Google Product Helping Blog

Today�s blog post is by the winner of this year�s Doodle 4 Google competition, 10th grader Akilah Johnson. Given the contest�s theme��What makes me...me��who better than the young artist herself to answer that question? - Ed. When I was younger, I attended Roots Public Charter School and Roots Activity Learning Center in Northwest Washington, D.C. These schools promote a strong connection to African heritage, and an Afrocentric lifestyle; we regularly celebrated important African American people and I learned a lot about my history as an African American. As I grew older, I realized that the black people that came before us have made us into what we are today. So of course I had to include them in my doodle on the theme �What makes me...me.� My goal with my art was to not only turn heads but souls as well�not only for someone to see it and be amazed by it but also to have them understand and connect with it. My drawing explores childhood themes and then moves into reflections on ou...

Over the years, Doodles have commemorated the achievements of women in science , civil rights , journalism , sports , arts , technology and beyond. It�s always an honor to pay tribute to women who have changed the course of history, sometimes in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But for this year�s International Women�s Day , we wanted to celebrate the Doodle-worthy women of the future. So we gathered our cameras and pencils and visited 13 countries where we asked 337 women and girls to complete the sentence, �One day I will�� This is what they told us: Our video Doodle was created by three women on the Doodle team (Liat Ben-Rafael, Lydia Nichols, and Helene Leroux) and features original music by Merrill Garbus ( tUnE-yArDs ). From toddlers to grandmothers, the women in San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Lagos, Moscow, Cairo, Berlin, London, Paris, Jakarta, Bangkok, New Delhi and Tokyo all sparkled with personality. Each new city brought more �One day I will�s, ...

Last October, we kicked off our annual Doodle 4 Google art competition, asking students to create a doodle to tell the world �What makes me�me.� This time around, we added a little twist: for the first time in eight years of Doodle 4 Google, there were no restrictions on the medium or materials kids could use to create a doodle. Kids took us up on the challenge. A quarter of all finalists used some non-traditional media�from clay and wood to origami, photographs and sheets of music�in their submission. Today, Googlers are hosting surprise assemblies at schools from Waterville, Maine to Waipahu, Hawaii to celebrate the winners of each state and thank the teachers and parents who have encouraged them along the way. And for the first time ever, we�re announcing winners for Washington, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico. See all 53 State and Territory Winner s on our website. Now, our finalists need your votes for a shot at having their doodle make it onto the Google homepage. Starting today thro...

Today we�re kicking off the 2015 Doodle 4 Google art competition, where creative and curious students across the U.S. vie to take over the Google homepage for a day with their artwork. This year�s theme, �What makes me�me,� invites students K-12 to express themselves in the form of a doodle highlighting what makes them unique. But wait don�t get out those pencils just yet. This year, there�s a twist. Doodle 4 Google is now in its eighth year (if Doodle 4 Google were a kid, it�d be a third grader)�so we decided to mix things up a bit to let kids� imaginations really run wild. For the first time, there are no constraints on medium: students can cook, build, cut, spin, paint, or mold their doodle�basically use any material they like as long as they incorporate the letters G-O-O-G-L-E. The Doodle team itself has used a variety of unexpected materials over the years; for example, one Earth Day , we grew a bed of flowers to spell out the doodle. So we figured: let�s open the doors for all ...