Google has done it again. They have turned their logo into a charming memorable testament to commemorate a special day. It is Valentine’s Day, if you needed to be reminded. Google began sending valentines via their doodle since 2000, skipping 2002 and 2006, perhaps they weren’t feelin’ it on those years.

What does a list of Google doodles have to do with business? The Google doodle demonstrates a key strategy of any successful business, don’t rest on your laurels, find ways to reinvent yourself, and you will get your market aim just like the boy gets the girl in this years Google Valentine.

2000 – Cartoon Cupid flies over a pretty normal Google doodle, save for the o’s are solid hearts.

2001 – Paying no attention to the natural world and seasonal hibernation, the Google Doodle this year was sandwiched between two lovestruck Teddy Bears both holding valentines behind their backs. Well, I guess teddy bears don’t really hibernate.

2003 – Google o’s become hearts again, this time hollowed out so they can interlock. A few small floaty hearts fly above.

2004 – The Google o’s have anthropomorphized into puckered up profiles with arms. One ‘o’ is red one ‘o’ is yellow, but we all know love is blind and sees no color.

2005 - The red ‘o’ is a heart shaped bouquet of red roses tied up in a white ribbon. Sadly, there is a discarded length of white ribbon laying in a loose curl on the ground and threaded through the bottom curve of the Google ‘g’. Some red petals have fallen off the bouquet, stay where they’ve landed and cast a shadow beneath the love gift. Are these roses not fresh? Why aren’t they not fresh? Was this the runner up doodle from 2004 which was passed over only to be hauled out and chosen a year later? Ah yes, this is a Google doodle of hope for all those patient lonely hearts out there… that is if you read into it enough.

2007 – This is one where you have to look twice to see that Google didn’t leave out a letter. A chocolate covered strawberry is served up as both the letters ‘g’ and ‘l’.  It might take a second look or more, but these letters are there.

2008 – The endurance of love takes a bow in this Google doodle. A couple in their sunset years, hand in hand walk off toward a sunset. It seems they have spring in their step as the man holds his cane mid-air.

2009 – Two love birds perch together on the 2nd Google (golden ring of an) ‘o’, the first one in red is an open heart.

2009 – The US version took a nice simplistic take, this year the letters of the doodle are all in a cheery dimensional red, though the two ‘o’s are an x and o, a kiss and a hug in a standout paintbrush font.

2010 – Double tasking it, Google celebrated the Vancouver Winter Games and Valentine’s with an illustration of Pair’s Skating couple in an arabesque spiral.

2011 – Google had a love-in with the classic LOVE logo designed by Robert Indiana, and with the Morgan Art Foundation created an inspired look-alike.

2012 – Today’s is the best yet. Not just because it’s animated. Well maybe, since that way it can be scored with Tony Bennett’s version of “Cold, Cold Heart”. And this charming cartoon gives the message that it’s not what you buy that wins a girl, it’s what you do.

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