Google Doodles

Part of my job is to look at fast moving search terms and try and figure out what the heck the internet is doing.

One huge source of traffic can be whenever Google puts up a 'Google Doodle' - a limited edition logo which is usually in celebration of somebody's birthday, Stravinsky, Hans Christian Orsted, Pac Man... It can be anything!

Today it is the 71st anniversary of the Wizard of Oz... What? It wasn't in your Google calendar?

To further celebrate, here is a picture from my gallery, of Dorothy's Ruby slippers from Washington's Smithsonian museum.



I specifically checked Google today, as this day last year, a ton of traffic came through Google due to the Perseids meteor shower, which is again tonight...

Sesame Street provided a rich seam of such logos late in 2009.

First up were Big Bird's legs seen representing the L of Google. Considering this logo was brought to us by the letter L and the number 2, it looks like someone in San Francisco needed to watch a little more of the educational show!

Next up in the UK was Cookie Monster, who got his own Google Doodle with some of the G's devoured by the anarchic blue biscuit fiend.

All this Sesame Street nostalgia, for a show which hasn't featured on UK TV since 2001 was quite suprising, but led to other aspects of the educational puppet show to come back to mind, like the fantastic pinball animation music.



Day 3 of the Google doodle series celebrated Bert and Ernie -the fuzzy haired couple who somewhat controversially co-habited happily for many years until many grouches (other than Oscar) found this politically incorrect.

In case you never figured it out, like me, Bert is the thin yellow one, Ernie is the friendlier orange one. Imagine me watching an episode of Lost...
Next up, it was Oscar, the grouch, himself adorning Google's search homepage.

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Elmo took centre stage over the weekend,



And then for Monday morning, it was Count Von Count bringing a little maths into the equation.

And possibly finally, a selection from the cast, as first lady Michelle Obama made a guest appearance on the show.

Back in England this week, it was Happy Birthday Wallace and Gromit! Google celebrated the UK's favourite clay dog and Northerner turning 20. 20! Yes, that means that for roughly 19 Christmases, families up and down the country have been glued in a post-turkey slump which is enlivened by the charming stop motion animation. In a world of ridiculous CGI and noisy robots, Wallace and Gromit make for a charming hour.

About the only franchise untarnished by Mel Gibson's recent involvement (Chicken Run, the multimillion dollar grossing movie from 2000), Nick Park's deservedly Oscar winning Aardman studios continue to create happy productions, so cheers to you, and see you at Christmas.