Google Holds Start-Up Contest in Egypt

On Monday, Google will kick off Ebda2, Arabic for "start," by sending employees on a colorful bus to find Egyptian entrepreneurs willing to take part in a seven month-long start-up competition.

The $200,000 prizewinner is set to be announced in May, and will have the chance along with other finalists to court Silicon Valley-style investments in Cairo.

Two independent organizations will oversee the contest to ensure that even entrants who build programs using Microsoft, Facebook or platforms of other Google rivals have a fair chance.

"Google is looking for the next Google in the Middle East," said Maha Abouelenein, a Google spokeswoman, explaining the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's decision to begin its first project of this kind.

Abouelenein's remarks also hint at a hope that technology can help build Egypt's democracy in a post-uprising world.

"We believe technology will actually change the economics of this part of the world -- will change the culture of this part of the world -- and it will have a political impact," said Wael Fakharany, Google's Egyptian country manager.

Fakharany is also supervisor of Wael Ghonim, the now-famous Google employee who helped spark his country's revolution last winter.

Ghonim, along with Fakhrany, Google and Egyptian citizens, are looking to tech to light the country's way, partly since the Egyptian revolution made such noteworthy use of mobile, Internet and social media outlets in the past.