doodle

The making of the World's Biggest Pac-Man game (Q&A)

When we think of Pac-Man, we think of a single screen, and a series of new mazes that become available only after players finish the one they're on.

But that's not how Ashley Ringrose and his colleagues at Sydney, Australia-based Soap Creative agency thought of the mega-hit 30-year-old video game. So when they were given a chance to design a promotion for the game that was both innovative and social, the lightbulb that went off over their heads was all about big.

Big, as in the World's Biggest Pac-Man game, in which fans are able to design … Read more

Drawing and doodling for kids

Doodle Buddy is a free, no-frills, ad-supported drawing and doodling app with playful stamps and backgrounds that will appeal to kids.

Doodle Buddy's "finger-painting" interface lets you draw with swipes and taps. A row of tappable icons on the bottom of the screen lets you undo your last action (multiple times), erase your current drawing (you can also shake your device to erase), and choose from several different tools: a drawing tool (brush, chalk, glitter, smudge, or eraser, all with adjustable sizes), a stamp (with dozens of built-in stamps, from animals to smileys to speech balloons, each … Read more

The Tramp takes over Google

First came a great search engine. Then a world-beating ad platform, a hugely popular e-mail service, a great news aggregator, and then a customized Pac-Man game. And now, meet Google's latest masterpiece, it's first--and maybe last--silent film.

To help commemorate Charlie Chaplin's 122nd birthday today, Google's Doodle team decided to go where it's never gone before, and offered up, as a replacement for the search giant's standard logo, its homage to the Tramp.

The short silent film that's gracing Google today was the brainchild of Ryan Germick, the Doodle team's creative lead, … Read more

Doodles come to Google Search for iPhone

At long last, Google's "doodles" are making their way to the Google Search for iPhone app. The topical, witty, and often whimsical takes on Google's logo appear globally and in selected countries to honor holidays and other historically important dates.

There isn't much official news from Google yet. CNET requested more information from Google after we noticed an update to the iTunes app store and updated the app on an iPhone 4.

In the meantime, you can peruse Google's doodles in reverse chronological order here.

Why is Google doodling about ice cream sundaes?

I had barely woken this morning when I discovered that someone had spilled last night's dessert all over my MacBook.

Looking a little more closely (it helped to open the eyes a little after a night on the petite sirah), I discovered that it was the Google logo that had been adorned with an ice cream sundae.

Rolling over in my bed--and then rolling over the logo--I discovered that Google was celebrating the 119th anniversary of the first documented ice cream sundae.

Somehow, this didn't seem the most obvious thing to be celebrating, though Google seems to believe … Read more

Google gets patent for its doodles (really)

I worry that our whole world is being systematically systematized.

The more our youngest and brightest minds offer their working souls to the Facebooks and Twitters of this firmament, the more they are asked to define every single human event and emotion by digits.

And yet I still found myself sensing a momentary twitch of the single gray hair between my eyebrows when I heard that Google had been awarded a patent for its doodles.

I suppose there will be some who will say: "But, of course! Google's doodles are unique works of art! Van Gogh would have … Read more

Feuding over Doodle-4-Google

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Doodle-4-Google gets the search giant into more privacy trouble because of the possibility of storing children's Social Security numbers

iPad 2 might get a launch date as early as next week

Amazon Prime customers get Instant Streaming video with over 5,000 titles

China launches an official government search engine with Panguso

Mint.com gets new "Get Out of Debt" tools

Yahoo! Video gets rid of user-generated content, so download your uploads before March 14th

Google doodles 20,000 leagues under the sea

I fancy that the only fun place to work at Google these days is the Doodle Department.

And today the members of this elite crew have created an homage to Jules Verne, whose 183rd birthday it would have been today, had he not, well, died in 1905.

Today's doodle has its own delightful Verneacular. You can toggle a little joystick thingy up and down, as you sink toward 20,000 leagues under the sea or rise from it.

Verne actually became a bit of a miseryguts after his nephew, who may not have been all there and ended up … Read more

New Google doodle rings in the holidays

Google has unveiled a new doodle on its home page today to serve up some interactive Christmas cheer.

Topping the company's home page for the next two-and-a-half days, the new doodle is more ambitious and challenging than past holiday doodles. Most of the Christmas doodles that have graced the site's home page over the past 12 years have been relatively simpler designs that tweaked the familiar Google logo. But the new doodle displays a collection of festive scenes created to suggest that logo in a rather abstract fashion.

At first glance, you may not see the Google logo … Read more