Google doodle celebrates 4 July

Rube Goldberg inspired interactive doodle for this year's celebrations

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5 July 2010 0:06 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Americans visiting Google.com's homepage on the 4 July were treated with a special Google Doodle to celebrate Independence Day.

Although Google users outside of the USA weren't able to see it, Google turned its logo into a Rube Goldberg machine animation that ends in a firework going off to celebrate the victory over the English back in 1776.

Rube Goldberg is an American inventor that has recently shot back to fame and popularity following the inclusion of a Rube Goldberg machine in an OK Go music video and the Honda adverts in the UK from a couple of years ago.

A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately over-engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.

Bing, incidentally, opted for a very serious picture of the Jefferson memorial in Washington D.C.