• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, November 13, 2009

Approaching the Thanksgiving holiday, less than two weeks away, doodle-lovers have begun to anticipate the celebratory doodle that will grace Google's home page to commemorate a day of thanks.

Dennis Hwang, the original Google Doodler, first handled the job alone in his spare time. Now a small groupl of Googlers doodle, but it's not their full-time job.

Sergey Brin created the Halloween Google doodle that ran on the home page Oct. 31, 1999.

The first Google doodle, which appeared Aug. 30, 1998, celebrated the Burning Man Festival. The doodle appeared as sort of a "gone fishing sign," according to Google Spokesman Gabriel Stricker.

"A lot of folks were going to the festival held in the middle of the desert," he says. "The doodle [of] the Burning Man Festival on the home page was a way to tell the world, 'hey, we are going to be out of touch for a while.'"

Although other companies don't have any say in the content of the doodle, a Doodle for Google program allows school kids to compete for the chance to draw the symbol. The winning entry lands on the home page for a day.

Hwang recently chose the first international young doodler, fourth-grade student Puru Pratap Singh from India, on the basis of innovation and creativity. The contest received 4,000 entries during the 90-day voting period.

The U.S. competition was held earlier this year. The theme: "What I wish for the world."  Christin Engelberth, from Bernard A. Harris Jr High School in San Antonio, took first place. About 28,000 doodles and 6 million votes helped Google judges narrow the group to the finalists.

When choosing content, Google often celebrates major anniversaries of notable companies such as Lego and events like Louie Braille's birthday or the invention of the bar code.

So, how many impressions does Google.com get? Stricker declined to say. But recently, when Google celebrated "Sesame Street"'s 40th birthday, Google.com was the most visited site in the United States, receiving 6.54% of all Internet visits, according to Experian Hitwise.