google doodle

Today's Google Doodle honors the birth of a computer visionary who believed such machines could be more than just number crunchers.

Born December 10, 1815, Ada Lovelace is perhaps best known for her contributions toward Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, Designed but never actually built until 1991, the Analytical Engine is in many ways one of the ancestors of today's computer systems.

A mathematician and writer, Lovelace took on the task of first translating and then expanding upon an article describing the Analytical Engine. Her notes contains what some people think of as early computer progams or algorithms, … Read more

Let Google eat cake. Today, the Web giant turns 14 years old, and to celebrate, it's serving up an animated chocolate cake filled with Google-colored candles on its homepage.

It seems like just yesterday that the tech company was born, and now it's old enough to go to high school.

Last year when Google officially became a teenager, it celebrated with a doodle that showed a cake, some balloons, candles, and a few party hats -- but it wasn't animated. Apparently, this year it has upped its sophistication.

Google's ingenious marketing and creative departments -- the folks who tirelessly reinvent the company's logo in the form of "doodles" (and by so doing seem to have taken branding to a whole new realm) -- have produced a new and equally irresistible gimmick.

This time around, as noticed by AllThingsD's Mike Isaac, it's a change to the Google home page's iconic "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

When you mouse-over the button, it "spins" like the display on a slot machine and stops on any one of several "I'… Read more

Google's latest Doodle celebrates the birthday of one of history's most famous pilots.

Commemorating the 115th birthday of Amelia Earhart, today's Google Doodle portrays the pilot with her scarf fluttering in the wind as she stands next to a Lockheed Vega 5b, the same plane she flew when she completed her cross-Atlantic trip in 1932.

Earhart followed that voyage, in 1935, by becoming the first person to fly along across the Pacific. Of course, the aviatrix is better known today for her tragic disappearance in 1937 when she and navigator Fred Noonan attempted to fly around the … Read more

Normally, when Google creates doodles, it uses its brains to create art that everyone can grasp and feel.

For tomorrow in the U.S. (and today in places like New Zealand), however, the company has decided to offer no such creative mercies.

June 23, 2012 would have been the 100th birthday of Alan Turing. And you can hardly celebrate his memory with something fluffy and brightly colored.

Instead, there are a series of 1s and 0s and arrows pointing to left and right.

Here's what I know: there is a green start button, which I am sure one is … Read more

Leap years only come along every four years, so they're worth celebrating.

Google made that much clear today with a special doodle honoring the oh-so-rare 29th of February. But lest you think that such an event isn't by itself worthy of one of the search giant's whimsical home page graphics, their work today does double duty: It also observes the 220th birthday of famed Italian composer Gioachino Rossini.

Though most of Google's doodles (see video above) are single purpose, the company once in a while decides to kill two birds with one stone. For example, in … Read more

Fancy a bit of fun? Then hit play on our video to see the Google home page come alive in colorful fashion as we count down our five favorite Google doodles.

The Google doodle is a playful remix of the Google logo found on the search giant's otherwise crisp white home page. Doodles pop up to mark an event and can be a splash of cheery art, an animated video, or a fun little game--but with one thing in common. They're a welcome burst of sunshine from the big G.

Read more of "Google doodles top 5 in video" at Crave UK. … Read more

Thanksgiving is all about sharing and being grateful.

So might I share Google's Thanksgiving doodle, for whose sheer exuberance I am very grateful.

It seems like just another colorful turkey. And then one notices that it enjoys rather nicely coiffed long hair, from a Twiggy-sponsored salon in the 1960s.

Because one assumes it is necessary to do these things, one clicks on the logo to discover that the turkey's feathers rapidly change color.

With more clicks, the hairdo changes, too--at one point, it even goes bald with an eye-patch.

However, what is most moving for those who enjoy … Read more

Halloween is supposed to be a time of foreboding.

Monsters will creep up behind you and frighten you. Zombies from a Michael Jackson music video will haunt you, just as you sip your margarita.

But Google is too nice to do that. Googlies are lovely people who just want the world to be a more beautiful and scientific place.

So the Halloween Google doodle is a sweet, innocent affair.

On the Google blog, doodler Sophia Foster-Dimino explains that she and her fellow scribblers got a hold of half a dozen pumpkins from Half Moon Bay, Calif., and spent 8 hours … Read more