Internet giant Google was given the royal seal of approval when the Queen had a fit of the giggles during a tour of its London headquarters.

The royal party had been shown a clip of a baby with an infectious laugh from the company's YouTube video site.

Google's UK homepage logo was given a makeover for the occasion, featuring a specially-commissioned "Google doodle" of the Queen's profile and a crown.

The monarch met staff including software engineers and senior managers.

She also chatted to 16 schoolchildren who had won a competition to design new "doodles" for the firm.

Google changes its logo periodically to mark national holidays or anniversaries of major events and its UK site is featuring the Queen's profile throughout Thursday.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were introduced to Chad Hurley, who co-founded You Tube, the popular video sharing site bought by Google in 2006.

They also met ordinary people who have become YouTube stars.

Mr Hurley showed them footage of a baby sitting in a high chair being made to laugh by an unseen person making a "boo" noise, which has been viewed more than 63 million times.

The Queen remarked: "Lovely little thing isn't it. Amazing a child would laugh like that."

Royal website

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

She had first sent an e-mail when she visited an army base in 1976, according to Buckingham Palace, and in 1997 launched the official royal website.

Nikesh Arora, president of Google Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "She did seem very, very interested in everything going on."

During the tour, the Duke of Edinburgh chatted to Matthew Trewhella, a developer advocate who promotes his organisation's products to companies.

He asked the Google worker, who was dressed casually in a hooded top, chinos and trainers: "Just come back from jogging?"

The royal couple were shown searches made for a number of topics, such as Buckingham Palace and the Royal corgis.