Google's New Doodle Honors Jules Verne Birthday

Internet search giant Google Inc. is celebrating 183rd birthday of French science-fiction writer Jules Gabriel Verne by capturing '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' in its new interactive doodle.

Google's doodles are mostly country or language specific, but the international appeal of Jules Verne has made the new interactive doodle on all of Google's country search pages. While Jules Verne is not around to celebrate his birthday, Google has created the new interactive doodle that is viewing from the Nautilus submarine, which is famous from the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Google said its new interactive doodle enables anyone to navigate the Nautilus down 20,000 leagues under the sea with the simple pull of a lever. Users of Apple Inc.'s iPad and iPhone, which has built-in accelerometers and the latest versions of Google Chrome or Firefox, can just tilt their device in the direction they need to explore under the sea and the Nautilus will follow.

Jennifer Hom is responsible for the new doodle, especially for under the sea navigation that features golden portholes in the Google logo and interactive exploration that lets to dive to the sea floor.

My first encounter with Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, however, sent my imagination into hyper drive. Using CSS3 (and with help from our resident tech wizards Marcin Wichary and Kris Hom), the doodle enables anyone to navigate the Nautilus down (nearly) 20,000 leagues with the simple pull of a lever. So voyage below (and above) the waves to see what you can discover... just make sure to keep an eye out for the giant squid, Google Doodler Jennifer Hom said in a blogpost.

The novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea about the submarine Nautilus which was propelled by electricity. The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leagues is 2.7 times the circumference of the earth. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax.

Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is revisited in a new action-adventure sequel novel, Return to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, authored by British collaborative writers -- Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore. The new book is expected to be released on March 1 in the United Kingdom and on April 1 in the United States through Amazon.com.

Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes, France to attorney Pierre Verne and his wife, Sophie Henriette Allotte de la Fuye. His father wanted him to be educated as an attorney, but Jules Verne had keen interest in writing manuscripts and plays.

In the busy maritime port city and summers spent on the Loire River, Verne was exposed to the arrival and depature of schooner and ships that sparked his imagination for travel and adventure, according to the biography given in the Online Literature.

In 1863, aeronautics was beginning with the flight of blimp-like machines called dirigibles. Jules had been reading and studying about them and decided it would be better to invent a balloon that could go up and down to catch the wind. He began researching about the balloon flight for the story. It was his first adventure novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen.

Verne wrote numerous works, most famous being the 54 novels comprising the Extraordinary Voyages. He is also best known for other titles such as A Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1864, From the Earth to the Moon in 1865, Around the Moon in 1870, Around the World in Eighty Days in 1873, and Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon in 1881.

The 1954 adventure film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was probably the most well-known film adaptation of the book directed by Richard Fleischer. It was the first science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Pictures, as well as the only science-fiction film produced by Walter Elias Disney himself, according to Filmreference.com. It was also the first feature length Disney film to be distributed by Buena Vista Distribution.