Google’s Alessandro Volta Doodle May Cause Seizures

This week Google celebrated 270th birthday of the inventor of the battery, Alessandro Volta, in its latest Doodle, but not everyone was a fan. One searcher complained that the image, which contained a series of flashing lights, risked trigger a seizure in people with photosensitive epilepsy. Emileigh Starbrook wrote that the Doodle “caused an immediate migraine” for her, but that “it is very possible it could cause an epileptic seizure in someone who is more sensitive to it than I am.” Starbrook requested Google take the animation down just in case. It doesn’t look like Google did remove it, but will they consider epilepsy sufferers in future Doodles?

Google Webmaster Tools Data Ran a Week Late

The data Google Webmaster Tools always runs a day or two behind, but last week saw a pretty exceptional delay, with widespread reports that the system stopped updating for almost a week, leaving webmasters in the dark about their sites’ performance. Data stopped loading from February 7th for many users, and was still out-of-date over the weekend. Thankfully, things are now back up and running with the usual two-day delay, though this serves a reminder that even Google have service outages – which will be little comfort to those reliant on that data last week.

New Loading Effects Tested for Google Mobile Search

Reports suggest that Google are testing a variety of new loading effects for mobile searches, though it’s not clear if the aim is to increase efficiency, speed, or simply user experience. New effects include the logo fading away as the user types, to return once the search is complete. Another sees image searches load up rectangles in colours drawn from the image’s colour palette while the full pictures load. Check out Rubén Gómez’s video to see the new UI in action.