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Location: Blogs Simon and Melody's Blog |
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| Posted by: supersi |
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 |
You may have noticed that at certain times of the year, Google’s logo on their homepage gets “doodled” to reflect different people, events or special dates around the world. Until now, all of these have been designed by Google’s original doodler, 28-year-old Dennis Hwang.
'Doodle 4 Google - My Britain' was a recent nationwide design competition which was open to the UK's 10 million school children. Young people were invited to design a Google doodle representing what it means to them to be British today. The public voted on which doodles were the best in each age group, and Dennis chose the final winner. The winning doodle was displayed on the Google UK homepage for a day, being seen by around 18 million people. Check out the winning doodles! The winner will also be flown to Google’s “Googleplex” HQ in California to help Dennis design a doodle.
What is most interesting, though, is how the thousands of submitted doodles give insight into what kids today think of Britain. A full analysis was done of the doodles to look at the emerging themes, as well as to see how different regions, age groups and sexes view Britain.
Most people would think that kids today are obsessed with brand and image, but not one doodle featured Posh and Becks (they’ll be glad to know). Instead, “kids focussed on Britain’s rich history and heritage, its industry and inventiveness, its monarchy and cultural uniqueness. A child may be fiercely Welsh, British and global all at the same time.”
Here are a few of the findings:
- The doodles expressed a real sense of pride in Britain, with many national flags and emblems depicted.
- The doodles were highly conscious of Britain’s history, with 45% featuring monuments and historical figures (Churchill? Mr. Bean?).
- Royalty was a strong theme, although the crown and crown jewels (21%) received more attention than the Queen herself (12%).
- Sports was a strong theme (33%). The top three sports were football (16%), rugby (6%) and cricket (5%). Strangely enough, no mention of ice hockey.
- British food was also seen as a key part of national identity. A quarter of all entries featured food, mostly with fish and chips (8%) and breakfast (7%). 12% included a cup of tea. No mention of black pudding or mushy peas - thank goodness!
- 36% of entries featured nature, the environment and natural landmarks.
- There were a number of more mythical appearances, including dragons (6%), the Loch Ness Monster (5%) and a victorious World Cup team (0%).
It would be interesting if there was a Canadian version of Doodle 4 Google. Not sure if it’s on the radar anytime soon though… we noticed on July 1st that there wasn’t a Canadianized Google logo – not even on the google.ca homepage! Get crackin', eh Dennis?!
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Re: Doodle 4 Google – My Britain |
By Anonymous on
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 |
| According to this website (http://www.google.ca/intl/en/holidaylogos.html) there have been Canada Day logos in the past! Perhaps we were forgotten this year =( |
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Re: Doodle 4 Google – My Britain |
By Anonymous on
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 |
Mr. Bean is a historical figure?!
A victorious World Cup team is mythical?! |
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