Queen's image marks Google visit

An image of the Queen has been incorporated into Google's UK homepage logo to mark her visit to the internet giant's British headquarters in London.

The specially-commissioned image, called a "Google doodle", features the Queen's profile and a crown.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are meeting staff, young competition winners, and users of the Google-owned video site YouTube during her visit.

Last Christmas, the Queen launched a dedicated royal channel on YouTube.

"Doodles" on Google's search engine homepage change periodically to mark occasions such as national holidays and anniversaries of major events.

Royal e-mail

During the visit to Google's offices in Victoria, the Queen and Prince Philip are meeting Nikesh Arora, the president of Google's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, as well as key UK staff.

They are being shown a series of demonstrations explaining Google's various operations, and meeting schoolchildren who won a competition to design new "doodles".

The Queen has kept up to date with technological changes over the decades, sending an e-mail for the first time when she visited an army base in 1976, according to Buckingham Palace.

In 1997 she launched the official royal website and in 2006 she made her annual Christmas message available for download as a podcast.

Last Christmas she launched a dedicated royal channel on YouTube which now contains 54 royal videos and has been visited by 1.6m people.