As the London Olympics 2012 sporting extravaganza rolled out in August, those following Google's homepage closely for their colourful doodles were in for a treat. Apart from the series of interactive logos created especially for the event, the search giant has come up with other instances of creative artwork in the last four months. Taking the last edition of our Google doodle collection further, here are the six most interesting ones that appeared during the past few months:
 

6. Celebrating Independence
A simple and elegant peacock doodle graced Google India's page to celebrate the Indian Independence Day. The search giant hasn't been very consistent with India-specific doodles for the occasion, and this is one of only two doodles that doesn't feature the national flag (the one in 2011 depicted an image of the Red Fort). However, putting up the peacock because it is believed to be the national bird of the country may not have been the best idea — a pending RTI query might just prove otherwise.
 

5. The Aviation Pioneer
Famed American female aviator Amelia Earhart turned 115 on 24th July, and Google celebrated the event with an impressive piece of art. Its traditional logo can be spotted underneath the wings of the Lockheed Vega 5B — the airplane Earhart used for her maiden transatlantic flight in 1932. The aviatrix's last fight over the Pacific Ocean ended tragically on 3rd July 1937, as her plane went missing during the final stages of her attempt to circle the globe. However, the wreckage was never found, and several theories abound till today about her disappearance.

4. Mom's The Word
The world celebrated Mother's Day this year on 13th May, and Google celebrated the occasion with a touching animated doodle. Describing the logo, Google explains, "Kids give mom a flower... Well by animating it we can fill that simple action with life, like so... the kids peak [sic] through the door, scoping out the homepage to see if mom is around and she is! They ecstatically blow the door open stumbling upon each other, losing their footing and urgently racing towards mom, not only delivering a flower but smothering her with a gargantuan hug full of gargantuan love and gratitude that almost knocks her over :)". A rather simple doodle that nevertheless won me over.

3. The Olympic Set
Through the entire duration of the London 2012 games, starting with the opening ceremony, Google bettered its doodle collection — a tradition started during the Sydney games in 2000. While you can check out my pick of the lot here, the Synchronised Swimming doodle that went live on 5th August was the most visually appealing of all. The best interactive creation for me was the Basketball doodle featured on 8th August.

2. A History Of Coding
Creator of the Turing Machine that formed the basis for computing science, Alan Turing turned 100 on 23rd June. To celebrate this lesser-known genius's birthday, a doodle with twelve interactive programming puzzles was created. For those who were impressed with the amount of work that went into creating the doodle and have a programming bent of mind, the source code has now been made public.
 

1. Music To Your Ears
The sounds from The Beatles, The Doors, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk, and many others wouldn't have been as magical if it wasn't for the Moog Synthesizer. The instrument created by Dr Robert Moog is said to be one of the earliest and most widely used electronic musical instruments in the world. Google celebrated the famed engineer's 78th birthday with an interactive synthesizer doodle. Not only could you "play" sounds, but also record the clip and share it on your Google+ stream. Sadly, the latter feature is not available any more.

Which of the Google doodles presented so far this year did you like best? Let us know in the comments.

Tags : Internet, Culture, Transportation, Sports, Science, Google, Kamakshi