Google Will Apply to Participate in FCC Spectrum Auction

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (November 30, 2007) – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it will apply to participate in the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) band.

As part of the nationally mandated transition to digital television, the 700 MHz spectrum auction – which begins January 24, 2008 – will free up spectrum airwaves for more efficient wireless Internet service for consumers. Advocacy by public interest groups and Google earlier this year helped ensure that regardless of which bidders win a key portion of the spectrum up for auction (the so-called "C Block"), they will be required to allow their users to download any software application they want on their mobile device, and to use any mobile devices they would like on that wireless network. The winner must ensure these rights for consumers if the reserve price of $4.6 billion for the C Block is met at auction.

"We believe it’s important to put our money where our principles are," said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. "Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today’s wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet."

Schmidt also praised the leadership of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his fellow commissioners for adopting the new rights for consumers earlier this year.

Google’s formal application to participate in the 700 MHz auction will be filed with the FCC on Monday, December 3, 2007 – the required first step in the auction process. Google’s application does not include any partners.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top Web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall Web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Media Contact:

Adam Kovacevich
Google
202-742-6598
akovacevich@google.com

Investor Contact:

Maria Shim
650-253-7663
marias@google.com

###

Google is a trademark of Google Inc.

Read More

Google Announces Launch of Google Maps for Mobile With "My Location" Technology

Announcement
November 28, 2007

Google today announced the release of version 2.0 of Google Maps for mobile, its innovative and widely used mobile mapping and local search application. New in v2.0 is a beta version of Google’s "My Location" technology, which uses cell tower ID information to provide users with their approximate location, helping them determine where they are, what’s around them, and how to get there.

Google is committed to providing users with quick and easy access to the information they need, no matter when or where they need it. Location information makes mobile mapping and search faster and more convenient, but the most common source of location information to date – GPS technology – is supported on fewer than 15 percent of the mobile phones expected to be sold in 2007. With Google’s new My Location technology, users who don’t have GPS-enabled mobile phones will now be able to take advantage of the added speed and convenience afforded by location information. The My Location technology also complements GPS-enabled devices, as it delivers a location estimate faster than GPS, provides coverage inside buildings (where GPS signals can be unreliable), and doesn’t drain phone batteries as quickly as GPS. Whether users are trying to locate a restaurant in an unfamiliar neighborhood, get directions to the nearest hotel while traveling, or just find a place to grab some coffee while shopping for the holidays, Google Maps for mobile with My Location can help them get what they need quickly and easily.

The My Location technology takes information broadcast from cell towers and sifts it through Google-developed algorithms to approximate a user’s current location on the map. This approximation is anonymous, as Google does not gather any personally identifiable information or associate any location data with personally identifiable information as part of the My Location feature. The feature can also be easily disabled by anyone who prefers not to use it. The My Location technology is available on most smartphones, including all color BlackBerry devices, all Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices, most Windows Mobile devices, newer Sony Ericsson devices, and some Motorola devices.

Google Maps for mobile, first launched in the US in November 2005, enables users to view interactive maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, get point-to-point driving directions, and view live traffic updates, all while on the go. The application is now available on and optimized for a wide variety of platforms, running on most J2ME-enabled devices; all color BlackBery devices; Windows Mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0, and above; Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices; and Palm devices with Palm OS 5 and above. Google Maps for mobile is being actively used by millions of people in more than 20 different countries around the globe.

To download Google Maps for mobile with My Location, point your mobile or desktop web browser to www.google.com/gmm. To see the full range of mobile products and services available from Google, visit mobile.google.com.

Read More

Google announces first open source contest for pre-university students

Announcement:
November 28, 2007

Who doesn’t love a contest? We certainly do. Google believes strongly in students having opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, and today at the Open Source Developers’ Conference in Brisbane, Australia we’re pleased to announce the Google Highly Open Participation Contest to help introduce secondary school and high school students to open source software development.

Students can now visit code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8/ to write code and documentation, prepare training materials, conduct user-experience research, and win prizes – t-shirts, cash, or, for ten grand-prize winners, a chance to visit the Googleplex in Mountain View, Ca.

For the past three years college students have participated in Google Summer of Code (code.google.com/soc/) with great results: hundreds of college students have been introduced to open source software, thousands of people across the globe have begun development together, and millions of lines of open code have been produced. As we thought about what we could do to help encourage students before university and build a pipeline of future talent, we developed the Google Highly Open Participation Contest – the first contest from our open source team exclusively for secondary school and high school students.

Google will work with ten open source organizations – Apache Software Foundation, Drupal, GNOME, Joomla!, MoinMoin, Mono, Moodle, Plone, Python Software Foundation, and SilverStripe CMS – for this pilot effort, each of which will provide a list of tasks to be completed by the student participants. Tasks typically fall into the following categories: code, documentation, research, outreach, quality assurance, training, translation, and user interface, so there should be something for everyone, and parents and educators can help by sharing this opportunity with their children and students.

The contest is open to students age 13 and older who have not yet begun university studies, and contestants will be able to claim tasks until 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time on January 22, 2008. We hope that students who participate will be long-term contributors to these and other open source projects in the future, and we look forward to announcing the grand-prize winners on February 11.

For more information, please visit code.google.com/opensource/.

Read More

Google’s Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Creates renewable energy R&D group and supports breakthrough technologies

Mountain View, Calif. (November 27, 2007) – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies. RE<C is hiring engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work, which will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas.In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.

"We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers," said Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products. "We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal."

Page added, "There has been tremendous work already on renewable energy. Technologies have been developed that can mature into industries capable of providing electricity cheaper than coal. Solar thermal technology, for example, provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal. We are also very interested in further developing other technologies that have potential to be cost-competitive and green. We are aware of several promising technologies, and believe there are many more out there."

Page continued, "With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward. Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades." (One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco.)

"If we meet this goal," said Page, "and large-scale renewable deployments are cheaper than coal, the world will have the option to meet a substantial portion of electricity needs from renewable sources and significantly reduce carbon emissions. We expect this would be a good business for us as well."

Coal is the primary power source for many around the world, supplying 40% of the world’s electricity. The greenhouse gases it produces are one of our greatest environmental challenges. Making electricity produced from renewable energy cheaper than coal would be a key part of reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions.

"Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind," added Sergey Brin, Google Co-founder and President of Technology.

Strategic Investments and Grants

"Lots of groups are doing great work trying to produce inexpensive renewable energy. We want to add something that moves these efforts toward even cheaper technologies a bit more quickly. Usual investment criteria may not deliver the super low-cost, clean, renewable energy soon enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change," said Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, "Google.org’s hope is that by funding research on promising technologies, investing in promising new companies, and doing a lot of R&D ourselves, we may help spark a green electricity revolution that will deliver breakthrough technologies priced lower than coal."

Working with RE<C, Google.org will make strategic investments and grants that demonstrate a path toward producing energy at an unsubsidized cost below that of coal-fired power plants. Google will work with a variety of organizations in the renewable energy field, including companies, R&D laboratories, and universities. For example, Google.org is working with two companies that have promising scalable energy technologies:

• eSolar Inc., a Pasadena, CA-based company specializing in solar thermal power which replaces the fuel in a traditional power plant with heat produced from solar energy. eSolar’s technology has great potential to produce utility-scale power cheaper than coal. For more information, please visit www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/esolar.pdf.
• Makani Power Inc., an Alameda, CA-based company developing high-altitude wind energy extraction technologies aimed at harnessing the most powerful wind resources. High-altitude wind energy has the potential to satisfy a significant portion of current global electricity needs. For more information on Makani Power, please visit www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/makani.pdf.

Ongoing Commitments

Today’s announcement represents just the latest steps in Google’s commitment to a clean and green energy future.

Google has been working hard on energy efficiency and making its business environmentally sustainable. Last spring the company announced its intention to be carbon neutral for 2007, and is on track to meet that goal. To this end, the company has taken concrete steps to reduce its carbon footprint and accelerate improvements in green technology, including:

• Developing cutting-edge energy efficiency technology to power and cool its data centers in the U.S. and around the world.
• Generating electricity for its Mountain View campus from a 1.6 Megawatt corporate solar panel installation, one of the largest in the U.S.
• Accelerating development and adoption of plug-in vehicles through the RechargeIT initiative, including a $10 million request for investment proposals ( www.google.org/recharge/)
• Joining with other industry leaders in 2007 to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a consortium that advocates the design and use of more energy-efficient computers and servers ( www.climatesaverscomputing.org/).
• Working on policies that encourage renewable energy development and deployment, such as a U.S. Renewable Energy Standard, through Google.org.

For more information on Google’s commitment to a clean energy future, see www.google.com/renewable-energy

For broadcast-standard video and other multimedia files for the announcement, see www.google.com/intl/en/press/index.html

For more information on recruitment for RE<C, see www.google.com/jobs/energy/

Webcast and Conference Call Information

Google’s renewable energy initiative call begins today at 9:00 AM (PT) / 12:00 PM (ET). A replay of the call will be available beginning at 11:30 PM (ET) today through midnight Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 by calling 888-203-1112 in the United States or 719-457-0820 for calls from outside the United States. The required confirmation code for the replay is 2205214.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements relating to our ability to develop cheaper electricity from renewable energy sources, our expected investments and capital expenditures, and our ability to accelerate the development of clean energy technologies. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ include, among others, risks related to our ability to hire the appropriate people and our ability to identify and pursue the technologies necessary to achieve these goals, as well as those risks and uncertainties included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2007, which is on file with the SEC and is available on our investor relations website at investor.google.comand on the SEC website atwww.sec.gov. All information provided in this release is as of November 27, 2007, and Google undertakes no duty to update this information.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.google.com.

About Google.org

Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, uses the power of information to help people better their lives. We develop and invest in tools and partnerships that can help bring shared knowledge to bear on the world’s most pressing challenges in the areas of climate change, economic development and global health. For more information, visit www.google.org.

Media Contact:

Jacquelline Fuller
Google
press@google.com

Read More

Google to Present at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — November 27, 2007 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced today that Tim Armstrong, President, Advertising & Commerce, North America, and Nicholas Fox, Director, Business Product Management, will participate in a question-and-answer session at the UBS 35th Annual Global Media & Communications Conference in New York. The session is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time / 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, December 4, 2007.

To access the live audio webcasts of the presentations, please visit investor.google.com/webcast.html.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Contact:

Maria Shim
Investor Relations
650-253-7663
marias@google.com

###

Google is a registered trademark of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Read More

Google Checkout announces holiday promotions and special offers

Announcement
November 26, 2007

Google and its partners are working to make the holidays even merrier by helping shoppers save time and money, stay organized, and give to those in need. Millions have already discovered that Google Checkout makes online shopping faster, more convenient, and more secure by enabling them to shop at tens of thousands of stores across the web using their single Google login. Starting today, these Google Checkout buyers can take advantage of exclusive discounts and free shipping and earn frequent flyer miles as they cross items off their holiday shopping lists.

Earn miles and save

This holiday season Google Checkout users will also be able to get a little something extra for themselves when they shop: frequent flyer miles. From now until December 31, users who register to participate will be able to earn two frequent flyer miles for every dollar spent through Google Checkout. Participating airline reward programs include Alaska Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Midwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines, US Airways, and United Airlines. These miles are available for US residents only.

What’s more, Google Checkout users will also be able to take advantage of a wide variety of holiday promotions from more than 100 different Google Checkout retailers. These offers range from free shipping to discounts of $10, $20, or even $50 off select purchases.

Holiday shoppers can learn more about how to take advantage of these promotions on the new Google Checkout holiday page: www.google.com/checkout/promotions.html.

Stay organized

Google Checkout doesn’t just save users time, trouble, and money as they shop online, it also provides them with the tools they need to keep track of their holiday shopping. With their Google Checkout Purchase History, users can access all the information they need – including shipping status and store contact information – in one place, from any computer. And iGoogle users can now keep track of purchases directly on their iGoogle homepage, with the recently launched MyOrders tab on the Google Checkout iGoogle gadget. Learn more about the gadget at www.google.com/checkout/gadget.

