More than 2500 schools registered for the competition and more than 10,000 entries were received, all competing for $10,000 worth of technology equipment. With the help of a public vote and judging panel, the entries were whittled down to four finalists and today Hwang chose the winner - Janelle San Juan, 12, from the School of the Good Shepherd in Victoria.

"In terms of creativity I was just blown away by what the children in Australia were able to come up with and it was really clear to me how much they love their country," Hwang, whose special Google logos have made him somewhat of a geek celebrity, said. The entries were judged on "creativity and innovation" and how well they fit the Australia Day theme. Australian wildlife, landmarks, symbols and issues such as multiculturalism featured prominently on most. "I wanted to show the soft side of Australia," said Janelle, who in addition to the Google homepage exposure receives a free Apple Macbook laptop. "I feel surprised [to win], there were really good designs here."

Hwang has been in Australia since last weekend, coming straight from Britain where he judged the winner of the Doodle 4 Google competition there. But he wouldn't be drawn on whether Brits or Aussies were better doodlers. "Honestly, they were very different," he said.

Hwang is now the head webmaster at Google and says designing the logos - about 50 a year - takes up about 20 per cent of his time. But if the Doodle 4 Google talent is anything to go by, others could soon be gunning for his job. "To be really honest I'm packing my bags already because I think I'm going to lose my job in a few years as some of their designs just blew me out of the water," he said in jest. Google frequently changes its home page logo for special worldwide events, anniversaries, birthdays of noted artists and holidays, but the logos are rarely designed by someone outside Google.

Australia Day, Anzac Day, Melbourne Cup Day and this year's NAIDOC week are some of the Australia-specific events Google has celebrated recently. The first doodle was created by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin for the Burning Man Festival, but almost all of the special Google logos ( http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html) since 2000 were made by Hwang.

"They're kind of like my children and I like them all in different ways, but the artist birthday logos are closer to my heart I guess," Hwang said. "It's a challenge to keep coming up with fresh new ideas for the same event year after year ... I was getting a bit desperate but this year after the competition the children showed me so many amazing designs - I think we have a fresh repository of future Australia day designs now."