DISQUS

Mashable - The Social Media Guide: Unexplained Phenomenon Google Logo: Can You Explain It?

  • HZ · 3 months ago
    Wow people really have nothing else better to do. It's exactly that - an unexplained phenomenon - a recursive doodle.
  • Jim · 3 months ago
    Seriously people stop tying this doodle with District 9!!! The movie has been out for weeks now, and there links to no district 9 website..!!!! All other theories make alot more sense then this district 9 idea.
  • Marc Lequime · 3 months ago
    For crying out loud; it's just a simple doodle. Everyone everywhere are fussing over their new doodle. They have doodles all the time - sides; maybe they're trying to be bing with the searching for topics relevant to pictures.

    But seriously; it's just a doodle. Stop going on about it.
  • Egzon · 3 months ago
    I agro with Boonzeet, it`s just Doodle Logo made by childrens.
    No panic
  • Will Strinz · 3 months ago
    Its not just a doodle, google said this

    "We consider the second ‘o’ critical to user recognition of our brand and pronunciation of our name. We are actively looking into the mysterious tweet that has appeared on the Google twitter stream and the disappearance of the “o” on the Google homepage. We hope to have an update in the coming weeks." (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/020711.html)

    It's definitely possible their just messing with all of us, but there is at least something to it
  • Name · 2 months ago
    rofl, noob.
  • David Halladay · 3 months ago
    Interesting that it says "all your o" when only one o is being taken.
  • freesilver · 3 months ago
    One at a time.
  • Connor · 3 months ago
    There is two additional theories. One, its to do with District 9, but that is unlikely. But secondly, because of the trending term of "unexplained phenomonom"
  • latinageek · 3 months ago
    Somebody at Google would rather be at #dragoncon.
  • CallKathy · 3 months ago
    Reflections on the wife of the Japanese Prime Minister?
  • Name · 3 months ago
    Maybe it's pre-hype for GOOGLE Wave
  • Kate O' · 3 months ago
    I agree with this as the most likely contender. Not sure how it ties in, but it seems like good timing for viral excitement about Google in the build-up to Wave.
  • Michael Moore-Jones · 3 months ago
    Could be something to do with everything that's been going wrong with Google in the past few days... Gmail, then Calendar, and plus in search results the top menu bar and Google ads are not displaying for a lot of people.
  • Steve · 3 months ago
    Always Awesome google logos!! Very creative. Maybe they are planning something big on Monday...a product release?
  • sarahmoore · 3 months ago
    District 9 tie in perhaps?
  • zorgzzzzz · 3 months ago
    People are 'fussing' over this doodle because we're just curious as to why it's there in the first place.
  • Name · 3 months ago
    District 9 came out in the U.S. like three weeks ago, and this is world wide(I think) I dont think it is likely a movie would pay for creative ad after it already came out.
  • rutkmi · 3 months ago
    Is it tied to the release of Peter Jackson's upcoming alien movie? Can the Google logo be bought/sponsored?
  • Thomas Hochmann · 3 months ago
    I think they're feeling the heat of Bing's daily pic, which links to all sorts of cool related stuff.
  • Stephen · 3 months ago
    I love Bing's daily picture. I check it everyday
  • Martijn Betgem · 3 months ago
    Yep i love it to. Perfect pics.
  • name · 3 months ago
    niggerfaggot
  • Name · 3 months ago
    superfaggot
  • Name · 3 months ago
    fail
  • lagspike · 3 months ago
    i dont know how many people have it, but there is a problem with the bar at the top of the page on search results for me, it isn't showing.
  • Tom · 3 months ago
    Yeah, same for me, I can't search for a word normally, then change to Images within the search, I have to go to images, and THEN do the search! I don't like it...!!
  • lagspike · 3 months ago
    i hope that change isn't permanant...
  • abutterflyloves · 3 months ago
    Yes...I agree that they are trying to keep the hype up, and get everyone talking about WTF that could be. It worked. I love Mashable!
  • Zack Batist · 3 months ago
    I really hope this means another X Files movie has been finalized. perhaps this is the reason...
  • SoraZG · 3 months ago
    Maybe it is about recent UFO flights in Mexico?
  • simoncrabb · 3 months ago
    I think it's linked to the top menu bar being stolen by UFOs. Lots of reports about the top menu disappearing on search results, but only for some people.

