Google Doodles

[Gopher Gary]

It's not a doodle, but today underneath the google search bar there's a message with a weblink.

To our country’s first responders, thank you

The link leads to this youtube video.

[Gopher Gary]

Today's Google Doodle is Halloween 2018.



Happy Halloween!

Today’s annual Halloween Doodle marks a wickedly exciting milestone: our first-ever multiplayer interactive game Doodle, powered by Google Cloud! Join in as ghosts around the world gather to play their own version of Trick-or-Treat: The Great Ghoul Duel! Ghosts team up and compete to see who can collect the most wandering spirit flames before the moon is gone....but not without some unexpected twists along the way. 

Players around the world join forces on one of two teams of four in the Great Ghoul Duel. Exploring one of several spooky maps, players must collect as many wandering spirit flames as they can in two minutes and return them to their homebase. After time’s up, the team that has collected the most spirit flames wins. But beware! - opponents can intercept spirits from one another as they bring them back to homebase.

As an added BOOOOnus, ghosts who collect the most spirit flames will unlock special powers such as speed boosts, night vision, and much more! Players can also share personal superlatives awarded to them at the end of the match based on their scary good - or just plain scary - performances.

In a Doodle first, players can choose to host a game with up to seven friends and family via a custom invitation link OR just play with randomized players around the globe. The team built several systems to enable this multiplayer gaming, all running on the Google Cloud Platform, including integrating Open Match, a highly-scalable, open source matchmaking framework cofounded by Google Cloud and Unity.

Thanks for stopping by! We hope your journey to achieve #SquadGhouls is terrifyingly spooktacular.

Ready, set, GHOUL!

[Gopher Gary]

Sleep won over yesterday's Google Doodle, Day of the Dead 2018.



Day of the Dead (or El Día de los Muertos) is an ancient holiday dating back thousands of years to the Aztec Empire. In its essence, it's a joyous occasion that’s about dispelling fear and embracing the cycle of life.

Families prepare for the celebration far in advance, cleaning the house and decorating it with fragrant marigold flowers and intricate tissue-paper cutouts. Playful calacas and calaveras (skeletons and skulls), are usually seen in festive attire, enjoying (after)life to the fullest.

Colorful ofrendas or altars are set up in many homes, surrounded by favorite food and drink, as well as photographs and cherished mementos, plus sweet Pan de Muertos and sugar skulls. Burning candles and incense is also customary to set the mood, evoke the spirit world, and serve as a reminder that death is just another part of life and that human connections will always endure.

Today's Doodle features its own ofrenda, handcrafted by Doodler Nate Swinehart out of clay.

Feliz Día de los Muertos!

[Gopher Gary]

Today's Google Doodle is Veterans Day 2018


 
Today’s interactive, animated Doodle for US Veterans Day honors the brave individuals who have served our country by inviting us all to listen to their stories. Created in partnership with StoryCorps, Google’s internal employee veteran network (VetNet), and animation studio Foreign Fauna, the Doodle features five veterans’ voices – one from each branch of the military – each sharing a real story from their service. Aside from covering experiences from a range of time periods in our nation’s history, the stories also touch on a spectrum of veteran experiences and emotions such as friendship, loss, hardship, hope, and love.

Today’s Doodle is also part of our larger #VeteransVoices initiative, a collaboration between StoryCorps (whose mission is to collect and preserve humanity’s stories), Google, and YouTube. #VeteransVoices encourages us all to honor veterans and their sacrifices by listening to their stories. When you download the StoryCorps app, you can interview a veteran in your life to archive their oral history in the Library of Congress. You can also find or share Veteran stories on YouTube or other social channels using #VeteransVoices.

[odeon]

Also known as Remembrance Day.

How many wore a poppy, the last 11 days or so?

[Gopher Gary]

Also known as Remembrance Day.

How many wore a poppy, the last 11 days or so?

Remembrance Day is more akin to Memorial Day in the US. Veteran's Day celebrates all US military veterans, while Memorial Day is for honoring the ones who have died in service. Google didn't have a doodle for Remembrance Day, but they don't do one for Memorial Day either

[Gopher Gary]

Today's Google Doodle is Thanksgiving 2018.



For almost 400 years, Americans across the country have gathered with family and friends on the last Thursday in November for a harvest season feast. It’s a time of many traditions, including the preparation of Thanksgiving staples like turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, as well as a time of reflection and appreciation for all of life’s blessings.

Today’s Doodle aims to capture the spirit of the day and hopes to be a grate reminder that blessings can come in all shapes and sizes—even mouse-sized ones!

Happy Thanksgiving 2018!

[renaeden]

So no Toilet Day.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

I saw a small number of frozen turkeys in the supermarket a week or two ago.

I thought "those are early for Xmas". But they were probably there for anyone who might be celebrating Thanksgiving (expats or immigrants).

We tend to have roast pumpkin rather than pumpkin pie at Xmas. I like turkey so I cook turkey at Xmas, but seafood is at least as much of a Xmas tradition here as turkey.

[Gopher Gary]

So no Toilet Day.

Actually Thanksgiving is sort of like national toilet day in America. It's the busiest time for plumbers from people cramming their holiday fest down their drains.    https://www.rotorooter.com/blog/why-the-day-after-thanksgiving-is-so-busy-for-plumbers/

[odeon]

So no Toilet Day.

Actually Thanksgiving is sort of like national toilet day in America. It's the busiest time for plumbers from people cramming their holiday fest down their drains.    https://www.rotorooter.com/blog/why-the-day-after-thanksgiving-is-so-busy-for-plumbers/

 

[renaeden]

That was well written.

[Gopher Gary]

 

[Gopher Gary]

Today's Google is National Day of Mourning for George H. W. Bush.

It's not really a doodle because it's not on the doodle website. Under the search bar it reads: President George H. W. Bush, 1924 - 2018

[odeon]

I suppose a doodle on that theme would have been poor taste.