Google makes tiny change. World goes mad. Explain!
Unfortunely, this isn't an analysis, more a comment and opinion. Yesterday (07.09.2010), Google's home page had a clever ball animation that when left alone, would form an outline of the Google logo. Today, it's a reactive animation that colours the logo as you type in a search query.
Naturally, the media and online press went mad. Instantly giving praise to the "doodle" (full name: Google Doodles). We had the Daily Telegraph hoping to find reasoning behind it. The Mirror added their own 'mysterious' slant on it. However, Google weren't saying anything and refused to comment. It led to wild speculation; forums were loaded with ideas and suggestions, trends appeared in Twitter, and digital marketeers from all over the globe couldn't stop to add their two pence.
The guys at Google must be chuckling to themselves at how easy it is to occupy column inches by doing nothing more than changing their homepage's image. The floating balls is a little javascript trick that's been around for years. You don't see it anywhere else because it serves little purpose in modern website design (and ironically, something we'd find very difficult to suggest to any of our clients). If I thought it would grab the entire offline and online media's attention by including it, it would be on in a flash.
But, we all know that it isn't the Doodle itself that makes it to the headlines, it's Google's Doodle. This is a lesson in good PR on a grand scale (global, really). And we all fall foul to it. Even guys in the office here will comment on the new Doodle: "...seen Google's homepage this morning?..."
It's similar to people who seem to be famous for being famous. The tabloids and magazines will soak up gossip on some of the tiniest details relating to an individual (or in our case, an organisation) and their recent activity.
If I take anything away from this observation, it's that if we want to get the media's attention, we need to give them something to talk about. If we don't, they'll do one of two things: find something you don't want them to say, or even worse, say nothing at all.