'Happy New Year' Google Doodle Celebrates 2012 With Dancing Letters

Google is ushering in the New Year with a festive doodle on its homepage that features a top-hat wearing "L" and a streamer-shotting "E."

The search engine's "Happy New Year" doodle might include whistles, but it doesn't include all the bells and whistles of some of its recent logo designs, which have included a video of Googlers carving an enormous pumpkin, Muppets making music, and an interactive turkey that users could dress in different costumes. Clicking on the doodle takes users to search results for "Happy New Year."

The holiday doodle does, however, promote Google's year-in-review feature Google Zeitgeist.

"What a year. Watch and remember the biggest moments of 2011," Google writes beneath its logo, with a link to this YouTube video.

Last year's New Year's eve doodle replaced Google's "oogl" with the Roman numerals for 2011, "MMXI." (See it here)

PC Mag noted that users in the U.S. were given access to the New Year's doodle a bit later than some of their overseas counterparts.

"The Doodle, which you can see at Google's home page, was first spotted on South Korean and New Zealand landing pages since, because of time zone differences, Asia and Pacific regions roll into 2012 earlier than the United States," PC Mag wrote.

Check out Google's "Happy New Year" doodle below:

Click through the slideshow to see our favorite Google Doodles ever.