Google celebrates birthday with cake
Twelve years ago, Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the domain for Google.com, a site which they hoped would revolutionize the very way information is organized on the Web. It's fair to say they succeeded. And today, Google, a multi-billion dollar company based in Mountain View, Calif., is celebrating its 12th birthday with a big, digitized birthday cake logo, courtesy of the American painter Wayne Thiebaud.
Thiebaud is best known for his Pop Art renderings of sweets and candies, making him the perfect candidate to contribute artwork for the Google bash. The cake logo will be displayed for the rest of the day on the Google homepage and on search results pages.
"As far as Google's birthday is concerned, today's logo change solidifies the notion that Google's birthday is, indeed, September 27," notes Stan Schroeder of Mashable, a popular tech blog. "Google had previously been unclear about the exact date, sometimes celebrating on September 7, although the Google.com domain was registered on September 15, 1997."
Earlier this month, Google splattered its homepage with a mass of bright, bouncy colored balls that eventually coalesced into a traditional-ish Google logo. Unlike past homepage doodles, which are often used to honor artists and important historical figures – or to draw attention to an event such as the Olympics – the bouncy balls weren't directly linked to a birthday or anniversary. So what was that redesign all about? Theories abounded.
Among the most credible was this hypothesis, offered by Ryan Tate of Gawker: "Some people predict Google is about to roll out search results that stream in as you type, a feature that's already been tested on some users," he wrote. "Which would mean the death of that 'I'm feeling lucky button' that costs Google $110 million+ per year." And hey, what do you know? Mr. Tate was correct.
So, what's been your favorite Google doodle of 2010? The Wizard of Oz? The student doodle from 9-year-old Makenzie Melton? Maybe Norman Rockwell? Perhaps the Pac-Man game/doodle? Something else? Let us know in the comments.
