Well, I’m sure you all have seen this. There’s a bit of a buzz in the air about it, so I thought I’d mention it real quick.
Google’s logo morphed today into a set of crop circles, complete with hovering UFO. Now, it’s not unusual for Google to change their logo from day to day, but when I logged on this morning, I wondered why they had chosen crop circles.
 And clicking it displayed links to a ton of crop circle information.
Of course, we have discussed crop circles here at Skepchick in the past, and we had a good time with it. And it’s always fun to listen to the explanations for crop circles by people who believe they are made by all manner of wonderfully crazy things, like alien space craft with cloaking devices, or by atmospheric vortexes, electromagnetic fields, plasma storms, or my personal favorite, subterranean earth gods.
But why is Google getting mixed up in this? Has the Googleplex been taken over by aliens? Why would otherwise rational people promote these pieces of artwork that are made with a length of rope and a board?
A Google Twitter post of GPS coordinates (51.327629, -0.5616088) spread across the Internet at about the time the crop circle logo went live, sending tweeple scurrying to Google Earth software, where they discovered that the digits denoted Horsell, U.K., site of the first UFO landing in H.G. Wells’s novel The War of the Worlds.
And last week, Google ran an alien themed logo, depicting a flying saucer abducting the letter ‘O.’ Clicking on the logo brought Google users to a search page about ‘unexplained phenomenon.’
So . . . Is this all being done simply in recognition of the father of science fiction’s ( H.G. Wells) upcoming birthday? Is Google just having some fun promoting Google Earth? Does it point to some special Google event taking place in the coming week? Or is it Google’s way of saying look to the skies? What do you think?
If H.G. Wells is considered the father of science fiction, what does that leave Jules Verne as?
I’m voting HG wells tribute.
There don’t seem to be any significant anniversaries coming up, that I can think of, so I’m leaning toward a new release from Google. Maybe something similar to Google Moon and Google Mars.
Bored employees taking time out from their hard day’s perusal of the Skepchick blog.
Google is run by space aliens and the takeover of the world is about to begin. Clearly, no one can create such a fantastic search engine and suite of online tools and be from this planet. The truth is out there, people!
I was wondering the same when I woke up this morning. The other day they had one of the ‘O’s being abducted in a tractor beam.
I think this move by Google (getting people worked up by silly stories about aliens) fits in perfectly with the spirit of War of the Worlds. I’m going with Wells tribute.
Maybe Google and @Randazzoj are working together?
I agree with Jes3ica.
Not sure about the current crop circle logo (probably a Wells tribute), but the last one was explained as an homage to an old Japanese video game: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/07/google-ufo-doodle-explained/
@intimeoflilacs:
Deep sixed?
Clearly, Google is conspiring to help promote The Big Broadcast of 1938, featuring the Frank Cyrano Byfar Hour and the War of the Worlds: the Fall of Boston.
@ZenMonkey, I was thinking the same thing. It could be a coincidence but I’m sort of hoping it’s not and Google and The Onion are in collusion on something …
Being cryptic on their homepage, only releasing details via twitter, Google are looking for more followers.
I thought it was cool. Generally its why I prefer Google as a search page, its simple and fun. Of course sometimes I click on the logo get distracted and forget what I was originally going to search for.
Funny, one of my cats left that image in the litter box overnight. Does that make it a “crap circle?” ;-)
@jabell2r:
Yeah, and puzzles like the abducted “O” and the crop circles on their home page are a nice distraction; like the prize in a box of Crackerjack.