Google Doodle Moog Synthesizer: Play And Record Today Before Robert Moog's Birthday

The Google Doodle for Wednesday is an awesome playable Moog synthesizer, but you can play with it today by visiting Google Japan's homepage here.

Google Doodles have offered a wide range of fun opportunities over the years, from an interactive Pac Man game to a playable 'guitar', but the search website may have outdone itself this time with what is one of the coolest features we've ever seen on the search giant's homepage.
For Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Google will honor famed American electrical engineer Robert "Bob" Moog on his 78th birthday with a fully customizable and playable (and even recordable!) online version of the game-changing Moog synthesizer.    



Popularized by musicians like Stevie Wonder, the Moog was one of the most important advances in music during the latter half of the 20th century, and Google will honor that legacy by allowing all of its users to try out some of the instrument's most-beloved features -- including the mixer, oscillator, filter and envelope.
And, as is the company's wont, Google took a liberty in the name of humor, changing the name "Moog" to "Goog" on the unique Google Doodle, which shows an old-school, likely wood-panelled Moog synthesizer hooked into a reel-to-reel machine.


Most web users won't be using it until they wake up tomorrow morning (or, for the nocturnal among us, after midnight), but you can actually go ahead and start recording some funky tunes right now by visiting Google Japan's homepage here.
So if you're sitting in your office tomorrow and you hear the unmistakable whine of old-fashioned -- yet still fun and effective -- Moog tracks being laid down like in the studio of Parliament or Sly and the Family Stone, don't be surprised. It's just another fun day in the world of Internet nerd-dom, and rather than complaining or turning up your headphones to distract yourself from the interruption, maybe you should get in on the fun and have a funkified jam sesh with all your cubicle-mates. It's what Bob Moog would want.

Lovely Mother's Day Doodle 2012

Google marks Mother's Day with a heart-warming doodle

Mother's Day is celebrated around the globe to honour mothers and to celebrate the contribution of maternal figures to society. Most countries celebrate the day on the second Sunday of May, while others observe Mother's Day on different days, with 8th March and 21st March as the other popular dates.

The origins of Mother's Day as the world knows it can be traced back to the United States. In 1908 Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in America. She then began a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States. Her attempts bore fruit in 1914, and since then the day is celebrated every year.

As of date, almost the entire world celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May. This includes Canada, Australia, most parts of Europe, India & other parts of Asia, Brazil & other parts of South America, as well as many countries in Africa.

While commercialization of Mother's Day has disappointed many, it's hardly a new phenomenon, with Jarvis herself becoming an opponent of the holiday due to the rampant commercialization as early as the 1920s.

The animated Google doodle opens with a mother figure in focus. Two kids pop into focus from behind a door and proceed to give their mother a tight hug. The characters then line up to form letters in the Google logo.

Archaeologist Howard Carter's Google doodle: 10 things to know

Doodles from Google are not something new, but the homage, these doodles pay to yesteryear artists, denotes a huge honour, and hence are of utmost importance. People, who have been forgotten, are remembered once again through these doodles.

Today's Google doodle pays homage to an English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter, who is noted as a discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Here are the top 10 things that you must know about the doodle and the man behind it - Howard Carter.

1. With a view to mark the 138th birth anniversary of Howard Carter, Google today replaced its usual Google logo with a doodle that includes a wide array of Egyptian treasures that cover the term "Google" and make it barely visible.

2. Howard's important contribution to his field of archaeology was the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, who was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty.

3. Howard Carter was born on May 9, 1874 in London, and at the age of 17, he was sent out by the Egypt Exploration Fund to help Percy Newberry in the excavation and recording of Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan.

4. Even at the young age he was innovative in improving the methods of copying tomb decoration.

5. In 1899, Howard was appointed the first chief inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS). Cartor monitored scores of excavations at Thebes (now known as Luxor).

6. On 4 November 1922, Carter's excavation group found the steps leading to Tutankhamun's tomb, by far the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings.

7. Following his discovery, Howard Carter retired from archaeology and became a part-time agent for museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

8. Carter has been portrayed by many actors in films and TV shows including John Cleese, Robin Ellis and Pip Torrens.

9. He has appeared as a character in many books. Carter appears as a character throughout most of the Amelia Peabody series of books by 'Elizabeth Peters'. James Patterson and Martin Dugard's "The Murder of King Tut" talks about Carter's search for King Tut's tomb.

10. He died of lymphoma in Kensington, London, on March 2, 1939 at the age of 64. He was buried in the Putney Vale Cemetery in London., and on his gravestone is written: "May your spirit live, May you spend millions of years, You who love Thebes, Sitting with your face to the north wind, Your eyes beholding happiness" and "O night, spread thy wings over me as the imperishable stars".