Memorial Day is not among the special occasions that Google commemorates. There are special pages with special Google logos for Mother’s Day, Earth Day, the Persian New Year, Walter Gropius’s 125th birthday (one of my favorites as a part-time Weimar resident), and many others.
Google has stated reasons for leaving Memorial Day off the list:
We have to balance this rotating calendar with the need to maintain the consistency of the Google homepage.
Furthermore, Google’s special logos tend to be lighthearted in nature. If we were to commemorate Memorial Day, we would want to express reverence, rather than mirth. This would be a particularly challenging design. We would not want to, in any way, create a graphic that could be interpreted as disrespectful. In light of the mail we have received about this, we are actively considering designs we could display on this day next year. We welcome any suggestions you may have.
Little Green Footballs took up the challenge. Many good designs (scroll down) were submitted by readers for a Memorial Day Google logo.
As much as I like Little Green Footballs, however, I decline to join the criticism of Google on this issue for two reasons. First, I don’t know of any reason that Google should feel compelled to decorate its page for particular occasions or justify its decision to ignore the event. If consumers are unhappy with its decision, they can vote with their feet. Google may have raised expectations by observing some patently frivolous occasions or by observing more serious occasions frivolously, but that does not seem a sufficient basis to start demanding something more. Free-market conservatives in particular should concede Google’s right to make whatever choice it wants.
Second, we have a distressing tendency to trivialize our observances. It is possible (though doubtful) that the majority of Google’s staff attended special Memorial Day services. That kind of observance would be preferable, I think, to festooning the logo or putting a mini flag next to the hotdogs at the company picnic. Cheap and effortless displays too often substitute for something more meaningful.
No doubt many people, individually and in groups, observed Memorial Day by attending a Requiem, saluting a flag, tending a grave, or offering thanks in myriad other ways. The Google page can neither add to nor subtract from these more weighty and heartfelt observances.
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