Google Honors JFK, Snubs Reagan

On January 20th, Google marked the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's inauguration.

Today, on the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth, I looked at the Google front page and....nothing.

In the grand scheme of things you could say it's no big deal. But given Google's overarching presence on the web it does make one wonder about its selectivity in comemorating significant events in American history. Let's consider Google's criteria for its doodles:

Who chooses what doodles will be created and how do you decide which events will receive doodles?

A group of Googlers regularly get together to decide the events and holidays that will receive doodles. The ideas for the doodles themselves are gathered from numerous sources including Googlers and the general public. The doodle selection process aims to celebrate interesting events and anniversaries that reflect Google's personality and love for innovation. We are aware that the list of doodles is not exhaustive, but we try to select doodles that show creativity and innovation.

So the 50th anniversary of JFK's inauguration is an interesting event and anniversary that reflects Google's personality and love for innovation but the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth isn't?

Of course, Google would argue that they can't comemorate everything but it is quite curious that they would choose to pay homage to a beloved Democratic President but choose not to pay homage to a beloved Republican President a little over two weeks later.