Doodle 4 Google: The winner is...

Posted by Ashley Gorringe, Doodle 4 Google Team

We were thrilled on Wednesday to announce the winners of Doodle 4 Google, our initiative for young Australians to draw their own version of the Google logo around the theme of 'My Australia'.

All four age group winners were decided by the Australian public in an online vote over the past month and Dennis Hwang, the original Google Doodler, selected the overall winner from these. Dennis said, "Choosing the successful entry was not easy. I was blown away by the creativity of all the doodles and wide array of Australian imagery which was used."

The national winner was Janelle San Juan, a 12 year old student from The School of the Good Shepherd in Victoria. The title of her drawing was 'A scene of sheer formality' and among other things, incorporated the distinctive beach sheds found at Brighton Beach in Victoria. Janelle's doodle will appear on the Google Australia homepage on Australia Day 2008. Dennis noted: "Her design was both unique and at the same time instantly recognisable as being Australian. The depiction of the sun, the kangaroo sign in the outback, the bathing box at the beach and the people relaxing in the shade of the tree make this the perfect doodle for Australia Day."

Congratulations Janelle! (She also wins $10,000 of technology equipment for her school and a MacBook Pro).


The other age group winners were Clayton Rowlings from Tasmania (Years 1-3), Madeline Spooner from South Australia (Years 7-8) and Angela Jones from South Australia (Years 9-10). Brilliant job by these guys who all win an interactive whiteboard for their schools.

To acknowledge the huge achievement on the part of our 32 finalists, we brought them to Sydney from all over Australia for our grand finale. The culmination of the event was our prizegiving, when Dennis announced the overall winner.

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with the various doodles, but we'll be putting the winners up on our site in the next couple of days. And don't forget to visit the Google Australia homepage on Australia Day next year to see the winning doodle taking centre stage.

Engineers should not wear suits

Posted by Raul Vera, Engineering Manager - Geo

It's against the laws of nature. If God had wanted engineers to wear suits, he would have given us social skills and motor coordination. I violated this law on Tuesday night, and woe befell me.

Google Maps won the Australian PC Authority Magazine award for Best Web Application (we were co-winners with Facebook). We were naturally thrilled to get this recognition. Our Head of Engineering, Alan Noble and I attended the awards ceremony.

The invite made it clear that this was a gala event, in the Grand Ballroom of the Star City Casino, for which the attire was "Suited and Booted" for men, and "Dressed to Impress" for women. In a fit of conformity, I chose to wear a suit. Once wearing the suit, I couldn't bring myself to take my grotty old backpack, as it really would ruin the look. Bad move.

The awards ceremony was great. The wine hit the spot, the food good, and the people at our table friendly. When the Google Maps award was announced, I went up to accept it and was photographed with the magazine editor, just as I was meant to, then came back and sat down.

So the whole thing was winding down just fine, when I noticed that some of the other award recipients had been given protective boxes to put their heavy, pointy lucite awards into. I looked around for someone distributing the boxes, but the room was emptying. So I picked up the award and my umbrella, and headed out the door. Outside, the issue of PC Authority featuring the award winners was available. So I grabbed one and headed down to the Star City light rail station. I caught the train, put the award, magazine, and umbrella on the seat next to me, and pulled out my book to read. When we reached my station, I plopped the book onto the pile and picked up the lot by basically wrapping it all up in the magazine, then got off the train.

Except the award is heavy, the magazine is slick, and the book was one thing too many. The award slid out the front and fell, pointy end down, onto the train platform, which is made of concrete. Oops. Not so pointy any more. The photo shows the award, with a severely dented corner in front, a rather mangled hole of missing lucite at the back, and grotty scratches on the front right edge.


Why do I blame the suit? Because if I hadn't worn one I would have taken my backpack, and the award would have been safely tucked inside it next to the laptop, not tumbling onto a train platform. Geekiness was conserved, because only a clumsy geek would try to walk while carrying that pile of stuff wrapped in a magazine.

So the suit goes back into the closet until the next funeral.

Ed: Last awards ceremony you get sent to....;)

Great to be on board...

Posted by Karim Temsamani, General Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand

It's clear that the volume of online content is increasing at an incredible rate - Google's core job is to find needles in an ever-growing haystack. So I thought there's no better way to start my time as the new GM of Google Australia and NZ than to contribute to that haystack with a post on our blog.

The online ecosystem in Australia is buoyant at present, and I'm buoyant about its growth in the coming years. As you know, Australians are spending more time online, purchasing products, reading blogs, starting websites, running businesses, and using technology to find and share information.

To match this, Google is investing significantly in our team in Australia, as Australian consumers and businesses navigate the growing online world.

We want to provide you with more of those "aha!" moments - whether it's finding the exact search result you want, finding driving directions and local businesses on Google Maps, getting instantaneous news feeds on your iGoogle page, or collaborating in real time with friends in other countries through Google Docs. Behind the scenes, there's a large team here that is working to ensure that you get access to the latest Google products, and that we continually improve our existing products.

At the same time, we want to continue providing small and large Australian businesses with the opportunity to connect with customers, and use our range of technology and products to grow their businesses.

So as Christmas parties and the festive season in Australia are just starting to kick off, my work is just beginning. It's a thrill to start at Google and I promise to grow that haystack a little more, with more posts here.