Googlified

Google had several special logos in the last couple days to celebrate holidays that took place in various parts of the world.

Saint George’s Day (UK): Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Eastern Catholic Churches. He is immortalized in the tale of George and the Dragon and is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. His memorial is celebrated on 23 April. [Wikipedia]

Girls’ Day (Germany): The Girls’Day opens up extensive future prospects to a generation of qualified young women. With the objective of establishing contacts and drawing attention of industries and the public to girls’ strengths. [Girls-Day.de]

ANZAC Day (Australia): Anzac Day is commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. [Wikipedia]

Children’s Day (Turkey): Children’s Day was celebrated on April 23rd each year, “children from around the world come to Turkey. They’re hosted by families who have children of a similar age. [...] Many children, often not even speaking the same langauge, create lifelong friendships.” [Wikipedia] The logo used is created by Aytu? Fidan, who won the Doodle4Google (Turkey) competition held last month.

Last but not least, Google is holding another Doodle4Google competiton opened to children age 5 to 18 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The theme is the European Championship (and soccer). Winner of this competition will have his/her winning logo displayed on the homepage of Google Germany, Austria, and Switzerland on the day of European Championship Finals, as well as receiving an Apple MacBook.

[thanks to Pascal :)]

A few weeks ago Google announced the U.S. edition of Doodle4Google, and now Google’s running another one in Turkey. I am not sure about the details about the contest, but I know that the prize includes a 24-inch Apple iMac.

UPDATE: Deli Profesör in the comment and Pascal from GoogleWatchBlog said that the top 30 winners receives a certificate, and that the top 10 also gets a lava lamp. The overall winner will get an iMac and have his/her winning logo displayed on Google Turkey’s homepage on April 23rd, Children’s Day in Turkey. Thanks. :)

I have been saying that Google should hold a Doodle4Google contest in the U.S. since the Jurassic age, and now, haha, there’s finally one. :)

Doodle 4 Google gives U.S. students in grades K-12 the opportunity to design a doodle for the Google homepage. Students will be asked to draw a doodle that best represents the theme “What if…?”

Like previous Doodle4Google contests, winner of this competition will have his/her logo on the Google homepage for one day (in the U.S.). Also, the winner’s school will “receive a $10,000 college scholarship and a technology grant for his or her school.” (Question: What’s the arrangement if the student is home schooled?)

You can find out more about the contest on the Doodle4Google website here.

In June 28, 2005, Google launched Google Earth. Two and a half years later, this “satellite imagery-based mapping” software is now available in 13 different languages and has been downloaded for over 350 million times, according to the Google LatLong Blog.

In a related news, Google today launched a new SketchUp contest called the “Google 2008 International Model Your Campus Competition“. As the name of the contest suggests, the contest requires you to model your college campus. Winners of the contest will receive “an Apple iPod Touch, a Nintendo Wii Console, and a Google t-shirt and hat” as prize.

Yo, a Wii and an iPod Touch, what are you waiting for?

Last October, Google China launched G.cn (which redirects to Google.cn), one of the shortest domain names on the web. To promote this new address, Google China partnered with several Chinese video sharing sites and started an online video challenge in November, and the winners were announced on January 6th.

I am not going to comment on this first place winning video, but I will say that there aren’t a lot of entries submitted and the judges have to pick out something.

[via GSeeker]

The Official Google Australia Blog announced the winners of Doodle 4 Google My Australia today. The national winner of the competition is Janelle San Juan, “a 12 year old student from [...] Victoria.” Below is her winning doodle:

Janelle won “$10,000 worth of technology equipments for her school and a MacBook Pro” for herself with this competition. The 32 finalists were all invited to Sydney and they have taken a group picture which you can find here (wearing t-shirts with their doodle design on).

Congratulations to Janelle and all finalists. :)

Google announced an open source contest, but this time for everyone who is not yet in university. This is a good chance for some of the younger coders to show their skills and win some t-shirts and money - or even a full paid trip to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View.

For this contest, Google works with 10 open source organizations: Apache Software Foundation, Drupal, GNOME, Joomla!, MoinMoin, Mono, Moodle, Plone, Python Software Foundation, and SilverStripe CMS

So if you are in high school and already eager to code, check out the following link to get more information:

Google will be holding a competition during March and May next year called to “Google Online Marketing Challenge“, opened to students of higher education institutions from anywhere in the world (I bet that they won’t accept applications from North Korea, Iran, Cuba, etc…).

Students will work with local businesses to devise effective online marketing campaigns. They will outline a strategy, run their campaign (using AdWords), assess their results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing.

Global winners will receive a trip to the Googleplex in Mountain View and meet the AdWords developers, and regional winners are invited to their local Google office.

Winners of the North America edition of the Build Your Campus in 3D competition just announced not so long ago, now there’s a similar competition going on in Australasia (Australia and New Zeland).

To enter the competition, you must be a college or university student in Australia or New Zealand, and you must be at least 18 years old. You can take on the project yourself or enlist the help of your classmates, and to do your best possible work, we suggest that you have a faculty advisor. The deadline for entries is October 31st, 2007.

The prize would be … “a 1 day trip to Google’s Australian headquarters to participate in a workshop with a 3D modeling expert from Google.”

There you have it. Sketch on! :)

YouTube announced the Ontherise Rap contest to “discover the best rap and hip-hop artists in the U.S.” The prize? A singles deal with Interscope and G-Unit Records and a $10,000 gift card from Guitar Center.

Have I ever mention that I don’t enjoy listening to music? Well, now you know. :)

Another competition from Google today, “Google Loves Threadless“. Yeah, just another competition from Threadless, I know. :)

Today, Gmail and Threadless launched a competition created specifically for Gmail with the theme “Connect!” To make it even more interesting, we’re giving away an 8GB iPhone, a Jawbone Bluetooth headset, a $400 gift certificate from JetBlue Airlines, some fun Google schwag, and a whole bunch of moolah to the winning designer.

The competition starts today and you can submit your design here anytime before 11:59:59pm CST on August 16th.

Geez, an iPhone? Will it blend?

AdWords for “Ultimate Search for Bourne” with image and video.

As noted earlier, Google works with Universal Studios to promote the upcoming film “The Bourne Ultimatum“. The competition is called the “Ultimate Search for Bourne with Google“, where users from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. can participate.

To get started (become an “agent”), go to this website and click on the “Get Started” button, which you send you to a Google sign-in page, which you will need to give Google permission to “provide Universal Pictures with the primary email address associated with your Google account for verification purposes.” Once you agree, you will be ask to register for the game with your personal information. The rules states that you will need to be at least 18 years old.

I am playing it anyways. LOL. Today’s mission is to confirm that Agent Godot is in Paris.

Have fun. :)

UPDATE: Not only that the site isn’t available for Linux users, it also appears to be REALLY buggy. Ahh! The map isn’t working for me either. :(