Google UFO logo mystery deepens

Davey Winder
Sunday, 06 September 2009 14:13

Your IT - Home IT

What the heck is happening at Google? With UFO sightings on the search home page and 'unexplained phenomenon' the most searched for phrase this weekend, speculation about an alien abduction is mounting.

The Internet has been buzzing with rumour this weekend, ever since a UFO apparently tried to abduct the second 'o' in the Google logo. There's not been this much anorak conspiracy theory since the Ministry of Defence released classified UFO sighting files a year ago.

Google likes to play around with the logo that appears on the search engine's home page, changing it to reflect celebratory events in different locations around the world. Indeed, Google even employs an official logo designer in the shape of Dennis Hwang.

However, there is usually a fairly obvious reason for the novelty logo: chocolate dipped strawberries replacing the second g and l in the name for Valentine's Day or an interlocking brick design to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Lego for example.

Which is why the appearance of that UFO abducting the second 'o' in the Google logo, which apparently coincides with no religious celebration, historical event or anything else for that matter, has caused such a stir. Well that, and fact that aliens also interrupted the Google Twitter stream.

On Saturday morning a coded message was posted on the official Google Twitter account which not so simply read: 1.12.12 25.15.21. 18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19 and which has been decoded, apparently, to become "all your O are belong to us".

Obviously this is a publicity stunt for something or other, but for the answer as to exactly what it looks like we are going to have to wait a while. Could it be an alien conspiracy movie or book launch and mark some kind of marketing tie in? Maybe it is a strange way of showing support for Gary McKinnon ?

Who knows? The only thing we can say for sure is that the mystery is set to deepen over the coming weeks. Yes, weeks. This one is going to run and run if this official statement from Google is anything to go by:

"We consider the second 'o' critical to user recognition of our brand and pronunciation of our name. We are actively looking into the mysterious tweet that has appeared on the Google twitter stream and the disappearance of the 'o' on the Google homepage. We hope to have an update in the coming weeks."