February 8, 2011

A very cool Google logo today.

Do you get it?



It's Jules Verne's birthday.

Begin reading:
The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumours which agitated the maritime population and excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several States on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter.

For some time past vessels had been met by "an enormous thing," a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale....

50 comments:

Lincolntf said...

Guessed it!

victoria said...

Me too!!!!


Cute


Vicki from Pasadena

Scott M said...

I didn't get it, but then again, I'm just not all that bright.

chuck said...

Jules Verne's birthday.

SteveR said...

Just don't do anything special for the birthday of the United States.

Fred4Pres said...

Captain Nemo was an eco terrorist!

Automatic_Wing said...

Damn, I guessed the Titanic...

Original Mike said...

Hey, the joystick works!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lincolntf said...

Loved 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when I was a kid. I also remember reading a sequel (Mysterious Island, maybe?) but I can't remember what I thought of it. Might be time for a re-read. Anyway, Nemo was one badass Hindu.

kimsch said...

vingt mille lieues sous les mers

wv: fenesore

chuck said...

Mysterious Island

I liked that one even more since it told how to make nitroglycerine. A kid has got to have dreams.

David said...

It's too deep for me.

Unknown said...

It's also on strategypage, so I caught it when I saw the fish, etc.

Agree with SteveR - will they do something like that for Lincoln or Washington?

Or Polk, on 11/2?

Big Mike said...

Hmmm. I vaguely remembered that the Trieste set the record for deepest dive (into the Marianas Trench) in the early 1960's and assumed that the logo had something to do with the 50th anniversary of that dive, particularly given the modern-looking (and working!) jobstick on the right.

But Nova's web site says that the Trieste's famous dive took place on January 23, 1960, so we're off by one year (and 18 days).

Gabriel Hanna said...

The joystick was nice. There's some little French guys on the bottom.

@SteveR, edutcher: Hell no. Google's a citizen of the WORLD.

Salamandyr said...

Google did see fit to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Kennedy's inauguration. Reagan's 100th, Pearl Harbor day, 9/11...not so much.

rhhardin said...

Rememeber the Maine

Salamandyr said...

I just pointed out to my wife that, considering my disdain for steampunk, it's ironic I share a birthday with Jules Verne.

knox said...

My husband is reading this book.

Triangle Man said...

@SteveR

They've done an Independence Day one every year since 2000. It's the Alamo and Pearl Harbor they forget.

Ankur said...

For those complainining they didn't do anything for the birthday of the united states: http://www.google.com/logos/logos10-3.html

Also, in general, google commemorates happy events rather than terrible events. I mean..how do you draw a goofy cartoony logo of pearl harbor? or 9/11? Also, they have a distinct tendency towards commemorating people/events that had something to do with innovation.

But they did have veterans day logo: http://www.cogzidel.com/blog/2011/01/google-pays-tribute-to-military-veterans-by-placing-special-logos/

Also, if there are certain days you want to be memorialized in logo form, send an email to proposals@google.com - if enough of you suggest something, it will eventually get posted.

For more details about their logo policy, look at http://www.google.com/logos/ and click on the Doodle History link

Peter Hoh said...

I'm not getting this joystick thing. Am I right to assume that it's part of the logo?

Ankur said...

Yes peter, you can pull it up/down/left/right to move your submarine.

Toad Trend said...

Commemorating 71% of Nevada homeowners being underwater???

Unknown said...

Ankur said...

For those complainining they didn't do anything for the birthday of the united states:

Also, in general, google commemorates happy events rather than terrible events. I mean..how do you draw a goofy cartoony logo of pearl harbor? or 9/11? Also, they have a distinct tendency towards commemorating people/events that had something to do with innovation.


Baloney!

Google's big PR is that they consider themselves citizens of the world, so they're above being proud of being an American company; of course, they have no compunctions about censoring content so they can do business with Red China.

The real issue is they don't have to do this. Bing doesn't snub the US and gets a lot of Google's old business because they're willing to go the traditional route (they did a nice one at Christmas of the Coliseum in Rome lit with white lights, symbolic and all).

They certainly get mine, and I really hate giving Gates and Ballmer any more money.

Peter Hoh said...

Ah. I was signed in and got the tiny logo. Signing out and viewing in classic mode got me the big logo with the joystick.

