Google’s homepage will feature a design by Janelle San Juan who won the Doodle 4 Google competition. Janelle’s illustration was one of 10,00 entries from more than 2500 schools across Australia and featured an outback shed and a kangaroo road crossing sign incorporated into the Google logo.

Original "Google doodler" Dennis Hwang, started customizing the Google logo for special occasions in 2000. Hwang chose the design from four age group winners who were selected based on public votes. More than 100,000 people voted to chose the national finalists.

Along with having her Google doodle seen by fellow countrymen, Janelle also received a Macbook computer and $10,000 worth of technology equipment for her school, The School of the Good Shepherd in Melbourne.

"This is probably the biggest-scale competition I’ve hosted. For this competition I was blown away by the fact that we had over 10,000 submissions," Hwang said.
 

“We’re inviting all Australian schools to participate in the initiative, open to students from Years 1 to 10,” announced Ashley Gorringe on the Official Google Australia Blog.  Gorringe, who is a member of the Doodle 4 Google team, then continued, “An expert panel, including leading educational expert Michael Grose and art and culture expert, Dare Jennings, who cofounded Mambo Surfwear, will pick finalists from each state and territory.”

The goal of this contest is to find “the doodle that best represents Australia and what it means to be Australian.”  And although I don’t honestly expect that many WebProNews readers are eligible to enter this competition, some of you may have kids that are.  Get them to participate, if you can – there’s that Macbook Pro at stake, and the winning child’s school will get $10,000 worth of equipment.

As a result, Australian schools appear to be taking the contest very seriously.  “Google said it had already signed up hundreds of schools, both private and public,” according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Asher Moses, and “Meg Lomm, visual arts coordinator at SCECGS, said she would most likely set aside time for students to work on the project in class.”

I don’t think Google Australia can go wrong here – it’s going to help a kid, a school, and itself (given all the publicity it’s drummed up).  The winning doodle will go on display January 26th.