Google doodle welcomes 2012 with party

Google doodle welcomes 2012 with a party

Always innovative and thoughful, Google's doodle on Friday welcomes 2012 with a party. The theme of this year's last doodle is New Year party with hats, balloons and confetti decorating the aphabets. The New Year doodle is the 260th Google doodle of 2011.Google recently announced the revamp of its Doodle site (www.google.com/doodles) where all the doodles since 1998 can be seen.

Here's a look at some of the most loved doodles of 2011:

Les Paul
Google created a musical stringed instrument in honour of American jazz and country guitarist, Les Paul's 96th birthday in June.

Freddie MercuryQueen's lead singer Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday was celebrated with a unique video doodle which played the band's hit song, Don't Stop Me Now.

Art Clokey
The 90th birthday of Gumby creator Art Clokey saw a Google doodle featuring characters from the Gumby series.

Charlie Chaplin
Google celebrated Charlie Chaplin's 122nd birthday with a video doodle.

Jim HensonGoogle gave an opportunity to surfers to turn puppeteer for a day with a doodle celebrating the 75th birthday of Muppets creator Jim Henson.

Jules Verne
Google celebrated author Jules Verne's 183rd birthday in February with a doodle allowing visitors to navigate underwater scenes straight out of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Martha Graham
On May 11, Google celebrated dancer and choreographer Martha Graham's 117th birthday, with dancing silhouettes performing dance routines.

Lucille Ball
With an old-fashioned TV set playing footage from actress Lucille Ball's show I Love Lucy, Google's doodle celebrated Bell's 100th birthday anniversary on July 6.

Roger HargreavesGoogle went all out to celebrated what would have been children's author Roger Hargreaves' 76th birthday with 16 doodles!

Richard ScarryA colorful doodle showing a world of toy houses and animals riding bikes, was Google' way of celebrating the 92nd birthday of children's' book author Richard Scarry.

Special mention
In India, the most famous Google doodle was the one designed by Varsha Gupta, winners of Doodle4Google India contest. Her doodle illustrated the Google logo with Indian classical music instruments.