Way to go, Google. Make the user experience less fun for people who are signed in.

Fprawl said...

How can you get a comment deleted when talking about Jules Verne????? (comment #9)
What in the world could have been said?
I think i have seen the f-bomb in comments, so i am very curious (yellow)

Ankur said...

Yeah - google doing business in china despite censorship REALLY irks me.

Ankur said...

That's funny, Peter. I am signed in too, and yet I get the full logo when I go to google.com.

Peter Hoh said...

Fprawl, blogger's spam filter is nabbing legit comments with multiple links.

As an experiment, I will try to post a multi-link comment after this one.

Known Unknown said...

If you're on a laptop (or ipad I would assume) in Chrome, if you tilt it up and down, it works the joystick.

Known Unknown said...

Also, this logo was featured on google.nz yesterday, since they're a day ahead.

Peter Hoh said...

Random photo.

Random link about Olbermann.

Another random link from my favorite blog of oddities and other miscellanea.

And for good measure, here's one more.

Scott M said...

I'm seriously considering a Verizon-based 4G tablet this summer. There's simply too many cool things you can do with one.

Known Unknown said...

The real issue is they don't have to do this. Bing doesn't snub the US and gets a lot of Google's old business because they're willing to go the traditional route (they did a nice one at Christmas of the Coliseum in Rome lit with white lights, symbolic and all).

The problem is, Google's functionality is still better than Bing's.

I would love nothing more than to stop using Google.

Triangle Man said...

@fprawl

The comment was deleted by the author, not the administrator. Only t-man knows for sure why he deleted his comment.

Chip Ahoy said...

Fprawl, when Ann deletes a comment it says "Comment bitch slapped by moderator" or something. In this case the author deleted it themselves, second thoughts probably, punctuation or something.

I think there are quite a few people who believe that 20,000 leagues refers to depth. Fathoms was the measurement for depth, in English but apparently not in French. The greatest depth mentioned in the book is 4 lieues. The lieue at the time of the book is considered to be 4 kilometers, so 16 kilometers or just short of 10 miles.

20,000 French leagues of the day would be just short of twice Earth's circumference. Les mers is obviously plural so in English seven seas or more simply ocean.

Triangle Man said...

Bing doesn't snub the US and gets a lot of Google's old business

Looks like Bing's marketing campaign really works for some people.

Unknown said...

Ankur said...

Yeah - google doing business in china despite censorship REALLY irks me.

Despite, my ass. They help implement it.

Then again, some people have ethics and some like Communists.

E.M. Davis said...

The real issue is they don't have to do this. Bing doesn't snub the US and gets a lot of Google's old business because they're willing to go the traditional route (they did a nice one at Christmas of the Coliseum in Rome lit with white lights, symbolic and all).

The problem is, Google's functionality is still better than Bing's.


I haven't noticed that much of a difference, but, as someone here always says, YMMV.

Scott M said...

I haven't noticed that much of a difference, but, as someone here always says, YMMV.

This. I prefer Bing's maps to Google's anyway. Besides...Bing's startling good pictures are reason enough.

Known Unknown said...

Google is planning a comebackin China.

Mary Beth said...

It's not whether your signed in, it's if you are on the iGoogle page or on the classic homepage.

Legosn Eggos said...

Ah, I see! I saw it this morning, too, and thought it was lovely. Thanks for the info.

Tarzan said...

The depth gauge works as you go up and down. Neat!

Chris said...

Wait a minute. 20,000 leagues is about 60,000 miles, but the diameter of the earth is only about 8000 miles!

Chris said...

Oh, wait, Chip already made that joke. Sorry.

Robt C said...

I read the book several months ago and was struck by how contemporary it seemed. Hard to believe it was written so long ago.
I recommend it for a quick light read.

traditionalguy said...

Wasn't Burt Lancaster the man fighting the Giant Squid? That's all I really remember about the movie.

Unknown said...

Jules Verne predicted that the first men to travel to the moon would be americans. The rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral.
He is widely known around the world and deserves praise.
Hollywood used to adapt his work like Around the world in 80 days( BTW: the final is based in Edgar Allan Poe´s short story : the Week with three sundays, Poe was admired by french writers) with David Niven
For sure he was on the wrong side of the Dreyfus affair but one thing is literature and other political ideas