Today is Memorial Day in the United State of America, an important day where Americans honor the lives and contributions of those who died while in service for the country. Typically, the search engines give respect to the day and the individuals and families by creating a custom background image, logo or placing a ribbon on the site.
This year, Google has currently done nothing. The Google home page is blank, no logo, no ribbon, nothing. Last year, Google had a ribbon on their home page with an alt tag specifically saying what it was for. Here is a picture:
This year, there is nothing at all on the Google home page for the day. Google has said in 2008 they do not do Doodles for sad days such as Memorial Day. Google wrote then:
Thank you for your note. We understand your interest in seeing a Memorial Day Google logo. If we were to commemorate this holiday, we'd want to express reverence; however, as Google's special logos tend to be lighthearted in nature, this would be a particularly challenging design.We wouldn't want to create a graphic that could be interpreted as disrespectful in any way.
We have a long list of holidays that we'd like to celebrate in the future. We have to balance this rotating calendar with the need to maintain the consistency of the Google homepage. We really appreciate your feedback regarding the Google logo, and please be assured that we're actively pursuing ways in which we can acknowledge Memorial Day and other such occasions in the future.
Regards, The Google Team
But no ribbon? Google has done ribbons on sad days, even Memorial Day.
Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com have special logos or themes for the day:
Yahoo's Animated Logo:
Bing:
This image has been removed because of fear of being sued over copyright...
Ask.com:
Search Engine Roundtable (us):
So Google, what is up?
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
Update: After 2pm EST, Google added a Memorial Day ribbon to their home page, but is it too little, too late?
