Monday, September 17, 2007

Google’s Roald Dahl Logo Was Pulled

Last Thursday, Google put up a special Roald Dahl logo to celebrate the birthday of the author of works like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. Some hours later the logo was gone, not getting its typical 1-day period in the spotlight*. I asked Google why that was the case but received no response, though others have been luckier and were provided with this statement (quote Google spokesperson to New York Sun):

Google has decided to remove its Doodle of Roald Dahl based on user concerns

There’s no explanation of what the user concerns actually were, but the New York Sun speculates that it might have been due to allegations that Roald Dahl was anti-semitic, and that the timing of the logo also coincided with Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah which started at sundown the day before.

This isn’t the first time a Google celebration logo has been pulled. Previously, a Miro logo was removed after the artist’s family accused Google of copyright infringements.

*At least that was the case on Google.com – the logo still appeared on Google.co.uk, though I’m unsure if it appeared for the full day or was also pulled at some time earlier.

[Thanks Veky!]

Google’s Roald Dahl Logo ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (9)

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