It's great fun to find answers for the Gmail Contest. Not for the Gmail account but to challenge myself. A hide-and-seek game online.

1) The first person recruited by Google (aside from Sergey Brin and Larry Page) worked in a company during Summer 1992, 1993. Which was the name of this firm?

First of all I have to figure out who's the first Google employee. Then I can search for his/her resume to know who he worked for 12 years ago.

Search keywords: Google first employee
The frist result: unstruct.org: Interview with Google's first employee. Directed by the link in the post entry to Stefanie Olsen's interview with Craig Silverstein, Director of Technology at Google.

Keywords: Craig Silverstein
The first result is Craig's homepage hosted by standford University. Ummm....seems this Silverstein is exactly the one we are looking for. Check him resume out here. In the work experience section, it reads:

Software Design Engineer at Microsoft in Seattle, WA. In 1993, developed a segment of a communications interface for Microsoft's entry into the handheld computer market. In 1992, conceived, designed, and programmed one segment -- a game -- of a multimedia project involving works of Igor Stravinski. Summer 1993, 1992.

So fill in MICROSOFT

2) Google provides financial aids to student girls through a program called with the name of a Computer scientist, who was born in an American city. How many black and white images of this city can you find on the Google images search engine?

This search is quite similar to the first one. Know who the scientist is and his/her birthplace from the resume. Use Advanced Image Search Preferences for black and white images by searching with the name of the city as keyword.

Keywords: google scholarship women computer scientist
The first result is The Google 2004 Anita Borg Scholarships. Now I know the respectful lady's name is Anita Borg.

Keywords: Anita Borg biography
Read the excerpts of results. The second one contains "About Anita. biography." Scroll down to find the biography at IWT. Read along. In the last paragraph there is "Dr. Borg was born "Anita Borg Naffz" in 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. "

Then search Chicago in Google Images.

The number I got is 1,420.

3) According to Google, the most popular searched word in May 2002 was the name of a woman. In her first movie, she performed with an actor who was the main character of the film. In which city was this actor born?

Read my previous post. My answer is Casablanca, Morocco.

4) Google modifies its logo when an important event is commemorated. The person who designs these special logos was born in a city. If we search a 'german restaurant' in this city by using the Local Service of Google, we find two restaurants in the same street. Which is the name of this street?

Same strategy. The only trick is you should know to paly with Google Local [ it's beta version yet ].

According to an interview with Google logo designer Dennis Hwang (Hwang Jung-moak), his birthplace is Knoxville, Tenn. Try Google local for german restaurant in Knoxville. WOW!!! Notice the two restaurants both on Kingston Pike? They are Old Munich German Restaurant and Linderhof Restaurant.

5) Google determines how important a page is on the web by ranking it with a numeric value. To obtain this number, Google uses an algorithm which is patented in the States. If we add 100,000 to the number of this patent, we find another one related to the blending of glass. Which is the last name of the Inventor?

Keywords: pagerank algorithm patent number

Follow the first link on wikipedia. US Patent number for Pagerank is 6,285,999. Notice the link on the number? It's the United States Patent page for Pagerank on United States Patent and Trademark Office. Search patent number 6,385,999 and get Silas, Glass bending process. The inventor's name is Richard L. Silas.

6) One of the founders of Blogger (the blog system by Google), and its profile #1, owns a blog. On Dec 29, 2003, he lost a gadget on a mountain. If we search the name (3 words in the product name) of this gadget on the Google service to find online products, how much does the most expensive one cost?

Keywords: blogger profile #1

So this is Evan Williams' blogger profile. Let's visit his web page evhead and search his archives in December,2003. Poor guy! He lost his camera Pentax Optio S on a mountain in Colorado. Let's froogle Pentax Optio S and sort the results by price from high to low.

Is it the one sold on DigiExpo by the price of $399.95?

7) In December 2003, a famous person visited the Googleplex (browse our blog). Within the catalogs stored by Google, you can find a 'Christmas card' signed by this person and with a message from him and his wife. What appeared on the cover of this Christmas card?

Oh my goodness! It's really a pain to browse a blog without archives. After clicking the Next News link down on every page for previous posts, I realized I had to find a way out. Aha! The numbers at the end of every page's URL are multiples of 5.
http://google-blog.dirson.com/myindex.php?num=5
http://google-blog.dirson.com/myindex.php?num=10
http://google-blog.dirson.com/myindex.php?num=15

So I just adjusted the number to reach the December 2003 archives faster. It's here! BILL CLINTON VISITS THE GOOGLEPLEX.

Search Bill Clinton in Google Catalogs [ beta version too ]. Read the right image on the first line.

19. Bill Clinton. Christmas card from 1996. Card contains a printed message from Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christmas 1996, with the Green Room on the cover.

Done.