A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Googles homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The idea of decorating the company logo to celebrate notable events was born in 1998 when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. The first Google Doodle was relatively simple, but two years later, in 2000, Larry and Sergey asked current webmaster Dennis Hwang to produce a doodle for Bastille Day, which was so well-received that Dennis was appointed Googles chief doodler and doodles started showing up more and more regularly on the Google homepage.

Today, Google Doodles are created by a team of illustrators, engineers, and artists called "Doodlers". They have published over 4,000 doodles for Googles homepages around the world, often featuring guest artists, musicians, and personalities. Some doodles are interactive and notable, such as the one celebrating Pac-Man, which was the first interactive doodle. The doodle selection process aims to celebrate interesting events and anniversaries that reflect Googles values.

Google also holds competitions for school students to create their own Google doodles, called "Doodle for Google". The contest is an annual art contest open to students in grades K-12, and students are invited to create their own Google Doodle for a chance to display their own Doodle creativity on Google.com and win some awesome prizes while doing it.