On Friday, million of Googlers woke up to the world?s largest online search engine Google.com featuring a sketch of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as its logo. Mahatma Gandhi is the first Indian to be part of the changed Google logo, which is referred to as Doodle, every time Google changes it on special occasions and encourages users to search on the personality or event.
Gandhi shares the limelight with a very short list of the world?s greatest that have been part of the Google Doodle, which includes Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Confucius, Luciano Pavarotti, Dr Seuss, Andy Warhol, Claude Money, Louis Braille, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and, posthumously, Michael Jackson.
What makes the move bigger is the fact that the logo appeared on Google homepages across the world. As the clock ticked midnight in different parts of the world, the logo of Google was replaced by the Gandhi sporting doodle. The G of Google was replaced by a sketch of Gandhi, while the rest of the letters remained the same. Sepia strokes cover the logo acting as a background, to give it the yesteryear?s feel on a day which marked the 140th anniversary of the great leader and also the International Non-Violence Day, declared by the United Nations two years ago.? ?
The global tech community is terming Gandhi as Google Doodle as yet another move which points towards the coming of age of Brand India. Google, which enjoys a 65% market share globally in the total online search market, has in the past marked several Indian occasions like Diwali, but they have been restricted to the India page.
Not just Google, infact micro-blogging site Twitter.com ran a completed page on Gandhi, where users updated famous one-liners from the leader. In fact, the controversial Twitter minister of state of external affairs Shashi Tharoor challenged Indian twitters to start a page on Gandhi. ?Challenge to Indian tweeters?Can we make Gandhi a Trending Topic on his birthday today?? read his tweet. Even video sharing Youtube site uploaded the famous ?One World? speech made by Gandhi in 1931 featuring his original voice.