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One thing I always liked from a UI perspective about Google was their Google Doodles. These are little artworks that would appear on the search homepage and to the left of the search bar on results pages, typically for holidays and events. While they declined in quality over the years (much like the rest of Google) they used to be quite nice and interesting. They made the search page feel dynamic, fun, and humanized. I think it might be a nice idea to add somewhat of the same thing with Kagi search pages.

The artworks could be community sourced fanart. It probably isn’t good to follow the same formula as Google (Doodles often seemed biased or irrelevant, especially towards the end of my Google usage), so why not have fanart of something everyone loves, the doggo mascot!

Artworks could be submitted, checked by staff/community for appropriateness/AI, and put into circulation as a random image served on each page.

I think this could jazz up Kagi’s search page a bit, and help with user onboarding for those used to Google Doodles. It ties nicely with Kagi’s mission to humanize the web in my opinion as well. There should be a toggle for users that don’t want the artworks or are data-capped.

I realize something like this is probably quite low in priority for the team but it could be a nice touch to make Kagi feel more inviting and user-centered.

    RoxyRoxyRoxy love this idea! Those whimsical doodles in the early days really were a delightful surprise whenever they appeared, and it definitely feels aligned with making things feel more human.

    Agreed, they had some really nice art over the years which made it all the more sad as it slowly kinda turned to crap. Hopefully having community-based art keeps it fresh and exciting.

      (While this would technically be paid stuff, something interesting might come of this: )

      a month later

      RoxyRoxyRoxy

      We'd love to feature community-made doggos, so we've just published this open call for artists and doggo fans. We're hoping to receive some great artworks that we'll display on the home page throughout March.

      Thank you for the idea!

        NataliaVish Sweet! Tysm for implementing this! Just to make sure, these are Doggos only, correct? I had a fun idea that included the logotype as well as Doggo, but I understand if it’s just the mascot.

          RoxyRoxyRoxy

          We planned the contest for Doggo-designs only, but don’t let this stop you - we will welcome all creative concepts as long as the logotype remains legible :-)

          a month later
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