Halloween Google Doodle
October 31, 2013 1:13 AM   Subscribe

Google's Doodle is a fun Halloween themed game. Add different combinations of ingredients into the witch's cauldron for some spooky surprises.

In 1998, before the company 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.

Two years later in 2000, Larry and Sergey asked current webmaster Dennis Hwang, an intern at the time, to produce a doodle for Bastille Day. It was so well received by our users that Dennis was appointed Google's chief doodler and doodles started showing up more and more regularly on the Google homepage. In the beginning, the doodles mostly celebrated familiar holidays; nowadays, they highlight a wide array of events and anniversaries from the Birthday of John James Audubon to the Ice Cream Sundae.

Over time, the demand for doodles has risen in the U.S. and internationally. Creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented illlustrators (we call them doodlers) and engineers. For them, creating doodles has become a group effort to enliven the Google homepage and bring smiles to the faces of Google users around the world.
posted by JujuB (19 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
For people in countries where it's not showing up, you can see it on the Google UK site.
posted by taz at 1:41 AM on October 31, 2013


This link should be permanent.
posted by markr at 2:55 AM on October 31, 2013


This year's Halloween Google Doodle already leaked :(
posted by samworm at 3:53 AM on October 31, 2013


How do I add candies and lollipops?
posted by Going To Maine at 6:20 AM on October 31, 2013


Witch's bwew?
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:29 AM on October 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


Here's the link for Jehova's Witnesses.

Also, apparently Bing made an effort as well.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 6:30 AM on October 31, 2013 [3 favorites]


Maybe I am just devoid of whimsy, but I can never get excited about these. Even the ones that generate buzz seem to be about as clever as a 1997 Blue Mountain Arts e-card.
posted by apparently at 6:46 AM on October 31, 2013 [6 favorites]


Haha, well put. I think these are the kind of thing where the more effort is put in, and the more focus they get, the less delight they engender. Hmm. Probably also caused by Google no longer feeling like a friendly company.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 6:48 AM on October 31, 2013


The 10th Regiment of Foot: Also, apparently Bing made an effort as well.

You can share a link to Bing, and the auto-share text is "enter if you dare" ... not sure if that's the way to win people over to your search engine, even on Halloween.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:52 AM on October 31, 2013


I rather like the Bing one. Still not gonna use Bing though.
posted by Kitteh at 6:55 AM on October 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


They go all out for Halloween while giving Christmas and Easter short shrift, doodle-wise. I love it.
posted by Renoroc at 7:04 AM on October 31, 2013 [2 favorites]


Ooh. Bing's is excellent!

I have to use Bing from time to time for work, and the homepage images are usually pretty cool. Not enough to make me switch from the big G, but at any rate it beats Yahoo.
posted by Gordafarin at 7:25 AM on October 31, 2013


I'm picturing the resumes.
  • 2008-2104 Doodler-in-Chief, Google Inc.
  • 2000-2008 Google Doodler, Google Inc.
  • 1998-2000 Google Doodle Noodler, Google Inc.
posted by Western Infidels at 7:25 AM on October 31, 2013 [2 favorites]


Any kind volunteers to post a link to the Bing one in countries that can't see it? (I'm assuming you're not all impressed by the picture of tree roots that I get)
posted by genuinely curious at 9:01 AM on October 31, 2013


I'm confused. When I click on the doodle, it just takes me to search results for Halloween witch.

It may be your browser; someone else can probably explain it better but HTML 5 and/ or Javascript are used in the interactive doodles. Deciding which technologies to use and which to leave out in Google Doodles is discussed here.
posted by TedW at 9:29 AM on October 31, 2013


Six-legged spiders? Scary! I do miss AltaVista's doodles, where the spiders had 5,486,053,212,359,411 legs.
posted by jetsetsc at 10:27 AM on October 31, 2013


Western Infidels: I'm picturing the resumes.
* 2008-2104 Doodler-in-Chief, Google Inc.


What, becoming Doodler-in-Chief conveys effective immortality? Now that would be spooky...
posted by RedOrGreen at 12:01 PM on October 31, 2013


Nobody took note that one of the items to choose to put in the witch's brew is an APPLE? Which led me back to notice that the spell BOOK on the intro scene has a couple of FACES on it... Any other industry Easter Halloween Eggs in there? An owl that goes YA-WHO? A broken WINDOW? A bell that goes BING-bong? A FOX on FIRE? Any bats that turn into TWITTER birds?
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:04 PM on October 31, 2013


becoming Doodler-in-Chief conveys effective immortality?

I wouldn't rule out anything that could be in development on the Google Mystery Barge...
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:08 PM on October 31, 2013


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