If you happen to visit Google’s homepage today, you will notice that its logo is replaced by a series of vertical lines parallel to each other.
Yes, that is a doodle of a barcode.
Fifty-seven years ago, on October 7, 1952 to be exact; US Patent 2,612,994 was issued to Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver thereby recognizing them as the owners and inventors of the barcode.
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data. Originally, bar codes represented data in the widths (lines) and the spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1D (1 dimensional) barcodes or symbologies. They also come in patterns of squares, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns within images termed 2D (2 dimensional) matrix codes or symbologies. Although 2D systems use symbols other than bars, they are generally referred to as barcodes as well.
Bar codes can be read by optical scanners called bar code readers, or scanned from an image by special software. (source: Wikipedia)
Bar codes are usually used to track items which range from grocery items to rental cars to mails and parcels to cinema tickets and even nuclear waste and DNA.
Who knows, there might even come a time where our national ID system is composed of a bar code branded to our butts. 
Check out the link to generate your own barcode.
Please read my related posts:
- How to Make Your Own Barcode Today is the 57th anniversary of the issuance of US Patent 2,612,994 to creators Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver...
- 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...
- Today’s Google Doodle: Happy Valentine’s Day From Google & Robert Indiana It’s the day of LOVE. Google greets lovers all over the world with a special doodle that says “Happy Valentine’s...
- 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...
- Today’s Google Doodle: Tribute to Mahatma Gandhi Google has featured today in its homepage a doodle of a bald man with a moustache. That man is Mohandas...
Tags: bar code, doodle, google, wikipedia
October 7th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
when i first saw this doodle on google today, i was thinking that there was something wrong with the page until i reloaded it.. still the same…
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ark Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Expect more of this in the coming months as google gives tribute to birthdays, inventions and important events in history.
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October 7th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
A very interesting concept indeed!
Cheer!
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October 7th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Just saw it today, I thought it’s just a browser glitch. Fortunately I came across this post. Thanks!
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ark Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 12:10 am
You have the same reaction with enad.
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Emil Jaranilla Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Akala ko nga navirus ung pc ko dahil jan sa barcode n yan! wahahaha.
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