On our 25th birthday, we wanted to celebrate our users and what they love. Our goal was to drive a deeper emotional connection with users around the globe (especially Gen Z, who have grown up with us) by making the campaign unmissable across Google’s most visible channels, including Google’s biggest stage: our very own Google Doodle.

Our idea was to create an epic Doodle experience where people all over the world could participate in a scavenger hunt to find dozens of most searched things, from Pikachu to Leonardo da Vinci. We called it the Most Searched Playground.

With such an enormous range of options for potential "most searched" elements to highlight, we wanted to strike the right balance, providing enough representative items across various categories to give the game sufficient range and variety for all types of users, without introducing too many elements so as to make the game hard to complete.

Given it was Google's 25th anniversary, we landed on 25 as the final number of searchable elements. These were organized into 5 categories: Music, Arts & Science, Games, Culture, and Travel.

Beyond the 25 official searchable items, the illustration is packed full of famous memes, cultural moments, nostalgia, and hidden easter eggs.

Our target audience was GenPop with a focus on connecting with GenZ.

Every year, Google’s Year in Search looks back on the search trends of a single year. This year, we used social listening to build a “passion index” that allowed us to identify the fandoms and figures who would drive the most social conversation. This became the starting point for our deep dive through 25 years of Google Search Trends. We dug into every corner of popular culture, from cricket to K-pop, from Pokémon to historic icons, identifying the Most Searched people, facts and moments within these fandoms.

Though we were targeting fandoms, we also wanted to create an experience that everyone would enjoy. Our internal creative teams worked closely with an illustration agency to ensure we were building an inclusive interactive world that was reflective of the last 25 years.

Our internal creative teams worked closely with an agency to ensure we were building an inclusive interactive world that was reflective of the last 25 years.

We also worked to ensure the game would be accessible and fun for everyone to play. For people with screen readers, we customized the game’s alt text and created unique sound clues that triggered as you navigated closer to hidden moments. We also developed custom technology that would handle the loading of the illustration so people could visit from any device and enjoy finding their favorite most searched icons.

And for the most Easter egg–obsessed fandom in the world, Swifties, we created an extra special experience in honor of the most searched songwriter. By working together to assemble a series of clues hidden inside the Doodle, Taylor Swift fans were able to unlock a private website with exclusive most searched content made just for them.

The Most Searched Playground immersed people in a world of beloved most searched icons and gave them an opportunity to have some fun, garnering 123 years of cumulative engagement time and over 85 million most searched objects found.

The Most Searched Playground immersed people in a world of beloved memes, moments, and icons, garnering 123 years of cumulative engagement time and over 85 million most searched objects found.

An impressive 24+ million users joined in on the fun, dedicating an average of two and a half minutes to the experience, while nearly 2 million people found all 25 objects. Notably, more than half of all users were from outside the United States, which speaks to the worldwide appeal of the playground and the most searched concept.

Meanwhile, the game within the game – the Taylor Swift Easter egg hunt – tapped into Swifties’ insatiable curiosity. All over the world, Taylor Swift fans lit up the internet, posting about the Easter eggs hidden in the Doodle, and 150K+ fans found all 10 Taylor Swift Easter eggs (one for each of her albums).