Google's doodles represent an interesting way created by the Mountain View company to celebrate special events or celebrities. Every once in a while, the search giant replaces the official logo of the company with a special doodle, usually placed on regional versions of the famous search engine. That's why Google started a new competition today, inviting the Australian schools to join a doodle designing contest that can bring them $10,000 in equipment. Until now, the Australian doodles were produced by Dennis Hwang, a Google Australia employee who designed numerous famous drawings.

Although your school can win valuable money, the grand prize is surely the chance to publish your logo on the official page of Google on January 26, 2008 when the Australians celebrate the national day of their country.

"We're inviting all Australian schools to participate in the initiative, open to students from Years 1 to 10. 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. We'll then display the top 32 doodles online and invite the Australian public to vote for their favourites later in the year," Ashley Gorringe, Doodle 4 Google team, said today.

The competition, codenamed Doodle 4 Google is supported by Tourism Australia and will run across the 8 States and Territories including Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and New South Wales. Beside the $10,000 prize, the Mountain View company also offers a 15-inch 2.4 GHz Macbook Pro for the winner of the contest.

"At Google, we like to reflect the ever changing world of our users through the logo designs on our homepage. These "doodles" celebrate different people, events or special dates and, until now, have been designed by our original Doodler, 29-year-old Dennis Hwang," the official page of the competition reads.