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Google Doodle

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File:GoogleConferenceDoodle.jpg
Google conference room in New York featuring 2005's Doodle for Leonardo da Vinci

A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepage that is intended to celebrate holidays, events, achievements and people. The first Google Doodle was in honor of the Burning Man Festival of 1998.[1][2] The doodle was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. Subsequent Google Doodles were designed by an outside contractor, until Larry and Sergey asked then-intern Dennis Hwang to design a logo for Bastille Day in 2000. From that point onward, Doodles have been organized and published by a team of employees termed "Doodlers".[3]

Initially, Doodles were not animated or hyperlinked. Doodles increased in both frequency and complexity by the beginning of the 2010s, and in January 2010 the first animated Doodle was posted honoring Isaac Newton.[4] The first interactive Doodle appeared shortly thereafter celebrating Pac-Man,[5] and hyperlinks also began to be added to Doodles, usually linking to a search results page for the subject of the Doodle. As of 2014, Google has published over 2,000 regional and international Doodles throughout its homepages,[6] often featuring guest artists, musicians and personalities.[7]

Overview

Artist and "Doodler" Jennifer Hom has designed many Doodles throughout the years[8]

In addition to celebrating many well-known events and holidays, Google Doodles are known for celebrating several noted artists and scientists on their birthdays, including Andy Warhol, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Rabindranath Tagore, Louis Braille, Ella Fitzgerald, Percival Lowell, Edvard Munch, Nikola Tesla, Béla Bartók, René Magritte, Norman Hetherington, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Robert Moog, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, H. G. Wells, Freddie Mercury, Samuel Morse, Hans Christian Ørsted, Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Gabor, Édith Piaf, Constantin Brâncuși, Antonio Vivaldi, Abdel Halim Hafez, Jules Verne and Leonhard Euler, among others.[9] Additionally, the featuring of Lowell's logo design coincided with the launch of another Google product, Google Maps. Google doodles are also used to depict major events at Google, such as the company's own anniversary.[10] The celebration of historical events is another common topic of Google Doodles including a Lego brick design in celebration of the interlocking Lego block's 50th anniversary. Some Google Doodles are limited to Google's country specific home pages while others appear globally.[11]

Google Doodles violate a long accepted tenet of brand management: that a logo must be respected and used correctly and consistently at all times. A constantly changing logo was thought to reduce brand equity. While this may be true of many brands, Google has successfully defied the orthodoxy; the Google logo has been noted for the constant interactive engagement that attracts the attention of the press as well as general public notice.[12]

Interactive and video doodles

Google's interactive Pac-Man logo

In May 2010, on the 30th anniversary of the arcade game Pac-Man, Google unveiled worldwide their first interactive logo, created in association with Namco.[13] Anyone who visited Google could play Pac-Man on the logo, which featured the letters of the word 'Google' on the Pac-Man maze. The logo also mimicked the sounds the original arcade game made. The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button was replaced with an "Insert Coin" button. Pressing this once enabled you to play the Pac-Man logo. Pressing it once more added a second player, Ms. Pac-Man, enabling 2 players to play at once, controlled using the W,A,S,D keys, instead of the arrows as used by Player 1. Pressing it for a third time performed an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search. It was then removed on May 23, 2010, initially replacing Pac-Man with the normal logo. Later on that day, Google released[14] a permanent Google Pac-Man site, due to the popular user demand for the playable logo.[14]

Since that time, Google has continued to post occasional interactive and video Doodles, including but not limited to the following:

