NOT for the first time the nationals are infatuated with a Google doodle. For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon, this is when Google dresses up its trademark name with a different image for a certain length of time. It’s a bit like the queen wearing a new hat only not quite so interesting . . .
Google’s theme today is based on the life of French author Jules Verne, so the name has been converted into interactive portholes in a submarine (yes, I know, real submarines don’t have portholes) – a nod towards one of his most famous novels, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
When Google decorates its logo it’s usually in celebration of an internationally-important event or significant anniversary. So what’s going on today? What does the Daily Mirror say?
Author Jules Verne is the inspiration for an animated doodle on Google’s homepage today – his 183rd birthday.
Right. So that’s it, then – his 183rd birthday. Bit obscure isn’t it? Surely the heavyweight nationals haven’t devoted acres of newsprint to such an insignificant anniversary. What about the Telegraph?
People with a traditional desktop computers can also interact with the doodle by moving the joystick on the right hand-side of the logo. This changes the view through the submarine windows to include different views of marine life.
Meanwhile, several thousand leagues to the south-east, a senior Google executive and anti-Mubarak demonstrator is released by the Egyptian authorities after being captured during protests in Cairo. Two protestors, sheltering behind the barricades in Tahrir Square and thumbing through the morning’s papers, are heard to say:
“Aziz, my friend. Look, they have freed Wael Ghonim. God be praised.”
“That’s nothing, Omar. Today is Jules Verne’s 183rd birthday. Let’s go home, I want to play with the interactive portholes and movable joystick.”
- More acres of newsprint wasted on a Google doodle.
