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Mountain View, California - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - June 13, 2008 - While participating in the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle, Google debuted its Website Workout contest, designed to help businesses enhance their websites.

Any U.S. business can enter to have a webpage optimized for free by Google’s team of consultants to boost sales, sign-ups or leads. Interested businesses can enter the contest by visiting the Website Workout contest site.

In the coming weeks, Google will select four of the businesses that enter. Using Google Website Optimizer, Google’s free website-testing tool, the consultants will then work with the winners to test which combination of text, images, graphics and other content drives the most business.

Website-owners need not enter the contest to use Website Optimizer, however: the tool is free and open to anyone who wants to fine-tune a website. Anyone can sign up for the product at www.google.com/websiteoptimizer.

Recently, has revealed that Grace Moon, a 6th grade student from Canyon Middle School, is the national winner of the Doodle 4 Google competition. The announcement was made by Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience, at a celebration today in Mountain View, CA for the 40 regional winners of the competition and their families.

Doodles are the quirky logo designs we often feature on the Google homepage to celebrate holidays, special events or birthdays of artists. This year, we launched a contest open to all K-12 students in the U.S. to imagine their own version of the Google logo, inspired by the theme ‘What If…’ Grace’s doodle was chosen from over 16,000 doodles submitted by students across the country, and was selected based on artistic merit, creativity, and expression of the theme.

The four national finalists (one from each grade group) were decided by an online public vote. Nearly 4 million votes were cast. The national winner was chosen by Marissa Mayer and Dennis Hwang, Google’s chief doodler.

The winning doodle is titled ‘Up in the Clouds’ and ‘expresses a world in the sky,’ according to Grace. In addition to having her doodle on the Google homepage for a day, Grace will receive a $10,000 college scholarship, and a $25,000 technology grant for her school. The champion doodler has been drawing since she could hold a crayon. Grace enjoys art, but her favorite subject in school is math. She wants to combine both her loves and become an artist and scientist someday.

The three national finalists, listed below, will each receive a laptop computer. To see all the finalists’ doodles, go to www.google.com/doodle4google.

National Finalists include:

Grades K-3
Spencer Norton
Ashbrook Elementary School
Lumberton, NJ

Grades 7-9
Rebecca Olene
Pioneer Ridge Freshmen Center
Carver, Minnesota

Grades 10-12
Gabriel Kitzman
Elbert School Dist. #200
Kiowa, Colorado

The customization of the Google logo started in 1999, and these doodles are now designed almost exclusively by Google Webmaster Dennis Hwang, whose work is seen by millions every time he exhibits on the Google homepage. Dennis has creatively depicted worldwide events, anniversaries and holidays with doodles that incorporate the Google logo for the world to celebrate.

With the largest index of websites available on the World Wide Web and the industry’s most advanced search technology, Google Inc. delivers the fastest and easiest way to find relevant information on the Internet. Google’s technological innovations have earned the company numerous industry awards and citations, including two Webby Awards; two WIRED magazine Readers Raves Awards; Best Internet Innovation and Technical Excellence Award from PC Magazine; Best Search Engine on the Internet from Yahoo! Internet Life; Top Ten Best Cybertech from TIME magazine; and Editor’s Pick from CNET. A growing number of companies worldwide, including Yahoo! and its international properties, Sony Corporation and its global affiliates, AOL/Netscape, and Cisco Systems, rely on Google to power search on their websites. A privately held company based in Mountain View, California, Google’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Sequoia Capital.

For more information about Website Workout, please visit: www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/workout.

To learn more about Google, please visit: www.google.com.

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