    http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Searc...
  • Samuel Laurence Guzman · 3 months ago
    Roswell?
  • Shahar Tal · 3 months ago
    Just seems like an excuse for their failing apps lately.
  • Brad · 3 months ago
    LOL I love google. Lets just hope Bing doesn't take over. Microsoft doesn't need anymore monopoly.
  • Brad · 3 months ago
    I'm guessing they're just trying to mess with people. It IS labor day weekend where some people get really bored so maybe they're giving people like that something to do?
  • Stephen · 3 months ago
    So you want Google to have the monopoly on search?
  • Brad · 3 months ago
    Yes. Anyone but Microsoft.
  • Name · 3 months ago
    Google is the ONLY search engine worth using. All the other ones are shit.
  • Name · 3 months ago
    god here, you're still being a superfaggot.
  • Guest · 3 months ago
    Aliens ?
  • Thomas Westgard · 3 months ago
    Only one "o" is being taken, but all of that o, not part. So clearly, everything is completely logical! ;-)
  • Chris · 3 months ago
    hey man, i reckon it might be about District 9 (that movie about the alien refuge camp outside jo'burg with the spaceship hovering over it...).

    let me know what the verdict is!

    cheers,
    chris
    (twit: @chriskie_cox)
  • walter · 3 months ago
    google does this just to promote the use of other search engines
  • Robert Vann · 3 months ago
    Worth noting is that gogle.com is now a mirror.

    Personally, I like to believe that -- now that Google.com has access to or control of vastly larger amounts of the archives of human knowledge than any other entity (and is depended upon by significant numbers of people/companies/industries) -- we're about to discover that it is a ruse designed to infiltrate and enslave all of humanity. First they take our O, then our Email and Calendar events, next our Minds.

    Finally, our Base.
  • Marc R. Enriquez · 3 months ago
    Actually, WHOIS records show that "gogle.com" was registered way back in 1998.
  • Rob · 3 months ago
    Good one Google! You've got a lot of us speculating and no doubt launch web searches (hopefully on Google, right?). Well, those services mean $$ and in the war against Yahoo! and BING it’s the ratings and $$ that matter. Its either this or Google is working on something big. Either way, the mystery sure is fun on this Labor Day weekend.
  • Ewa · 3 months ago
    I saw several orange lights UFOs over Hither Green Lane( SE london) shooting up, some in pairs kinda dancing together ,,going up almost vertically and disapearing. It was 8.10 pm and i stopped the car and spoke to one guy who was looking up,,he said:these are not planes are they?..
    There was no sound and the lights moved quite fast,,there must have been around 10-15 of them. I wonder if anyoen else saw simmilar in London today!
  • Benjamin Dobson · 3 months ago
    Sounds like fireworks.
  • Name · 3 months ago
    disclosure is coming peeps. get ready...
  • Steve Evans · 3 months ago
    The interesting thing for me has been how quickly today blogs discussing the logo started appearing in the top ten results for the search you get when you click on it. A demo in indexing prowess perhaps :-)
  • Eli · 3 months ago
    I think you are on to something here Steve.

