Play Google Guitar
👇 Scroll down to start the experience!
Quick Facts
Play the Google logo in this interactive guitar Doodle — a tribute to Les Paul.
2011-06-09
Restored
(Discontinued by Google)
Try the Easter Egg
The Original Easter Egg
How It Started
Google released the Guitar Doodle on June 9, 2011, to celebrate what would have been Les Paul's 96th birthday. For one day, the homepage logo became a small stringed instrument in Google's colors.
Les Paul helped shape the sound of the electric guitar, so the tribute chose the friendliest possible stage: a logo anyone could strum right in the browser.
What It Did
You could brush across the strings with a mouse, tap them on a screen, or use the keyboard to play single notes. The doodle also included a tiny recorder, so a short riff could be saved, played back, and shared as a tune link.
That recorder allowed clips up to 30 seconds. The little screen on the logo showed recording and playback states, making the whole thing feel like a pocket instrument hiding inside the homepage.
Impact and Reach
Launch coverage highlighted the instrument because it handed people a tiny instrument and invited them to make something. Google later noted that people in the United States recorded about 40 million songs in the first 48 hours.
That scale of use kept the Doodle in roundups and retrospectives long after the one-day window ended.
Its Discontinuation
The homepage run ended after its one-day Doodle window, while Google's archive page for Les Paul's 96th Birthday remains available. The catch is that the old interactive build no longer behaves reliably in modern browsers.
Because the original sound path belonged to the Flash era, Adobe Flash Player's January 12, 2021 content block also ended the old way of playing it. The full original environment can no longer be experienced as it once worked.
The Restored Experience
What’s Different Here
This restored version keeps the logo guitar, mouse and touch strumming, keyboard notes, recording state, replay, and shareable tune link. It is still a playful Les Paul tribute first, with the Google logo doing the singing.
The main difference is practical: this page replaces the broken old sound path with a modern browser-friendly one, so the instrument can still be played on desktop and mobile screens.
The Easter Egg Experience
Click the button above to start jamming! The guitar appears instantly — pluck the strings with your mouse or use the keyboard for precise notes. Hit Record to capture up to 30 seconds and play it back. Make a melody and share it just like back in 2011!
How to Try It
- Click the button above to enter the restored Guitar Doodle.
- Strum the strings with your mouse or finger, or press letter and number keys to play notes.
- Use the round recorder control on the logo to start and stop a short recording.
- Click the playback icon on the little screen to hear your riff again.
- Copy the tune link from the logo screen when you want to share the melody.
The search box on this page can also act like a simple song strip. Type a string of letters or numbers, click Google Search, and the page plays those characters as notes. The lucky button drops in a ready-made tune when you want a quick starting melody.
Final Thoughts
The Google Guitar Doodle is a warm tribute to Les Paul told through interactivity. While the old build lives in the internet’s museum, this restoration keeps it playable today. Write your melody, then explore our other revived doodles where art and tech meet!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What’s the story behind the Google Guitar?
The Google Guitar Doodle honors Les Paul — the musician-inventor who helped shape modern music with the solid-body electric guitar, multitrack recording, and tape delay. It cleverly turned the Google logo into a playable instrument.
You can strum the strings with your mouse or play notes with your keyboard, record 30-second snippets, and even try preset tunes. It’s a playful example of Google’s tradition of engaging tributes to cultural icons.
How do you play the Google Guitar?
It’s easy to jump in: click the strings or use your keyboard — each key corresponds to a note. Drag across the strings to strum fuller chords. Tap the Record button to capture your performance for playback and sharing. Mix key combinations to discover fresh melodies!
What kind of songs can you play on the Google Guitar?
Anything you can pick out by ear — from simple nursery rhymes to catchy film themes. Fans often try “Happy Birthday,” “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” or iconic movie motifs. Search for community note guides or just experiment and write your own tunes — the fun is in exploring!
