Coming off the holiday weekend, Google's homepage on Tuesday featured a doodle with a variety of fast-moving, colored balls. While some speculated the interactive logo was in honor of Google's 12th birthday, the company was coy when asked about its homepage.
"Today's doodle is fast, fun, and interactive, just the way we think search should be," a Google spokesman said in a statement.
The doodle features the Google logo spelled out in colorful balls. Hover your mouse over the name and the balls run all over the screen (below), almost looking to escape from the mouse cursor, before settling back down.
It's obviously a slow news day because theories about this mysterious logo have been popping up all over the Web throughout the morning. Some speculated that the feature is in celebration of Google's 12th birthday, but the exact date of Google's origins vary from Sept. 4, 1998 to Sept. 27, 1998.
Google's Web site reportedly used to say: "Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake." At this point, Google's corporate information page just says Larry Page and Sergey Brin "brought Google to life in September 1998," while the only specific date mentioned on its Google milestones page says that Google filed for incorporation in California on September 4.
Other theories? Google is highlighting its advances in HTML5, or prepping for a Wednesday, search-related press event at its headquarters. PCMag will be at that event, so stay tuned for the news.
In related news, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt gave the closing keynote at the IFA conference in Berlin Tuesday morning, where he discussed "augmented humanity" – or a time when "computers will work for us and they'll make it possible for us to do the things we really want to do."
For Google, this means the company is "trying very hard to get you something fast," Schmidt said. "Never underestimate the importance of fast – speed matters because your time matters."
This is not the first time Google has made headlines with its homepage doodle. In May, Google turned Google.com into a playable Pac-Man game in honor of the game's 30th anniversary. The feature was so popular that Google turned it into a permanent fixture at Google.com/Pacman. A report later said the Google Pac-Man game wasted 4.8 million hours of productivity.
Every year Google also hosts a "Doodle 4 Google" competition, which awards college scholarships and technology grants to students that participate in the drawing contest. This year's winner was Makenzie Melton, a Missouri third grader.
