Way to spice up a web search, Google

Generation Y, we've all used it: Google. We all can recognize that familiar simple yet colorful logo when we surf the web. Heck, we've turned it into a verb.

Have you ever gone on the site and seen something different?

Yes, it's usually something clever for Christmas or Easter and just recently, election day.

Have you other logged on to see something like this?

Now, most millennials don't really stop to appreciate the creative logo tweak because, let's face it, we go to Google to find things on the web, not look at artwork right? Well, before you hit that search button, maybe you should appreciate that pretty little "Google doodle" (as they've been affectionately called by the creators.)

I came across this lovely little article called “30 Google Doodles We Love: Could Your Kid’s be Next?” The title caught my attention because Google is such a familiar company and as an art major, “Doodles” caught my attention as well. The purpose of the article was to announce a competition for school children to design the next altered logo, but before it announced the guidelines, it took some time to analyze some “Google doodles” from the past ten years.

You may not realize it, but most Google doodles have a reason behind them. Christmas, Easter, Veterans Day, etc. Those ones are obvious. Google Doodles often recreate pieces of art in the logo design.

It may seem like a clever design, but it is also a tribute to the original artist. Logos inspired by artists like Michelangelo, Picasso, and Munch are used on the birthdays of such people.

Google also celebrates the birthdays of other historical people such as Albert Einstein, Gaston Julia (the mathematician who devised equations for fractals), Louis Braille, Ray Charles, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Google even takes the time to celebrate the anniversaries of historical events such as the 50th anniversary of understanding DNA, the 50th anniversary of Sputnik (the first man-made orbiting satellite), and also the 50th anniversary of NASA.

What is it that makes Google different from other media? There are hundreds of other search engines on the internet. Most of them contain other pictures and text on the page besides the search engine. Often the pictures and text deal with recent news stories, shopping tips, or sports news. You’ll never see a tribute to a famous artist or scientist.

Even with a simple logo change, Google reminds us where we’ve come from. If it wasn’t for great people like Einstein our world would be much different. While other media are glorifying current events, Google is glorifying history.

So, thank you, Google, for taking the time to remind us of our past as well as giving us something pretty to look at when we surf the web.