
King-Doodle
[Actual: „Google honors Robert Bunsen with bubbling burner-doodle„] When I started this blog two weeks ago I planed to write about international Google-Doodles. Usually I can see them when I open the international www.google.com. Today I read via twitter that there should be a doodle. But unfortunately I don’t see it. Is it an invisible doodle? This is for sure: it’s a tribute to Martin Luther King. But – and this is also strange – Martin Luther Kings birthday was on January 15th. … ? Why shows Google the doodle today, and not two days ago? And why is it invisible?
Ok, the first problem I could solve by using a proxy. I live and work in Germany – and here we can not see the Doodle. By using a proxy (open-browser.com) I could see it. Has anybody an idea? Is the „international google search“ just a „localized“ version? Some people told me to use „www.google.com/ncr“ – but that doesn’t work at all on my computer.
Why is the Martin Luther King Doodle too late? … No idea. Perhaps Google forgot to click the publish-button ;-) Ok, I get it: as I read in the official Googleblog it is „the 25th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. We join Americans in celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. King as a company-recognized holiday.“ (source: Official Google Blog: MLK Day 2011: a day for community service)

Martin Luther King Jr. Doodle
Ok, let’s have a look at the doodle. The next unusual thing is that the doodle appears under the search-field. Is it only a fault of the connection? It looks a little bit strange not to see the hole picture. But I thing it’s a new „style“ of the doodle-designers. You can see the complete doodle by clicking „I feel lucky“ on the Google homepage. Then you get a chronological list of all doodles. Here it is:

Complete Martin Luther King Doodle (2011)
It is a pale doodle. The colors are without contrast. And the chars „G“ and „e“ looks frayed. There are four children in the doodle – each one for one char -> no, the „g“ is build by some „unmotivated“ pieces of something. I think they should be four ethnics: indians, „white“, east-asia and african. They play hopscotch. But what tells the picture about Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Martin Luther King has four children. Perhaps it is an allegory for Kings famous speech „I have a dream„. A cite from it: „I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.“
Martin Luther King Jr. was a very important leader of the civil rights movement. On April 4th, 1968 he was murdered. More about Martin Luther King Jr. at wikipedia.
To be honest: I don’t like this doodle. It could be more focused. The last year MLK-Doodle has more „visual power“:

Martin Luther King Doodle 2010
What others said
- Frugals Cafe: „Google’s Doodle Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King & MLK Day (video)“ (including helpful information)
- Pocket-lint: „Google Doodle celebrates Martin Luther King Day“ (seems to be „daily-seo“ – optimized to get doodle-traffic)
- onlinesocialmedia: „Google’s Martin Luther King Day Doodle: Image of Unity“ (clever mix, if you ask me)
- searchEngineRoundtable: „Google’s 2011 Martin Luther King Doodle“ (focused as ever)
Category: Google Doodle | Author: Martin Missfeldt 2 Kommentare