    They *have* been talking about how they've drastically improved real-time search results. What better way to test this?
  • philippscorp · 2 months ago
    odd thing is a few years back there was a google magic track involving disappearance of the o's in google. go to you tube and search "google magic trick"
  • Dave · 3 months ago
    My guess would be that it relates to the new Japanese Prime Minister's wife. It came out this week that she wrote in her book that, while she slept, her body traveled to Venus. She said it was beautiful there and very green...
  • ted · 3 months ago
    It's Blue Oyster Cult.
  • G · 3 months ago
    Needs more cowbell.
  • Kelly · 3 months ago
    are all of the "Reaction" links at the bottom some kind of virus/joke? I copy/pasted one into my url and it just brought me back into this page. Did it make it look like I then posted a link as well, but I am just unable to see it? I don't even care about the UFO google picture anymore. I just think it's weird that everybody is posting similar comments in the "reactions" section towards the bottom of the page.."
  • Bradj47 · 3 months ago
    The reactions display when people use RT @mashable in their Twitter updates.
  • Benjamin Dobson · 3 months ago
    I'm getting it on .ca and .uk, but not .com. Odd.
  • David Best · 3 months ago
    I think this is an interesting take on it==>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us
  • liz · 3 months ago
  • Sam · 3 months ago
    on a website i read they did it because it was like the most searched thing of the week
  • Σχολή Χορού · 3 months ago
    Generally i hate cryptic messages and symbolic occult stuff, especially with UFOs witch of course don't exist. I don't have a clue about what Google means and whats the seconds o significance, so there is no way fore me to decode what the poet wanted to say.
  • Blokie · 3 months ago
    Space Invaders anniversary.
  • John Michael · 3 months ago
    Another incident of Corporate Downsizing / Outsourcing the "O" to some offshore place to save money and lose American jobs. Which could change their name to GOGLE
  • emm · 3 months ago
    they probably perposely did it to confuse ppl! god!
  • Name · 3 months ago
    They're doing it to create some mystery of their own. And they've succeeded. All this hoo-haw has indeed become an unexplained phenomenon. Thats just my take on it.
  • Name · 3 months ago
    1939 United States of America declares itself neutral in the early days of WWII
  • Robert · 3 months ago
    http://www.GoogleUnexplainedPhenomenon.com has some answers!

    This is all very interesting!!!!
  • hapislim · 3 months ago
    Maybe its in celebration of the new Prime Minister of Japan's wife who claimed she was captured by aliens??
  • vegas · 3 months ago
    Google obviously has a secret space program and it's trying to tell us that. 'All your o are belong to us' = all your ozone = end of this planet.

    Obvious world domination/end is obvious.

    That or it's just a freaking doodle.
  • Tom C. · 3 months ago
    H G Wells's birthday is 21 September; maybe they'll follow up with an invisible Google logo next week or so, leading up to that date.
  • Helen · 3 months ago
    This is mind bending, I just can't even begin to try and decode it given my old age :)
    Maybe Google will tell us what the logo stands for later.
  • ..kol.. · 3 months ago
    last night i saw something floating in the sky.. a sphere and in mid flight it fell straight down it was so strange it may hav something to do with that..?
  • beng44444 · 3 months ago
    Google thinks they have a stake in the internet like the nerve in our right hand's ring finger. They're just celebrating themselves!
  • nataliav · 3 months ago
    If the link pointed to a location in Google Maps, it would be creepier.
  • Mary Larson · 3 months ago
    Of all the crazy things I've read about todays Google Doodle, I like yours the best.
  • Donnie_53_Miles_West_of_Venus · 3 months ago
    ~Many Gamma Rays Around It! Van Allen Belt Surrounds It! This Is The Space Age!~
  • maquah · 3 months ago
    It's circular, since Google's image is itself unexplainable.
  • austin haines · 3 months ago
    the numbers might be an ip address, and the thing might be a joke by the creators of google
  • Dich thuat Viet · 3 months ago
    I always like Google's logos
  • Trinity · 3 months ago
    mabey its the day of the Very first obduction? that MABEY occured over 30 years ago? i dont know :P
  • captain Jak of Not Here · 3 months ago
    "Watching, all the time watching... goggle-eye geeks..."
    ...
    "No joke, bloke," Roland replied. "Some of those new goggles've got sniffer sensors on 'em..."

    From Earth, by David Brin.

    Published by Bantam in 1990


    If anyone reads they would know this book it has a wonderful fantasy of items, one of wich includes a laser bee zapper, the related tweet with the twist on the famous "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" replacing base with "O's" now go back to the forementioned "Goggle's" and replace the "O's" AH HAH!!!!

    i think google might be planning a releas of the prototype that will transmit smells through the internet.

    or maybe if all you alien conspiracy freaks are right then it refers to maybe the sattelite google uses for their maps picked up something and the new aliens have noses like we do but nothing else, NOTHING ELSE!!!!???

    then again it could be tied to district 9
    but what i choose to believe is that we care way too much about what google put on their page than we are caring about the fu**ed up things going on in our towns and cities and th big shots behind it getting away with it because......
    you guessed it google put up a new image on it's website.

