival in the US that celebrates self-expression. What the founders had actually meant to convey to early Google users was that they’d gone to the festival and were hence ‘out of office’!
31 Oct, 1999: First Halloween Doodle
The very next year Google came up with its first Halloween doodle – with the iconic pumpkin embedded in its logo. It was widely appreciated by a lot of Google users.
1 Jan, 2000: First Happy New Year Doodle
In the year 2000, Google designed the first ever ‘Happy New Year’ doodle. In the years to come, Google would only get better and better at creating these.
14 February, 2000: First Valentine’s Day Doodle
How could Google fail to map the pulse of the world – particularly if that pulse was love? It designed its very first Valentine’s Day doodle in the year 2000. The two plump hearts and the image of Cupid with his arrow truly kept love in the air!
22 April, 2001: First Earth Day Doodle
In the year 2001, Google jumped on to the eco-friendly bandwagon by designing its first ‘Earth Day’ doodle. The doodle, quite predictably, had two delightful earth-shaped O’s. Google has made it an annual ritual to mark this day ever since.
27 Oct, 2008: First Diwali Doodle
Indian Google users will really appreciate this. In the year 2008, Google dedicated its first ever doodle to the Indian festival of Diwali. The double O’s were replaced by star-shaped firecrackers – and a new yearly tradition was born.
15 August, 2003: First Indian Independence Day Doodle
Google first marked India’s Independence Day in the year 2003 by dedicating a doodle to it. The Ashoka Chakra and the Indian flag adorned the doodle. Ever since then, Independence Day Google doodles have been ones to watch out for – ranging from a peacock to Gandhi’s Dandi March.
21 May, 2010: First Interactive Doodle
Interactive doodles are a common sight now on Google, but did you know that the first of its kind was unveiled in 2010 on the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man? Google users could actually play Pac-Man on the Google logo that featured the letters ‘G-O-O-G-L-E’ on the Pac-Man maze. The usual ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button was replaced with an ‘Insert Coin’ button!
14 August, 2011: First Pakistan Independence Day Doodle
On the occasion of Pakistan’s 65th Independence Day, Google changed the colour of its logo to green. Ever since then, they have been marking this day with a dedicated doodle.
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