Google goofs up D-Day doodle in U.K.

LONDON, June 6 (UPI) -- Google has apologized for putting up a Doodle honoring a Japanese Go player on the 70th anniversay of D-Day, saying it was an error.

The company initially put up a Doodle honoring Honinbo Shusaku, a professional player of the traditional Chinese game Go, which was displayed on its U.K. site. After a backlash on Twitter, the search giant removed the Doodle, replacing it with a "Remembering D-Day" link to its Cultural Institute, where users can find letters, photos and maps of the Normandy landings.

"We always intended to highlight a new exhibition of imagery and archive material commemorating D-Day on our homepage," said Peter Barron, Google's director of communication.

"Unfortunately a technical error crept in and for a short period this morning an international doodle also appeared. We're sorry for the mistake, and we're proud to honour those who took part in D-Day," he added.

Google said it had always planned to upload the D-Day content and it had partnered with the Memorial de Caen in France to create the new content. They said that the the Honinbo Shusaku Doodle was a global one, and had been uploaded by mistake.

Google.com.uk, Google.com.fr and Google.com are displaying the D-Day link whereas Google.com.hk and Google.com.jp are still displaying the Honinbo Shusaku image.

Google has created over 2,000 Doodles on its homepage honoring major milestones, anniversaries and the birthdays of famous people and events.