    ALL OF YOU ARE BLIND
  • urbanhaze · 3 months ago
    Personally, I believe google may be just conducting some research on how their change in logos can drive internet browsing and searching, and how long it can impact people's use of the internet...
  • chauwell · 3 months ago
    Maybe it's a meta-joke.

    Google changing it's logo is an 'unexplained phenomena' as well...
  • Holy · 3 months ago
  • Ethos2012 · 3 months ago
    Considering google is working with the Government now, I think they are trying ease in the fact that we are not alone and that the world has been watched by ET's for quite some time now.
  • kcdwayne · 3 months ago
    Im curious as well. Possibly to test the effect?
  • kcdwayne · 3 months ago
    more importantly, I think the question would be why are so many people searching "Unexplained Phenomenons"? did I miss something?
  • Matt · 3 months ago
    It's not showing up anymore for me
  • mitya · 3 months ago
    maybe, Google have got search queries from another planet?):-)
  • dakotah · 3 months ago
    totally.. they both go to burning man all the time.. its in the realm of possibilities.
  • Antonio Guy · 3 months ago
    How strange.Me and a fellow friend of mine were chatting online about ufo's and realted matters,and touched briefly about him seeing a few ships teleporting a few people through a blue beam a few nights ago.
    After that,I went on google,and there it was,a ufo with a blue beam.
  • katelyn11522 · 3 months ago
    i think the website it leads you to is a virus.

    after i opened the webpage of googles unexplained phenomenons my compiter started crashing almost
  • Kelden · 3 months ago
    It's self referential.
  • heyheyhey · 3 months ago
    i don't care
  • sentinel62754 · 3 months ago
    Checked the NUFORC.org database, only came up with this for Sept 5:

    Occurred : 9/5/1957 17:30 (Entered as : 090557 17:30)
    Reported: 9/4/2006 9:47:53 PM 21:47
    Posted: 10/30/2006
    Location: Los Gatos (west of), CA
    Shape: Disk
    Duration:one minute or less
    3 craft seen in day light, very low altitude and as clear in detail and color as a car on the road.

    The 3 ships my wife and I saw were disc shaped and slightly concave on the bottom side. On the top side there was a definite "cabin", with round port holes around the outer edge. There was a "pole" (knob) at the center bottom. The ships were glowing from within and were an all over color like that of a bluish floresent lamp. The sighting took place in late day light and the crafts were flying in a canyon, so we could see the hills behind them, so the altitude could be gauged some what. My guess would be they were flying at less than 200 feet altitude.

    All 3 ships looked as though they were sailing on a slightly wavey sea and were gracefull in flight, with out a whisper of sound. They were moving very slowly, at a rate of 10 to 15 miles per hour. Following each other, they each one very briefly paused, just slightly west of our position, nearly overhead. When they took off, they traveled from east to west, at approximately a 45 deg. angle from the horizon, gaining altitude at an amazing rate of speed. From our view point, they appeared to be 30' to 40' feet in diameter and when they took off, they diminished to a speck in a forth of a second or less.
  • tuxme2 · 3 months ago
    LOL!!
  • Joe · 3 months ago
    maybe google is hiding alien secrets... oooooohhhhhhh.....(spooky) calm down, don't analye a stupid picture of the day because you are to incompantent to know what it means
  • Michael Zampino · 3 months ago
    9 8.1.22.5 14.15 9.4.5.1
    i h.a.v.e n.o i.d.e.a
  • sadia imran · 3 months ago
    "Unexplained Phenomenon" ...no wonder, now one can explain what is going on with Google's logo today...
  • dan · 3 months ago
    The "all your o are belong to us" translation is correct. Each number just corresponds to a letter in the alphabet. 1==A, 12==L, etc.

    I have no idea why Google posted it though. Maybe they have trademarked the letter 'o'.
  • Name · 3 months ago
    well apparently all of our "o" are belongs to them, google knows something we dont know. the end of civilization as we know it is coming, the aliens are going to take all of our fossil fuels. lol
  • A. · 3 months ago
    well.. actually when i first noticed the logo change i thought it's a mushroom... and only than understood it's an UFO)
  • lolobug · 3 months ago
    when you search Google for unexplained phenomenons on this date, September 5th, nothing comes up! can anybody else find anything???
  • plasticmadness · 3 months ago
    Well, perhaps guessing what is the special occasion is a part of the enigma as well.
  • Michael Zampino · 3 months ago
    Found this blog post while seaching on Bing <--- hahahaha!!!

