Scribble away with Google eBooks Doodle Mode

Will the next Les Paul Google Doodle come from kids reading Google's eBooks? Google said its "The Everything Kids'" series will be the first line of ebooks to have Doodle Mode, which includes a virtual crayon that kids can use to scribble away on the page. "As the young (and young at heart) know, books aren't simply meant to be read - sometimes they're meant to be marked up, colored in and scribbled all over. Up until now, however, you couldn't really do that with digital books. Today, we're introducing Doodle Mode for a select group of Google eBooks. Take a virtual crayon to these digital books and go wild: draw pictures and diagrams, connect the dots, or underline words," Google Books software engineers Diego Puppin and Derek Lei said in a blog post. Readers can open Doodle Mode in the Google eBooks Web Reader, which works in all modern browsers and lets one read Google eBooks without having to download them. However, Google noted Doodle Mode does not yet work with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsers. "Once you've chosen and opened an ebook, go to the upper-right hand menu and click on 'Doodle Mode' to begin. A box will appear, showing you where you can start doodling. Use your mouse to click inside the box, and you'll start drawing with the crayon. You can use Doodle Mode in the Web Reader whether you're accessing it through your computer or iPad," Puppin and Lei said. They said Doodles are not saved, so readers are free to doodle again and again on the pages of the ebooks without having to worry about using them up. "But if you do create a particularly stunning doodle, be sure to take a picture or a screenshot," they advised. "Doodle Mode is for all ages, so go ahead and give it a try. You just might be a budding professional Google Doodler," they added. - TJD, GMA News