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September 5, 2009

Google Doodle's Mystery Revealed

Yesterday Google posted a mysterious doodle that linked to the search results for [unexplained phenomenon]. According to Google Korea's blog (English translation), this was the first from a series of 3 doodles that celebrate a famous person. The next doodle will be posted on September 15th and the hints are: mystery, invisible, novel.

As someone suggested in a comment, it's very likely that Google celebrates the birthday of H. G. Wells, a famous science fiction author born on September 21st. He wrote "The War of the Worlds", a novel that describes a Martian invasion, and "The Invisible Man", a book about a scientist that finds a way to become invisible.

Here's an extract from a 1938 radio broadcast of a play based on "The War of the Worlds". The play was directed by Orson Welles and it managed to terrify listeners, who thought it was a news broadcast of a real alien invasion.

Update (Sept. 15): There's a new doodle that points to a search for [crop circles] and this time there's a missing "l". Google posted on Twitter some coordinates: 51.327629, -0.5616088 that send you to this address: 1-7 Woodham Rd, Woking, Surrey GU21 4, UK. As you probably know, H. G. Wells was born in England. "H.G. Wells moved to Woking in 1895. This was the beginning of his writing career, and whilst living in the town he wrote several books including War of the Worlds," mentions wokingsurrey.com.

Update (Sept. 20): Indeed, Google's doodles were related to H. G. Wells' birthday. "Inspiration for innovation in technology and design can come from lots of places; we wanted to celebrate H.G. Wells as an author who encouraged fantastical thinking about what is possible, on this planet and beyond. And maybe have some fun while we were doing it," explains Google. Here's the third and final doodle:


  1. the word 'novel' had me thinking it has something to do with the next dan brown book, which is going to be released on 9/15.

  2. huh,what about......the Nancy Drew author?

  3. According to the google twitter feed there is a zero wing reference as well.

  4. It was zero wings 20th anniversary,
    maybe this was a clever all encompassing Google celebration,
    something a little more then a logo, but a little less then a April fools day prank.

  5. What's the connection between Nancy Drew's author and UFOs, aliens?

    Zero Wing is an arcade game about saving the universe from destruction, but I don't find any connection with a novel.

    Dan Brown's book is not about UFOs and Google doesn't use its homepage to promote books. The second doodle will be posted on September 15th, but there will be a third doodle.

    The doodle is related to a popular person and the three hints offered by Google are: novel, mystery and invisible. H. G. Wells is a perfect candidate, especially if you know that:

    1. his birthday is on Sept. 21st
    2. he wrote novels
    3. one of his novels is "The War of the Worlds", a book about a Martian invasion
    4. he also wrote "The Invisible Man"

  6. dear chitu

    I think anon 5:39 pm was having a little fun.

    Your summary re h g wells is excellent, keep it up.

  7. the lat and long point to Horsell in Surrey England where in the novel, the ship lands. not sure other than the invisble man - what the invisible reference could be

  8. A mysterious doodle ... wow.. its interesting..
    if it like so.. thats amazing ...no?

  9. It has to be HG Wells, seems too obvious now

  10. I don't want to think about is now

  11. The L isn't missing. The tractor formed it.

  12. I think Google knows that aliens exist and are going to release the information to the world

  13. It would be much better if they released the Docs' new interface and folder sharing option first!

  14. Na i would rather know that first

  15. The O wasn't missing in the first one either; the UFO was taking it away. But, if you look at the filenames for the images, the first was go_gle, and the second is goog_e, with the O and the L missing. If this is a set of three, then what will the third letter be, and what will it spell?

  16. i think it is very strange

  17. The most insteresting is the advice to spanish SEOs explained in http://tallerseo.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-punishes-spanish-seos.html

    Last year Doodle logo has been a toy in Spain, and now... Google is sending an advice to all they.

  18. i like aliens. they're pope. POPE MEANS AWESOME!!