Today, December 17th, Google updated their ‘doodle’ to celebrate classical music.    The doodle is the
‘Google’ graphic at the top of the google search engine.  In the past this has been variations on the google wordmark to celebrate various anniversaries.   This one is special for two reasons, it celebrates the 245th baptism of Ludwig van Beethoven (his birthdate is unknown) and it is also Google’s first interactive doodle.

Why is this big?  Google is the most used search engine in the US, and process about 40,000 searches per second, about 3.5 Billion per day.  Doodles are often country specific, but this one is worldwide.

The interactive google tells the story of Beethoven out on the town with his freshly written score.  A series of mishaps cause the score to get mixed up, and the viewer is played a melody and then has to correct the arrangement of segments of the music.  Getting it right moves you along in the story.

This is great exposure for classical music that will reach a broad audience.  Bravo Google!

Play the interactive Google Doodle here.