Today's Google Doodle extends Olympic fever to the desktop and to Google+ circles. But for developers what is interesting is the way in which it uses canvas to such good effect.

There is a retro feel to this simple game in that the user simply uses the left and right arrow keys to run and the space bar or up arrow key to jump. But if you inspect the code it is up-to-the-minute HTML5 and JavaScript and is a great example of using canvas.

I have a feeling that lots of people are going to be spending a lot of time improving their personal best scores and sharing them with their circles on Google+.

It may just be the boost  required to make Google's social network a serious contender in the race with Facebook.

To access the Google Doodle just do a search on Google on August 7, 2012. Hopefully it will be added to the Google Doodle Archive in a playable form, or even open sourced so that we can all learn more from it.