Google’s homepage is iconic, simple, and one of the most-visited websites on the planet. It’s also often used to promote new products, some of the company’s achievements, and various doodles. Today, the Google homepage is celebrating the company’s carbon-neutral efforts with a falling leaf, but it’s hilariously confusing some users.
If you head over to google.com this morning, after a second or so you’ll see a leaf quickly falling down the screen until it hits the bottom. It moves very quickly, as pictured, and goes back and forth as it falls.
The point of this leaf? Google is trying to bring attention to its environmental efforts. Specifically, that Google has been carbon-neutral for over a decade, since 2007, and has a goal to be completely carbon-free by the year 2030. It’s a very ambitious goal, but one that’s great for the planet!
- Google pledges to only use carbon-free energy by 2030 in ‘biggest sustainability moonshot yet’
- Google will ditch plastic packaging by 2025, announces further sustainability efforts
However, this little animation is actually confusing quite a few users. A quick search on Twitter shows that a lot of people are confusing the falling leaf on Google’s homepage with a fly or bug on their display. Admittedly, it can look like that at a glance, but even if that’s not what you think it is, the speed of the animation can be a bit jarring. Unfortunately, there’s also no way to turn off the animation and it will occur every time you visit the Google homepage.
More on Google:
- Google Search honors Alex Trebek with Jeopardy easter egg
- ‘Simple Search’ turns back the clock on Google results, hides ads in the process
- Google 3D animals and objects: Which ones are available and how to use them
Author: Ben Schoon
Source: 9TO5Google
