It has now become a tradition for Google to celebrate the Olympic Games with a set of Google Doodles. And it seems to have become another tradition to hunt for them, to try and view them all at one place apart from the Google’s own Doodles collection page (like my earlier post - 2400 views & counting).
Delving into the presentations of Doodles during the Olympics by Google is interesting. The tradition of Google serving up a special Olympic Doodle for each day of Olympics originated with the Sydney Olympics of 2000 - the 1st Olympics to be held after the incorporation of Google.
For the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Google released only 11 Doodles in GIF format, though the games were conducted over 16 days - from 15 September to 01 October 2000. This includes the 2 Doodles released on the same day - 20 September and the closing ceremony Doodle itself was 6 days ahead - on 25 September, instead of 01 October.
The Athens Olympics in 2004 was slightly better - Google released 14 Doodles in GIF format for the 17 day extravaganza - from 13 August to 29 August 2004. The count is 3 short because the Doodle for the opening ceremony was released on 14th August, a Doodle celebrating the Liberation Day of Korea was released instead on 15th August, with a no show on 21 August.
Beijing Olympics in 2008 was where Google surpassed itself. It released a total of 18 GIF images for the 17 day display - from 8 August to 24 August 2008. They released 1 Google Doodle every day, except for 17th August, which they compensated by releasing 2 Doodles on 16th August. So, how did we end up with 18 Google Doodles for the 17 day event? The one extra Doodle is because Google chose to display its ‘cultural’ sensitivity by releasing a special closing ceremony Doodle for the Middle East - while the rest of the world could see a Dog in the Doodle, the people from the middle-east were presented a ‘treated' picture without the Dog.
So we end up with the London Olympics 2012. For this 17 day event - from 27 July to 12 August 2012, Google has religiously released 17 Doodles in JPG format. And for the first time during the Olympics, Google released 4 interactive Doodles representing slalom canoe, soccer, hurdles and basketball. Were the choice of the events supposed to be a tongue in cheek comment on the London Olympics? We will never know. When I first heard of the proposed choice of games for interactive Doodles, I thought that -
:-(
But whatever, enjoy the Doodles and watch the Closing Ceremony scheduled for 21:00 GMT (02:30 IST on 13 August). If you want a copy of all these Doodles (including this compiled image), I’ve upped them into my Google sites as a ZIP file (~8.5MB) - link here.
PS: The 2008, 2004 & 2000 Doodles are onthe way - check back later in the day. at Google Doodles of Sydney, Athens & Beijing Olympics.
Here are the Sydney 2000 Olympics Doodles. If you want the doodles themselves, the ZIP file (~1 MB) is here.
Updated: 19 Aug 2012 with links to other Olympics.
Delving into the presentations of Doodles during the Olympics by Google is interesting. The tradition of Google serving up a special Olympic Doodle for each day of Olympics originated with the Sydney Olympics of 2000 - the 1st Olympics to be held after the incorporation of Google.
For the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Google released only 11 Doodles in GIF format, though the games were conducted over 16 days - from 15 September to 01 October 2000. This includes the 2 Doodles released on the same day - 20 September and the closing ceremony Doodle itself was 6 days ahead - on 25 September, instead of 01 October.
The Athens Olympics in 2004 was slightly better - Google released 14 Doodles in GIF format for the 17 day extravaganza - from 13 August to 29 August 2004. The count is 3 short because the Doodle for the opening ceremony was released on 14th August, a Doodle celebrating the Liberation Day of Korea was released instead on 15th August, with a no show on 21 August.
Beijing Olympics in 2008 was where Google surpassed itself. It released a total of 18 GIF images for the 17 day display - from 8 August to 24 August 2008. They released 1 Google Doodle every day, except for 17th August, which they compensated by releasing 2 Doodles on 16th August. So, how did we end up with 18 Google Doodles for the 17 day event? The one extra Doodle is because Google chose to display its ‘cultural’ sensitivity by releasing a special closing ceremony Doodle for the Middle East - while the rest of the world could see a Dog in the Doodle, the people from the middle-east were presented a ‘treated' picture without the Dog.
So we end up with the London Olympics 2012. For this 17 day event - from 27 July to 12 August 2012, Google has religiously released 17 Doodles in JPG format. And for the first time during the Olympics, Google released 4 interactive Doodles representing slalom canoe, soccer, hurdles and basketball. Were the choice of the events supposed to be a tongue in cheek comment on the London Olympics? We will never know. When I first heard of the proposed choice of games for interactive Doodles, I thought that -
- slalom canoe is for UK, the host nation - events where they were expected to do (and did) well;
- soccer is for Brazil, the next host - an event where they were expected to touch Gold (and failed);
- hurdles for China - the nation which was expected to dominate the Games (but fell back to 2nd place); and,
- basketball for USA - a sure fire Gold for USA, the home country of Google.
:-(
But whatever, enjoy the Doodles and watch the Closing Ceremony scheduled for 21:00 GMT (02:30 IST on 13 August). If you want a copy of all these Doodles (including this compiled image), I’ve upped them into my Google sites as a ZIP file (~8.5MB) - link here.
PS: The 2008, 2004 & 2000 Doodles are on
Updated: 19 Aug 2012 with links to other Olympics.
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