If the measure of a good logo is that it is memorable, Google is setting new records. On the day after Labor Day, the search giant is featuring a new variation on its well-known name in which the logo breaks up and runs from your cursor -- and people are wondering why.

According to news reports, the new, interactive logo is only available to users in the U.S. and Britain. It shows the Google name in circles of color that disperse away from the tip of your cursor and then, as if on invisible elastic bands, bounce back to form the name when your the cursor is moved away.

Google's Birthday

The logo also does its thing if you grab the top bar and move the browser window.

Google has a tradition of modifying its logo to reflect a holiday or special occasion, like Halloween, the artist Rene Magritte's birthday, or the launch of the Hubble telescope, but this dynamically interactive version takes the tradition to new dimensions. It is also sparking a great deal of commentary on the Web as to its meaning.

For one thing, the holiday-related logos often lead to an explanation when the logo is clicked, but that is not the case here -- it's literally not possible to click on the dispersing name.

Some commenters are suggesting it is related to Google's date-of-incorporation birthday, which is September 7. The company was founded in 1998.

Others mention that the programming trick is a particle movement simulator, using Javascript. The company has previously honored science-related occasions, such as "doodles" on the logo that honored H.G. Well's The War of the Worlds, on the occasion of his 143rd birthday. Perhaps Google is honoring some as-yet-unrevealed particle-related achievement?

Then there's HTML5, which has become a hot topic because of Apple's refusal to allow Adobe's Flash technology on its iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone devices. Instead, Apple has been pushing the still-developing, standards-based HTML5 and related technologies.

'Diffuse the Conversation'

The particle movement simulator uses HTML5 and CSS along with JavaScript, so there is speculation this is a highly-visible demonstration of a neat interactive multimedia trick that standards-based technologies can do.

While the holiday-based custom logos are generally static, this isn't the company's first interactive logo. A falling apple logo graced the screen in January, on the occasion of the birthday of the most famous falling apple-watcher in history, Isaac Newton. A Pac-Man game-logo in the spring celebrated the 30th anniversary of that classic video game, and an interactive buckyball on Saturday celebrated the discovery of the carbon molecule named after visionary Buckminster Fuller.

Andrew Frank, Research Director at Garnter, said that, because their "logo is rendered most frequently on a Web page," the company doesn't need to subscribe to the long-held marketing rule that "your logo is sacrosanct."

He pointed out that "this particular execution helps diffuse the conversation about the attack ads being run by a consumer group," protesting their highly criticized joint proposal with Verizon Wireless about Net Neutrality. The company is also under investigation in a number of countries for privacy laws violation, in relation to personal data obtained by their Street View vehicles.

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