Google's homepage is one of the most visited web page on the internet.
With a plain white background, a Google logo, a search bar with some links and buttons, the web page is designed purposefully to emphasize a search engine. On the web, Google preserves simplicity to highlight speed and a clutterless experience.
But despite the boring looks, Google manages to entertain by having Doodles.
These special, temporary alterations of the Google logo are intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures.
The first Google Doodle was made in 1998, to honor the long-running Burning Man event on Nevada. It was designed by Google's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin themselves, to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed.
Since then, Google has hired numerous illustrators, engineers, and artists to design Google Doodles. These people are called "Doodlers."
Doodles can be interactive, just like games. Whenever one is present, it can make visiting Google.com a unique experience.
In 2020, the world is brought to its knees by the novel 'COVID-19' pandemic.
With people urged to stay at home and practice social distancing, things can be pretty boring indeed. Among the reasons, starting April 26, 2020, Google is bringing back interactive games as Doodles from its archives.
The first game in its series is the Coding for Carrots, a Doodle released in 2017 to celebrate 50 years of kids coding.
The game that was developed in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Scratch platform requires players to help a rabbit collect carrots by connecting blocks of computer code together.
The coding game is one of 10 games Google is rolling out as part of the series.
Other classic games available as a Google Doodle include Pac-Man, a game of cricket in honor of the ICC 2017 Cricket Women's World Cup, and an interactive Rubik's Cube.
On the announcement on its Doodle web page, Google said that:
In the weeks before, Google has created some Doodles to thank all doctors and medical staffs who have been at the frontline during this pandemic.
The series were called "Thank You: Coronavirus helpers", shown for two weeks to highlight those who are risking themselves to fight the COVID-19.
They are the heroes who work to make sure that people can get cured, and help essential services to continued uninterrupted.
In the moment scientists are trying to figure out a way to really kill the virus, the rest for the world should live in isolation or quarantined.
And here, Google decided to bring back those old Doodles to help kill the boredom