Google logo mystery: Birthday or publicity stunt?

By Larry Hartstein

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If you've done a Google search in the last few hours, you might be wondering: What's with all the bouncing balls?

Enlarge photo

Google.com The logo on google.com is made up of bouncing balls that scurry away when you mouse over them.

Take a guess: What do you think bouncing dots in Google's logo are for?

They're balloons: Google is celebrating its 12th birthday They're just dots: Google is showing off what it can do with HTML5 They're balls: Google is trying to give us a hint for the winning lottery numbers Dots? What dots?

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The 12-year-old search engine greets surfers with a Google Doodle of colorful bouncing balls that settle into the company logo. Google offers no explanation on the page. A spokeswoman told The Daily Telegraph of London, "We will leave the mystery to you."

Google was incorporated on Sept. 4, 1998, according to Google's corporate history page. But several dates, including the 7th, have previously been touted. The page used to say, "On Sept. 7, 1998, Google opened its doors in Menlo Park, California," the Telegraph reports.

Some experts have speculated this is Google's way of showing what its Chrome browser can do in HTML5 -- the latest version of the standard programming code for displaying Web content. Others have called it a stunt to hype a forthcoming announcement.

Previous Google Doodles have celebrated Pac-Man's 30th birthday, the 71st anniversary of The Wizard of Oz and the 213th anniversary of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley's birth. But normally, Google Doodles come with an explanation as soon as you click on them.