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Google Invites Britain’s School Children to Design Homepage Doodle

LONDON – April 11, 2006 – Google today launched a nation-wide design competition for Britain’s 10 million* school children. Youngsters taking part in the ‘Doodle 4 Google – My Britain’ competition will have to design a Google Doodle explaining what it means to be British. The winning doodle, which will be displayed on www.google.co.uk for a day, will be seen by around 18 million people.**

An expert panel will pick the top thirty doodles and the British public will then vote to select three finalists. Google’s Master Doodler, Dennis Hwang, will choose the winning national design.

The winner will travel to Google’s HQ, the Googleplex in California, where they will help Dennis Hwang design a doodle for Google’s homepage. Hwang, a 28-year-old graphic designer and Webmaster exclusively designs the ‘doodles’ that regularly appear on the homepage chronicling the ever changing, colourful and cosmopolitan lives of Google users.

Nikesh Arora, Vice President of Google Europe, said: “There has been a great deal of public debate here over the last 12 months about what it means to be British, and about British values generally. At Google we want to play a constructive part in that discussion and believe that this competition will help shed some light on how youngsters view modern Britain. With 1,000 schools registered in the last week, it will be fascinating to see the results.”***

Dennis Hwang, Google’s Master Doodler, said: “British kids are already using Google as a research and education tool. 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.”

To enter, and for more information about ‘Doodle 4 Google – My Britain’, please visit www.google.co.uk/doodle4google. The competition is open to school children aged 4-18. The website will be updated over the course of the competition to include downloadable copies of the school entry pack, lesson plans and more.

* Source: National Statistics, figure includes English, Northern Irish, Scottish, Welsh school children
** Source: Nielsen Netratings (December 2005)
*** There are 32,448 in the UK according the schools web directory (April 2006)

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.co.uk.

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