Or Groundhog Day, if that’s your thing.
It has come to our attention that many people take part in a tradition called Groundhog Day. And after some intrepid Google researching we did happen upon some information about this “Groundhog Dog” phenomena, and we were surprised how similar it is to a tradition we happen to celebrate every February 2nd here at RBG called Droid Day.
Droid Day traces its roots all the way back to 2007, when a Google Marketing Communications Team member named Irina Blok came up with the design for the logo for Google’s new operating system.
She finished the design in just 5 minutes! The team at Google have begun to fondly refer to him as Bugdroid, and he has become so popular that even though he originally began as a logo for operating systems for phones, tablets, and watches, he has unofficially been adopted as the mascot for all of Google.
RGB’s Droid Day Tradition
In February of 2007 the RGB team was enjoying a group lunch outside of the office when Gabrielle noticed a pair of little green antennae poking out of some nearby bushes. The team lured the little creature out with some search engine optimized keywords. As she came closer she seemed to take particular interest in her own shadow, and later the RGB team noticed that after they brought the little green Bugdroid into the office they had 6 full weeks of fabulous internet connection. The following year the team again brought her outside on February 2nd, but that year she did not see her shadow and the next 6 weeks were a nightmare of slow internet and power outages. Thus, a tradition was born: If the Google Android sees her shadow we will have 6 weeks of amazing internet connections, but if she does not then there will be 6 weeks of slow internet.
The Groundhog Day Tradition
Our Google research taught us that Groundhog Day begin in the 1800’s. Every February 2nd Punxsutawney Phil exits his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania after a long hibernation to predict the weather for the rest of winter. If he sees his shadow there will be 6 more weeks of winter weather, if there is no shadow the arrival of spring is heralded.
Now that we have learned about Groundhog Day we still don’t see what the big deal is. We live in Naples, Florida where it never snows, but if you are interested in Punxsutawney Phil’s 2016 prediction you can check it out here.
Now on to the real news. Clients have been calling the office all morning demanding to know: Did our little Android see her shadow?