Google Hasn’t Gone Rainbow For DOMA & Prop 8 Rulings But Has, As Usual, For Gay Pride Month

My twitter stream is alive with people celebrating two important victories for gay rights today. They’re also noticing that searches for things like “gay” on Google are bringing up a rainbow-colored search box. That’s not Google celebrating the news, however. It’s Google’s traditional celebration of Pride Month for those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).

The US Supreme Court overturned the Defense Of Marriage Act today and chose not to reverse a lower court’s ruling against California’s Proposition 8, which sought to make marriage by gays illegal. As you might expect, people are doing searches that involve the word “gay” in them. When they do that, they’re getting back a search box surrounded by a rainbow.

Here’s an example for “gay marriage” showing up on Google:

That’s not happening because of the DOMA and Prop. 8 rulings today, however. It’s part of how Google celebrates Pride month. It began this year’s celebration with a themed box earlier this week. It has also done similar things for years.

Here’s 2008, where a rainbow was used to divide search results from ads:

Here’s how it looked in 2009, with a rainbow border appearing just above the search results, for terms deemed LGBT-related:

We don’t have the 2010 screenshot to show, but Google did do something special that year, as it did in 2011 and 2012, a ribbon under the search box for both years:

This year’s look surrounds the entire box:

While it’s a coincidence of timing, there’s no doubt many who support gay rights and are searching for today’s news on that front will find Google giving them an extra special gift along with the good news.