Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete meaning or may just be abstract shapes. Some popular kinds of doodles include cartoon versions of teachers or companions in a school, famous TV or comic characters, invented fictional beings, landscapes, geometric shapes and patterns, textures, banners with legends, and animations made by drawing a scene sequence in various pages of a book or notebook.

Google has had many logos since its renaming from BackRub. The company also includes various modifications and/or humorous features, such as cartoon modifications of their logo for use on holidays, birthdays of famous people, and major events. These special logos, some designed by Dennis Hwang, have become known as Google Doodles.


The first Google Doodle was created in honor of the Burning Man Festival of 1998. The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. Subsequent Google Doodles were designed by an outside contractor, until Larry and Sergey asked then-intern Dennis Hwang to design a logo for Bastille Day in 2000. Hwang has been designing the Google Doodles ever since.