Google gives Les Paul doodle a permanent home

13 Jun 2011

The massive success and popular approval of a Google Doodle dedicated to guitar hero and inventor Les Paul has led to Google giving the interactive doodle a permanent home.

The Google Doodle shaped as a series of guitar strings that lets users play and record their own tunes now has a permanent address.

Popular demand for the doodle inspired Google to keep it online for an extra day on 10 June. However, now it has a permanent home.

The doodle was made with a combination of JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas (used in modern browsers to draw the guitar strings), CSS, Flash (for sound) and tools like the Google Font API, goo.gl and App Engine.

The musical doodle went online on 9 June in honour of the late Lester William Polsfuss’ 96th birthday.

Otherwise known as Les Paul, he was an American guitarist and inventor who helped pioneer the solid-body electric guitar and techniques such as licks, trills, chording, fretting and timing that inspired jazz and rock music and which feature in many of today’s chart music.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com