Give back

Of course, there’s more to the season of giving than buying gifts – the holidays are also a great opportunity to help those in need. Google is committed to helping users give back to their communities, and with the recently launched Google Checkout for Non-Profits (checkout.google.com/seller/npo), Google Checkout users can quickly and securely donate to a growing list of charitable organizations, including the Salvation Army (www.google.com/checkout/wildfires.html), the Red Cross (www.google.com/checkout/wildfires.html), the March of Dimes (youtube.com/marchofdimes), the William J. Clinton Global Initiative (www.youtube.com/clintonfoundationorg), and One Laptop Per Child (laptopfoundation.org/en/participate/). And since Google doesn’t charge non-profits for collecting donations through Google Checkout, users can support their favorite organizations knowing that 100 percent of their donations will reach those organizations.

To take advantage of the special Google Checkout holiday offers, visit www.google.com/checkout/promotions.html. Or to find stores that accept Google Checkout across the web, search online today with Google.com or Google Product Search (www.google.com/products) and simply look for the Google Checkout badge.

Happy holidays (and happy shopping) from Google!

Read More

Postini Introduces New Email Content Policy Management Features

Email Administrators Can Now Manage Email Compliance Policies Easily with Sophisticated Content Analysis and Policy Administration Tools

SAN CARLOS, Calif. (November 13, 2007) – Postini, a global leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions today announced new content policy management capabilities to its Email Security service, including protection for social security and credit card numbers. At no additional cost, Postini customers now gain greater flexibility and control to manage their communications compliance and security policies.

"Companies of all sizes are seeking to reduce email security and compliance risk" said Scott Petry, founder of Postini and director of product management at Google, "They are seeking to encrypt email communications automatically based on message content, prevent sensitive content from leaving the company via email and have visibility into policy violations. Postini’s innovation in content analysis and disposition simplifies the process of managing communications compliance policies for our customers. We are continuing to deliver on the promise of SaaS (software as a service) as the most cost and time effective way for large and small enterprises to manage their communications."

Advanced Content Policy Management
With the new release announced today, Postini customers gain access to three significant advancements:

• Lexical data analysis for credit card and social security numbers in email including attachments with automatic policy enforcement dispositions options such as encrypt or block.
• Administrators can create advanced policy rules based on text patterns using regular expression syntax and apply a variety of dispositions including blocking, sending a carbon copy to supervisors, or quarantine.
• With content-based message analysis and reporting, Postini administrators gain intelligence and insight into content entering and leaving the organization. Postini customers can address policy violations with granular, easy to implement policies and address their company specific or regulatory requirements.

Postini’s content policy management framework is available as a part of the Postini standalone service and also as part of Google Apps™ Premier Edition. Content policy management is expected to be extended in the future to additional communication protocols, including Instant Messaging and HTTP.

In addition, Postini also announced significant new functionality for Email Security and Message Archiving services.

Zero hour Detection Capabilities

New early detection capabilities allow suspicious content to be automatically quarantined and re-inspected with updated virus signatures, providing an added security layer of advanced virus protection. New anti-spam capabilities have also been added to detect and block newer, more sophisticated bot-net based attacks immediately. The new advancements to the Postini architecture enable rapid updates to the Postini spam and virus filters for quicker defense against the newest threats.

Advanced Message Archive Management Tools

With new granular Message archive retention and purge controls email administrators gain more flexibility and control to manage mailbox storage management, discovery, and compliance efforts. A new self-serve option for message archive extractions enables Postini administrators to avoid costly data extraction expenses.

Taken together, these improvements enable Postini customers to have more control and flexibility over policy enforcement, email security defenses, and message archiving management. The new content policy management and email security updates are available to Postini customers at no extra charge. The Postini message archiving enhancements are available for Postini archiving customers.

About Postini

Postini, a wholly owned subsidiary of Google, is a global leader in on-demand communications security, compliance, and productivity solutions for email, instant messaging and the web. Postini’s award-winning services are designed to protect customers from viruses, spam, phishing, fraud, and other attacks; encrypt messages to ensure confidentiality and privacy; and archive communications to ensure compliance with regulations and to prepare for e-discovery.

More than 35,000 businesses rely on Postini everyday to protect them from a wide range of threats, ensure reliable communications, reduce compliance and legal risks, and enable the intelligent management and enforcement of policies to protect intellectual property, company reputation, and business relationships. More than 1,700 business partners worldwide add value to Postini solutions. For more information please contact Postini at info@postini.comor visit www.postini.com.

Media Contacts:

Marty Tacktill
Postini
(650) 486-8269
marty@postini.com

Derek Kober
GlobalFluency
(650) 433-4233
dkober@globalfluency.com

###

Google and Google Apps are trademarks of Google Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Read More

Google Announces $10 Million Android Developer Challenge

Challenge to Inspire Innovation and Improve Mobile Experience

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (November 12, 2007) – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the Android Developer Challenge, which will provide $10 million to developers who build mobile applications for Android™, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. The Challenge is designed to support the developer community and spark innovation on the Android platform by awarding cash prizes ranging from $25,000 to $275,000 to developers whose applications are picked by a panel of judges.

"We’ve built some interesting applications for Android but the best applications are not here yet and that’s because they’re going to be written by developers," said Sergey Brin, Co-founder and President, Technology, Google. "We’d like to reward these developers and recognize them as much as possible."

"We believe that the Android platform offers developers a unique opportunity to create truly innovative mobile software," said Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms. "We’re challenging developers to stretch their imaginations and skills to leverage the full capabilities of this new platform and to create something amazing."

Android was announced on November 5 by the Open Handset Alliance™, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile industry leaders committed to fostering innovation on mobile phones and offering a better consumer experience. The Alliance will provide developers with a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively. Today, the Alliance released an early look at the Android software developer kit (SDK) that includes the documentation, sample projects, development tools, emulator, and libraries that developers will need to build an Android application. Today’s Android SDK announcement can be found on the Alliance blog: android-developers.blogspot.com.

The $10 million total in the Android Developer Challenge will be distributed equally between the Android Developer Challenge I and II. Submissions for Challenge I will be accepted from January 2 through March 3, 2008, and the 50 most promising entries will be recognized by end of March with each receiving $25,000 awards to fund further development. These 50 entries will then be eligible for even greater recognition by applying by May 1, 2008 for ten awards worth $275,000 each and another ten worth $100,000 each. Recognition for the top apps among those entries will be announced by end of May 2008. Challenge II will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008.

