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Olympic Google doodle takes Web boaters on a wild ride

Web giant's latest interactive doodle highlighting events at the London Games gives users a kayak, paddle, and water course to complete.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil
2 min read
Google rides the rapids.

Google has floated out what may be its most difficult interactive doodle for the Olympics -- so far.

After launching the hurdles and basketball free throw games earlier this week, the Web giant is highlighting the slalom canoe event at the 2012 London Games with a doodle. Users get a virtual canoe and virtual paddle and try to paddle over a water course as fast as they can. (Yes, the Olympics calls it a canoe event, but the event itself, and the doodle, clearly feature kayaks.)

Competitors use the left and right cursor buttons on their keyboard to maneuver their canoe over the course, which comes complete with gates, rocks, and is, of course, bound by the riverbank.

Like real paddles, the buttons control the speed on your boat as well as the direction it travels; try to go too fast and you may miss a gate, strike a rock, or run aground, slowing your time.

As with the other games, users can share their scores on Google+ and get more information about the event's schedule and results by clicking the magnifying glass that appears when the game is finished. Or they can give it another go.

As with tradition dating back to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Google highlights a different event each day of the Games. In addition to the hurdles and basketball, sports already featured during the Games are archery, diving, fencing, rings, field hockey, table tennis, shot put, pole vault, synchronized swimming, and javelin.

Which event would you like to see Google to spotlight next?