The series premiered in 1919.

The title character is a small, goggle-eyed, moustached, cigar smoking man, who always appear in a seemingly impeccable outfit with gloves and a top hat. He perceives himself as a great sportsman, but a passive one of  the kind; he usually just gambles and flunks in poker, boxing matches, and horse racing. As for the latter Google, at one time, kept a fairly useless racing horse named Spark Plug.

Initially, the series was titled Take Barney Google, F'rinstance but it was quickly renamed. From 1934 it had a sidekick gallery featuring Snuffy Smith, that became so popular that the series changed title to Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. Later the title was shortened to Snuffy Smith, and the original Google characters do not appear in the new series.