Google Doodle Commemorates Earth Day

Google is blooming, not only in terms of profits but also on its website. The Internet search leader, to commemorate Earth Day, has created a special doodle on its home page that makes the letters of its name turn into flowers. The doodle shows a leafy version of Google's name on top of a patch of dirt that grows red, blue, and yellow flowers as you watch. Click on it and you'll go to a Google search results page for "Earth Day," where you can learn the original Earth Day was started by a Wisconsin senator who witnessed a 1969 oil spill off the coast of California and called for the first Earth Day to be observed on April 22, 1970. Other than sprouting blossoms, the doodle isn't interactive as some others have been. Yet the artistic rendering of Google's home page is remarkable in that it aggressively tries to lure visitors to other Google properties. "Roses are red, violets are blue, for Earth Day this year, let's all plant a few" sits under the doodle, and if you click on the link Google takes you to a special Earth Day page that links to YouTube videos on gardening, a Google Map that displays the weather in various locations, an image search page for tomato plants, a recipe view search for "chicken pasta," a Google+ photos page where you can share photos of your garden, and another Google+ page about gardens. Indeed, Google’s Earth Day page makes it very easy for you to take green-thumbed action Sunday. In addition to a Google offer for discounted flower seeds, you can also view a Maps page that shows community gardens, CSAs (community supported agriculture), farmers markets, and community farms. Google also points out that this year it is partnering with Friends of the Urban Forest to plant trees at schools in San Francisco. While you might wonder why a new doodle is newsworthy considering Google pops them off so often, the fact remains that plenty of people still get a kick out of them. And for the search engine giant, it works out to be an effective mechanism to get masses of people to stop by its territories.