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September 23, 2009

Recent Google Logos a Nod to H.G. Wells

Since the beginning of September, three mysterious designs have graced Google logos. While Google is usually good at giving clear indication as to why any artistic logo has been chosen, this time they kept the mystery alive. Until this week.

The three logos have been an homage to the late science fiction writer H.G. Wells, who would have been 143 today if scientists had only unlocked immortality earlier. Never fear, there's always the possibility that in the future when immortality and time travel are discovered, they can return and grant Wells many more years of writing.

In the meantime, we can only hope that his spirit lives on in the multiverse (or the afterlife, depending on what you believe, or both if you're truly imaginative), while his work lives on in limited preview at Google Books.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 29, 2008

Ascent of Mt. Everest by Sir Edmund Hilary: New Google Logo

Google has created a logo on its homepage to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent of Mt Everest, the world's highest mountain..

Sir Edmund Hilary, a New Zealand native, died in January. His ascent of Mt. Everest, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was the first to reach the peak.

The only problem?

The logo is only visible on the Australian and New Zealand Google homepages:

* Google.co.au

* Google.co.nz

Google celebrates special events and anniversaries by changing its logo, much as the Empire State Building changes its lighting scheme to celebrate holidays.

UPDATE: The logo appears to be showing up on Google's home pages worldwide.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

March 3, 2008

Dr. Seuss Created Google - Here's Proof

Dr. Seuss is the Genius behind Google. Here's proof: Goo Goo + Goggles = Google.

((goo + goo) - goo))+ (goggles - g squared - s) = google.

There you go: a mathematical proof that Dr. Seuss invented Google long before Larry Page and Sergey Brin were even born. Googlewashing Dr. Seuss?

Today's the 104th birthday of the late, great Dr. Seuss. Yet Larry and Sergey seem determined to cover up the scandal over the true creator of Google.

So who does Google feature in today's Google Doodle? Pa Bell. Alexander Graham Bell, who's posthumously celebrating his 161st birthday.

So Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Great. But it's not like he invented the iPhone or anything.

Besides Bell wisely considered the telephone an intrusion on his scientific work.

He refused to have a telephone in his study, according to Elizabeth MacLeod, author of "Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life."

The world's people will not be tricked into forgetting Dr. Seuss by the Google. Do No Evil. History will not be whitewashed or green-eggs-and-ham-washed.

Today millions, possibly billions of people (Google naturally won't release the exact number) searched for dr seuss, dr seuss hat, dr. seuss, dr seuss coloring, dr suess, seuss, dr.suess, dr.seuss activities, dr.seuss printables, cat in the hat, dr.seuss games, green eggs and ham, dr. seuss quotes, dr. seuss birthday, dr seuss coloring pages, dr. seuss, cat in the hat, dr seuss biography, and dr seuss pictures.

All because they couldn't find Dr. Seuss on Google.com homepage.

Thanks to Keyword Discovery, we unraveled the mystery.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:13 PM | Permalink

June 15, 2006

The Dilbert Google Logo Story

Remember the Google Dilbert logos? If you do, and you want to read the story behind it, check out Doug Edwards' post at Xooglers. Doug also notes some controversy over Google selling coffee mugs (Danny's posted pictures of one here) with the Dilbert logo. You can see the old story about Google on at InternetNews.com from May 20, 2002. Edwards begins the tale of Google logo changes here and talks at the end about how recently the Dilbert strip poked fun at Google. The story of Google and Dilbert continues to this second installment, ending with today's post.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:55 AM | Permalink

June 9, 2006

World Cup: Google Does The Logo Thing; Yahoo & Ask Have Smart Shortcuts

Google's sporting a special World Cup-version of its logo in honor of the start of the World Cup today, while Yahoo and Ask are offering special results that come up after World Cup-related searches. A round-up of what's going on, below.

Over at Google, there's new World Cup module that you can add to your personalized home page to keep up on matches and standings. The company is also promoting the new module on its regular home page to encourage take-up. ZDNet has a screenshot of that. Here's what I see from the UK:

The Official Google Blog is also pushing other ways to tap into World Cup info via Google, though most of these things are pretty generic.

Gary Price has done a recap of other things in the search world touching on the World Cup, focusing on ways to get mobile alerts in the US and in Europe and the fast facts that FIFA is offering.

