Last week Google snatched my interest by putting up UFO doodles on there search pages that started in the UK. I wrote an article named “Google’s New Logo of a Crop Circle in UK.” Google would not explain their intentions for this.
Now today Google has admitted that the UFO logos were designed to mark the 143rd birthday of author H.G. Wells.
For those that don’t know who Herbert George Wells is, he wrote the science fiction novel “War of the Worlds.” Google said in a blog post that the book “encouraged fantastical thinking about what is possible, on this planet and beyond.”
For weeks , web users were trying to figure out what the Google doodles meant. The first doodle appeared on September 5th. The doodle showed a UFO hovering over the Google logo abducting the letter “O.” Google issued a teaser message on twitter saying “All your O belong to us,” referring to “Zero Wing,” a cult Japanese video game. Clicking on the logo brought users to a page of search results for “unexplained phenomenon.”
Internet users came up with a bunch of theories on these doodles. The main one was that Google was having some product coming out and it was a publicity stunt.
On September 15, a second doodle came out with a UFO hovering over a field. The Google logo was spelled out with crop circles. Clicking on the logo brought users to a page of search results for “crop circles.” Google issued a second tweet, containing coordinates, which centered on Woodham Road in Woking, Surrey.
Web users realized that Woodham Road was near Horsell Commons. This was the location of the first alien landing in H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel. The timing of the doodles led up to H.G. Wells’ 143rd birthday.
“We were delighted that people played along with us and shared their theories,” wrote Micheal Lopez, a Google web designer, in a blog post. “Some of you figured out what we were doing but we weren’t ready to reveal it all just yet.”
“Now, we’re finally acknowledging the reason for the doodles with an official nod to Herbert George Wells, who would be 143 years old today.”
“The invasion of the logo by alien crafts and pods makes our series complete, but you’ll have to read the book to find out how Wells’ story really ends.”
Google is known for designing their doodles to mark significant events, anniversaries and notable dates. This is the first time that Google used a series of doodles to lead up to an event. If you click on the newest doodle today, it brings you to a page of search results for “H.G. Wells.”
Some web users were disappointed, they thought that Google was launching a new product or even the existence of extraterrestrials.
“Ahhh mannn! I thought they were gonna disclose with some irrefutable evidence!” wrote Matchory on the Pocket Lint gadget website.