A panel of technology and mobile experts selected from the Open Handset Alliance member organizations and the industry in general will judge all qualifying entries. Awards will be given to the developers whose applications leverage all that the Android platform has to offer in order to provide consumers with the most compelling experiences. Developers retain all intellectual property and other rights to their applications. Interested developers should:

1. Download the SDK at code.google.com/android/download.html
2. Build a great app.
3. Submit an application between January 2 and March 3, 2008.

Additional information about the Android Developer Challenge can be found at code.google.com/android/adc.html

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top Web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall Web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Media Contacts:

Barry Schnitt
Google
+1 650-253-4194
barry@google.com

Michael Kirkland
Google
+1 415-793-5571
mkirkland@google.com

###

Google, Open Handset Alliance, and Android are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Read More

Industry Leaders Announce Open Platform for Mobile Devices

Group Pledges to Unleash Innovation for Mobile Users Worldwide

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.; BONN, Germany; TAOYUAN, Taiwan; SAN DIEGO, Calif.; SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (November 5, 2007) – A broad alliance of leading technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today’s mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

With nearly 3 billion users worldwide, the mobile phone has become the most personal and ubiquitous communications device. However, the lack of a collaborative effort has made it a challenge for developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers to respond as quickly as possible to the ever-changing needs of savvy mobile consumers. Through Android, developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers will be better positioned to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. The end result will be an unprecedented mobile platform that will enable wireless operators and manufacturers to give their customers better, more personal and more flexible mobile experiences.

Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this direction – a fully integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. Consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.

The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Android holds the promise of unprecedented benefits for consumers, developers and manufacturers of mobile services and devices. Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. Developers will have complete access to handset capabilities and tools that will enable them to build more compelling and user-friendly services, bringing the Internet developer model to the mobile space. And consumers worldwide will have access to less expensive mobile devices that feature more compelling services, rich Internet applications and easier-to-use interfaces – ultimately creating a superior mobile experience.

Open Software, Open Device, Open Ecosystem

"This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world. A fresh approach to fostering innovation in the mobile industry will help shape a new computing environment that will change the way people access and share information in the future," said Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. "Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models."

"As a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, T-Mobile is committed to innovation and fostering an open platform for wireless services to meet the rapidly evolving and emerging needs of wireless customers," said René Obermann, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile. "Google has been an established partner for T-Mobile’s groundbreaking approach to bring the mobile open Internet to the mass market. We see the Android platform as an exciting opportunity to launch robust wireless Internet and Web 2.0 services for T-Mobile customers in the US and Europe in 2008."

"HTC’s trademark on the mobile industry has been its ability to drive cutting-edge innovation into a wide variety of mobile devices to create the perfect match for individuals," said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corp. "Our participation in the Open Handset Alliance and integration of the Android platform in the second half of 2008 enables us to expand our device portfolio into a new category of connected mobile phones that will change the complexion of the mobile industry and re-create user expectations of the mobile phone experience."

"The convergence of the wireless and Internet industries is creating new partnerships, evolving business models and driving innovation," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Chief Executive Officer of Qualcomm. "We are extremely pleased to be participating in the Open Handset Alliance, whose mission is to help build the leading open-source application platform for 3G networks. The proliferation of open-standards-based handsets will provide an exciting new opportunity to create compelling services and devices. As a result, we are committing research and development resources to enable the Android platform and to create the best always-connected consumer experience on our chipsets."

"Motorola has long been an advocate of open software for mobile platforms. Today, we’re excited to continue this support by joining Google and others in the announcement of the Open Handset Alliance and Android platform. Motorola plans to leverage the Android platform to enable seamless, connected services and rich consumer experiences in future Motorola products," said Ed Zander, Chairman and CEO of Motorola, Inc.

Open Handset Alliance Founding Members

Aplix ( www.aplixcorp.com), Ascender Corporation ( www.ascendercorp.com), Audience ( www.audience.com), Broadcom ( www.broadcom.com), China Mobile ( www.chinamobile.com), eBay ( www.ebay.com), Esmertec ( www.esmertec.com), Google ( www.google.com), HTC ( www.htc.com), Intel ( www.intel.com), KDDI ( www.kddi.com), LivingImage ( www.livingimage.jp), LG ( www.lge.com), Marvell ( www.marvell.com), Motorola ( www.motorola.com), NMS Communications ( www.nmscommunications.com), Noser ( www.noser.com), NTT DoCoMo, Inc. ( www.nttdocomo.com), Nuance ( www.nuance.com), Nvidia ( www.nvidia.com), PacketVideo ( www.packetvideo.com), Qualcomm ( www.qualcomm.com), Samsung ( www.samsung.com), SiRF ( www.sirf.com), SkyPop ( www.skypop.com), SONiVOX ( www.sonivoxrocks.com), Sprint Nextel ( www.sprint.com), Synaptics ( www.synaptics.com), TAT – The Astonishing Tribe ( www.tat.se), Telecom Italia ( www.telecomitalia.com), Telefónica ( www.telefonica.es), Texas Instruments ( www.ti.com), T-Mobile ( www.t-mobile.com), Wind River ( www.windriver.com).

For more information about the Open Handset Alliance, visit the website at www.openhandsetalliance.com.

About Google

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

About T-Mobile

T-Mobile is one of the world’s leading companies in mobile communications. As one of Deutsche Telekom’s three strategic business units, T-Mobile concentrates on the most dynamic markets in Europe and the United States. Almost 112 million mobile customers were served by companies of the Deutsche Telekom group by June 30, 2007. The common technology platform is based on GSM, the world’s most successful digital wireless standard. This also makes T-Mobile the only mobile communications provider with a seamless transatlantic service.

