As I opened YouTube today, it’s logo caught my attention. It said – “YouTube 1BN – 1 billion views per day”. Clearly, YouTube has learned something from it’s parent, Google – the art of doodling.

For those puzzled by the word “doodling”, here is the wiki definition “A  doodle is a type of sketch, an unfocused drawing made while a person’s attention is otherwise occupied”. This is the type of drawing that almost all of us usually do when we are attending a class or a meeting, but too bored to pay attention.

Google has been using doodles since 2000 for a variety of occasions like Valentines day, Cricket World Cup 2007, Fifa World Cup, among others. This definitely adds to the fun-quotient of google search. Google takes doodling seriously, and as I learned today, it even organises a competition for K-12 students to come up with new Google Doodles. And these smart kids come up with impressive doodles(You can see some of them by clicking here).

One of Google’s recent doodles was the face of Gandhi to celebrate his 140th birth anniversary. And the latest doodle was that of a Barcode to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the barcode. Both these doodles got widespread media attention and helped make Google page look fresh.  What will be next doodle from Google? Have to wait and wait.  

Coming back to YouTube,  it will be interesting to see how it goes about doodling in the future. Again, have to wait and see.

PS: Some older interesting Google doodles can be found here.

Update: Aman Sharma(http://twitter.com/amancool5) pointed out that “Google barcode didn’t resemble one, it actually was one!”

Image credit : http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixmilliondollardan/ / CC BY 2.0