More than just a doodle

How does Google come up with their homepage doodles and why are we so taken by them?

www.google.com logs approximately 2 billion searches daily and as a frequent user of this search engine, I for one appreciate the fact that this valuable web space is not cluttered with advertisements for Viagra or supposed lottery winnings.
It is a welcome relief to be greeted by not only a distraction-free webpage but one that often keeps me guessing.
Let’s be honest… how many of you can say you have never directed a co-worker to a newly discovered Google Doodle especially when it’s been interactive. Hands up if you were persuaded to shoot a few hoops or navigate a slalom canoe through an obstacle course during the Olympics.
Doodles are the fun, surprising and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists.
How did the idea for doodles originate?
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 second  "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 Dennis was appointed Google's chief doodler, and doodles started showing up more and more regularly on the Google homepage. In the beginning, the doodles mostly celebrated familiar holidays; nowadays, they highlight a wide array of events and anniversaries from the birthday of John James Audubon to the Ice Cream Sundae.
Over time, the demand for doodles has risen in the US and internationally. Creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented illustrators and engineers.