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Doodle 4 Google Competition Winner Announced

Announcement
May 21, 2008

Grace Moon, a 6th grade student from Canyon Middle School, has been announced as the national winner of the Doodle 4 Google competition. The announcement was made by Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience, at a celebration today in Mountain View, CA for the 40 regional winners of the competition and their families.

What is a doodle? Doodles are the quirky logo designs we often feature on the Google homepage to celebrate holidays, special events or birthdays of artists. This year, we launched a contest open to all K-12 students in the U.S. to imagine their own version of the Google logo, inspired by the theme "What If…?" Grace’s doodle was chosen from over 16,000 doodles submitted by students across the country, and was selected based on artistic merit, creativity, and expression of the theme.

The four national finalists (one from each grade group) were decided by an online public vote held May 12-18. Nearly 4 million votes were cast. The national winner was chosen by Marissa Mayer and Dennis Hwang, Google’s chief doodler.

The winning doodle is titled "Up in the Clouds" and "expresses a world in the sky," according to Grace. In addition to having her doodle on the Google homepage for a day, Grace will receive a $10,000 college scholarship, and a $25,000 technology grant for her school. The champion doodler has been drawing since she could hold a crayon. Grace enjoys art, but her favorite subject in school is math. She wants to combine both her loves and become an artist and scientist someday.

The three national finalists, listed below, will each receive a laptop computer. To see all the finalists’ doodles, go to www.google.com/doodle4google.

National Finalists

Grades K-3
Spencer Norton
Ashbrook Elementary School
Lumberton, NJ

Grades 7-9
Rebecca Olene
Pioneer Ridge Freshmen Center
Carver, Minnesota

Grades 10-12
Gabriel Kitzman
Elbert School Dist. #200
Kiowa, Colorado

The customization of the Google logo started in 1999, and these doodles are now designed almost exclusively by Google Webmaster Dennis Hwang, whose work is seen by millions every time he exhibits on the Google homepage. Dennis has creatively depicted worldwide events, anniversaries and holidays with doodles that incorporate the Google logo for the world to celebrate.

More information is available at: www.google.com/doodle4google.

Thanks to all of the other thousands of doodlers who participated in the competition. Your creativity inspires all of us!

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