Google logo
Encyclopedia
Google
has had several logo
s since its renaming from BackRub. The current official Google logo was designed by Ruth Kedar
, and is a wordmark based on the Catull
typeface.
The company also includes various modifications and/or humorous features, such as cartoon modifications of their logo for use on holidays, birthdays of famous people, and major events, such as the Olympics
.
These special logos, some designed by Dennis Hwang
, have become known as Google Doodles. Google subsidiary YouTube
has also featured some custom logos to highlight special events occurring on the site, these have been unofficially nicknamed "Yoodles". , Google's own gallery features 1002 logos.
In 1998 Sergey Brin
created a computerized version of the Google letters using the free
graphics program GIMP
. The exclamation mark was added, mimicking the Yahoo! logo.
"There were a lot of different color iterations", says Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo. "We ended up with the primary colors, but instead of having the pattern go in order, we put a secondary color on the L, which brought back the idea that Google doesn't follow the rules."
In 2010, the Google logo received its first major and permanent overhaul since 1999. The new logo was first tested in November 2009, and was officially launched on May 6, 2010. It utilises an identical typeface to the previous logo, but features a distinctly orange-colored "o" in place of the previous yellowish "o", as well as more subtle shadow rendered in a different shading style.
The Google logo font is Catull BQ, and it was created for Berthold in 1982 by German designer Gustav Jaeger. Catull has a feel that involves contrasting stroke weights and distinctive serifs.
The first Google Doodle was in honor of the Burning Man Festival
of 1998. 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. Hwang has been designing the Google Doodles ever since.
Clicking on a Google Doodle links to a string of Google search
results about the topic, which can drive a lot of traffic to unsuspecting sites.
Google doodles have been produced for the birthdays of several noted artists and scientists, including Andy Warhol
, Albert Einstein
, Leonardo da Vinci
, Rabindranath Tagore
, Louis Braille
, Percival Lowell
, Edvard Munch
, Nikola Tesla
, Béla Bartók
, René Magritte
, John Lennon
, Michael Jackson
, Akira Kurosawa
, H. G. Wells
, Freddie Mercury
, Samuel Morse, Hans Christian Ørsted
, Mohandas Gandhi
, Dennis Gabor
, Constantin Brancusi
, Antonio Vivaldi
, Abdel Halim Hafez
, and Jules Verne
among others. 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.
British novelist Roald Dahl
has been featured, with the logo containing characters and items from some of his books, such as Matilda
. 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. The anniversary of H. G. Wells
' War of the Worlds has also been celebrated.
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. This design gave the appearance that the "l" was missing, thereby displaying "Googe". In response to several speculations the Official Google Blog, 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."
For the celebration of Earth Hour
, the white background was transformed black to symbolize "the turning off of lights".
Google was criticized in 2007 for not featuring versions of the Google logo for American patriotic
holidays such as Memorial Day
and Veterans Day
. That year, Google featured a logo commemorating Veterans Day
.
Google unveiled a steady stream of Doodles in 2009, including one with Mahatma Gandhi's face designed by Obed Dev, on October 2, 2009, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi
, which is observed by the UN as the International Day for Non-Violence.
On Friday, May 21, 2010, Google created a doodle to celebrate the 30th birthday of Pac-Man
. It is their first (possibly the world's first) playable logo. The logo contains an accurate re-creation of the Pac-Man game that can be played in a browser (it contains 255 levels). On Sunday, July 11, 2010, the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final
was commemorated by a Google doodle showing the stadium
where the match was played that night.
On Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011, Google ran one of its most interactive Doodles in honor of Sci-Fi writer Jules Verne's 183rd birthday. "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.
On Friday, April 15, 2011, Google sported the first video doodle, commemorating Charlie Chaplin
's 122nd birthday. 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.
On September 24, 2011, Henson was honored with a Google doodle on his 75th birthday. The Google logo had six Muppets that were clickable using the “hand” buttons.
and the hosting of the winning doodle for 24 hours on the Google website
. The competition originated in the United Kingdom, and now also exists in the United States. The competition was also held in Ireland in 2008. Google announced Doodle4Google
competition for India in 2009 and the winning doodle was displayed on the Google India homepage on November 14. 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.
that killed President Lech Kaczyński
in April 2010. A few days later, the logo was used in China
and Hong Kong
to pay respects to the victims of the Qinghai earthquake
.
On September 8, 2010, the doodle once again changed to a greyed-out Google logo that lit up with the standard Google colors as the first 6 letters of a search query were entered. It goes by the name of the Keystroke Logo.
