Public voting is now open for the 40 Doodle 4 Google finalists. The judges comprised of teacher and 2009 CNN Hero of the Year Efren Penaflorida, TBWA-Santiago Mangada Puno Senior Art Director CJ De Silva, PLDT-Smart Foundation, Inc. President Ma. Esther Santos, and BPI Foundation, Inc. Senior Vice President and Executive Director Fidelina Corcucera selected the 40 best doodles from a pool of 51,000 entries from all over the Philippines. They were chosen and classified according to four age groups: 5-8 years old; 9-11 years old; 12-14 years old; and 15-17 years old. Voters can visit http://www.google.com.ph/doodle4google until October 30 to select one doodle per age category which they think best answers the theme and represents the Filipino spirit. At the end of public voting, the doodle with the most number of votes per age group will be selected. One overall winner among the four finalists will then be chosen by Google.

Doodle 4 Google competition was launched by Google Philippines last July with the theme “What can I do for the Philippines?”

Announcement of the winner will be on November 7, 2014. The overall winner will be featured on Google Philippines’ homepage for 24 hours in November and will receive a specially designed trophy by Google. A PHP 400,000 educational grant from BPI Foundation at any school/college in the Philippines, an art kit from National Book Store and an Acer C720 Chromebook will also be given to the overall winning participant. The PLDT-Smart Foundation will also provide a PHP 350,000 connectivity grant to the school or community learning center of the overall winner.

About Doodles

Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists. The tradition originated in 1999, and creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented illustrators (Google calls them ‘doodlers’) and engineers. Together they design the dynamic and vibrant doodles that are displayed on the Google homepage. For an archive of dodles, visit google.com/doodles.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.