By Lauren Wenig

On a number of special occasions, Google decides to change their Homepage logo.  These special occasions vary, from major holidays, such as Thanksgiving and the 4th of July, to out-of-the-ordinary special occasions, like Lucille Ball’s birthday.  Google refers to these logo changes as “Google doodles.”

The majority of us have seen these “Google doodles” before; however, the majority of us do not know where these “doodles” originated.

According to Google’s website, “Doodle 4 Google,” the idea first originated in 1998 by Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  The two started playing with the logo to indicate their attendance at a festival in Nevada.  In order to indicate their “out of office” status, they placed a stick figure behind the second “o” in the word, “Google.”

After receiving positive feedback about the logo in 2000, the founders approached intern, Dennis Hwang (now “Google Webmaster”) to continuously produce these “Google Doodles.”

Hwang is currently assisted by a Google team of designers, but he also receives “Google Doodles” from the general public.

On the “Doodle 4 Google” website, Hwang says, “We’re really open to user feedback and having ideas sent to us because our users are really creative.”

Schools across the country can participate in the “Google doodles” project.  In 2010 there were 20,000 schools that participated in the annual program competing for scholarship money and grants.  Google received more than 33,000 entries from students in grades K-12.

2011’s national winner, Matteo Lopez, was a second grade student from Monte Verde Elementary School in South San Francisco.

Lopez won: a $15,000 scholarship to the college of his choice, a trip to New York City for a Google event held on May 19, 2011, a laptop computer, a digital design tablet, a t-shirt with his design, and his doodle will be featured on the Google homepage on May 20, 2011.  Lopez’s school also won a $25,000 grant for a computer lab or technology programming.

One of the 2011 National finalists was from Illinois.  Justas Varpucanskis, who attends Mokena Junior High School in Mokena, Illinois.