Google has a tradition for celebrating particular calendar events of note. Whenever there is an important date the search engine wants to acknowledge, they do so by altering the main Google logo to fit the occasion.
For instance, during the major holidays, Google’s logo reflects the nature of the event. Currently, Google is celebrating the birthday of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. To pay the proper respect, Google again designed their logo to celebrate one of the world’s greatest architects.
However, there has been one drawback to the Wright Google logo. Normally, when Google displays one their celebratory graphics, the image is linked to search results for the person or event in question. Naturally, this results in an increased amount of traffic, especially for the top listing.
The top listing in the Frank Lloyd Wright query is franklloydwright.org, the official Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation web site. Unfortunately, this particular site is experiencing difficulties because someone tries to access the site; visitors are greeted by a Bad Request (Invalid Hostname) page. Apparently, the site has fallen victim to the increased exposure and traffic, which in turn, overwhelmed the web server. Oops.
Other first-page result sites seem to be experiencing slowdowns, which can probably be attributed to Google’s celebration as well. Of course, when you provide the amount of traffic Google is capable of, crashing a non-uber web server isn’t that difficult of a chore.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for murdok. Visit murdok for the latest search news.