Gary also spots a World Cup Yahoo Shortcut you can see here (but no Yahoo logo change, not even on Yahoo Germany). Ask is offering a similar Smart Answer service as you'll see here. Ask also didn't change its logo, but the home page shows flags for each team in the World Cup:

Click on the flag, and you'll get a Smart Answer with related info like you'll see for the US here.

Over at MSN Search, no custom answers and no logo changes that I can see (nor at Windows Live Search, either). But back to Google, they are doing some OneBox answers, like you'll see here or here.

Over at Technorati, there's nothing on the home page indicating anything special for the World Cup for those who want to track it in the blogosphere. Clearly if Niall Kennedy hadn't left, the World Cup would be all over Technorati. Niall declares his love of soccer here today (so Niall, get on your MSN Windows Live colleagues to do something).

OK, OK, the MSN portal home page is at least pointing to a two minute guide to the World Cup done in conjunction with Fox Sports. Of course, this is the same partnership whose official store can't send US football kit for kids when promise, so phooey on them. More on that, plus my own thoughts on the World Cup madness that's starting on my personal blog in In The Middle Of World Cup Mad England, I Root For The US.

Don't forget, yesterday's post US, UK Searchers & The World Cup covered some of the top searches involving footballers in the UK and the US.

Am I missing something? Comment!!! It's easy -- just head to World Cup, Search & Stuff at our Search Engine Watch Forums.

Postscript: Google Blogoscoped notes there are different country-specific logos at Google using the team colors of those countries

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:23 AM | Permalink

April 21, 2006

And Now, Google Takes Flak Over Google Logo Doodle

Those crazy kids at Google, always whacking together some twist on the Google logo to honor someone or something. Now it's gotten them into trouble.

Yesterday, the logo took on the look of surrealist painter Joan Miro. It certainly caught my wife's attention. "What's with that," she asked me last night, not particularly thrilled with the current change.

I explained Google's long history of doing these type of logos, which prompted her to ask if they were going to do anything for The Queen's 80th birthday (that's today; answer, a big no).

Probably best they didn't. They wouldn't want Her Majesty getting ticked perhaps in the way the family of Joan Miro did.

Artist's family asks Google to take down today's 'painted' logo from the San Jose Mercury News covers how Google was asked to remove the logo, with copyright issues cited as the reason for the takedown request.

Google immediately declared the Google Artwork Scanning Program (GASP) as a response, where it will be heading into museums around the world to scan images of art regardless of copyright concerns.

Nah. They took the logo down, even though they thought they were fine on the copyright front.

SiliconBeat has a post and some discussion on the issue, if you feel the need to defend or decry.

Can't get enough Google logos? Google Logo-Snubs England (& The US, California, ...) has some background on who and what gets doodled, as the logos are called. Here's the archive of holiday doodles. And hey kids in the UK! You can get your own doodle featured in this new contest from Google.

Off now -- gotta get my boys doodling so we can get that "week-long trip of a lifetime for them and their family to the Googleplex office in California."

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:11 AM | Permalink

November 16, 2005

London Kids Doodle For Google As Part Of New Office Opening

The News.com article, Schoolgirl wins Doodle 4 Google competition, reports the story of the just completed Doodle 4 Google "doodling" or drawing contest (you know, Google's famous "special logos" or "dooodles" usually drawn by Googler Dennis Hwang) that just ended.

The contest was open to students from London,UK area schools. The winner, Lisa Wainaina, aged 11, won a upper case "G" of frosted glass, and an interactive whiteboard for her school. You can see her winning doodle as well as other doodles of note on this page.

Hwang, who judged the entries, said: "I thought I had a pretty secure job, but these kids are competition I wasn't aware of," Hwang joked. "My job security just went out the window."

You can read more about Dennis Hwang in these blog postings:

+ Special Holiday Logos for Mother's Day; Google Artist Profiled + He's a Googler and a Doodler

Postscript: The story also covers how the contest was part of Google opening a new, larger office in London.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:03 PM | Permalink

October 31, 2005

Special Logos From Engines For a "Scary" Halloween

Spooky and scary logos from Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo today for Halloween.

