Rubik’s Cube Invention Celebrated With Google Logo To Mark The Puzzle’s 40th Anniversary

Google went all out today to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube, giving the classic 80’s toy its very own interactive logo on the site’s global homepage.

Doubling as digital version of the toy, the Rubik’s Cube logo will most likely prove to be a major time-suck as users across the globe try to solve the online version of the puzzle. Along with the logo, Google included Google+, Facebook, Twitter and email links so players could share the game across their social circles.

While the Rubik’s Cube is associated with 80’s pop culture in the US, the toy was originally created in 1974 by Budapest architecture professor Erno Rubik and was first marketed as a “Magic Cube” in his home country of Hungary.  According to the toy’s website, Erno Rubik saw his invention as much more than a toy:

Erno has always thought of the Cube primarily as an object of art, a mobile sculpture symbolizing stark contrasts of the human condition: bewildering problems and triumphant intelligence; simplicity and complexity; stability and dynamism; order and chaos.

The toy was picked up by Ideal Toy Company after being discovered at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1979. With 350 million Rubik’s Cubes sold since the 80s, the toy’s manufacturer claims it is the best-selling toy of all time.

For anyone who wants to commit their day to solving Google’s Rubik’s Cube, the Google Doodle archive offered the following list of keyboard shortcuts: