Have you heard of Google Doodle games? Google Doodles are back. Retro is in! Old hobbies, sewing, baking — you name it. Some of our favorite and the most popular Google Doodles are making a comeback too and we have the scoop of how you can play along.
Google Doodles
The search giant has long used its homepage to share fun facts (like “on this day” history lessons) as well as mini games. These fun Google Doodle (and sometimes educational) games are perfect boredom busters for parents and kids alike.
History of Google Doodles
Can you believe that the idea of Google Doodles came BEFORE Google was even incorporated?
The concept of the doodle was born when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. They placed a stick figure drawing behind the 2nd “o” in the word, Google, and the revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were “out of office.”. While the first doodle was relatively simple, the idea of decorating the company logo to celebrate notable events was born. —Google
Two years later in 2000, Dennis Hwang who was on an internship at Google was appointed as “Google’s chief doodler” and the doodles became more regular.
Which Google Doodles Will They Feature?
Google kicked off the throwback series last April with the perfect mini game to teach kids the basics of coding.
“Coding for Carrots” was originally launched in 2017 during Computer Science Education Week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of kids coding using Logo.
Coding for Carrots Google Doodles Game
Logo was the first-ever coding language specifically designed for kids to use. The game is super kid-friendly too.
The goal of “Coding for Carrots” is to guide a rabbit across a series of blocks, collecting carrots along the way.
Users guide them by creating simple command combinations.
It’s simple, but fun, and a great way of introducing kids to coding. If your kids enjoy it, check out Scratch, which is another programming language designed with kids in mind.
You can find and play Coding for Carrots on Google Doodles.
As for the rest of the featured Google Doodles? Only time will tell!
Based on their website, they’ll be rolling out one a day for 10 days total, perhaps in part because some of the mini games can be played in multiplayer mode. Speaking of interactive Google Doodles…
Interactive Google Doodles You Can Play
Google has an archive of all the interactive doodle games they have featured. What I like about it is you can see where in the world it was featured and on what date.
Interactive Mother Duck Google Doodle
For instance, on Mother’s Day 2019, there is an interactive Google doodle for Indonesia (screenshot above) where you can change the actions of the mother duck and the little ducklings by pressing the different buttons.
It is quite mesmerizing! You can play it here.
Interactive Rubik’s Cube Google Doodle
Another one of my favorite interactive Google Doodle games was published back on May 19, 2014 and was an interactive Rubik’s cube. You can use key shortcuts to solve the cube.
Play it here.
Featured Google Doodles
Another type of Google Doodle is the featured Google Doodles. The screenshot above shows the featured celebration of 200th Anniversary of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. You can use the arrows on either side of the image to go forward or back through an image story.
See the featured Google Doodle.
This Day in History Google Doodles
OK, I admit it, I love to look back and see if I remember any of the doodles that were featured on this day. You can find these by visiting the Google Doodles section and looking for “this day in history” which is on the front page and often when you open another page, it appears below the section you clicked on.
Find it here.
How To Access the Featured Google Doodle
Every featured Google Doodle will appear on Google’s home page. Simply click on the “logo” above the search bar, learn about the featured game, and start playing. I thought it would be fun to show some of the favorites other people have…
Top 10 Best Google Doodle Game Video
Some of the games that were featured last year again:
- Google Doodle Cricket game, which originally launched to celebrate the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. (Just be forewarned, it can be highly addictive… in other words, it’ll help you pass the time!)
- Other popular favorites that have a chance of being featured include Pac-Man, Rubik’s Cube, Pony Express, and the bingo-like Loteria game.
- But if your favorite past Google Doodle game isn’t being featured, have no fear. You and your kids can still access them through the Google Doodle archives.
Which Google Doodle are you hoping to see and play?
More Games from Kids Activities Blog
Which Google Doodle game is your favorite?
