Chinese Lantern Festival

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/lanternfestival10-hp.gif

Happy Holi!

This year, not even the orkut homepage was spared. As you can see, the orkut logo has been splattered with color too:

National Day of Kuwait

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/kuwaitnatlday2-10-hp.gif

26 February is Liberation Day, from Iraq 1991.

Happy Independence Day Estonia!

It's Independence Day in Estonia and the celebrations are going on in full force. Morning parades, the presidential reception, festive parties, and of course national flags abound throughout the country.

The orkut team wanted to show our appreciation for our Estonian members and created a special doodle to mark the occasion:

The Estonian Declaration of Independence, also known as the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia (Estonian: Manifest Eestimaa rahwastele), is the founding act of the Republic of Estonia from 1918. It is celebrated on 24 February, the National Day or Estonian Independence Day.

The declaration was drafted by the Salvation Committee elected by the elders of the Estonian Provincial Assembly. Originally intended to be proclaimed on 21 February 1918, the proclamation was delayed until the evening of 23 February, when the manifesto was printed and read out aloud publicly in Pärnu. On the next day, 24 February, the manifesto was printed and distributed in the capital, Tallinn. [Read more on Wikipedia]

For Google, doodles are oodles of surprise

Think back to those doodles you've inked in the margins of your notepad in school, at work or while listening on the phone.

Now imagine more than a billion people looking at your doodles in a given day. Better yet, imagine getting paid for them.

Micheal Lopez, who heads
the team of doodlers at Google,
never takes credit for his doodles.
It's a team effort, he says.

This happens at Google. The search-engine giant has a team of doodlers who brighten Google's plain home page with colorful illustrations -- all of them variations on the word "Google" -- for holidays and special events such as the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

During the Olympics, which end Sunday, that means a different home-page doodle -- depicting everything from curling to hockey -- for each of the 17 days of the games. There's no set number on how many doodles Google does in a year, although the creations are appearing on its site more often. (Click here for a Google doodle history.) However, there is one rule for how a doodle should look: It must incorporate some form of the word "Google."

"We have a lot of fun and we like to innovate," says Micheal Lopez, the Web designer who heads the small team of doodlers based at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Lopez says employees from all over Google contribute ideas for doodles. On a few occasions, guest artists such as Jim Lee of DC Comics or Eric Carle, author of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," also have contributed doodles.

CNN talked with Lopez about why Google, which is known for its clean Web design, changes its logo and what the company hopes to communicate to its users through the doodles.

Why change the Google logo?

Because it's fun. I think that was the idea early on way back when [Google co-founder] Sergey [Brin] did our first doodle [in 1998] for the Burning Man [an annual festival in the Nevada desert]. It was a fun way to tell our users where they were going for the day. That basically translates into the holidays and celebrating different events, things that are relative to the culture.

How do you come up with ideas for doodles?

We all have our own ways of coming up with inspiration, but for me it's definitely doing the research into that particular culture or that particular day or that particular holiday. If it's a holiday that is recurring such as Valentine's Day or a Halloween doodle, I think one of the things that we always try to do is to come up with something fresh and new. And the way we get inspired to do things like that are just collaborative. We just bounce ideas off each other.

Do you ever take stances on social or political issues with doodles?

We'd probably never do that. Again, we're not trying to make any kind of statement. We want to celebrate things that are fun and a reflection of the Google culture.

When you say Google culture, what do you mean?

There's a certain fun and quirkiness involved in everything we typically do. We do a lot of collaboration. The environment here at Google revolves around innovation and technology and that's what we try to reflect through our doodles. We try to reflect that particular type of culture. That's why we celebrate a lot of inventors. We do a lot of technology doodles.

[via CNN]

Happy Carnaval!

The beat of the drums is booming from the streets, tambourines are in hand, and the rhythms of samba, frevo and axé are making the whole country want to dance. It’s Carnaval in Brazil! Get your costume ready, buy some confetti and you'll be all set to lose yourself in one of the world's largest parties.

Celebrations can be found all over Brazil, from parades in small towns to the samba schools and wild street parties of major cities like Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Recife. Hoping for your own piece of Carnaval fun? Look no further than the special doodle the orkut team has created for the orkut sign-in page:

Happy Valentine's Day

Source: http://s.ytimg.com/yt/img/logo-valentines2010-vfl145896.png

Lunar New Year

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/lunarnewyear10-hp_ud.gif

It's Valentine's Day!

Google Pulls Olympic Luge Logo After Backlash

Google posted a Vancouver Winter Olympics-themed search page logo featuring a luge athlete this morning just one day after 21-year old Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili died while practicing on the world’s longest luge drop.

The logo was replaced with a similar one depicting a snowboarder instead of a luger. The New York Daily News managed to find a picture of the logo that was pulled; you can see both the new graphic and the original one below.

After Google posted the logo, many people called it poor taste on Twitter. User jennytondera tweeted, “google luge logo. really, google? not okay.” On the other hand, some other folks took it to be a fitting tribute.

