What was Google’s first doodle, displayed on August 30, 1998, celebrating?

Google’s first doodle, displayed on August 30, 1998, celebrated the Burning Man festival. Larry Page and Sergey Brin added the design to the Google homepage while attending the event in Nevada.

The doodle showed a simple stick figure behind the company’s logo. Its original purpose was partly practical: it signaled that the founders were away from the office and might be unavailable if the company’s servers experienced problems.

Google later turned doodles into a regular way of marking holidays, anniversaries, scientific discoveries, artists and notable people. Some doodles remain static illustrations, while others have become interactive games, animations and educational experiences.

The first doodle is often confused with Google’s later anniversary logos or with the company’s changing logo designs. It was not a new corporate logo or a permanent redesign. It was a temporary homepage decoration tied specifically to Burning Man, a recurring event known for art installations and the symbolic burning of a large wooden figure.