Google marked the 225th birthday of the British Museum yesterday with a celebratory Doodle.
Displayed for users making search queries yesterday on Google.co.uk, the Doodle depicted the Great Court area of the museum, which was revamped in 2001 and became Europe’s biggest public square. The court comprises two acres covered with a glass roof and has the Reading Room in its centre.
The stylised imagery also depicted the museum’s Greek Revival entrance and one of the famous stone statues of Easter Island.
Google has been publishing its Doodles since it launched, with the first celebrating the Burning Man Festival of 1998.
Since then, the company has produced more than a thousand and has a select team of illustrators to develop each one.
From a web design perspective, Google’s choice to commemorate festivals and famous birthdays with its Doodles is an approach that all brands can adopt in one way or another. Keeping a website up to date is essential, and having unique, regularly updated content – such as a news feed that reflects the latest industry topics – will keep users returning to a site and could drive discussion and interaction on social media.
Last year, we published our countdown of the 15 best Google Doodles, which can be found here.
As regular Googlers will be aware, not all of the Doodles consist of a static image; over the years, some of the more in-depth examples have ranged from simple moving pictures to interactive storyboards and mini-games.
For a brand, it can be important to give users a reason to return to its main site other than to simply make a purchase or book services.
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