Google celebrates the Olympics with a bunch of cartoon fruit games
Let the Fruit Games begin.
Over the years, Google has done many different style Google Doodles to recognize the Olympic games. In their own stylized way, these daily drawings and animations usually celebrate the specific sports and, more broadly, the athletes and countries competing in them.
For the 2016 Rio Olympics, though, Google is starting with something very different.
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Appearing on the Google search page early Friday, the doodle, which coincides with the Olympics' opening ceremonies in Rio, Brazil, features a minute-long YouTube video in which animated fruits from, according to Google, a fruit stand in Rio, compete in Olympic-style sports like marathons, spider-riding, water polo, bicycle racing and golf (welcome back!). Instead of gold, the fruit are competing for "freshest fruit" (groan).
The video is entertaining enough, but it's actually there to promote a new game that Google built right inside its Google app on Android and iOS. You may have to update your Google App to find it under the Google logo in the app.
Google will be reporting on its Fruit Games for the next two weeks while you get to play along in the app. The app features seven different competitions, including a running game where you are a strawberry trying to outrun a watermelon. You have to scroll from side to side to pick up boosters and stay ahead of it. There's also a swimming game where you tilt your phone back and force to avoid floating ice cubes (yes, this makes sense in the context of the game). For each game of skill, you get an overall time in and up to three stars. You can replay or share your score at the end of each game.
It's unclear if this is the only thing the Google Doodle will be doing, or if the Doodle will, over the next two weeks, also feature some humans competing in the actual Olympic games. In the meantime, have fun competing with your fruit.
Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