  • On September 3, 2010, Google replaced the logo with an interactive Buckminsterfullerene or "buckyball" doodle to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its discovery.[15]
  • On September 6, 2010, Google added another interactive logo, which consisted of numerous coloured balls that fly near a cursor.[16]
  • On February 8, 2011, Google ran one of its most interactive Doodles in honor of Sci-Fi writer Jules Verne's 183rd birthday.[17] "Pulling" on a lever enabled viewers to get a Nautilus submarine's view undersea of everything from divers to treasure to sea creatures, including a coral formation in the shape of the logo.[18]
  • On April 15, 2011, Google sported the first video doodle, commemorating Charlie Chaplin's 122nd birthday.[21] This doodle was a black and white YouTube video that, when clicked upon, started playing before redirecting to the usual Google search featuring the doodle's special occasion. All parts in this short film were played by the Google doodle team, and special behind-the-scenes footage was to be found on the Google blog.
File:Google Guitar.ogv
A G major scale being played on the Google Guitar
  • Google displayed an interactive electric guitar doodle starting June 9, 2011, to celebrate the 96th birthday of Les Paul. Apart from being able to hover the cursor over the doodle to strum the strings just like one of Les Paul's Gibson guitars, there was also a keyboard button, which when enabled allowed interaction with the doodle via the keyboard. The doodle still maintained some resemblance to the Google logo. In the U.S, the doodle also allowed the user to record a 30 second clip, after which a URL is created and can be sent to others. The doodle remained on the site an extra day due to popularity in the US. It now has its own page linked to the Google Doodles archives.[22]
  • On June 15, 2011, Google displayed images updated almost in real time of an ongoing total lunar eclipse, along with a scroll bar allowing visitors to view images from the entire duration of the event.[23] Images were captured from cameras in places where the eclipse was visible including South Africa, Dubai and the Canary Islands.[23]
  • On November 23, 2011, Google celebrated the 60th anniversary of Stanislaw Lem's first book, The Astronauts, by creating an interactive logo using concepts and illustrations from The Cyberiad.[24] August 6 and October 12 of the same year also included interactive doodles – the former date, Lucille Ball's 100th birthday, made the Google logo a television set playing clips of I Love Lucy.[25] The latter date, Art Clokey's 90th birthday, made the Google logo into interactive versions of Gumby characters.[26]
  • On December 23, 2011 (extending through December 25), Google celebrated Christmas with an animated sequence showing decorations on each letter of the word "Google", as well as an instrumental of Jingle Bells.
  • On May 23, 2012, Google's logo changed into a playable synthesizer in honor of Robert Moog's 78th birthday. On June 23, in commemoration of Alan Turing's 100th birthday, Google's logo became an interactive Turing Machine.[27]
  • On August 7, 2012, Google's logo changed into a playable set of hurdles as part of the celebration of the 2012 London Olympics. This was followed with an interactive Google Doodle of a basketball game, canoe and soccer.[28][29]
  • On September 8, 2012, Google's logo changed into a playable Star Trek scene as celebration of the 46th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series.[30] On Halloween 2013, Google's doodle was a witch reading. A play button can be clicked. After it's clicked, you can play mini games.
  • On November 23, 2013, Google's logo changed to a playable simplistic Doctor Who game in honor of the show's 50th anniversary.[31]
  • On December 9, 2013, Google's logo changed to an animation of Grace Hopper in front of a computer, using COBOL to print out her age, for her 107th birthday. [32]
  • On May 19, for the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's cube, Google made an interactive virtual Rubik's Cube that people could try and solve.

Common themes

See also: Lists of Google Doodles
File:NewYear2014Doodle.gif
For New Year 2014, Google created a non-interactive animated GIF image depicting anthropomorphic numerals

Since Google first celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with a Doodle in 1998, many Doodles for holidays, events and other celebrations have recurred on an annual basis, including the following:

Controversy and criticism

Main article: Criticism of Google

On February 14, 2007, Valentine's Day, the Google doodle featured a chocolate-dipped strawberry that combined the second "g" and the "l" as its green stem.[33] This design gave the appearance that the "l" was missing, thereby displaying "Googe". In response to several speculations the Official Google Blog,[34] responded: "When you look at the logo, you may worry that we forgot our name overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided that 'Googe' has a better ring to it. None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if you're feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a strawberry."

On September 13, 2007, Google posted a Doodle honoring author Roald Dahl on the anniversary of his birth. This date also happened to coincide with the first day of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and Google was immediately criticized by some groups for this decision due to the fact that Dahl was anti-Israel and, some believe, anti-Semitic. Google removed the Doodle by 2:00 p.m. that day, and there remains no evidence of its existence in Google's official Doodle archive to this date.[35][36] Google was also criticized prior to and including 2007 for not featuring versions of the Google logo for American patriotic holidays such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day.[37] That year, Google featured a logo commemorating Veterans Day.[38]

On March 31, 2013, controversy arose on social media and elsewhere when Google posted a Doodle celebrating American activist Cesar Chavez instead of Easter on their American homepage, prompting a Google spokesperson to respond: "We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it's difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date, we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven't in the past."[39] In 2014, Google received some criticism for failing to honor D-Day with a Doodle and instead honoring a Japanese Go player.[40] In response to the criticism, Google deleted the logo and added a series of links to images of the invasion of Normandy.[40] Google was also criticized in light of a study that indicated the subjects of their Doodles were a majority white men, and that not enough women or people of other ethnicities were celebrated. The company responded by indicating that the issue was being addressed.[41]

