# Gigantic bar code on google page?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 7, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902 "2009-10-07T05:38:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/1 "2009-10-07T05:38:16Z")
Whenever I try googling something, at the top of the page is a huge bar code. What gives?
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### Author:  [@Chickenwrangler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chickenwrangler)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/2 "2009-10-07T05:51:01Z")
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.
🙂
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### Author:  [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/3 "2009-10-07T05:54:20Z")
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](http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/07/bar-code-google-doodle-nobel) was the top link though.
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### Author:  [@Chickenwrangler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chickenwrangler)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/4 "2009-10-07T06:01:42Z")
OK! Erm! If you HOVER over the logo it will tell you what it all about
🙂
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/5 "2009-10-07T06:02:10Z")
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.)
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/6 "2009-10-07T06:05:39Z")
I just get taken to the google homepage when I click on it. But thanks for letting me know what it really is!
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/7 "2009-10-07T07:22:20Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#):
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/8 "2009-10-07T10:11:42Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> (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.)
Does that mean they’ll soon be sending me that check for forwarding emails?
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/9 "2009-10-07T11:48:06Z")
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”.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/10 "2009-10-07T11:54:18Z")
BTW the code says “Google” in Code 128 - allegedly. I can’t check it because the [code generator](http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php) I’m trying to use is down, presumably because lots of other people have been doing the same!
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### Author:  [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/11 "2009-10-07T12:17:00Z")
You know, you could have “Googled” the answer to this!😃
You can find Google Logos and their Holiday and/or Event explanations [Here](http://www.google.com/logos/index.html)
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/12 "2009-10-07T12:52:45Z")
> [@Sparky812](#):
>
> You know, you could have “Googled” the answer to this!😃
>
> You can find Google Logos and their Holiday and/or Event explanations [Here](http://www.google.com/logos/index.html)
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.
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### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/13 "2009-10-07T13:19:07Z")
Whoops, nevermind
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### Author:  [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/14 "2009-10-07T20:22:55Z")
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> BTW the code says “Google” in Code 128 - allegedly. I can’t check it because the [code generator](http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php) I’m trying to use is down, presumably because lots of other people have been doing the same!
Confirmed with reader. It indeed says, “Google”.
🙂
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### Author:  [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2009, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/15 "2009-10-08T12:36:36Z")
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!
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/16 "2009-10-08T13:54:06Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigantic-bar-code-on-google-page/512902/17 "2009-10-09T14:08:29Z")
Google “ascii art” for a different logo.
(I also like “recursion”.)