--122.183.240.110 (talk) 11:17, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
Pac-Man
, Google unveiled worldwide their first interactive logo, created in association with Namco
. 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 Sunday, May 23, 2010, initially replacing Pac-Man with the normal logo. Later on that day, Google released a permanent Google Pac-Man site, due to the popular user demand for the playable logo.
or "buckyball" doodle to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its discovery.
. It contained 17 frames with each frame depicting something different which maximizes when the user hovers on any image.
is a version of the lowercase "g" from its official logo, introduced in 2008, and originally intended to be a part of a larger set of icons developed for better scalability
on mobile devices. The current version includes background colors red, green, blue and yellow. In June 2008, Google launched a contest intended to receive favicon submissions, and a design made by André Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil, formed the basis of the new design. From Official Google Blog: "His placement of a white 'g' on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, while seeming to capture the essence of Google".
.
of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton.
.
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 able to 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
, along with a scroll bar allowing visitors to view images from the entire duration of the event. Images were captured from cameras in places where the eclipse was visible including South Africa
, Dubai
and the Canary Islands
.
’s 90th birthday with a Gumby
-inspired logo.
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
has had several logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
s since its renaming from BackRub. The current official Google logo was designed by Ruth Kedar
Ruth Kedar
Ruth Kedar is an artist and designer, best known for designing the Google logo. Larry Page and Sergei Brin were looking at designers to design their logo and website and Kedar was asked to present them with some preliminary design ideas. They liked her approach and design style and was hired to...
, and is a wordmark based on the Catull
Catull
Catull is an old-style serif typeface designed by Gustav Jaeger for the Berthold foundry in 1982. Since May 31, 1999, Google has used the typeface for its logo. It currently costs upwards of $99.00.-External links:* at identifont....
typeface.
The company also includes various modifications and/or humorous features, such as cartoon modifications of their logo for use on holidays, birthdays of famous people, and major events, such as the Olympics
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
.
These special logos, some designed by Dennis Hwang
Dennis Hwang
Dennis Hwang, or Hwang Jeong-mok, is a graphic artist who designs the festive logos for Google on special days.- Biography :...
, have become known as Google Doodles. Google subsidiary YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
has also featured some custom logos to highlight special events occurring on the site, these have been unofficially nicknamed "Yoodles". , Google's own gallery features 1002 logos.
Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the largest internet companies. , his personal wealth is estimated to be $16.7 billion....
created a computerized version of the Google letters using the free
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
graphics program GIMP
GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
. The exclamation mark was added, mimicking the Yahoo! logo.
"There were a lot of different color iterations", says Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo. "We ended up with the primary colors, but instead of having the pattern go in order, we put a secondary color on the L, which brought back the idea that Google doesn't follow the rules."
In 2010, the Google logo received its first major and permanent overhaul since 1999. The new logo was first tested in November 2009, and was officially launched on May 6, 2010. It utilises an identical typeface to the previous logo, but features a distinctly orange-colored "o" in place of the previous yellowish "o", as well as more subtle shadow rendered in a different shading style.
The Google logo font is Catull BQ, and it was created for Berthold in 1982 by German designer Gustav Jaeger. Catull has a feel that involves contrasting stroke weights and distinctive serifs.
Google Doodle
The first Google Doodle was in honor of the Burning Man Festival
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
of 1998. The doodle was designed by Larry Page
Larry Page
Lawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google. As of April 4, 2011, he is also the chief executive of Google, as announced on January 20, 2011...
and Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the largest internet companies. , his personal wealth is estimated to be $16.7 billion....
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
Intern
Internship is a system of onthejob training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. They may also be as young as middle school or in...
Dennis Hwang
Dennis Hwang
Dennis Hwang, or Hwang Jeong-mok, is a graphic artist who designs the festive logos for Google on special days.- Biography :...
to design a logo for Bastille Day
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...
in 2000. Hwang has been designing the Google Doodles ever since.
Clicking on a Google Doodle links to a string of Google search
Google search
Google or Google Web Search is a web search engine owned by Google Inc. Google Search is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, receiving several hundred million queries each day through its various services....
results about the topic, which can drive a lot of traffic to unsuspecting sites.
Google doodles have been produced for the birthdays of several noted artists and scientists, including Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
, Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
, Louis Braille
Louis Braille
Louis Braille was the inventor of braille, a system of reading and writing used by people who are blind or visually impaired...
, Percival Lowell
Percival Lowell
Percival Lawrence Lowell was a businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death...
, Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...
, Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
, Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, René Magritte
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...
, Samuel Morse, Hans Christian Ørsted
Hans Christian Ørsted
Hans Christian Ørsted was a Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields, an important aspect of electromagnetism...
