Newtown, Conn. Shooting: Google Lights A Candle For Victims And Families
Google has added a small, glowing white candle to its main search and images page following news of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
When users hover over the image, a text box appears that reads, “Our hearts are with the families and community of Newtown, Connecticut.”
According to the search engine giant, more than five million people searched for “Ryan Lanza,” the person who was incorrectly identified as the shooter. Ryan Lanza is the brother of the actual shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza.
The next most popular search was CNN, with a little more than one million searches.
This appears to be the first time Google has used an image in conjunction with a breaking news story. The Google doodle, which began 12 years ago, typically commemorates major historical events. It also appears in place of the Google logo. The candle, however, appears below the search box.
The previous Google doodle appeared on Monday to celebrate the 197th birthday of Ada King, the Countess of Lovelace, who has been credited with being the first computer programmer.
A list of the most popular doodles of 2012 was released Wednesday on Mashable. The first was a soccer doodle that appeared during the 2012 Summer Olympics. The interactive doodle allowed users to use the keyboard’s space bar to jump and the left and right arrows to move the goalie from side-to-side.
The second most popular was the Moog doodle, which celebrated Robert Moog’s 78th birthday. The doodle allowed users to play and record their own songs on the synthesizer.
