Tumblr ‘dot’ icon design to change frequently, ala Google Doodle

Who doesn’t like a good redesign? Remember how everyone went crazy over Yahoo!’s ages-ago-in-internet-time logo change? Well how about a good Google Doodle alternative?

Tumblr, in the wake of its own logo ‘redesign’ in October last year (the ‘u’ got a trim), has announced that it is going to use its very own punctuation mark (the full stop or dot) to Google Doodle-ish effect.

According to Tumblr’s creative director, Peter Vidani, they decided to keep the dot so that it could be interchanged with icons — like the Valentine’s Day heart you’ll find today. The icons will serve as hotlinks, taking you to an appropriate Tumblr page or search item. That’s a pretty nifty way of promoting content and pages.

Supposedly Tumblr will create lots of variations of the dot every month, and they will in all likelihood coincide with popular culture references, anniversaries, and other special occasions. So besides the obvious Valentine’s Day heart, we’ll just have to wait for the Cheer Up Keanu Day dot.

Using the dot as a hotlink also gives potential revenue opportunities for the micro-blogging site as sponsored pages could be promoted, or holistically they could promote donation pages for disaster relief.

What Tumblr ‘dot’ would you like to see?