London 2012 Hurdles Doodle (August 8, 2012)

After a few static doodles, Google finally gave us what we were all waiting for: interactive, animated doodles! I was really hoping that the company would gift us with one of us, since the times they did it, they came out really good. We all remember the Pacman Doodle from a couple of months before.

This time, the sport that is being tributed is Hurdles, which had already been used in Athens 2004, but nowhere else. Here is that old doodle:

Athens 2004 Hurdles doodle

No doubt we have a winner on which is best here, and I hope for the next few days google surprises us with more interactive doodles. How far can you get? I am struggling to get past the silver medal!

London 2012 Fencing Doodle (July 30, 2012)

Continuing withllympic doodle series, Google has gifted us today with a very nice looking doodle, celebrating the sport called fencing. Here it is:

2012 Olympic Fencing Doodle

Although the characters on it look a bit like astronauts in my opinion, the doodle itself looks overall pretty good, with a nice color choice, and the detail of one of the contenders using the "l" from Google as a sword. I have to say that, along with the diving doodle, this has been so far my favorite.

Still, this is not the first doodle in commemoration of this sport that we have seen. On Athens 2004's Olympic games, we had this:

2004 Olympic Fencing Doodle

Although the image is much smaller, and clearly a bit more rustic (like all doodles from those times), I find the characters quite nice, and actually like it better than the new one. What do you people think?

London 2012 Diving Doodle (July 29, 2012)

When I saw this doodle todaI immediately thought of swimming, but after hovering my mouse over it, i realized that today's doodle is related to diving.

2012 Olympic Diving Doodle

A olympic sport, it was first introduced in 1904, at the St. Louis Olympic Games in the US, and have remained since. It was then known as "fancy diving", because of the stunts performed by the athletes that practice this discipline.

I have to say, this doodle is, so far, the one that I have liked the most from this olympic series.  In truth, although I found the first one quite unappealing, they have improved by a lot. It certainly is a big improvement over the one that was used for the 2008 Beijng Olympic games, which for *some* reason has a gg on it. Check it out:

2008 Olympic Diving Doodle

The 2000 Olympic doodle related to diving also featured an animal, but this time a kangaroo which is clearly associated with Australia, the host country, so I guess it makes a lot more sense.

2000 Olympic Diving Doodle

Father's Day Doodle (June 23rd, 2012)

On June 23, in Poland, Google decided to honor that country's date for the Father's Day with this cute doodle. I am taking the opportunity to tell you people a bit about  the origin of this day.

Apparently, the idea occured to a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, from Washington, who wanted to pay tribute to his father, a war veteran names Henry Jackson Smart, who after his wife passed, devoted his life to taking care of his children, fulfilling the role both as a father and a mother, as best as he could. The date is chosen after the birthday of Henry J. Smart, which was on June 5th. Some time after the initiative was first proposed, US president Lyndon Johnson took the decision of instituting the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day, and that costume remains in much of the western world.

Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (July 27, 2012)

On this day, Google made a doodle which surprised me quite a bit. For one of the most important events in the year, worldwide, they used a pretty simple doodle. Here it is:

2012 London Olympic Games

Clearly, it simbolizes the spirit of every race in the world competing in different sports, but I am not so sure that the magnitude of the event is actually simbolized in such a simple doodle. The art is nothing amazing either. I think that the 2008 doodle for this event was a bit better. Judge yourselves:

2008 Beijing Olympic Games Doodle

Although smaller, I think it had more to do with the ceremony in itself, and the art is way more original too. Still, you could say that the new one makes better use of colors, and better represents the spirit of the competition, but I feel it falls a bit short. I even liked the 2004 doodle better:

2004 Athens Olympic Games Doodle.

Certainly these doodles have improved a lot over the first ones, as you can see here in the doodle from the year 2000:

2000 Sidney Olympic Games Doodle

This doodles are great to see how much google has progressed on their doodles, and how a lot more work has been put into them as time passed. In the next days, Google will upload different doodles referencing different olympic disciplines, so look out for daily updates for the next month or so.