Posted by Gary Price at 8:43 PM | Permalink

July 4, 2005

Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo Offer Special 4th of July Logos

Holiday logos from Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo are online today to celebrate Independence Day in the U.S.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:17 PM | Permalink

June 19, 2005

Special Father's Day Logos at Ask Jeeves and Google

In honor of Father's Day, Ask Jeeves and Google have special holiday logos online today.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:09 PM | Permalink

May 8, 2005

Special Holiday Logos for Mother's Day; Google Artist Profiled

A couple of notes from the search engine holiday logo front today.

Google.com and Google.ca have special holiday logos online today to celebrate Mother's Day. However, for some reson Google's French language site for Canada is not carrying the logo (at least when I checked).

Ask Jeeves is also running a special logo today along with a Smart Search results box containing direct links to history, poetry, and other info about Mother's Day.

and while we're talking holiday logos...

Google's holiday logo artist, Dennis Hwang (aka Google Doodler), gets profiled in the article: Ogling Google's doodles. We linked to another profile of Hwang a couple of months ago.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:11 PM | Permalink

May 2, 2005

Google Logo-Snubs England (& The US, California, ...)

The Register is mildly up in arms that Google failed to do a special logo for England's national day, St. George's Day, last month: Google in St George snub outrage.

To be fair, half of England seems to ignore the day itself. I took the boys up to nearby Salisbury where the promised festivities were less than thrilling -- though what was billed as the largest St. George's flag in England was hanging off the Salisbury Guildhall.

The Register's outrage isn't dimmed by the email it reprints from Google pledging to respect the diversity of users by perhaps rotating in a logo in the future.

For the record, Google did do a St. George's Day logo last year and in 2002. In fact, that's twice more than US-based Google has ever done a special logo for the national holiday of the United States, the Fourth Of July, from what I can see when viewing the Google logo archive.

In fact, while I proudly fly my California state flag outside the house every September 9th in honor of California's Admission Day -- California-based Google continues to snub the great state of my birth.

Perhaps one solution might be to let Google's country-specific web sites ease the burden. Google's UK web site could easily carry a St. George's logo every year -- along with logos for other events in the United Kingdom.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 3:39 PM | Permalink

February 14, 2005

Special Valentine's Day Logos from Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo

Ask Jeeves, Google, and Yahoo have special Valentine's Day logos online today. Actually, Google has two holiday logos. One at Google.com and another on the Gmail home page.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:48 PM | Permalink

February 13, 2005

He's a Googler and a Doodler

The Toronto Star has published a profile of Dennis Hwang, the Google programmer who is also the artist behind Google's many special logos (aka Google Doodles). Doodling with the Google logo.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company's founders, had been experimenting with revisions to the Google logo for special events (in 1999, the first time they tried it, they added a "burning man" to the logo to let pals know they'd be at the Burning Man festival in Nevada for a few days). But Page and Brin were unhappy with the quality of the drawings they were getting from a freelancer. On one occasion, they asked Hwang, knowing that he was an art major, to redraw one of the submissions. He did — and it was exactly what they were looking for.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:25 PM | Permalink

January 21, 2005

Special Logos, Smart Search, Ask Jeeves, and Google

Have you noticed a "special" logo on Ask Jeeves this afternoon? You'll see Jeeves "thinking" about a visit to the slopes to do some snowboarding. If you click on the logo, you're taken to a Smart Answer with current ski conditions for Squaw Valley, California. I think it's more than worth pointing out that Squaw Valley is where Google is currently having their big ski trip and party . Yes, it's Friday afternoon and this is some good fun.

Btw, I've noticed that conditions for other ski areas are now also available as Smart Search results.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:52 PM | Permalink

November 2, 2004

Special Logos for Election Day

Both Ask Jeeves and Google have special logos for Election Day 2004 in the U.S.

Clicking the Ask Jeeves logo searches for the word "vote" and offers you an Ask Jeeves "Smart Search" box filled with direct links to polling place info, poll numbers, and much more. Nicely done.

Clicking the Google logo runs the query 2004 Election. Google also offers a page (linked from Google.com) with links to help a voter locate their polling place.

Yahoo doesn't have a special logo today. However, they do offer a box on the Yahoo.com home page with direct links to polling place info, candidate info, endorsements, and more.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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