Google has done it again.
The king of search engines occasionally replaces its standard logo with something different to signify a holiday, historic event or birthday of someone that did something cool in the eyes of Google staff. But how these decisions are made is as mysterious to me as the famous Google algorithms.
Today (July 6) you can see a logo celebrating the birthday of Frida Kahlo. “Who?” you may ask as I did this morning. Well you unintellectual neo-con scum, today is Frida’s 103rd birthday. She died at the age of 47, after which her fame skyrocketed (as it often does for artists and musicians… death is often the best promotional tool). A NY Daily News article describes Kahlo as “one of the most prolific painters of her time.”
But why reserve space atop the most visited page on the Internet when so many more significant events, people and holidays have been ignored? There was no logo change for Memorial Day. Last year Independence Day received a picnic theme logo and this year received a display of fireworks items. The logo had nothing to do with the actual independence of our country.
So for argument sake let us assume that Google uses a random method to determine which days get special logo treatment and July 6th is the winner this week. What else could have been illustrated atop the search engine page?
July 6 Birthdays (partial list):
- 1789 – Maria Isabella of Spain, Queen consort of the Two Sicilies, wife of Francis I of the Two Sicilies (d. 1846)
- 1796 – Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (d. 1855)
- 1818 – Adolf Anderssen, German chess player (d. 1879)
- 1878 – Eino Leino, Finnish poet (d. 1926)
- 1921 – Nancy Reagan, First Lady of the United States
- 1927 – Janet Leigh, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1907 – George Stanley, Canadian politician and designer of the flag of Canada (d. 2002)
- 1931 – Della Reese, American singer and actress
- 1946 – George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
- 1946 – Sylvester Stallone, American actor
- 1975 – 50 Cent, American rapper
July 6 Historic Events (partial list):
- 1535 – Sir Thomas More is executed for treason against King Henry VIII of England.
- 1785 – The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States.
- 1885 – Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies.
- 1942 – Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the “Secret Annexe” above her father’s office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
- 1944 – The Hartford Circus Fire, one of America’s worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.
- 1957 – Althea Gibson wins the Wimbledon championships, becoming the first black athlete to do so.
- 1989 – The Israeli 405 Bus slaughter in which 14 bus passengers are killed when an Arab assaulted the bus driver as the bus was driving by the edge of a cliff.
Google could have honored a queen, a czar, a president, a first lady, actor or musician. It could have celebrated the almighty dollar, a health triumph, a moment in black history, WW II or radical extremism. In the grand scheme of life it doesn’t really matter what Google decides to do with its own web site. But for some reason its choices tend to rub me the wrong way. But it would be nice to occasionally se a nod of the hat, or logo, to acknowledge the greatness of American capitalism and free market economics that has allowed Google to become as wildly successful as it is. If I were working at Google I would suggest that the logo rotate do depict multiple events and educate the world on a variety of subjects that cover multiple points of view. After all, isn’t that the liberal way? Oh that’s right.. do as I say, not as I do.
