Now, there is an easier way for you to do something similar with your creative ideas! The internet giant has launched the world’s first online global science competition, giving all young scientists a unique opportunity to get exposed to the world and win some prizes that could never be any better for students.

To enter in Google Science Fair students need to be aged 13 to 18 and have a Google Account so that you can complete the form. They also need to have their parent or guardian consent without which entries will not be valid. Students can work on their own or within a maximum group of three.

If you are a teenager with an interesting idea you believe in, visit Google Science Fair website and submit your project. The deadline for submissions is 4 April 2011.

Judging criteria will focus on quality of the data, the writeup, and the significance of the concept for the project, as well as the quality of the two-minute video or 20-slide presentation that the students must produce for the project. As Google explained, entries will be judged on eight core criteria, which include the student’s presentation, question, hypothesis, research, experiment, data, observations, and conclusion.

Sixty semifinalists will be announced in early May and fifteen finalists (selected from three age groups -13 to 14, 15 to 16, and 17 to 18) will be chosen to participate in a live, in-person event to be held at Google headquarters in July. There will be three finalist winners, one in each age category, and only one of them will be named the Grand Prize Winner.

Notable organizations such as National Geographic, CERN, The LEGO Group, Scientific American and Google have partnered to make the fair happen and to provide lots of fantastic prizes that will be awarded to the 15 finalists, along with the Grand Prize winner and a people’s choice winner. The two category winners who did not win the Grand Prize will win a $25,000 scholarship from Google and Sponsor’s choice of Experience from CERN, Google, LEGO or Scientific American. The Grand Prize Winner will receive a $50,000 scholarship from Google and his or her choice of experience from Google, CERN, Scientific American or LEGO and an amazing trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions.

So, all you smart young people with interesting and creative ideas, this is your opportunity to do something big for yourself and for this world! Don’t miss it! Check video Below for more info

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The company said that the problem was caused by “human error.”

Because the error essentially shut down Google for everyone in the entire world, the company fixed it immediately.

But what if Google made another error, and decided YOU were malware? What if the company, for whatever reason, came to the conclusion that you were a spammer, or a criminal, or somehow abused their rules? What if they simply invalidated your password to prevent you from using their many services?

It could happen because some hacker has stolen your password and is doing evil deeds with your account. Or it could be triggered by something you’re doing, such as sending copies of an e-mail to a large number of people, or whatever. Or it could be more “human error” on the part of Google.

You go to log into Gmail, and the password doesn’t work! How would that affect you?

In my case, that would shut me out of e-mail, my calendar, my blog, “Docs,” AdSense and a whole bunch of other things. I use these sites also to store vital information I need in order to search for things. It would be devastating.

What happens when other companies choose to shut you down. Facebook has been known to simply determine that users have violated unpublished rules for use, and cut people off. If this were to happen to you, you might be able to see the messages and posts people make, but you wouldn’t be able to reply.

I use reQall as the sole repository of all my projects and action items. I use FutureMe to queue up important reminders for months or years later. I use Evernote to store notes, column ideas, and a huge number of vitally important facts and details that I need for a variety of purposes. In fact, I use a wide number of free services for holding and managing data.

This is especially relevant for digital nomads, who rely heavily on these services because we’re mobile.

Free services are great when all is well. But when they stop working for whatever reason or turn against you, what recourse do you have? Unlike paid services, these free sites don’t really have an obligation to you because you’re not the customer. If they’re advertiser-supported, like Google, the advertisers are the customers, not you.

Google’s colossal meltdown today should remind us all of how vulnerable we are to errors — human or otherwise — at the companies we increasingly rely upon for our everyday work.

We’ve got to make sure we keep backups of everything and constantly prepare ourselves for sudden shut-outs, meltdowns, misunderstandings or even the collapse of these companies.

Because when companies that offer free services decide YOU’RE the malware, they can make your life quite unpleasant. And when it’s only you and not the entire Internet, it will take a lot longer than an hour to fix — if they ever fix it.

Mike Elgan