For Robert Bunsen’s 200th birthday.
Few things have greater power to make me doubt my knowledge of popular culture than the google doodle. Countless times, I’ve looked at the day’s doodle and thought, Should I know who this person is? Honestly, I wouldn’t even have recognized the term as a person’s name if the accompanying birthday hadn’t tipped me off. I once saw a google doodle I could have sworn was just a screenshot of someone’s Temple Run game.
I am deeply curious about the origin and proliferation of the google doodle (and of the term “google doodle,” come to think of it). There’s a possibility that this is just a “me” thing, but I bet other people are curious as well. I can’t be the only one who’s noticed the doodles becoming increasingly elaborate and frequent over the years. What was once a rare treat is now a near-daily nuisance. Soon, I fear the iconic google logo may be eclipsed entirely.
Imagine the google doodle planning committee, negotiating over the annual calendar. You can add Freddy Mercury’s 65th birthday if I can add Canada Day. Some of these, like the first day of spring, are pretty reasonable causes for celebration (or so I’m told; personally, I hate spring). Others are so, so questionable. Here’s a perfect example: “The 126th Anniversary of the public opening of the Eiffel Tower.” I can’t make this shit up.
Who’s idea was the google doodle? Who signs off on proposed doodles? How do you make the short list of dates that get an annual google doodle, and not just a one-time appearance? Do you have to be dead to get a google doodle? Is there any rhyme or reason to what number birthday is celebrated? (A: No, unless there’s a very sneaky algorithm in play. See: “Andy Warhol’s 74th birthday”). What does the fact that I can’t see anything other than a pair of boobs in those two O’s say about me?
Lucky for you, I’ve researched the topic exhaustively and I’ve come up with a few hard facts:
- The first google doodle ran on August 30th,1998, in honor of Burning Man, setting a precedent for all future questionable choices of what to commemorate. As I understand it, this was their way of telling users they were at Burning Man in the event servers crashed. It was actually really lame:
- It was Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s idea. Heard of them?
- “A group of googlers” signs off on proposed doodles. K.
- The short list of occasions that merit an annual doodle: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, International Women’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, Saint David’s Day, Saint George’s Day (I guess it pays to be equal opportunists where saints are concerned), Earth Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, U.S. Independence Day, Bastille Day, Olympic Games, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve.
- My search for whether you have to be dead to get a google doodle did not bear much fruit. I did learn that google celebrates Schrodinger’s cat, alive or dead. I also gleaned this charming insight into modern preoccupations:
5. I really wanted to know exactly how many google doodles there have ever been. The best answer I could get was “over 2,000.”
6. There doesn’t seem to be a general consensus on what the worst google doodle ever is. Here are some contenders:
Yes, really.
I guess Monet is just one of those masterpieces you have to see in person.
There’s a spectacular selection of terrible graphics from the early days.
This wasn’t actually run, but proves I’m not the only one who sees boobs.
You can go to www.google.com/doodles/ to see every google doodle, ever. You can also read their about page for more hard facts, though without my insightful commentary. Finally, there’s a “doodle for google” page. My job prospects are looking brighter!
On another note, I’m right about the conspiracy to take over the whole calendar: Wikipedia has one page listing all doodles 1998-2009, and then a page each for every subsequent year. It’s happening.
And yes, I did all this research using google.