About HTC

Founded in 1997, HTC Corp. (HTC) designs, manufactures and markets innovative, feature rich smartphones. Since its establishment, HTC has developed h3 R&D capabilities, pioneered many new designs and product innovations and launched a broad portfolio of smartphones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the US and Asia. These devices are available as HTC products and as products individually customized for operator and device partners. HTC is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile device market. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm Incorporated ( www.qualcomm.com) is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Qualcomm is included in the S&P; 500 Index and is a 2007 FORTUNE 500® company traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market® under the ticker symbol QCOM.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications. Inspired by our vision of seamless mobility, the people of Motorola are committed to helping you connect simply and seamlessly to the people, information and entertainment that you want and need. We do this by designing and delivering "must have" products, "must do" experiences and powerful networks – along with a full complement of support services. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $42.8 billion in 2006. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit www.motorola.com.

Media Contacts

Google:
Erin Fors,
efors@google.com,
415-939-0582

Deutsche Telekom:
Michael Lange,
Michael.Lange@t-mobile.net,
+49(0)228 936 15500

T-Mobile USA:
Peter Dobrow,
mediarelations@t-mobile.com,
425-383-4002

HTC:
Jason Gordon,
jason_gordon@htc.com,
425-679-5337

Qualcomm:
Kira Golin,
qctpublicrelations@qualcomm.com,
858-204-8156

Motorola:
Paul Alfieri,
paul.alfieri@motorola.com,
847-660-9176

###

All company and product names may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

Additional Supporting Quotes

"The launch of Open Handset Alliance marks the initiation of a very exciting period for the wireless industry in many different ways. Aplix is excited to be a member of the Open Handset Alliance and we are committed to contribute our extensive mobile & embedded experience in helping device manufacturers & carriers ship products based on the Android platform."
— Ryu Koriyama, CEO Aplix Corporation

"Ascender is proud to be providing the font solution to the Android platform built by the Open Handset Alliance. We believe that handset manufacturers and application developers will be very happy with the fonts provided and we look forward to addressing the future font needs across the platform. We are also very excited that the platform supports our Ascender Compact Asian Font solution (ACAF), which will make it easy for manufacturers to implement additional high-quality Asian fonts in a small footprint."
— Ira Mirochnick, President of Ascender Corporation

"We are pleased to be a part of the Open Handset Alliance as it embarks on revolutionizing the world of mobile communications. As open devices enter the market in 2008, Audience is defining the new standard for noise suppression, enabling more usability of rich voice and data applications on this platform. Callers will be able to be heard everywhere from their mobile handset, even in the noisiest places."
— Peter Santos, CEO of Audience

"Broadcom is at the forefront of integrating advanced multimedia functionality, applications processing and communications technologies into highly integrated processors for next-generation mobile devices, sharing the Open Handset Alliance’s vision of enabling platforms that provide maximum flexibility to developers of useful and exciting mobile applications. We are excited to participate in the Alliance, working with other industry leaders to further explore the possibilities that increasingly powerful mobile devices provide and reaffirming Broadcom’s support of open operating systems for the mobile handset."
— Dr. Edward Frank, Vice President of R&D at Broadcom

"China Mobile believes that an open and advanced mobile handset platform is the key to deliver the best mobile application and Internet experience and it will encourage faster adoption of smartphones in China. China Mobile is excited to participate in the Open Handset Alliance and to work with Google and other Alliance partners on a next-generation mobile handset platform."
— Bill Huang, General Manager of China Mobile Research Institute

"eBay supports the Open Handset Alliance’s efforts to deliver more compelling applications and content to mobile Internet users. As the future unfolds, more and more people will be accessing the Internet using their mobile devices. We see this initiative as an opportunity to get more people to experience the power of the eBay marketplace regardless of where they are or what device they are using."
— Andre Haddad, SVP Products, eBay Inc.

"We are delighted to be a member of the Open Handset Alliance, which opens new horizons in the mobile space. Beyond our OMA applications contribution to this alliance, we strive to address the challenges and needs of all players in the current and future mobile value chain with a full range of integration and development services. Thanks to the availability of our Jbed™ Java™ VM on the Android platform, we offer immediate compatibility to the standard Java ME world to enable Java ME-based mobile services with the Android platform."
— Jean-Claude Martinez, CEO of Esmertec

"Intel joined the Open Handset Alliance to create opportunities to innovate in the mobile market segment. The Android platform can enhance Intel’s new low-power products that will enable an emerging class of mobile Internet devices that bring to life the full Internet experience on products that are small enough to fit in your pocket, and meet the uncompromising performance needs of users on the go."
— Gary Willihnganz, Director of Marketing, Intel Ultra Mobile Group

"KDDI believes the alliance is exactly the first great step toward increased openness in the mobile industry and we hope the platform will bring completely new experiences to the mobile users around the world."
— Tadashi Onodera, President and Chairman of KDDI Corporation

"We are very excited about participating in the Open Handset Alliance, since it will open up an ultimate horizon for future handset devices. LivingImage envisions a world where people will play Images by editless technology. Very simple to watch – just click the Li logo to experience future visual literacy."
— Yu Maruno, Chief Creative Director, LivingImage

"As a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, we are furthering our commitment to deliver the best possible mobile experience to our customers. The Alliance’s plan to deliver the most innovative and open platform ever created will be an enormous contribution to the mobile industry and to mobile phone users everywhere. At LG we are looking forward to building handsets based on this open platform, with new and exciting features that will benefit our customers."
— Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company

"Marvell is thrilled to be a member of the Open Handset Alliance. This alliance will enable a revolutionary open mobile platform that will leverage the high-performance microprocessors, low-power wireless technologies and open architecture of the Marvell silicon product portfolio."
— Dr. Sehat Sutardja, President and CEO of Marvell

"Noser Engineering Inc. is a Swiss software engineering company that specializes in both embedded and mobile solutions. Working in close collaboration with the Open Handset Alliance, Noser contributed core functionality to the Android platform. This platform will revolutionize the mobile industry, and it will be an ideal ‘open’ development platform for the delivery of solutions to various industries. Noser’s experience with the Android platform allows us to better support operators, handset manufacturers and ISVs who plan to ship devices and services based on this platform."
— Geri Moll, CEO Noser Engineering Inc.

