BAHRAIN’S 50th National day was commemorated by internet tech giant Google on its homepage yesterday in the form of one of its well-known ‘Doodles.’
For the fourth year in a row, the search engine’s home page logo was replaced with a dedicated animated graphic featuring the kingdom’s red-and-white flag.
“Today’s Doodle celebrates 50 years of independence for the Kingdom of Bahrain, or the ‘Pearl of the Gulf’, on its National Day with an illustration of the nation’s red and white flag,” the company announced on its Doodle explanation page.
“Since achieving independence in 1971, Bahrain has undergone significant developments in its economy, education, and healthcare, transforming the nation into a key financial, commercial, and tourist centre of the Gulf.
“Traditionally, Bahrain’s historic achievements and culture are celebrated over two days with entertainment such as magic and laser shows, concerts, televised fireworks, and acrobatic performances.
“Many of the country’s renowned landmarks, such as the Riffa Clock Tower, are decorated with the national flag, and lights; and flowers are planted to brighten many of its main streets.
“Happy National Day, Bahrain!”
Bahrain’s National Day has previously featured amongst Google’s Doodles in 2011, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020, making this year the seventh time the day was marked.
The concept of the Doodle was born in 1998 when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin changed the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
“They placed a stick figure drawing behind the second ‘o’ in the word Google, and the revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were ‘out of office’,” the company explained.
“Two years later, Larry and Sergey asked current webmaster Dennis Hwang, an intern at the time, to produce a doodle for Bastille Day. It was so well received by our users that Dennis was appointed Google’s chief doodler and doodles started showing up more and more regularly on the Google homepage.
“Creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented illustrators (we call them doodlers) and engineers. For them, creating doodles has become a group effort to enliven the Google homepage and bring smiles to the faces of Google users around the world.”
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