Google Doodle
Have you looked at google doodle lately? To a lot of people, it is the most obvious thing, while for some others, and I am surprised at this; they don’t know what google doodle is. So, to simplify my life (wink, wink, doc), I am not going to assume any previous knowledge and explain it all. Especially, someone told me, when you ass – u – me, you make an ass out of you and me! 😊
What is Google Doodle?
A google doodle is a work of art that you see at the google logo when you land on the web page. It is as old as google, perhaps older. Incidentally today, as I landed on google (which is my home page on Chrome) I learned that it is google’s 22nd birthday. And they celebrated with the following doodle!
In 1998, before the company was even incorporated, the concept of the doodle was born when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. They placed a stick figure drawing behind the 2nd "o" in the word, Google, and the revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were "out of office.". While the first doodle was relatively simple, the idea of decorating the company logo to celebrate notable events was born.
So, it hit me that I should write something about it. Among many features of google, doodle is one thing I really enjoy. It is the first thing I see every morning as I look at the computer. Google doodle is now a contest, that virtually any kid in the United States can participate. The prize money is substantial. It is $50,000 and the winner’s school gets it.
Doodle for Google is an annual contest open to students in grades K-12. Students are invited to create their own Google Doodle for the chance to have it featured on Google.com, as well as win some great scholarships and tech packages for their schools.
Why Google Doodle is important to me?
Doodles made my day every morning! It is often the most positive and informative start I do for my day. Often, I know nothing about the doodle, I click on it and learn about it. Sometimes, if the subject is new, I spent 30 min researching it. Other times, if I know the subject, it just works like a positive wave that washes over me. There is an archive of google doodle which I visit from time to time. It is surprising to see, there are so many excellent doodles that do not make the cut due to steep competition!
Although I focused on the kid’s contest, as I have kids of that age at home, but google doodle is also featured by some by Google employees and some by outside artists. I remember some of the notable ones like the one by Ramona Ring recently featuring the German-Jewish poet Mascha Kaléko. I never even knew about Mascha Kaleko’s name before seeing the doodle, forget about reading. But after the doodle, I looked up both Kaleko and Ring, and studied both theirs works. That is the power of google doodle in my opinion.
I will finish with my thought about the first image. A doodle created by a kid from Texas. An immigrant kid named Sharon Kaur Sara. Any other times I wouldn’t have mentioned the ‘immigrant’ part, because that would be obvious to me, I always thought. Unfortunately, we are living at the different time, not just in the US, but all over the world. And we can’t leave the stage empty unfortunately. So, it is important to iterate who we are and where we come from. That doodle from that little girl from Texas says a lot. It talks about sticking together with your friends during difficult times. It talks about sticking together not because how you look like but because of your personalities. I believe what we are trying to do at hive is exactly that. I am hopeful.
We rarely get to see a google doodle nowadays Dada:( a few years ago it was everyday, a new day a new doodle- customized specially for the region. But with Covid these subtle delights are now nonexistent:(
I looked up burning man online after you mentioned it. And oh boy, I am amazed:P Kinda like dusheera where Ravan is burned!!
Burning man is a big deal! It’s an American icon. There are a lot of good thing about this country. We won’t let them destroy it all ;)
What has Covid got to do with google doodle?
Cant exactly tell what is wrong but before covid there were customized doodles about everyday ranging from anniversaries of poplar poets, icons to festivities.. But after covid hit, i havent seen any doodle except if I use vpns! Maybe something's wrong with my ISP!!
But dada, is it fair that the winner's school gets the entire prize?
Also, why don't you ask your daughter to participate? I liked the designs she did on your coffee mugs.
She did... didn’t win.
Yes it is fair that the school gets the prize. It’s deliberate and I like it a lot. Teaches them to win for the team dactar.
If everyone in Liverpool plays for themselves will Liverpool win?
It makes sense, now that I know schools are run well in the US dada. I was saying from the perspective of how things are run here.
For the greater good.
Take a look at this one:
https://www.google.com/doodles/60th-anniversary-of-stanislaw-lems-first-publication
Of course! Solaris is my all time favorite! I am sure you probably guessed it :)