Isaac Newton and the New Year Get Their Place on the Google Homepage

Google doodles are beginning to be a regular fixture on the search engine's homepage, but there probably aren't that many people complaining. Making its eleventh appearance in a row, the New Year’s doodle didn't fail to show up on January 1 marking the start of 2010, a year in which Google has plenty to look forward to. The doodle is one of Google's best, but it didn't take long for it to out-do itself with a great celebration of Isaac Newton's birthday today.

The New Years doodle is one of the best in the series and, thankfully, does away with the furry animals and centers on the actual event, the New Year. It features a familiar sight, the night sky lit up by fireworks, which also make up the two 'Os' in the company's name and a clock tower showing 12 o'clock. The cute part is how 2010 is written using the elements of the drawing, a recurring theme for the Google doodles. The '2' is easy enough to make out, then the two faces of the clock make up the '0' and the '1' and the final '0' is actually a very jovial moon.

But Google wasn't done with the New Year surprises. As the most enthusiastic Google followers already know, the company has been running a countdown on the homepage, counting the seconds until 2010. It was hidden by default and only showed up if the user clicked in the "I'm feeling lucky" button without entering any search terms.

Once the countdown reached zero though, it was promptly replaced by fireworks and a "Happy New Year" cheer which took over the home page for a few seconds. In true Google geeky style, the 'fireworks' are just the * character and the entire animation is text-only. The animation is still there, four days after the event, and can be seen by pressing the "I'm feeling lucky button."

And it didn't take long for Google to put up another doodle, this one marking the famous physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton. The doodle is subtle but of great effect, depicting the scene that comes to most people's minds, the famous falling apple. Funnily enough, the apple actually 'falls down' on the Google homepage. Clicking on the logo leads on the expected search for 'Isaac Newton'.