Why Does Google have a Barcode?

Google users may have found themselves scratching their heads this morning when heir first search query of the day was greeted by a large black and white barcode in place of the Google logo. This is Google’s way of marking today’s 57th anniversary of the patenting of the very first bar code. As you might expect, the barcode would be read as the word “Google,” so long as it was decoded by the standard ASCII character strings.

The barcode was first patented in the United States on October 7, 1952 by Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland, but it was not until 1974 that the first piece of retail merchandise was scanned for purchase: it was a pack of Juicy Fruit gum sold in Troy, Ohio. However, it was not until the 1980′s that the barcoding of consumer goods with UPC codes really caught on. Fifty-seven years after the patenting of the barcode, there are now an estimated 10 billion different barcodes that have been assigned to products ranging from cartons of milk to high grade weaponry.

Today’s Google barcode spoof is another in a long line of doodles that the company has used to mark different days of remembrance, be they grand or otherwise.