    Google’s Unexplained Phenomenon UFO Logo finally solved !:
    http://www.softsailor.com/news/7107-googles-une...
  • Randolosphus the Thinker · 3 months ago
    hehe, they had one once of a fractal and it went to image searches of fractals. not a lot of fractal conspiracies so no one wondered what google was up to haha.
  • Jesus · 3 months ago
    Its the end of the world! Google's messing with our minds!
  • Michael Zampino · 3 months ago
    Hey, they have a neat little website:

    http://exeterufofest.com/
  • evi · 3 months ago
    i heard it was about some radio brodcast a few decades back

    there was a radio movie (a movie acted out on air with no video) and in the movie there was a scene with a radio brodcast warning the public about a alien invasion. the public who just had turned on the radio thought there was an alien attack and a few ppl killed themselvs.

    i was listening to u of guelf radio 2day and they played the brodcast it is belivable.


    i am not sure if it was a movie or a joke long time ago
  • Slow Dancer · 3 months ago
    It's a joke. It's a spoof on All your base are belong to us. The answer to the Google number code is All your O are belong to us. You can see an explanation of All your base are belong to us by going to the Wikipedia website and putting All your base are belong to us in the search box. It's also the anniversary of the flight of Vogager 1 spacecraft on Sept. 5 1977 but I don't know if that is relevant
  • Slow Dancer · 3 months ago
    Sorry I meant Voyager 1
  • Name · 3 months ago
    Could it be becuase its the 31st Anniversay of the launch of Voyager 1 (which was launched AFTER Voyager two) ?
  • Dave · 3 months ago
    anyone else notice the creativity in the filename go_gle.gif
  • Dan · 3 months ago
    Its brilliant! The explanation is right there is the search keyphrase. What better, more clever way to explain unexplained phenomena than to not explain it at all! They've created the phenomena by putting this logo up, everyone all over the internet and hence the world going crazy about it; if they explained anything it would no longer do it justice. It is therefore in and of itself: unexplained phenomena. Brilliant!!
  • Unknown · 3 months ago
    This is the day of the first UFO sighting. This "Unexplained Phenomenon" is what they called it before people started thinking it was aliens.
  • omgitsme · 3 months ago
    I just found out that in 2001, there was a flight test in area 51 on September 5th. Maybe that's it?

    http://www.dreamlandresort.com/trip_reports/tri...
  • sjharrell · 3 months ago
    Given that Google was incorporated on September 4th, it would make sense that Google's servers would be online for their first full day on September 5. The O being displaced to the right gives the appearance of the words Go ogle (Go search with interested attention). the fact that it links to unexplained phenomenon and shows a UFO could be a statement from the company which in full would state "Go search with interested attention into the unknown" on September 5th because the servers are now up.
  • wisemanofthewatchtower · 3 months ago
    I think that this pic links to a search on purpose. It reflects that there is no definitive answer, and that the search continues. They can't really narrow it down to one statement or event, but it is something notable that they felt was worth putting out there. It caught your attention, didn't it? It certainly caught mine.
  • viralmaven · 3 months ago
    First of all, Google does not make a logo for fun. There is always a meaning to their logo. So if they made that logo I could only guess that it is promoting the festival you guys mention. It wouldn't be weird considering that Google's founders go to Burning Man. My guess is that they are supporting that event, or maybe, just maybe, Google Earth showed them something they should not have seen!!??
  • Kurk · 3 months ago
    I think it is the 200-day light source recorded by Hubble ending around this date in 2006. Everything matches up and all clues point to this...
  • Lidiya Nadych-Petrenko · 3 months ago
    This day 9 years ago on a Millenium sammit in NY Putin proposed to organise an international conference devoted to the prevention of space militarisation. May be Google took this fact into account while creating the logo?
  • blwinters · 3 months ago
    I'm guessing it was prompted by the recent statement of the new Japanese first lady. Apparently, she has been abducted by aliens. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/i-...
  • Kalyan · 3 months ago
    A UFO !! So is Google launching it's search engine on any other planet ?!!!
  • Joe Hall · 3 months ago
    tis a publicity stunt leading up to their new OS the "O" is not plural....its OS as in Operating System
  • ajay · 3 months ago
    its probably related to the birth anniversary of h.g.wells(its on 21 september, (of war of the worlds fame, to remind you )). Google's korea blog says that it is making these logos as a part of a three part series(the next appears on 15 september and the final one will probably appear on 21)
  • Ronak Bhagdev · 3 months ago
    Anything related to Heroes' upcoming premiere? It's on 21st!
  • Someone who knows · 3 months ago
    As someone who knows… I can verify that the Google logo is not related to the o campaign or Chung. the website unexplainedphenomenon.org is a fake site created after the buzz was generated. Look elsewhere.
  • Free PSN Codes · 3 months ago
    I think Google is from outer space!
  • joepie91 · 3 months ago
    I've written a blog article on this: http://sven-slootweg.nl/blog/2009/09/06/the-goo...
  • Rogue · 3 months ago
    simple: google makes money every time you search for something...putting a link to a search makes this process much easier...and with something that would fuck with the minds of billions of internet users...in this economy..everything goes.
  • Name · 3 months ago
    morons.
    it's the anniversary of the release of wing zero... "all your base are belong to us"... remember?
  • Name · 3 months ago
    I am forced to disagree - this is not merely a simple "doodle". This is clearly part of the world-wide Freemason/Illuminati conspiracy.
  • bigolpoofter · 3 months ago
    I hope I can get this out before the alien implants take control again.