, Mohandas Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
, Dennis Gabor
Dennis Gabor
Dennis Gabor CBE, FRS was a Hungarian-British electrical engineer and inventor, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics....
, Constantin Brancusi
Constantin Brancusi
Constantin Brâncuşi was a Romanian-born sculptor who made his career in France. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris...
, Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
, Abdel Halim Hafez
Abdel Halim Hafez
Abdel Halim Ali Shabana commonly known as Abdel Halim Hafez , is among the most popular Egyptian and Arab singers and performers. In addition to singing, Halim was also an actor, conductor, business man, music teacher and movie producer...
, and Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
among others. Additionally, the featuring of Lowell's logo design coincided with the launch of another Google product, Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
. Google doodles are also used to depict major events at Google, such as the company's own anniversary.
British novelist Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
has been featured, with the logo containing characters and items from some of his books, such as Matilda
Matilda (novel)
Matilda is a children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape in London, with illustrations by Quentin Blake. The story is about Matilda Wormwood, an extraordinary child with ordinary and rather unpleasant parents, who are contemptuous of their daughter's...
. The celebration of historical events is another common topic of Google Doodles including a Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
brick design in celebration of the interlocking Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
block's 50th anniversary. The anniversary of H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
' War of the Worlds has also been celebrated.
On February 14, 2007, Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
, the Google doodle featured a chocolate-dipped strawberry that combined the second "g" and the "l" as its green stem. This design gave the appearance that the "l" was missing, thereby displaying "Googe". In response to several speculations the Official Google Blog, 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."
For the celebration of Earth Hour
Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change...
, the white background was transformed black to symbolize "the turning off of lights".
Google was criticized in 2007 for not featuring versions of the Google logo for American patriotic
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
holidays such as Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
and Veterans Day
Veterans Day
Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, is an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark...
. That year, Google featured a logo commemorating Veterans Day
Veterans Day
Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, is an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark...
.
Google unveiled a steady stream of Doodles in 2009, including one with Mahatma Gandhi's face designed by Obed Dev, on October 2, 2009, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
, which is observed by the UN as the International Day for Non-Violence.
On Friday, May 21, 2010, Google created a doodle to celebrate the 30th birthday of Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
. It is their first (possibly the world's first) playable logo. The logo contains an accurate re-creation of the Pac-Man game that can be played in a browser (it contains 255 levels). On Sunday, July 11, 2010, the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final
2010 FIFA World Cup Final
The 2010 FIFA World Cup Final was a football match that took place on 11 July 2010 at Soccer City in Johannesburg, South Africa, to determine the winner of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Spain defeated the Netherlands 1–0 with a goal from Andrés Iniesta four minutes from the end of extra time...
was commemorated by a Google doodle showing the stadium
FNB Stadium
Soccer City, known as FNB Stadium for commercial purposes, is a stadium located in Nasrec, the Soweto area of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located next to the South African Football Association headquarters where both the FIFA offices and the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 FIFA World...
where the match was played that night.
On Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011, Google ran one of its most interactive Doodles in honor of Sci-Fi writer Jules Verne's 183rd birthday. "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.
On Friday, April 15, 2011, Google sported the first video doodle, commemorating Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's 122nd birthday. This doodle was a black and white YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
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.
On September 24, 2011, Henson was honored with a Google doodle on his 75th birthday. The Google logo had six Muppets that were clickable using the “hand” buttons.
Doodle4Google competitions
Google holds a Doodle4Google competition for students in grades K–12 to create their own Google doodle. Winning doodles go onto the Doodle4Google website, where the public can vote for the winner, who wins a trip to the GoogleplexGoogleplex
The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google, Inc., located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California, United States, near San Jose. "Googleplex" is a portmanteau of Google and complex, and a reference to googolplex, the name given to the large...
and the hosting of the winning doodle for 24 hours on the Google website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
. The competition originated in the United Kingdom, and now also exists in the United States. The competition was also held in Ireland in 2008. Google announced Doodle4Google
Doodle4Google
Doodle4Google is an annual competition held by Google to have children create a logo that will be featured on the Google homepage. In 2008 there was a competition in Sweden.-History:Google features logos on their homepage, usually for public holidays...
competition for India in 2009 and the winning doodle was displayed on the Google India homepage on November 14. A similar competition held in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
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
National Day (Singapore)
The National Day of Singapore is celebrated every year on 9 August, in commemoration of Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965. This holiday features a National Day Parade, an address by the Prime Minister of Singapore, and fireworks celebrations....
on Google Singapore's homepage.
