subject: Google Doodles and the Investors Behind Them [print this page] Google has long been known to beloved users and to this writer as prettymuch the only search engine with personality, to internet and tech speculators as a business and industry innovator, and to early stock investors as an absolutely boon for their retirement accounts. Probing all 3 could give us some insight into the big G's think tank and whatever the big announcement the company is expected to release today at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, and could result in a nice bump in the stock price.
You've undoubtedly seen and enjoyed the "Google Doodles" on holidays, which refer to the cute and commemorative animations that appear on Google's homepage just above the search box periodically. Whether it be Santa on a sled overtop a home with the Christmas lights spelling out the company's name, or more recently, their April Fool's joke logos (this year Google "announced" on July 1st they would be switching names with Topeka, Kansas, citing, "Topeka voted to bring super-fast broadband to the residents of the Capital city through a program Google has launched; Google was flattered and wanted to return a nice gesture. Topeka, in return, would rename themselves Google, Kansas"), Google loves to display those doodles.
The Google Doodles are at it again, but with no specific holiday or event to attribute the new doodles to, Internet-wide speculation has been sparked and the rumors are flying. You may have noticed yesterday on the Google homepage the flash animation above the search box of little colored balls that would fly in every direction when a mouse barreled through them, only to settle into the familiar Google logo we're used to on boring and uneventful days.
The Google logo is all grey upon first impression. Start typing, however, and the letters begin to colorize. So, why all the effort?
Today, Google is taking over the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco for a search event led by some of the company's top executives and engineers. The event was announced last Friday, and via a Twitter message, Google hinted the company has an announcement to make, but it's really anyone's guess.
It's obvious to me that Google has some feature or product or update they will be rolling out, and the doodles and Twitter messages is their way of saying "it's something big". The animations have one thing in common an example of how the interface and components of a web page can be manipulated without actually clicking anything. While that may be old technology (Adobe pioneered Flash years ago), it's technology that Google has never particularly embraced.
