On September 4th, Google celebrated the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the buckminsterfullerene with a special doodle.  The search giant also, as it turned out, helped a site hawking buckyball toys rack up more than $250,000 in sales.

Google’s doodle was actually the sole cause of the spike.  A statement released this morning explained, "Clicking it brought-up the Google search of the term ‘Buckyballs’ which in turn brought up the page for the desktoy of the same name.  2,000,000+ unique visitors in total landed on the www.GetBuckyballs.com page."

Then, "When it was all said and done, Buckyballs, already the world’s best-selling desktoy, saw an alarming jump in sales: 10,000 units sold in a single day – that’s over $250,000 in product, and the term ‘Buckyballs’ has since rocketed to the top of retail and keyword search-term charts!"

Of course, we should note that the statement came courtesy of GetBuckyballs.com, so despite the use of the word "alarming," it doesn’t represent much of a complaint.

Instead, the whole situation seems more of an illustration of Google’s power.  How many other companies could generate a quarter of a million dollars in sales while trying to celebrate an obscure scientific achievement?

Hat tip goes to Steve O’Hear, in any event.