Friday, May 16, 2008

Google’s Laser Logo

This is one of the weirder and more interesting logos to show on the Google homepage: in disco neon colors, Google today celebrates the anniversary of the first laser. Wikipedia explains (footnotes removes, my emphasis):

A laser is an electronic-optical device that emits coherent light radiation. The term “laser” is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. (...)

The first working laser was demonstrated on May 16, 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories. Recently, lasers have become a multi-billion dollar industry. The most widespread use of lasers is in optical storage devices such as compact disc and DVD players, in which the laser (a few millimeters in size) scans the surface of the disc. Other common applications of lasers are bar code readers, laser printers and laser pointers.

The top result in the Google search results for first laser is an article at the University of Chicago, whose servers seem to be stressed now. The second result is above Wikipedia result. Other special results include direct image results, products, and blog posts.

Also see other recent Google logos.

[Thanks Zim!]

Google’s Laser Logo by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (11+19)

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