Google launches competition for British doodle

Posted on 11 Apr 2006 at 11:45

What does it mean to be British? It is a question asked by many, including most recently Jeremy Paxman and Gordon Brown, but now Google wants to know, too.

The graphics that adorn the Google homepage have become a familiar landmark on the Web, and now UK school children are being invited to submit a 'homepage doodle' conveying what it means to be British.

A Google panel will pick the top thirty entries, which will then be voted on by UK Google users in October to select three finalists. Google's 'Master Doodler', Dennis Hwang (pictured), will choose the winning design in November.

The winner will have the opportunity to travel to Google's HQ, the so-called Googleplex in Mountain View, California and work on the design with Hwang.

'British kids are already using Google as a research and education tool,' said Hwang. Now we are giving them the chance to use our homepage to talk to the rest of the world about their country and its values. I'm hoping we'll see some extremely imaginative and expressive designs. We certainly did last year.'

The picture will appear for one (as yet, undetermined) day and will not mark a specific event or holiday, a Google spokesperson told us. The competition is a Google.co.uk initiative and is not being repeated across other Google domains.

The competition is open to school children aged 4-18, and entry details can be found at www.google.co.uk/doodle4google. Apparently, 1,000 schools have already registered. It follows in the steps of a similar London-specific competition held last year.

Author: Alun Williams

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