Wallace & Gromit – 20th Anniversary – Google accolade through Google Doodle

2009-11-04 11:42:13 - As Wallace & Gromit celebrate their 20th Anniversary, Aardman studios receive the ultimate Google accolade through Google Doodle. Where was the internet 20 years ago?

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of Wallace & Gromit, the most famous creation coming out of the Aardman Animations studio based in the United Kingdom.

The many films that were created around the Wallace & Gromit storylines revolve around the somewhat eccentric Lancashire inventor Wallace and his trusty, loyal and occasionally downtrodden dog Gromit.

Nick Park is the creative

genius behind Wallace & Gromit and the brand is globally recognised and has achieved huge status in popular culture and has been associated with many brands over the years.

What struck me when I came across the Google Doodle was that the last 20 years seem to have flown by.

It made me consider where the internet was 20 years ago and how we all searched for information two decades ago.

Back in 1989, the internet was truly in its infancy. The internet is credited to Tim Berners-Lee who in 1980 wrote a program called “Enquire Within”, the predecessor to the world wide web. In 1985 the first domain, as we know them now, was registered with the number growing to 5000 in 1986.

In 1989 the number had grown to 100,000 but the world wide web was not officially born until 1990 when Tim Berners-Lee continued his work.

Logically in the back of my head I knew the internet was not born until this date but I found it hard to believe that Wallace & Gromit were celebrating their 20th anniversary before the omnipresent internet.

In terms of search engine optimisation (SEO) this has progressed hugely over this period. Back in 1989, results were largely by word of mouth and referral. By 1990 search engines began to emerge to consolidate information and search engine marketing simply involved submitting to search engines.

In this new frontier, scope for spamming search engines was rife, hidden text and complete versions of the dictionary drew large results for websites but as the internet matured so did SEO.

The early days were riddled by black hat SEO but as search engines grew in popularity so did their need to provide accurate results. Algorithms, ethical guidelines, procedures and processes developed to the current standard where only white hat SEO is acceptable and sustainable.

Nowadays the internet is a hugely powerful tool allowing people to search for whatever they want. YouTube will no doubt have a huge peak in traffic today as people reminisce back to 1989 and the birth of Wallace & Gromit.

Wallace & Gromit’s film career includes:-

A Grand Day Out (1989)
The Wrong Trousers (1993)
A Close Shave (1995)
A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
Cracking Contraptions (2002)
Wallace and Gromit's World of Inventions (scheduled for 2010)