G o o g l e D o o d l e --- and Martha Graham : Today

We spend so many hours on Computer and not a single day passes by without searching something [not the searches of vehicle keys, purse, mobile and more material things when we start for office !] in google. 

When you do so – have not you noticed the space where you type your search.  The page is not plain.  It has Google logo and many a times animated expressions – which keep changing.  Google has had several logos since its renaming from BackRub. The founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin had nicknamed their search engine ‘backrub’ as the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site.   The logo presently on was designed by Ruth Kedar, and is a wordmark based on the Catull typeface.  Google also uses various modifications / humorous features for use on special days.   These special logos, some designed by Dennis Hwang, have become known as Google Doodles.

If you have observed, today [11th May 2011]  Google featured an animated google doodle featuring dancing women spelling out the name of the search engine with their bodies.  Really cute indeed.  It is to commemorate the American dancer and Choreographer – Martha Graham on her 117th birthday.   Google search reveals that the  five movements by the women in the doodle were actually devised by Graham in the 1920s and 1930s before being copied by dance companies all over the world.

Martha Graham is considered one of the pioneering figures of modern dance. She choreographed some 180 pieces and collaborated with  composers like Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber. She retired as a dancer in the early 1970s, but continued to create new pieces well into her tenth decade.  Graham danced and choreographed for over 70 years and was the first dancer to perform at the White House. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by President Ford.

Graham died on April 1, 1991 at the age of 96. In 1998 Time magazine named her as the “Dancer of the Century”.   Her influence on dance has been compared to the influence Stravinsky had on music, Picasso had on the visual arts, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.

The doodles on Google homepage are intended to provide more fun and enjoyment whilst searching on Google.  They are extremely popular among the users and many eagerly await the release of  each new doodle.   There have been special ones on the beginning of Spring, Albert Einstein's birthday, or the 50th anniversary of understanding DNA.  Google doodles have been produced for the birthdays of several noted artists and scientists, including  Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Rabindranath Tagore, Louis Braille,  H. G. Wells, Samuel Morse, Hans Christian Ørsted, Mohandas Gandhi, and Jules Verne among others.

Theme – the 1^st man in Space

Celebrating Holi “the google way’

the birthday of Isaac Newton.

It all started way back in 1998 when the founders played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. A stick figure drawing was placed behind the 2nd "o" in the word, Google and the revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were “out of office.”

For the celebration of Earth Hour, the white background was transformed black to symbolize "the turning off of lights".

There is so much of learning even in fun – if only we are able to observe lot of things

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.