Google logo celebrates Halloween 2009 with trick or treat doodle

The Google logo has changed to recognize Halloween 2009. Trick or Treat!

Trick or treat! Or is it "click or treat?"

Come on, it's Halloween 2009. You know the Google logo is going to recognize the holiday. And sure enough, the Google folks are celebrating Halloween by not only changing their logo (or doodle) but putting up many images to acknowledge All Hallows Eve.

They could have played it many different ways. Perhaps a salute to that terrible Halloween song "Monster Mash." Or maybe in light of the new mega-movie "Paranormal Activity" they could have made the logo more horrifying.

But instead it's a straight up nod to the tradition of trick or treating. And they went for the "treat" angle rather than the "trick." Think candy instead of toilet paper on someone's house.

Go to Google to check it out. In case you don't know the URL, just Google Google.

Keep on clickin'

The logo is fairly simple. A ghostly white "G-o-o-g-l" followed by a piece of orange candy with a jack-o-lantern impression. Click it again. Now each letter of the Google logo is displayed with a piece of candy -- including our favorite "Smarties."

Click it yet again. Now it displays how you want your Trick or Treating experience to go -- tons of candy and no pretzels, fruit, or anything remotely good for you. The logo isn't even recognizable anymore but who cares -- you scored big.

And finally, if you click it one more time, Halloween's over. Just wrappers of Halloween candy already eaten. And a few half-eaten pieces of candy. You know, the lousy stuff that you received from the house down the street.

No tribute to Charlie Brown however and his unlucky streak of receiving a rock at every house.

As this is an ultra-politically correct world, the display of trash on the screen might be a bit unsettling to some.

We don't know if Google is choosing to recycle the candy wrappers. Because if you click on the logo again, it takes you to search results for Halloween 2009. Take heart, Earth-firsters, because we told you yesterday how to celebrate a Green Halloween.

Google logo changes

Google logo changes are nothing new. Sometimes they're just more unpredictable than others. Earlier this month, for example, the web went crazy trying to understand why Google replaced its logo with a bar code.

Duh! They were celebrating the 57th anniversary of the first bar code patent. The web then went nuts when word spread that you could make your own bar code. We joined into the nuttiness by explaining how to do that.

In mid-September, Google saluted HG Wells' "War of the Worlds" by swapping out its doodle with a UFO hovering over a bunch of crop circles which spelled the search engine's name. How is that 1898 novel related to crop circles? OK. We'll let you in on the secret. And it has nothing to do with that Halo cloud over Moscow that people thought was a UFO.

It doesn't always have to be something wacky in order for Google to give the event front page love. Earlier this month, Google celebrated the 140th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi by replacing the "G" with a drawing of the Indian leader.

What's next? Who knows? Google is kinda wacky when it comes to what they want to acknowledge. What do you think?

See also:

Google Halloween versus Bing Halloween.  Who wins?

Happy Halloween! Bing celebrates Halloween with a vampire bat

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