"NMS Communications is pleased to add our industry-leading IMS framework to the Open Handset Alliance initiative. I believe this Alliance will unlock unprecedented innovation in mobile operating systems benefiting operators, consumers and suppliers alike."
— Joel Hughes, General Manager, Mobile Applications, NMS Communications

"DoCoMo strongly believes that rich mobile internet services have been changing the users’ daily lives dramatically. We believe Open Handset Alliance’s vision of driving true openness will contribute significantly to this trend, supported by DoCoMo and other partners in the Alliance,"
— Mr. Takeshi Natsuno, senior Vice President and Managing Director of the Multimedia Services Department of NTT DoCoMo

"Nuance joined the Open Handset Alliance with other industry leaders to grow the entire mobile ecosystem. We’re committed to apply our strength and leadership in voice-based search and messaging to move the market forward. By packaging and optimizing embedded speech technology components for open-source distribution, we’ve given developers the opportunity to access speech solutions through open APIs using the Android platform and to easily upgrade to new, more advanced speech features as well. We believe deep collaboration with members of the Alliance will grow our core mobile business and fuel the proliferation of speech-enabled applications worldwide."
— Steve Chambers, President, Mobile and Consumer Services Division of Nuance Communications

"As the mobile phone becomes our most personal computer, the user experience has never been more important. NVIDIA will be working within the Open Handset Alliance to enable rich media acceleration on a new generation of devices based on the Android platform."
— Michael Rayfield, General Manager of NVIDIA’s mobile business

"Driving innovation in mobile entertainment is what PV has been doing since we started in 1998. We chose to be the multimedia partner for the Open Handset Alliance because its mission of accelerating mobile entertainment aligns with ours. The creation of the Alliance is a major step in the global evolution of mobile entertainment."
— James C. Brailean, Ph.D., CEO of PacketVideo (PV)

"Today’s mobile industry is becoming more and more a customer-centric environment. Samsung’s joining with the Open Handset Alliance is fundamentally in line with this trend. We expect to lead the mobile industry by introducing more customer-oriented mobile phones through this alliance."
— Dale Sohn, President of Samsung Telecommunications America

"As a leading provider of GPS-enabled location technology for the mainstream mobile markets, SiRF is extremely pleased to be a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance. With the emergence of geo search and navigation as key enablers, an open platform like Android can significantly accelerate the development and deployment of location-aware applications, content and services. We believe our development efforts in conjunction with the innovative Android platform and our continued investment in leading-edge technology and location ecosystem will further our vision of bringing the benefits of location technology to billions of users worldwide."
— Kanwar Chadha, Founder and Vice President of Marketing, SiRF Technology

"We are excited to be part of the Open Handset Alliance and the next generation of mobile devices that it will empower. Android is the first platform that enables SkyPop to fully deliver on our vision of consumer services for the future of mobile devices."
— Bruce Leak, CEO and Co-Founder of SkyPop

"The Open Handset Alliance is music to mobile industry ears. Finally, developers like SONiVOX have a common stage upon which to not only create, but commercialize new, innovative ideas."
— Jennifer Hruska, President of SONiVOX

"Sprint continues to be a catalyst for transforming the mobile environment into one that is more open and customer-driven. Our participation in the Open Handset Alliance is a clear indication of Sprint’s commitment to breaking down barriers and enabling developers to create and deliver applications that customers want. This new mobile ecosystem model will drive innovation, personalize the mobile experience and ultimately increase wireless data usage."
— Keith Cowan, President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Initiatives, Sprint Nextel

"Synaptics is proud to be a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance. Our contribution to the Android platform will help bring dynamic touch UIs to everyone in the mobile market. By creating an open environment conducive to collaboration and partnering, the Alliance will allow key influencers to deliver innovative devices and services to meet the needs of the fast-changing mobile industry."
— Francis Lee, President and CEO of Synaptics

"TAT is pleased to join the Open Handset Alliance as it pushes the boundaries on how mobile phones will be used. TAT will be contributing to this initiative with our extensive experience and proven track record in the mobile user interface arena – enabling UI creation to be an integral part in the handset design process."
— Charlotta Falvin, CEO of TAT – The Astonishing Tribe

"Telecom Italia is already focused on the mobile Internet framework and services and strongly believes that it will be the key successful approach for future revenues. In this scenario the Open Handset Alliance represents an important initiative for Telecom Italia and for all its members to work together and to speed up the development process of a new open OS for mobile Internet services."
— Riccardo Jelmini, Executive Vice President, VAS Domestic Mobile Services of Telecom Italia

"Telefónica strives to bring the best of the web to our customers, wherever they are. We are pleased to be a part of the Open Handset Alliance, which we believe will enable new and innovative services to be launched on a robust and open platform. We look forward to delivering customized phones based on this platform for our customers."
— Adrían García Nevado, Corporate Commercial Director of Telefónica S.A.

"The move toward open source offerings is an important trend in the mobile industry, adding flexibility and driving adoption of mobile software solutions. TI is pleased to work with Google and other Open Handset Alliance members to broaden the mobile ecosystem and help expand the open-source community. TI applications processors along with our wireless LAN and Bluetooth connectivity solutions are key enablers in the Android platform. With TI technology as the foundation, the Android platform will open the doors for innovation and accelerate the creation of exciting new wireless services and products."
— Raj Talluri, General Manager, Wireless Terminals Business Unit, Texas Instruments

"Wind River is investing in the Open Handset Alliance to help deliver on its massive promise: faster time-to-market and dramatically lower bill-of-material costs for Linux-based phones. As a Linux commercialization partner for the Alliance, we’ve made significant contributions to ensure an optimized Linux distribution that delivers the highest level of silicon performance, and to provide the Linux services necessary for OEMs to quickly create Android-based handsets."
— Ken Klein, CEO of Wind River

Read More

The UN, Google and Cisco Unveil Online Resource in the Fight to Decrease Global Poverty

Announcement
November 1, 2007

MDG Monitor Tracks Progress to Development Goals

United Nations, 1 November – The United Nations, Google and Cisco today unveiled a pioneering online site that tracks progress towards decreasing global poverty by 2015, a global campaign known as the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the project, called MDG Monitor, and highlighted the urgent need to increase global cooperation. The site is available at www.mdgmonitor.org.

