Whenever I try googling something, at the top of the page is a huge bar code. What gives?
If you click on the barcode it will inform you that it’s the anniversary of the barcode inventing.
Google regularly modify their logo to commemorate special occasions, just click on it and it will tell you what the occasion is.
Neat.
When I clicked on the bar code I just got taken to a Google search for “bar code”. Nothing directly to an explantion of what it was about.
Here was the top link though.
OK! Erm! If you HOVER over the logo it will tell you what it all about
It’s 52 years (on October 7) since the patent on the bar code was issued in America but, more importantly, it was recently announced that the two co-inventors of the CCD (charge-coupled device) are sharing the Nobel Prize in physics with the guy who invented fiber optic communications. The CCD provides the retina for things like digital cameras and, yes, bar code readers.
For extra historical goodness, the charge-coupled device works on the photoelectric effect, which is what Einstein got his Nobel Prize for.
(All that is cover. The real story is that Google just bought Cyberdyne Systems and is showing Skynet that search engines can be used to track humans. Skynet considered RFID chips but, hell, it likes the 1980s cyberpunk motif.)
I just get taken to the google homepage when I click on it. But thanks for letting me know what it really is!
Click on the image that’s on the Google homepage. That should take you to relevant search results.
Does that mean they’ll soon be sending me that check for forwarding emails?
Whenever there’s a special logo on the Google homepage, hovering your pointer over it should pop up a tooltip informing you what it’s about. In this case, “Invention of the Bar Code”.
BTW the code says “Google” in Code 128 - allegedly. I can’t check it because the code generator I’m trying to use is down, presumably because lots of other people have been doing the same!
You know, you could have “Googled” the answer to this!
You can find Google Logos and their Holiday and/or Event explanations Here
Thanks, but I didn’t realize this was a holiday/event thing on the main page. I don’t use the regular google homepage so that’s not where I was seeing it (I use igoogle), and I’m not really that interested in Google’s logos. It was just coming up randomly when I was googling other stuff, and I was wondering if the government was tracking me or something.
Whoops, nevermind
Confirmed with reader. It indeed says, “Google”.
I think it’s really cool that they do that. I mean, how many people use Google every day? And how many people are aware of half the stuff they feature? Galileo’s telescope anniversary? Perseid Meteor Shower? It encourages people to learn and expand their horizons! Yay Google!
I love the nifty little surprise that is a Google holiday logo. I think they’re so clever and I get a little smackerel of knowledge as well. Dunno why but they just make me smile.
Google “ascii art” for a different logo.
(I also like “recursion”.)