Google's Interactive Doodle for Jules Verne's Birthday

Google's doodles are now a playground for creating small web apps. Static images are just the starting point for interactive apps that automatically load when you visit Google's homepage. Pac-Man, Isaac Newton, John Lennon and the particles doodle are some of the interactive doodles that surprised many Google users.

Yesterday's doodle celebrated Jules Verne's birthday and managed to use some clever animations without being annoying. "[The] doodle, celebrating Verne's 183rd birthday, tries to capture that sense of adventure and exploration. Using CSS3 (and with help from our resident tech wizards Marcin Wichary and Kris Hom), the doodle enables anyone to navigate the Nautilus (nearly) 20,000 leagues with the simple pull of a lever. And for those using devices with built-in accelerometers and the latest versions of Google Chrome or Firefox, it's even simpler — just tilt your device in the direction you want to explore and the Nautilus will follow," explained Google.

If you missed the doodle, you can now see a bigger version of the mini-app. It's a good opportunity to check if you have a fast browser and to use the "zoom out" feature of your browser.

{ via Google's Twitter account }