A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepage

that is intended to celebrate holidays, events, achievements and people. The first Google Doodle was in honor of the Burning Man Festival of 1998, and was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. Subsequent Google Doodles were designed by an outside contractor, until Page and Brin asked intern Dennis Hwang to design a logo for Bastille Day in 2000. From that point onward, Doodles have been organized and published by a team of employees termed "Doodlers".
On September 13, 2007, Google posted a doodle honoring author Roald Dahl on the anniversary of his birth. This date also happened to coincide with the first day of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and Google was immediately criticized by some groups for this decision due to the fact that Dahl was anti-Israel. 

Google removed the Doodle by 2:00 p.m. that day, and there remains no evidence of its existence in Google's official Doodle archive to this date. Google was also criticized for not featuring versions of the Google logo for American patriotic holidays such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day. That year, Google featured a logo commemorating Veterans Day.

On May 19, 2016, Google honored Yuri Kochiyama, an Asian American activist, with a Doodle on its main U.S. homepage. This choice was criticized due to some of Kochiyama's controversial opinions, such as an admiration for Osama bin Laden and Mao Zedong. U.S. Senator Pat Toomey called for a public apology from Google. Google did not respond to any criticism, nor did they alter the presentation of the Doodle on their homepage or on the Doodle's dedicated page.