The job calls for a "sense of humor, love of all things historical and imaginative artistry". 
 
 "Every day, hundreds of millions of online users visit the Google homepage. Yes, to search. But also, to be delighted, informed, and surprised (And maybe even to laugh a little). 
 
 "The Google Doodle makes this possible - it's the change that is constant on Google.com." 
 
 "From Jules Verne to Pac-Man, you have the reins to our brand and iconic logo and can run free with your innovative ideas." 
 
 Based at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, the successful candidate will also have graphic design qualifications or at least four years professional experience. No salary details were given. 
 
 Google's employee selection process is famously rigorous, requiring several stages of professional and personal interviews, on the phone and in person, as well as tests. 
 
 "Virtually every person who interviews at Google talks to at least four interviewers, drawn from both management and potential colleagues," Google says in its information for applicants. 
 
 The firm's first Doodle was created in 1998 to mark the Burning Man festival, a counter-culture gathering in Nevada popular in Silicon Valley and attended by Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt, and its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. 
 
 The designs have become ever-more frequent and complicated since then, incorporating animations and interactive elements. 
 
 Doodles this year have celebrated the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the 182nd birthday of Eadweard J. Muybridge, the photographer who proved that all four of a galloping horse's legs are off the ground simultaneously. ||||| Google's doodle today is a rare thing--one of their interactive efforts. It's a load of balls. Bouncing, colored balls that make up the famous Google logo. Everyone's pondering why. We think we know. It's about the future of Web tech, with no apologies to Adobe's aging Flash. 
 
 Google's doodles normally celebrate a special national or international day, famous person in history or some such ... but today's one has everyone confused. Plus, instead of the normal, occasionally amusing, static doodles, today's doodle is animated: Flying colored balls rattle around before settling down to form Google's logo, and when you move your mouse pointer over them they flee from its presence (also if you hold down shift, or alt or a bunch of other keys). Flying colored balls, however, don't seem to signify anything other than flying colored balls. 
 
 Their passing similarity to balloons got some people wondering about parties ... but is today Google's birthday? Some think it is, some think it isn't--the company was inaugurated on September 4th, for example. But Google's own company history page explains: "On September 7, 1998, Google Inc. opened its door in Menlo Park, California. The door came with a remote control, as it was attached to the garage of a friend who sublet space to the new corporation's staff of three. The office offered several big advantages, including a washer and dryer and a hot tub. It also provided a parking space for the first employee hired by the new company: Craig Silverstein, now Google's director of technology." So it is a Google birthday--its 12th year since its first company property opened. 
 
 But as the U.K.'s Guardian has noticed, the tech driving the doodle is important. It's not Adobe's Flash, which could be programmed to do exactly this, but which many think represents last-generation Web thinking. It's actually CSS, the powerful "style sheet" coding protocol behind many of today's websites: Each colored ball is a CSS entity (in the lingo, a "div") that's programmed to act by itself. This is a jokey but impressive demonstration of the power of future Web coding, using tech like CSS and HTML5, which is smooth on today's typical PCs even though it's rendered inside a browser. Basically Google's saying "look what the Web (possibly via our swanky browser, Chrome) will be capable of on our next birthday!" Unless you're browsing the Web with IE (shame on you) or Opera, which Google hasn't made this code work properly for. 
 
 To keep up with this news, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.
– Love to doodle, Internet-style? Have we got the job for you. Google is searching for a full-time Google doodler. "First impressions matter," says Google in its ad for the position, referring to the behemoth search engine's cutting-edge Internet art (and likely a word to the wise for those sending in resumés). The job requires a "sense of humor, love of all things historical, and imaginative artistry." Google's employee selection process is famously rigorous, and bound to be even more demanding for a showcase homepage doodler. No salary has been revealed. The firm's first doodle was created in 1998 to mark the Burning Man festival, and they've been increasingly frequent and more complicated ever since, notes the Telegraph. Now, as the Google ad encourages: "Go forth and doodle."