What today's coffee related Google doodle means and how Google decides on its doodles

Coffee addicts, raise your hands.

Most of us in the industry survive the late nights and early mornings with the help of our trusty cup of coffee. Celebrating the inventor of the espresso machine today is Google who created a special doodle of Angelo Moriondo.

The artwork for the Google Doodle was done up completely with coffee, and features a GIF depicting the espresso machine. The doodle is seen in many parts of the world, including Singapore. The Italian inventor was born into a family of entrepreneurs and invented the espresso machine to help consumers get their coffees in a shorter span of time – compared to the five minutes they then had to wait.

Meanwhile Google describes its doodles as fun, surprising and sometimes spontaneous. Google often comes up with doodles to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.

According to Google, in 1998, before the company was even incorporated, the concept of the doodle was born when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. They placed a stick figure drawing behind the 2nd "o" in the word, Google, and the revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were "out of office.". While the first doodle was relatively simple, the idea of decorating the company logo to celebrate notable events was born.

Two years later in 2000, Larry and Sergey asked current webmaster Dennis Hwang, an intern at the time, to produce a doodle for Bastille Day. It was so well received by our users that Hwang was appointed Google's chief doodler and doodles started showing up more and more regularly on the Google homepage.

Over time, the demand for doodles has risen in popularity. At Google, creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented illlustrators. The team has created over 5000 doodles for its homepages around the world.

Last November, Google launched an animated Doodle on 4 November to celebrate Charles K Kao. The day would have been the 88th birthday of the father of fibre optics which connects everyone today via the internet. 

Kao was the latest person to have a Google Doodle which was often used to celebrate local culture and holidays, such as Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New Year, as well as remembers legendary figures, including martial artist and actor Bruce Lee, Chinese opera singer Yam Kim-fai, and singer Teresa Teng.

Google said thanks to Kao's contribution, the world is now more connected: "Being an educator himself, Kao's dedication to science inspired many young minds. Kao once said, ‘Ideas do not always come in a flash, but by diligent trial-and-error experiments that take time and thought’.

"As we help Hong Kong become a smarter digital city, we look forward to collaborating with local talents and partners on new ideas and innovations," said Michael Yue, general manager, sales and operations of Google Hong Kong.