"Achieving the Goals is a truly global task, requiring Governments, international organizations, private companies and civil society to work together," said the Secretary-General. "I thank Google and Cisco for helping us create the MDG Monitor – an example of the kind of innovative partnerships we need."

The Secretary-General was joined by UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş, Cisco Senior Vice President Carlos Dominguez, and Google Chief Technologist for Google Earth and Maps, Michael T. Jones in launching the project, a groundbreaking innovation in charting development progress.

MDG Monitor ellwethers like public health, education and women’s empowerment. By laying out areas of progress and continuing challenge for the world to see, MDG Monitor aspires to keep the global community’s eye firmly fixed on the Millennium Goals, and to provide vital information for policy makers and development practitioners worldwide.

On one portion of the site, MDG Monitor allows a Web surfer to use Google Earth to fly anywhere on the planet and explore from above, in three dimensions, the places where work is being done to realize the MDGs. With a few simple clicks, users can access country assessments and data collected by the UN worldwide. MDG Monitor enables more than 300 million Google Earth users to better understand the MDGs and what it will take to achieve them. This information will soon appear as a Global Awareness layer in Google Earth, and is currently available for download on the MDG Monitor website (www.mdgmonitor.org).

"We at Google are honored to join the UNDP in making this valuable data more accessible to the public," said Michael T. Jones of Google. "It is our hope that the Millennium Development Goals and issues of human development will become more openly and frequently discussed, and we believe Google Earth and its users around the world can play an important role in making that happen."

Cisco, whose approach to corporate citizenship includes applying its business and technological expertise to social issues, provided expert consultancy as well as technical and financial support for MDG Monitor’s development. Many of Cisco’s corporate social responsibility initiatives are aligned with the MDGs, such as achieving universal primary education through its Global Education Initiatives.

"Cisco believes that the power of technology, along with human ingenuity in deploying it, can effectively address global socio-economic issues and lead to sustainable change. We also understand the critical importance of working in partnership with others to help make the Millennium Development Goals a reality. Cisco is proud to be a part of this worthy effort and firmly believes the MDG Monitor can effectively guide expertise and resources to those in need while highlighting the successes of others in reaching these important goals," said Carlos Dominguez, Senior Vice President of Cisco.

Bontron & Co also chipped in, producing MDG Monitor’s logo on a pro-bono basis.

The MDGs, agreed by world leaders from 189 countries in New York in 2000, call for quantified, time-bound progress in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development. UNDP, in its designated role as MDG scorekeeper, initiated MDG Monitor as an innovative means of keeping track of progress and raising awareness at the same time.

Although almost eight years have passed since the MDGs were first introduced, today just short of one billion people live on less than one dollar a day, every year six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday, and in deeply impoverished nations less than half of the children are in primary school and fewer than 20 percent go to secondary school.

"By making the world’s successes and challenges in human development just a mouse click away, MDG Monitor hopes to rally new resources and help build momentum for achieving a more equitable and sustainable world for all." said Mr. Derviş.

###

For more information, please contact:

In New York: Christina LoNigro at +1 212-906-5301 or christina.lonigro@undp.org, or Pablo Basz at +1 212-906-6127 or pablo.basz@undp.org.

About UNDP:

UNDP is the UN’s global network to help people meet their development needs and build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working as a trusted partner with Governments, civil society and the private sector to help them build their own solutions to global and national development challenges. Further information can be found at www.undp.org.

About Google:

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

About Cisco Systems:

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to newsroom.cisco.com.

Read More

MySpace and Google Join Forces to Launch Open Platform for Social Application Development

Collaboration on "OpenSocial" to Spark and Simplify Web Innovation

LOS ANGELES / MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. (November 1, 2007)— MySpace, the world’s largest social network, and Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that they are joining forces to launch OpenSocial— a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web. The partnership spearheads an initiative to standardize and simplify the development of social applications. Today’s announcement underscores MySpace’s commitment to supporting standards that foster innovation in an increasingly social Web.

Demo of a MySpace webpage using OpenSocial, a programming model developed at Google

"Our partnership with Google allows developers to gain massive distribution without unnecessary specialized development for every platform," said Chris DeWolfe, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of MySpace. "This is about helping the start-up spend more time building a great product rather than rebuilding it for every social network. We’re pleased to collaborate with Google to establish a landmark standard for social applications."

As a founding member of OpenSocial, MySpace will provide critical user mass and platform guidance. The OpenSocial standards are designed to evolve through contribution from the open source community and as new features are developed by various partners. Global members of the OpenSocial community include Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.

"As the most trafficked website in the country and the most popular social network in the world, MySpace is one of the leading forces in the global social Web," said Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Google. "We’re thrilled to grow our strategic relationship with MySpace by joining forces on this important initiative."

"As an application developer, we’re excited to see MySpace adopting the OpenSocial standard for social application development," said Joe Greenstein, CEO of Flixster. "Application developers have been working with MySpace for a long time—this takes what we can do together to a whole new level. The sheer scale of MySpace makes this extremely exciting for us."

"We’re all citizens of a larger Web—no network is an island onto itself," said Aber Whitcomb, CTO of MySpace. "We look forward to continuing to develop great technology with Google and all of the OpenSocial participants. It’s exciting that social networks are getting social with each other."

The launch of OpenSocial is the first release of technical details for the forthcoming MySpace Platform. Starting tonight, developers can start writing applications for OpenSocial at code.google.com/apis/opensocial which the MySpace Platform will support at launch.

About MySpace

MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world. By integrating web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music streaming, music videos, photo galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities, and member forums, MySpace has created a connected community. As the first ranked web domain in terms of page views(c), MySpace is the most widely-used and highly regarded site of its kind and is committed to providing the highest quality member experience. MySpace will continue to innovate with new features that allow its members to express their creativity and share their lives, both online and off. MySpace’s international network includes 20 localized community sites in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Mexico, Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Denmark, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Japan and New Zealand. Fox Interactive Media is a division of News Corp. (NYSE: NWS – News, NWS.A – News; ASX: NWS – News, NWSLV – News).

*Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, September 2007. For more information on comScore Networks, please go to www.comscore.com.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Media Contacts

Dani Dudeck
MySpace
(310) 969-7148
ddudeck@myspace.com

Tracy Akselrud
MySpace
(310) 969-2813
takselrud@myspace.com

Rachael Horwitz
Google
(415) 336-4469
rhorwitz@google.com

###

Google, orkut, and OpenSocial are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Read More

Google Launches OpenSocial to Spread Social Applications Across the Web

Support for Common Set of APIs Includes Bebo, iLike, MySpace, orkut, and Salesforce.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (November 1, 2007) – Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the release of OpenSocial – a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web – for developers of social applications and for websites that want to add social features. OpenSocial will unleash more powerful and pervasive social capabilities for the web, empowering developers to build far-reaching applications that users can enjoy regardless of the websites, web applications, or social networks they use. The release of OpenSocial marks the first time that multiple social networks have been made accessible under a common API to make development and distribution easier and more efficient for developers.

The proliferation of unique APIs across dozens of social websites is forcing developers to choose which ones to write applications for — and then spend their time writing separately for each. OpenSocial gives developers of social applications a single set of APIs to learn for their applications to run on any OpenSocial-enabled website. By providing these simple, standards-based technologies, OpenSocial will speed innovation and bring more social features to more places across the web. Users win too: they get more interesting, engaging, and useful features faster.

"The web is fundamentally better when it’s social, and we’re only just starting to see what’s possible when you bring social information into different contexts on the web," said Jeff Huber, senior vice president of engineering, Google. "There’s a lot of innovation that will be spurred simply by creating a standard way for developers to run social applications in more places. With the input and iteration of the community, we hope OpenSocial will become a standard set of technologies for making the web social."

Learn Once, Reach Across the Web

One of the most important benefits of OpenSocial is the vast distribution network that developers will have for their applications. The sites that have already committed to supporting OpenSocial – Bebo, Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, mixi, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING – represent an audience of about 200 million users globally. Critical for time- and resource-strapped developers is being able to "learn once, write anywhere" – learn the OpenSocial APIs once and then build applications that work with any OpenSocial-enabled websites.

"Thanks to the broad adoption of the OpenSocial platform, iLike can now enable artists to reach an additional 200 million music enthusiasts across the wide range of websites that have adopted this new platform," said Ali Partovi, CEO of social music service iLike, inc. "Building upon the 15 million music fans we already reach through other channels, the OpenSocial platform helps us pursue our vision of becoming the broadest artist-fan communication platform on the web, without having to write custom software for multiple websites."

Several developers, including Flixster, FotoFlexer, iLike, RockYou, Slide, Theikos, and VirtualTourist have already built applications that use the OpenSocial APIs. A developer sandbox will be available soon at sandbox.orkut.com so developers can go in and start testing the OpenSocial APIs. The goal is to have developers build applications in the sandbox so they can deploy on orkut and ultimately other OpenSocial sites.

More Social in More Places

The existence of this single programming model also helps websites that are eager to satisfy their users’ interest in social features. More developers building social applications more easily translates directly into more features more quickly for websites.

"orkut has tens of millions of passionate users who are constantly clamoring for new ways to have fun with their friends and express themselves through orkut," said Amar Gandhi, group product manager for orkut, Google’s social networking service. "By using OpenSocial to open up orkut as a platform for any developer, we can tap into the vast creativity of the community and make new features available to our users frequently."

The common method that OpenSocial provides for writing social applications means that websites can engage a much larger pool of third-party developers than they could otherwise. They can direct resources that might have gone to maintaining a proprietary API and supporting its developer community to other projects.

"We are thrilled to be supporting OpenSocial," said Marc Andreessen, Co-founder and CTO of Ning. "These standards give both creators and members of the over 113,000 social networks on Ning an awesome breadth of feature options and an even greater opportunity to make their networks uniquely their own. OpenSocial is the future."

Because OpenSocial removes the hassle from developing for social networks, developers can unleash their creativity anywhere that catches their interest. This will translate into a wave of social features in contexts outside of the personal entertainment and games that are traditionally thought of as the social web.

"We fundamentally believe that OpenSocial is the right design philosophy," said Dan Nye, CEO of LinkedIn. "Some social experiences are about photo sharing, some are affinity-based, some professionally oriented--OpenSocial allows each experience to be distinct and provides them a shared infrastructure for development."

"Our goal is to make life as simple as possible for developers who want to reach the global hi5 audience," said Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO of hi5. "OpenSocial provides a simple and practical open standard approach that encourages developers to build innovative applications."

"OpenSocial is an evolutionary step in the integration of third-party applications into the social web," said Max Levchin, founder and CEO of Slide. "Google’s standards-based platform gives us deeper access to multiple networks, which allows us to create a much richer user experience."

"The Internet has fundamentally changed the expectations that consumers have for business applications," said Adam Gross, vice president of developer marketing, salesforce.com. "By combining the Force.com Platform and Visualforce with the latest OpenSocial APIs, developers and customers can build and deploy a new class of socially-enabled enterprise applications in a way that improves CRM, collaboration and other business workflows."

Three APIs Available Now

The OpenSocial APIs give developers (with users’ permission) access to the data needed to build social applications: access to an application user’s profile information, their list of friends, and the ability to share their activities with friends. OpenSocial resources for developers and websites are now available at code.google.com/apis/opensocial.

Developers will have access to:

• Three JavaScript and Gdata APIs to access social functions
• A live developer sandbox on orkut at sandbox.orkut.com
• Sample code, documentation, and a support group available at code.google.com

Websites will have access to:

• A tool to help OpenSocial-enable their websites
• A support forum for communicating with Google and other websites
• Sample code, documentation, and a support group available at code.google.com

Developers Already at Work

Dozens of developers have helped test early iterations of the OpenSocial APIs, and Google is grateful for the extensive feedback they have provided:

• amiando
• Animoto
• Appirio
• Bleacher Report
• BonstioNet
• Brad Anderson
• Bunchball, Inc.
• BuyFast
• Cardinal Blue Software
• Chakpak
• Chronus Corporation
• come2play
• CurrentTV
• E-junkie
• eTwine Holdings, Inc.
• Fendoo Ltd
• Flixster
• FotoFlexer
• Grimmthething
• HedgeStop.com
• Hungry Machine
• iFamily, