Google is celebrating its 13th birthday with a simple but elegant doodle

Sep 27, 2011 08:10 GMT  ·  By

Google is celebrating its 13th birthday with a simple doodle on its homepage. The doodle looks like an old birthday photo, with the Google letters gathered around a birthday cake.

Google opted for a low key doodle for its own celebration, as it usually does, and not any of animated or interactive doodles that it has been sporting some times.

It's hard to pinpoint the exact date when Google was created, but the company has settled on September 27 for the past several years.

It's not a date of any particular importance, at least not officially, but it's the date that the search engine has chosen for itself. A few times, Google has celebrated its birthday on September 7.

This year's doodle is a simple one, by comparison with some of the intricate designs it has been showing off on occasions, but it's one of the most elaborate birthday doodles the company has ever displayed for itself.

Until last year, each doodle was a simple variation of the Google logo, with some party and birthday elements thrown in. Last year, Google commissioned a doodle from American artist Wayne Thiebaud.

The doodle depicted a birthday cake with Google written on it. The artist is best known for his drawings of cakes, pastries and similar items.

Here, you can check out a complete list of all Google birthday doodles ever made, nine of them.

Apart from the doodle, Google doesn't make a big fuss about its own birthday, at least not externally.

The company can't be in much of a celebratory mood anyway. While Google is still growing, adding more users and increasing revenue, it's facing stiffer competition, from the likes of Facebook in particular. It's also under scrutiny from regulators over anti-trust issues, due to its large size and market share.