Google Runs The Hurdles With New Doodle

Google is remarkably good at knowing exactly what I want. For example: all I want to do right now is not work. Luckily, there’s a great reason to avoid responsibility right on Google’s front page.

The search engine’s graphic today is of the Olympic hurdles, and it actually allows users to run the event by frantically hitting the left and right arrows to move forward and the space bar to leap over the hurdles. Three runs in, I am still positively awful at it, but I’m also having fun (and not working), which I think is the point. You can give the game a try right here

Beyond being fun on its own, this hurdles game is a pretty good indication of why I love the Olympics so much. With hundreds of channels, millions of websites and plenty to do, it’s so hard for everyone to get on the same page anymore. Apart from the Super Bowl, there really aren’t very many things almost everyone watches. The Olympics are one of them. I love being able to talk about them with random people, and I love signing onto Google and knowing the front page will be some kind of Olympics-related graphic. We need more togetherness.

Right now, however, all I need is faster fingers and better eye-hand coordination to beat twenty seconds. Somewhere out there, I’m sure there’s a twelve-year-old who has already beaten ten seconds, but for the time being, I’ll focus on my own goals.