14 DAY TRIAL // These past few weeks, we have seen the Mountain View company getting involved in a number of charity actions, trying to bring its support to victims all over world. The disasters in Myanmar and in China's Sichuan have reached a death toll of approximately 150,000, with almost the same number of surviving victims, to whom Google has tried to bring its full support. Besides its implication in these disasters, Google also found the time for some more pleasant social activities, namely for the Doodle 4 Google contest.
The contest, which was held in the US, was meant to recognize the graphic talents of K-12 students. They were asked to design a graphic logo that would be featured on Google's home page as the primary logo. This year, the contest was announced on the 13th of February and the theme was "What if...?". A number of 16,000 entries were registered, all of which tried to offer their own graphical response to Google's question theme. The winner, which was announced on May 21, received a personal $10,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for her school.
The three national finalists, Spencer Norton, Rebecca Olene and Gabriel Kitzman, took home a personal laptop computer. The big prize was won by Grace Moon, a 6th grade student at the Canyon Middle School. She was elected by the majority of online voters, from approximately 4 million votes cast. The online voting session was held during May 12-18.
The 6th grade student entitled her creation "Up in the Clouds", and it will be featured on the Google home page on May 22. Grace had this to say about her drawing: "My doodle, 'Up in the Clouds,' expresses a world in the sky. This new world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day."