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Google Doodle

El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is an ancient holiday that celebrates death and loved ones who've passed on. Google on Thursday is joining the holiday, observed each year on Nov. 2, with its own Doodle altar to the dead. The celebration traditionally features gatherings in which families pray and remember relatives and friends who have died and help them with their spiritual journey. Rather than mournful events, the holiday celebrates death as a part of the cycle of life, thereby dispelling fear of dying. The holiday also often serves as a source of...

When US movie audiences first laid eyes Omar Sharif, he was a shimmering apparition, galloping out of a desert mirage on the back of a camel toward Peter O'Toole in the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia. The Egyptian actor's journey would take him to leading roles in such films as Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl and The Night of the Generals. Google celebrated the iconic actor's birthday on Tuesday with a dashingly handsome animated doodle.

Today’s Google Doodle honors the 125th birthday of Sir Frederick Banting, the first person to use insulin to treat people with diabetes. That achievement garnered Banting a share of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Most folks know that insulin is a lifesaving treatment, but fewer know how it works. I wouldn’t be writing about it if chemistry weren’t involved in the story, of course. So let’s dive in. Insulin is a natural protein that regulates energy consumption and blood sugar levels in the body. When a person develops Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas no longer produces enough insulin. Nowadays...

This week Facebook made nice with conservatives who were worried about reports about it censoring its trending-news section to reflect the liberal bias of those who work for the social-media company. But maybe the conservative activists and media figures were worried about the wrong Internet giant. Yesterday, anyone who clicked on the Google home page saw a curious “doodle” honoring someone who most users had probably never heard of. But rather than the usual anodyne historical figure or celebrity, yesterday’s honoree was a woman that Google identified as “one of the most overlooked and dogged civil rights activists of our...

A very Merry Christmas to NewsBusters readers everywhere! Just out of curiosity, I took a look at the Google doodle for this Christmas Day. See below: it's bland, boring and above all, void of any reference at all to the holiday itself. I decided to have a look at the ways Google observed other days with its doodles. And sure enough, exactly one month to the day before Christmas Eve, Google celebrated "the 41st anniversary of the discovery of Lucy," she being the skeleton of a hominin found in Ethiopia. Google's animated gif doodle shows a monkey walking on all...

On November 19, 2014 Google commemorated the 57th birthday of Ofra Haza with a Google Doodle. Who? Also in 2014, Google Doodle honored the 151st birthday of Annie Jump Cannon. Who? A few days after that, Wassily Kandinsky was similarly recognized with a Google Doodle on his 148th birthday. Who? Well today is the 100th birthday of Frank Sinatra so obviously Google Doodle must honor Ol' Blue Eyes. If you thought that you would be wrong. Relative nonentities receive honors from Google but when it comes to a major cultural icon on his 100th birthday, they amazingly chose to ignore...

As the Winter Games get underway in Sochi, Google Inc. is quietly but vibrantly adding its voice to the chorus of U.S. companies speaking out against Russia’s law that restricts gay-rights activities. The California-based Internet search company transformed its home page into a show of support for gay rights Thursday with a Google Doodle depicting athletes against a rainbow-colored backdrop. …

Today, Google is running a 50th anniversary tribute to Doctor Who on its start page. Take a look!