Individual sensibilities differ regarding this, but Google apparently decided to play it safe by replacing the logo. What do you think — fitting tribute or bad taste? [via Mashable]

Original Logo: Luge - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-luge-hp.png

New Logo: Snowboarding - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-snowboarding-hp.png

Lunar New Year's Eve

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/lunarnewyearseve10-hp.gif

2010 Winter Olympics

Opening Ceremony - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-opening-hp.png

Snowboarding - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-snowboarding-hp.png

Pairs Skating - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-prsskating-hp.png

Cross Country Skiing - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-xcskiing-hp.png

Curling - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-curling-hp.png

Skiing - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-xcskiiing2-hp.png

Skeleton - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-skeleton-hp.png

Alpine Skiing - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-apskiing-hp.png

Ski Jumping - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-skijump-hp.png

Bobsleigh - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-bobsleigh-hp.png

Figure Skating - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-icedance-hp.png

Freestyle Skiing - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-freestyleski-hp.png

Ice Hockey - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-hockey-hp.png

Nordic Combined - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-nordic-hp.png

Short Track - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-shorttrack-hp.png

Speed Skating - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-sskating-hp.png

Closing Ceremony - Source: http://www.google.com/logos/olympics10-closing-hp.png

The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands, and in the resort town of Whistler. Approximately 2,600 athletes from 82 nations participated in 86 events in fifteen disciplines. Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games were being organized by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC). The 2010 Winter Olympics were the third Olympics hosted by Canada and the first by the province of British Columbia. Previously, Canada hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. [Read more on Wikipedia]

The 2010 Winter Olympics logo,named Ilanaaq the Inukshuk.

Carnival

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/carnival10-hp.gif

The Winter Games have arrived on orkut

Even in places where "winter" means occasionally putting on a thin sweater, the Winter Games are attracting an ever larger fanbase. While a few of the 15 sports aren't the most familiar ones (ever heard of Skeleton before?), you can use orkut to learn more and get engaged by joining the Winter Olympics 2010 community.

Napoleon Orda's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/orda10-hp.gif

Napoleon Orda (February 11, 1807 – April 26, 1883) was a Polish-Lithuanian musician, pianist, composer and artist.

Napoleon Orda was born in the village of Varacevičy in the Pinsk district of Minsk guberniya (now Ivanava Raion, Brest voblast, Belarus) in his father's manor. His father Michał Orda was an impoverished noble and the marshal of the powiat of Kobryn. After finishing Svislach gymnasium in 1823, he started mathematical studies at the Vilno University. However, his university career came to an end on August 27th, 1826 when he was arrested by the Russian secret police for taking part in an secret student society "Zarane", which was active in Svislach and Belastok gymnasiums. Although he was released soon afterwards, he was expelled from the university and was not allowed to continue his studies. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Orda on a 19th century lithograph

New Year Celebration: Window Paper Cutout

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/papercut10-hp.gif

Chinese Paper Cutting or Jianzhi (Chinese: 剪纸, jiǎn zhǐ) is the first type of papercutting design, since paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty in China. The art form later spread to other parts of the world with different regions adopting their own cultural styles. Because the cut outs are also used to decorate doors and windows, they are sometimes referred to "chuāng huā" (窗花), meaning Window Flower. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Natsume Soseki's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/soseki10-hp.gif

Natsume Sōseki (夏目 漱石, February 9, 1867 – December 9, 1916), born Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目 金之助), is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period (1868–1912). He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1000 yen note. [Read more on Wikipedia]

Natsume Sōseki in 1912

Sami National Day

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/saminationalday10-hp.gif

The Sami National Day falls on February 6 as this date was when the first Sámi congress was held in 1917 in Trondheim, Norway. This congress was the first time that Norwegian and Swedish Sámi came together across their national borders to work together to find solutions for common problems.

In 1992, at the 15th Sámi Conference in Helsinki, a resolution was passed that Sámi National Day should be celebrated on February 6 to commemorate the 1st Sámi congress in 1917. Sami National Day is for all Sámi, regardless of where they live and on that day the Sámi flag should be flown and the Song of the Sami People is sung in the local Sámi language. The first time Sami National Day was celebrated was in 1993, when the International Year of Indigenous People was proclaimed open in Jokkmokk, Sweden by the United Nations.

Since then, celebrating the day has become increasingly popular. In Norway it is compulsory for municipal administrative buildings to fly the Sami flag on February 6. Particularly notable is the celebration in Norway's capital Oslo, where the bells in the highest tower of Oslo City Hall play the Sámi soga lávlla as the flags go up. Some larger places have taken to arranging festivities also in the week around the Sami National Day.

Through pure synchronicity, this date also happened to be when representatives of the Sámi of the Kola Peninsula used to gather annually, meeting with Russian bureucrats to debate and decide on issues of relevance to them. This organ, called the Koladak Sobbar, has been dubbed the 'first Sámi Parliament' by the researcher Johan Albert Kalstad. This did not influence the choice of the date as the Sámi People's Day, since the people present did not know about it - the Koladak Sobbar only existed during the late 19th century, and was only 'rediscovered' by Kalstad in the current Millennium

Doodle 4 Google New Zealand

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/d4g_nz10-hp.gif

Norman Rockwell's Birthday

Source: http://www.google.com/logos/rockwell10-hp.gif

Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter (although his Rosie was reproduced less than others of the day), Saying Grace (1951), and the Four Freedoms series. He is also noted for his work for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA); producing covers for their publication Boys' Life, calendars, and other illustrations. [Read more on Wikipedia]