World Fair

Google Celebrates First World's Fair With Animated Doodle

One hundred and sixty years after the first World's Fair was held in London's Crystal Palace, Google celebrates the event with a new Doodle that greeted visitors to the search engine's site today. Google Doodles have become more and more common since they first premiered several years ago, with the company now creating several new ones every week to commemorate holidays, anniversaries and other events on many of its international pages. But this Doodle could be one of the most elaborate yet.

When visitors direct their browsers to Google.com, they're greeted with a magnifying glass that can be used to explore the design in more detail. A few seconds and a wave of the mouse reveals an intricate and even animated world built into the few pixels that Google's art team had to play with. Hover over the fountain in the middle to watch it come alive or place the magnifier over a woman dressed in period costume on the right-hand side of the image to see her twirl.

Below, a short video exploring the Doodle should it be replaced before you get a chance to check it out for yourself.



http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/google-celebrates-first-worlds-fair-with-animated-doodle/238102/


Google doodle celebrates 160th anniversary of first World’s Fair

Google’s first doodle for May isn’t celebrating a person, but an event this time.

Today marks the anniversary of what is typically recognised as the first major World’s Fair, the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, or just the Great Exhibition for short.

Although there were world events before it – in fact some say it was implemented as a response to the French Industrial Exhibition of the previous decade, to show that Britain was the real powerhouse of the industrial revolution.

It ran from May 1st to October 15th in 1851, organised by Prince Albert among others, and was housed in the Crystal Palace in London.

Google’s doodle depicts the Crystal Palace and exhibition within. It’s an interactive one, with some animated bits that you can see when you move your mouse over the doodle and it zooms in.

The fountain is animated, as is a well-dressed lady doing a twirl, and there are some animated gears plus a whistle coming from a steam locomotive.

Google is certainly liking its animated doodles of late, with three of seven doodles last month being animated (one, the Charlie Chapin affair, was actually a short film clip).

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2011/05/01/google-doodle-celebrates-160th-anniversary-of-first-worlds-fair/