Google's Belgium vs Algeria Doodle Salutes Paul the Octopus

Google is going all out on a limb to show its solidarity for the ongoing World Cup in Brazil, with doodles each day since the tournament began last week. On Monday, the search giant had unveiled the Mexican wave doodle. The latest to join the World Cup 2014 doodle bandwagon is the animal oracle Paul the Octopus, with a click showing results for the first match of the day, Belgium vs Algeria.

Tuesday's World Cup 2014 doodle depicts Paul sitting in the clouds with a halo on his head, trying to predict the winner of the Belgium vs Algeria match. The green and gold ball sits pretty in front of him, and Google is written in two parts on either sides of the cephalopod mollusc. A visibly confused Paul is seen scratching his head trying to predict the winner.

The subject of Tuesday's World Cup 2014 doodle was an animal celebrity during World Cup 2010. Paul the Octopus made several divinations with an aquarium keeper presenting him with food kept in two boxes marked with the flags of the respective teams playing on that particular day. The box from which he chose the food represented the winning team.

World Cup 2010's unofficial mascot Paul was also called Die Krake Paul, and become a national celebrity in Germany, when he had on the trot predicted the winner of the games that Germany played during the last World Cup. His name comes from a poem by Boy Lornsen called Der Tintenfisch Paul Oktopus (The Ink Fish, Paul Octopus). Clicking on the Paul the Octopus doodle shows search results and live score widgets for upcoming and ongoing matches.

Paul, who was born in Weymouth in England, eventually found his way to the Oberhausen division of the Sea Life Centres, where he made his divinations. His accurate predictions of the Germany games during Euro 2008 and also the World Cup in 2010 did win him fans, but post the prediction of the Germany vs Spain game in the World Cup 2010 semis, (which Germany lost), there were unfortunate demands made by fans to cook him and eat him. Paul eventually passed away in 2010.

The Belgium vs Algeria match, currently seen with the Google doodle, will be kicking off at the Estadio Mineirao, Belo Horizonte on Tuesday at 9:30pm IST.

For more Google doodles visit this page.

The best Google doodles of 2014