Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Eadweard J. Muybridge's 182nd Birthday Doodle (April 9, 2012)

On April 9 this year, Google surprised us with a new and very well done animated logo, a tribute to Eadweard Muybridge. Press Play on the Doodle below!


Many of you are probably asking yourselves, who is this person? Well, he was a pioneer of filming, being the inventor of a method that allowed a rudimentary form of filming that pre-dates the perforated flexible film strip used in modern cinematography. He was also a gifted photographer and is very well known for his work in that area.

Eadweard Muybridge.

Now, why did Google choose these horse images for its doodle? Well, here is the story: In 1872, a rich horseowner hired Muybridge to do some photographic studies on his horses. The issue was to determine who was right on a popular debate by those days conserning horses: Do horses all four feet are off the ground when they trot and gallop, or do they always leave on foot on the floor? The human eye was incapable of capturing such details, and most artists seemed to paint horses always with one foot on the ground while at trot, and when at full gallop, they were usually painted with the forward legs extended forward, and the rear legs extended behind, of course all of them off the ground.

Muybridge used his camera system to photograph horses at various moments in a short time, thus proving that horses lift all their feet from the ground while trotting or galloping.


Muybridge's "The Horse in Motion".


So there you have it, now you know why all the horses. Thank you Google for such an awesome Doodle, and for letting us know a bit more about important inventors from our past!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Mother's Day Doodle (May 13, 2012)

Yesterday May 13, Mother's day was celebrated in several countries:  Canada, Turkey, Italy, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brunei, Australia, Singapore, Slovenia, China, Chile, Puerto Rico, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Denmark, Philippines, Finland, United States,Vietnam, Croatia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Brazil, Estonia, Uruguay, India, Malaysia, Austria, Latvia, Colombia, Greece, Japan, Taiwan, Cyprus.





For such a special day, Google prepared an animated doodle that, although quite simple, is also very cute, and simbolizes in a few frames what being a mother is all about: Caring for your children. This celebrations do not occur on the same day on all countries, although most of them trace back to the same ancient greek festival, where they would honor the goddess Cybele. This festivity was later embraced by christianity, where the first christians used to celebrate "Mothering Sunday" on the 4th Sunday in the Lent.


This is a non animated doodle that Google used for Mother's Day on 2011.

Closer to our days, the American Mother's Day was instituted by  Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908 as a day to honor's one mother.

Hope you enjoyed your day with your mom!



Pac-Man Doodle (May 22, 2011)

Today I bring you one of the most succesfull doodles ever: The Pac-Man Doodle.





On May 22 Google honored the famous Pac-Man videogame with this amazing interactive doodle (press the 'Insert Coin' button and it actually works!).


This date was chosen because it was on the same day, but on 1980, when Namco released for the first time, in Japan, this arcade game that is arguably, until today, the most famous videogame in history. One of the main virtues of Pac-Man was opening up the market to both genders, since it had been aimed at male consumers since its beginnings. Other notable achievements of this game are in its earnings, having Namco reported gross earnings of more than U$S 2.5 billion (yes, billions) by 1.990.


The original Ms. Pacman arcade machine, by Midway.

After its debut, Pac-Man became a famous character and has since appeared in many other sequels and spin-offs, being perhaps Ms. Pac-Man the most famous of them all. It is funny to notice that this game was entirely produced and developed by Midway, not Namco, and was at first unauthorized. This shows clearly how the game appealed to female gamers, and Midway promptly got that message and got to work on a protagonist with which girls could identify themselves.



Google's Doodles!

Hello ladies and gentlemen! In this site, I will review some of the best doodles that we can find on special dates on the Google homepage. But first, a bit of history:

What is a doodle? Well, according to Google itself, they are fun, surprising and even spontaneous changes that their logo goes through when there is some kind of special celebration, anniversary, holiday, or when for some reason we remember on that day the life and/or death of famous artists, scientist, and different personalities from all areas of human culture.


This is what the Google logo looked like when the first doodle was created.




This idea came up on 1998, even before Google was founded, when they started playing with the Burning Man festival that is celebrated in Nevada. They placed the typical drawing of the burning man behind the second "o" from the word Google. Their goal was to send a message to their, by then, few users, that the founders wheren't in the office. The idea stuck and, from then on, Google has been changing its logo to celebrate different dates and events.


This is the "burning man" doodle, the first ever created by Google.




Still, it took another two years until, in 2000, two of Google's founders asked their current webmaster to create a doodle for the Day the Bastille was taken by french revolutionaries. That doodle was so well received by the general public that the person who drew it was named officially named as Google's Doodler.




This is the first Doodle created by the official doodler, Dennis Hwang.






Doodles starting appearing regularly on Google's homepage and, even when at first they only celebrated special dates andholidays, today they represent a huge number of events all across different countries and cultures. In time, the demand for Doodles was so large that Google put a whole team to work on them. In fact, there are over 1000 (that is, one thousand!) different doodles.

Even though there is a professional team of designers, engineers, programmers, and many other people working on doodles, you can send your own idea. Google does not guarantee that your idea will be used, but they do guarantee that your message will be read.


This is a very early Doodle, the second ever made, to celebrate Thanksgiving in 1998.


So there it is folks, a brief history on Doodles, hope you liked it, and look forward to many more updates with new doodles as they come out, and some classic ones for us to enjoy!