27 September, 2017
This is What's Trending Today.
If you have an account with Google and have added your birthday to your profile, you will get a greeting from the internet company on your special day.
But on Wednesday, Google users around the world received a special gift on the company's 19th birthday.
Internet users who went to Google.com were greeted with a special Google "doodle."
Google offers "doodles" – fun drawings and games – to celebrate events and anniversaries all year long. One of the most popular doodles this year celebrated a world cricket tournament. Google users could play cricket – with crickets and snails as the teams – when they visited the search page.
Lots of people wasted time at work that day playing cricket.
In honor of the company's 19th birthday, the doodle featured a spinning wheel. When the wheel stopped spinning, users could play one of 19 games from past Google doodles.
In one of the doodles, the user gets to hit a piñata with a stick. Each time the piñata gets hit, candy spills out. That game celebrated Google's 15th birthday.
Another doodle is Google's version of the classic video game, Pac-Man. All you have to do to play that game anytime is search for "Pac-Man."
There is also tic-tac-toe and a Valentine's Day game featuring an endangered animal called a pangolin.
And just in time for the coming holiday of Halloween, one of the doodles brings back last year's October celebration. Players control a small black cat who is trying to save his magic school from a lot of scary ghosts.
Google was one of the top trending searches of the day, along with "Pac-Man."
Nate Bargatze is a comedian. He used Twitter to wish Google a happy birthday, writing: "Happy Birthday, Google! I had to Google it to find out it was today."
Google started 19 years ago when two Stanford University students decided to start a business that would search for information on the World Wide Web. Google is now part of Alphabet. The American company is one of the most valuable technology companies in the world.
And that's What's Trending Today.
I'm Dan Friedell.
Dan Friedell adapted this story for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.
What is your favorite Google doodle game? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on testbig.com.
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Words in This Story
account – n. an arrangement in which a person uses the Internet or e-mail services of a particular company
tournament – n. a sports competition or series of contests that involves many players or teams and that usually continues for at least several days
piñata – n. a decorated container filled with candies, fruits, and gifts that is hung up at parties or celebrations and hit with a stick by children until it is broken and the things inside it fall out
profile – n. a brief written description that provides information about someone or something
classic – adj. used to describe something that has been popular for a long time
ghost– n. the soul of a dead person thought of as living in an unseen world or as appearing to living people
endangered– adj. used to describe a type of animal or plant that has become very rare and that could die out completely