Yesterday, Google displayed their logo with an UFO which when clicked will take you to its search results page for “unexplained phenomenon”. This Google doodle has taken the world wide web by storm as people started offering various explanations behind this mystery.

Google’s official statement regarding this offers no clear explanation either:

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.

So, why in the world would Google do this “unexplained phenomenon” thing?

These are the possible explanations I gathered. The doodle is a reference to:

1. The new movie District 9 which is about an alien invasion at the slums of South Africa.

2. Star Trek’s 43rd anniversary. It was on September 8, 1966 that Star Trek was first aired on NBC. Since the doodle depicts a beam over the letter “o”, it might be a reference to the show’s infamous line, “Beam me up, Scotty.”

3. The Exeter incident. It was a highly-publicized UFO sighting that occurred in September 3, 1965 near Exeter, New Hampshire, USA. Today, Exeter’s first UFO festival takes place.

4. Google’s birthday. Google was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998.

5. Google “cooking up” a new product. Probably its Chrome OS or some web service.

6. A Google social experiment. They want to know how many clicked on its doodle and what people’s reactions were.

7. A Google advertising strategy. Related to #5.

8. Why Gmail crashed last September 1.

Whatever the real explanation is, Google has successfully caught the attention of many. After all, people are always naturally curious of things mysterious and unexplainable.

Damn! Those Google strategists are really good!

Please read my related posts:

1. Today’s Google Doodle: Unexplained Phenomenon UFO Google has been known to modify their famous logo to reflect holidays or special events (like birthdays of famous people or anniversary of invention of something useful). These special logos are called Google Doodles. Today however, and for some still...
2. Today’s Google Doodle: Gray Logo After yesterday’s mysterious doodle appearing at Google’s homepage, another one has replaced it that is more mysterious albeit simpler. While the September 7 Google logo is very colorful and interactive, today’s version is just a plain gray logo. It becomes...
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Tags: doodle, google