See ya!

Jean-Jacques Rousseau 300th Birthday Doodle (June 28th, 2012)

On June 20, Google made this gorgeous doodle to pay tribute to one of the fathers of liberalism and modern national states: Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, on 1712, he was a writer, phillosopher and musician, of french heritage, he was an integral part of the illuminist movement that shook europe on the XVIII century. In facy of his ideas where greatly influential during the French Revolution, conspiring to create a nationalist and republican feeling throughout the "common people".

Portrait of J.J. Rousseau.

Rousseau is commonly studied by practically every student in the world, mainly because of the "social contract" theory, and his claim that man is, by nature, good-willed.

Gustav Klimt's 150th Birthday (July 14th, 2012)

On July the 14th, Google decided to pay tribute to the iconic vienesse painter, Gustav Klimt. He was born that very same day, july the 14th, and is recognized for being one of the most important figures of the movernist movement. Often inspired by the naked female body, Klimt is known not only for his murals and paintings in canvas, but also for several decoration objects.

Klimt was also a founding member of the movement known as the Wiener Sezession, a group of artists formed in 1897, which appeared as an independent alternative for artists promoted by the Vienese Academy, of which Klimt had been part.

Here are some of the most recognized pieces of art by Klimt:

"Tree of Life"

"Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer"

And finally, his most famous piece and the one that inspires today's Doodle:

"The Kiss"

Amelia Earhart's 115º Birthday Doodle (June 24, 2012)

On this day, Google decided to pay tribute to a woman which became a celebrity back in her day for pioneering aviation in the US (and all of the world, for that matter). She was famous for her records and for being the first person ever to try and fly around the world through the ecuatorial line.

In the early 20th century, women didn't have a lot of chances regarding their jobs: most of them were born and bred just to be housewives, but with the coming of the First World War, Amelia enrolled herself as a volunteer on nursing labors, where she had to help combat pilots that had been wounded in battle. She would later say that it was there where she got "stung by the bug of aviation". Some time after that, she moved with her family to Long Beach, California, and after taking a ten minute flight over the city of Los Angeles, she knew that her life would be forever tied to airplanes.

Although it was on 1922 that she got her first altitude record for flying at 14.000 ft., it wasn't until 1923 that she got her license as an airplane pilot, a feat that only fifteen women before her had accomplished. But it was in 1928 that a man called H. H. Railey asked her if she wanted to be the first woman in crossing the Atlantic Ocean by plane. The trip was completed with the help of two men, a pilot and a mechanic. And this would be what woul inspire Amelia to make yet another trip, this time to became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone. In 1932, on may 20, she did just that, and became the second person, only after Charles Lindbergh, to complete a trip over the Atlantic by herself. This trip would mean several records:

-First woman to fly over the Atlantic Ocean alone.

-First person to fly over the Atlantic Ocean twice.

-Fastest flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

-Longest distance ever flown by a woman without stopping.

Amelia Earhart in fron of one of her planes.

This remarkable woman's career came to a sudden and tragic end during her attempt to make the first flight around the ecuatorial line. After her first stop, leaving Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, her plane had mechanical problems and went out of control, with considerable damage. A member of the crew said Amelia was responsible for the accident. The plane was sent back for repairs and Amelia started planning for yet another attempt. This time, she would go east. She started the journey on Miami, and after visiting Puerto Rico, South America, Africa and several locations in Asia, she started to have some troubles associated with weather. Also, she got dysentery. This would start a series of unfortunate events that would end up with her disappearance when she was flying over Howland Island, on the Pacific. There have been many theories about her disappearence, but the official word is that her plane crashed, and although their remains where never found, a lighthouse was built on the site where she supposedly crashed.

Navigation chart with the Howland Island, where Amelia supposedly crashed, at the center.

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!

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!