The story of the Google Weather Frog and the price of ditching delight

I like cute animals. You like cute animals. It seems that Big Tech does not like cute animals, and maybe they should.

I am not the only one with a soft spot for anything cute. This is why I want to see the Google Weather Frog every morning. Sure, I want to see what today’s high will be, but I also want to see if the frog gets his laundry inside before it rains.

History of Google Frogs

The Google Weather Frog has been around in some form for a few years. I saw it for the first time as one of the backgrounds for my old iGoogle page. The Frog had a Ladybug friend then, and they would get up to things like having breakfast in the morning and telling each other ghost stories by the fire at night: the image would change every couple of hours throughout the day. Was this practical? No. Did I care? Also no.

When iGoogle disappeared, the Frog appeared in a more abstract form on Google’s weather app. When it was sunny, you’d see the Frog on the roof of a building lounging with a lemonade. When it was windy, the Frog would fly a kite. When it was foggy, the Frog would lurk around its meadow wearing a bandana as a mask (I still don’t get that one).

The Google Weather app would give me the information I needed, with the added delight of keeping up with the Frog’s adventures. Lately, however, Google doesn’t seem to be into the Frog anymore.