    It's Google's reminder that resistance is futile. You will be ass-imilated!
  • roguedeals · 2 months ago
    If I was Google I wouldnt pass up the chance to peak interest with my audience either. Very cool.
  • Bader Alrayyes · 2 months ago
    google has awesome graphics logo when it comes to something happened or important in our lives :)
  • Bo · 2 months ago
    UH, it is a Final Fantasy meme in which a translation error occurred from the US and Japanese versions in which the english translated version said 'All your base belong to us'.

    The 'O' is gone, so the name no longer makes sense and we as humans translate it as weird, thus the weird translation relation to Final Fantasy....
  • Yuri · 2 months ago
    Maybe there's a digitally remasterd box set of all of Roy Orbison's albums nearing completion?

    And hey, I've got a good idea, maybe Google bought the music rights?
  • charles rinehart · 2 months ago
    Google has imagination. It is all about image. And getting noticed. I like it. Great story.
  • Sigurgeir Þór · 2 months ago
    They split the word google into 2 parts, go and g/ogle. I wouln´t be surprised if the alien ship part of the logo represents, something being beamed. Also alien ships fly around in the sky, among the clouds. The O might represent objects (like apps) or Operating systems (All your O´s belong to us). So they´re saying 2 things, to you they are saying:
    "Go wireless, into the cloud, with google"
    and to the rest of the computer industry they are saying:
    "Your operating systems belong to us"

    My guess is they´re browser based OS will be called Gogle.
  • mushy brain · 2 months ago
    let me spin another angle on this. gamers know (I wish I didn't stop playing games) another set of meme these are: fail, win, owned, and pwnt.

    what if the phrase used by google recently (meme itself) had another meme in it? OWNED. all your O are belong to us = all your o are owned by us. according to the definition of this meme, OWNED means FAIL if someone does it to you, i.e. you're screwed. now what is O? there can be many meanings, but going back to basics O means a round hole :)

    so the phrase now reads, we screwed you in all your holes = we screwed you big time = you're so screwed = we screwed you hard = ... well you get the idea :) but, google is not evil right? can this be a new google-moto? let's see, they used folksonomy, crowdware and other forms of social collaboration on the net as a free labour and then sold it for big profits.

    you are owned :)
  • sahiba · 2 months ago
    maybe it IS the unexplained phenomenon and they're getting us to think and try and explain it but we simply can't
  • Ben Lang · 2 months ago
    Strange, I have no idea...
  • Ellen · 1 month ago
    I always like when Google has a different logo! I never saw this one and didn't try to figure it out, but I'll be on the look out next time.