"Doodle 4 Google" competitions

Main article: Doodle 4 Google

Google holds competitions for students in grades K–12 to create their own Google doodles, referred to as "Doodle 4 Google".[42] Winning doodles go onto the Doodle 4 Google website, where the public can vote for the winner, who wins a trip to the Googleplex and the hosting of the winning doodle for 24 hours on the Google website. The competition originated in the United Kingdom, and has since expanded to the United States and other countries. The competition was also held in Ireland in 2008.[43] Google announced Doodle 4 Google competition for India in 2009[44] and the winning doodle was displayed on the Google India homepage on November 14.[45] A similar competition held in Singapore based on the theme "Our Singapore" was launched in January 2010 and the winning entry was chosen from over 30,000 entries received. The winning design will be shown on Singapore's National Day on Google Singapore's homepage.[46]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Doodle 4 Google". Google.com. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  2. ^ "Burning Man Festival". Google.com. 1998-08-30. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  3. ^ "Meet the people behind the Google Doodles". The Guardian. 2014-04-12. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
  4. ^ "Isaac Newton's birth marked by Google Doodle". The Telegraph. January 4, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  5. ^ Nelson, Randy (May 21, 2010). "Google celebrates Pac-Man's 30th anniversary with playable logo". Joystiq. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  6. ^ "Google blunder over D-Day doodle". BBC News. June 6, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  7. ^ "How Google made its Valentine's Day Doodle". Time Magazine. February 14, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  8. ^ Barnett, Emma (February 19, 2013). "Creating a women's Google Doodle was too frightening". The Telegraph. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
  9. ^ "Stress Cultlogos". Google. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  10. ^ Matthew Moore (2009-09-27). "Googlle: Google releases misspelt logo to mark 11th anniversary". London: Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
  11. ^ "Google doodles a fresh beginning on New Year's Day". CNN-IBN. December 31, 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  12. ^ "Google's Brand: Constant Change Is the Brand Constant". Merriam Associates. May 2, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2012.
  13. ^ Daniel Terdiman (May 21, 2010). "Google gets Pac-Man fever". Geek Gestalt. CNET. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  14. ^ a b Mayer, Marissa (2010-05-23). "Official Google Blog: PAC-MAN rules!". Googleblog.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  15. ^ Hough, Andrew (2010-09-04). "25th anniversary of the Buckyball celebrated by interactive Google Doodle". London: Daily Telegraph, UK. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  16. ^ "Google Instant". Google.com. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  17. ^ "Google Doodle journeys to the center of Jules Verne". Networkworld.com. 2011-02-08. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  18. ^ "CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News". Articles.cnn.com. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  19. ^ "John Lennon's 70th Birthday". Google.com. 2010-10-08. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  20. ^ "Freddie Mercury's 65th Birthday". Google.com. September 5, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  21. ^ Germick, Ryan (2011-04-15). "Official Google Blog: Lights, camera, doodle!". Googleblog.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  22. ^ Jemima Kiss (June 9, 2011). "Les Paul: Google's best doodle yet?". London: The Guardian. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
  23. ^ a b Ned Potter, Lunar Eclipse 2011: Live on Google Doodle, YouTube and Here on ABC News.com, ABC News, June 15, 2011.
  24. ^ "60th Anniversary of Stanislaw Lem's First Publication". Google.com. November 23, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  25. ^ "Lucille Ball's 100th Birthday". Google.com. August 6, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  26. ^ "Art Clokey's 90th Birthday". Google.com. October 12, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  27. ^ By Kathy CeceriEmail Author. "A Google Doodle for Alan Turing's 100th Birthday | GeekMom". Wired.com. Retrieved September 28, 2012. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  28. ^ "Slalom Canoe 2012". Google.com. August 9, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  29. ^ "Soccer 2012". Google.com. August 10, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  30. ^ "Google doodles 46th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series | Video & Photo Reviews of Gadgets at BGR India". Bgr.in. 2012-09-08. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  31. ^ "Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary". Google.com. 2013-11-23. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  32. ^ "Grace Hopper's 107th Birthday". Google.com. 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  33. ^ Google logos Valentine's Day logo. February 14, 2007. Retrieved on April 6, 2007.
  34. ^ Hwang, Dennis (2007-02-14). "Official Google Blog: Strawberries are red, stems are green". Googleblog.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
  35. ^ "Google Criticized for Honoring 'Anti-Israel' Author on Rosh Hashanah". New York Sun. September 13, 2007. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  36. ^ Google Doodle archive search for "Roald Dahl"
  37. ^ "Tweaks send Google critics into orbit (By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer) October 9, 2007". Latimes.com. 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  38. ^ "More Google: Holiday Logos". Google.com. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  39. ^ Cavna, Michael (March 31, 2013). "Google criticized for not marking Easter; company says 'it's difficult for us to choose'". Washington Post. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
  40. ^ a b D’oh: Google Deletes Non-D-Day Doodle Betabeat.com BY MOLLY MULSHINE 6/06 11:39AM
  41. ^ "Google Doodles team makes stride toward diversity pledge". CNN. June 5, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  42. ^ "Doodle4Google Page". Google.com. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  43. ^ "'Doodle 4 Google – My Ireland' competition". Google.ie. 2009-12-18. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  44. ^ "'Doodle 4 Google — My India'". Google.co.in. 2009-11-14. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  45. ^ "'Doodle 4 Google India 2009 Winner Announced'". Google-logos.com. 2009-11-13. Retrieved 2010-08-30.[dead link]
  46. ^ "Doodle 4 Google.com — Our Singapore". Google.com.sg. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
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