Colorless logo
From time to time Google shows a special colorless logo on a local homepage in recognition of a major tragedy, often for several days. The design was apparently first used on the Google Poland homepage following the air disaster2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
The 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash occurred on 10 April 2010, when a Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft of the Polish Air Force crashed near the city of Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board...
that killed President Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
in April 2010. A few days later, the logo was used in China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
to pay respects to the victims of the Qinghai earthquake
2010 Yushu earthquake
The 2010 Yushu earthquake struck on April 14, 2010, and registered a magnitude of 6.9Mw or 7.1Ms . It originated in Yushu, Qinghai, China, at local time. According to the Xinhua News Agency, 2,698 people have been confirmed dead, 270 missing, and 12,135 injured of which 1,434 are severely injured...
.
On September 8, 2010, the doodle once again changed to a greyed-out Google logo that lit up with the standard Google colors as the first 6 letters of a search query were entered. It goes by the name of the Keystroke Logo.
--122.183.240.110 (talk) 11:17, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
Pac-Man logo
On Friday, May 21, 2010, the 30th anniversary of the arcade gameArcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, Google unveiled worldwide their first interactive logo, created in association with Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
. 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
Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man is an arcade video game produced by Midway as an unauthorized sequel to Pac-Man. It was released in North America in 1981 and became one of the most popular video games of all time, leading to its adoption by Pac-Man licensor Namco as an official title...
, 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 Sunday, May 23, 2010, initially replacing Pac-Man with the normal logo. Later on that day, Google released a permanent Google Pac-Man site, due to the popular user demand for the playable logo.
Buckminsterfullerene logo
On September 4, 2010, Google replaced the logo with an interactive BuckminsterfullereneBuckminsterfullerene
Buckminsterfullerene is a spherical fullerene molecule with the formula . It was first intentionally prepared in 1985 by Harold Kroto, James Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley at Rice University...
or "buckyball" doodle to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its discovery.
Google's Christmas Logo
On December 24, 2010, Google launched their holiday logo to celebrate Christmas. The logo was a combination of 17 images with each image referring to a cuisine, an instrument or a place, such as NepalNepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
. It contained 17 frames with each frame depicting something different which maximizes when the user hovers on any image.
Favicon
Google's faviconFavicon
A favicon , also known as a shortcut icon, Web site icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one small icons, most commonly 16×16 pixels, associated with a particular Web site or Web page...
is a version of the lowercase "g" from its official logo, introduced in 2008, and originally intended to be a part of a larger set of icons developed for better scalability
Scalability
In electronics scalability is the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle growing amount of work in a graceful manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth...
on mobile devices. The current version includes background colors red, green, blue and yellow. In June 2008, Google launched a contest intended to receive favicon submissions, and a design made by André Resende, a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil, formed the basis of the new design. From Official Google Blog: "His placement of a white 'g' on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, while seeming to capture the essence of Google".
Google Particle logo
On September 6, 2010, Google added another interactive logo, which consisted of numerous coloured balls that fly near a cursorCursor
A cursor is a moving placement or pointer that indicates a position. English-speakers have used the term with this meaning since the 16th century, for a wide variety of movable or mobile position-markers....
.
Royal Wedding Logo
On April 29, 2011, the Google search page featured a logo in honor of the Royal WeddingWedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton
The wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton took place on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London. Prince William, the eldest son of Charles, Prince of Wales, first met Catherine Middleton in 2001, when both were studying at the University of St Andrews. Their...
of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton.
Electric Guitar Logo
Google displayed an interactive electric guitar doodle starting June 9, 2011 to celebrate the 96th birthday of Les PaulLes Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
.
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 able to 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
Lunar Eclipse Logo
On June 15, 2011, Google displayed images updated almost in real time of an ongoing total lunar eclipseLunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth so that the Earth blocks the Sun's rays from striking the Moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a...
, along with a scroll bar allowing visitors to view images from the entire duration of the event. Images were captured from cameras in places where the eclipse was visible including South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
and the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
.
Gumby Logo
On October 12, 2011, Google paid tribute to Art ClokeyArt Clokey
Arthur "Art" Clokey was a pioneer in the popularization of stop motion clay animation, beginning in 1955 with a film experiment called Gumbasia, influenced by his professor, Slavko Vorkapich, at the University of Southern California.After the Gumbasia project, Art Clokey and his wife Ruth came up...
’s 90th birthday with a Gumby
Gumby
Gumby is a green clay humanoid character created and modeled by Art Clokey, who also created Davey and Goliath. Gumby has been the subject of a 233-episode series of American television as well as a feature-length film and other media...
-inspired logo.