Google Wishes Charles Addams A Happy 100th Birthday.

In celebration of what would be his 100th birthday, Google honors Charles Addams with a "horror" doodle. The American cartoonist was best known for his black humor and macabre characters. His first drawing in The New Yorker ran on February 6, 1932 (a sketch of a window washer), and his cartoons ran regularly in the magazine from 1938, when he drew the first instance of what came to be called the Addams Family, until his death. He was a freelancer throughout that time.


above: Charles Addams (aka Charles Samuel Addams)

Born 1912 in Westfield, New Jersey, he signed his cartoons as Chas Addams.

The Google logo shows some of his figures who became known as the "Addams Family"; Gomez Addams, Morticia Addams, Pugsley Addams, Wednesday Addams, Uncle Fester, Grandmama, Lurch, Thing and Cousin It. Addams' typically styled Victorian buildings were said to be an inspiration for both Alfred Hitchcock's ("Psycho") and Edward Hopper. He died on September 29, 1988.

Happy Birthday, Charles Addams.

music: "Scheming Weasel" by Kevin MacLeod

info courtesy of wikipedia, youtube and google.

How The World Searched Google in 2011

Each year's end, Google tallies up the most popular search terms in various categories and breaks them down by country.

Since my readership is global (only one third of my readers are actually in the United States), I'm sharing with you the top ten searches in Fastest Rising, Fastest Falling, Entertainment, Sports, Consumer Electronics, Food and Drink, Google Map searches, People and News from all over the globe.

See how your interests stack up against those of the rest of the world. Beware, Rebecca Black is number one in three categories!


Fastest Rising Search Terms:

1. rebecca black
2. google plus
3. ryan dunn
4. casey anthony
5. battlefield 3
6. iphone 5
7. adele
8. 東京 電力
9. steve jobs
10. ipad 2

Fastest Falling Search Terms:

1. myspace
2. hi5
3. mebo
4. nasza klasa
5. netlog
6. baidu
7. wer kennt wen
8. meinvz
9. hotmail correo
10. delta airlines

Fastest Rising in Entertainment:

1. rebecca black
2. ryan dunn dead
3. price tag lyrics
4. amy winehouse death
5. super bass lyrics
6. crazy stupid love
7. disney junior
8. kim kardashian wedding
9. the lazy song
10. rihanna man down

Fastest Rising in Sports:

1. mayweather vs ortiz
2. soccerstar
3. dan wheldon
4. ufc rio
5. marco simoncelli
6. troy davis
7. india vs england
8. なでしこ ジャパン
9. hope solo
10. pacquiao vs mosley

Fastest Rising in Consumer Electronics:

1. amazon kindle fire
2. iphone 4s
3. sidekick 4g
4. hp touchpad
5. spb shell 3d
6. ipad 2
7. htc sensation
8. samsung nexus prime
9. sony ngp
10. ipad 3

Fastest Rising in Food and Drink:

1. wendys
2. just eat
3. little caesars
4. chick fil a
5. allrecipes
6. 食べ ログ
7. jimmy johns
8. buffalo wild wings
9. popeyes
10. cupcakes

Fastest Rising in Google Maps:

1. utm (Universal Transverse Mercator)
2. siegessule berlin
3. dpt conforama
4. wells fargo
5. friseur
6. elementary schools
7. campgrounds
8. shopping centre
9. starbucks
10. lake


Fastest Rising in People:

1. rebecca black
2. ryan dunn
3. pippa middleton
4. casey anthony
5. adele
6. steve jobs
7. amy winehouse
8. osama bin laden
9. charlie sheen
10. kate middleton

Fastest Rising in Google News:


1. fukushima
2. iphone 4s
3. melania rea
4. salvatore parolisi
5. lamberto sposini
6. battlefield 3
7. dsk
8. iphone 5
9. gaddafi
10. libya

And a look back at 2011:

source

Google Wishes You Happy Holidays With An Interactive Animated Jingle Bells Light Show

If you didn't check out the Google doodle today, it's a sweet interactive animated doodle that when all the buttons have been depressed, plays a little light show accompanied by an instrumental 'jingle bells' ditty.

Click on the glowing button beneath the G and it becomes a snowflake:

Click on the glowing button beneath the first O and it becomes Santa:

Click on the glowing button beneath the second O and it becomes a bell:

Click on the glowing button beneath the second G and it becomes a snowman:

Click on the glowing button beneath the L and it becomes a candle:

Click on the glowing button beneath the E and it becomes a present:


According to Nathan Naze, Software Engineer at Google "Working with our doodlers, we had the bright idea to string lights along the Google homepage (and, because we can, added some interactive features). Of course, instead of using nails and hopelessly tangled strings of lights, we used JavaScript, Closure, and HTML5 or Flash to play the music (depending on the browser)."

Here it is in its animated entirety:


Happy Holidays back to you, Google!