Top 10: Google doodles of 2011

By our estimates the doodle team at Google has in 2011 (till December 2) created 236 doodles commemorating different events of importance across the world. Some of the doodles are limited to Google's country specific home pages while others are appear globally. Here are our top 10 favourites (We couldn't help the list being dominated by interactive doodles. They are so much more fun).

One of the most famous speeches in the history of the world was delivered by US President John F Kennedy during his inauguration on January 20, 1961 and 50 years later Google transformed the words of the "ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country" speech into a doodle. The visual and symbolic appeal of the word-cloud doodle has such an impact that it is the only static doodle to find a place in our list of the top 10 Google doodles of 2011 (The JFK Inaugural doodle was targeted towards Google's US users).

Ticklish pandas, frolicking penguins, a growling lion, a cascading waterfall, waterfall climbing fish, a fish devouring bear, birds, butterflies, a koala and a jumping frog got together on an animated and interactive Google logo to celebrate the 41st Earth Day. This doodle was Google's 11th Earth Day doodle (http://www.google.com/logos/2011/earthday.html).

A "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations" was organised at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London in 1851. The event is also known as the first World's Fair, The Great Exhibition or simply as the Crystal Palace Exhibition. The first World's Fair was held over a period of five and a half months from May 1 to October 15, 1851. Google celebrated the 160th anniversary of the opening of the fair with an interactive doodle. The Google doodle commemorating the event put together different elements of the fair viewable more closely with a magnifying glass effect that appears when a user hovered the cursor over the logo. The Koh-i-noor diamond, that the British had seized from India was also exhibited at the fair and also in the doodle (http://www.google.com/logos/2011/worldsfair.html).

To mark French science fiction writer Jules Gabriel Verne's 183rd birthday Google plunged its users 20,000 leagues under the sea inside a submarine. The Google logi in the interactive doodle took the form of the portholes of a submarine with an interactive lever on the side that could be flicked up, down or sideways to plunge the machine deeper into the sea. Through the portholes, users got a glimpse of the various forms of marine life (http://www.google.com/logos/verne.html).

A piece of kinetic art took the place of the usual Google logo to celebrate the 113th birthday of American artist and sculptor Alexander Calder. The doodle showed a mobile, a type of kinetic sculpture that was invented by Alexander Calder. Mobiles take advantage of the principle of equilibrium and have objects hanging from rods. Kinetic art uses motion for an artistic effect. Mobiles are usually brightly coloured free-moving creations in abstract shapes made from sheet metal. The mobile Google doodle swayed on its own and could also be controlled by mouse gestures.

Nothing less than a video would have done justice in honouring the silent era's greatest star - Charlie Chaplin. The Google doodle team put up a video honouring the filmmaker and actor to celebrate his 122nd birthday. The Google home page featured a YouTube video starring members of Google Doodle team enacting a Google-themed Chaplinesque scene. Google put up the Chaplin doodle a day ahead of the film legend's birthday (http://youtu.be/3NGSU2PM9dA).

To mark the longest and the darkest lunar eclipse of the century Google put up an animated and interactive doodle. The lunar eclipse Google doodle showed the various phases of the lunar eclipse that could be accessed through a seek bar. The doodle was also Google's first live doodle and the image refreshed every two minutes to reflect the current stage of the moon in eclipse. One of the O's in the Google logo was transformed into the moon. Google had also put up a live webcast of the lunar eclipse on its official YouTube channel.

Google honoured Freddie Mercury, one of the greatest rock stars of all times, with a music video doodle on its home page. The doodle on hitting the play button played an animated music video set to Don't Stop Me Now, one of Queen's biggest hits that was written and sung by Freddie Mercury (http://www.google.com/logos/2011/mercury.html).

Till the No.1 on our list not made its appearance, Google's digital version of the legendary electric guitar - the Gibson Les Paul - was the unanimous choice for the top spot on this list. To celebrate the 96th birthday of the country and jazz guitarist, songwriter and inventor, Lester William Polsfuss, better known as Les Paul, Google put up a doodle that was playable by hovering the cursor over the doodle and even by the computer keyboard. US users were also able to record the their own 30-second track. The doodle was made with a combination of JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas, CSS, Flash and tools like the Google Font API, goo.gl and App Engine. Google engineers Kristopher Hom and Joey Hurst and doodle team lead Ryan Germick helped put together the innovative doodle. Such was the popularity of the doodle that Google extended its presence on the Google.com home page for an extra day. Technology website ExtremeTech estimated that the Les Paul doodle resulted in $268 million in lost productivity, more than double of that estimated for the legendary Pac-Man doodle back in May 2010 (http://www.google.com/logos/2011/lespaul.html).

It is a pity that a doodle as great as the one Google created to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Polish science-fiction novelist, philosopher and satirist Stanislaw Lem's first publication was not put up on Google home pages across the globe but was only limited to European countries. The doodle inspired by Daniel Mroz's illustrations for The Cyberiad, a series of short stories by Lem was also a multi-level puzzle. For its sheer awesomeness the Stanislaw Lem doodle manages to steal the top spot from the amazing Les Paul doodle (http://www.google.com/logos/lem/).

Google's philosophy is to make users spend very little time on their home page, but the addictive interactive doodles thay they put up there end up doing just the opposite. Not that we mind that a bit. Here's to more wonderful Google doodles in 2012 (and whatever is left of 2011).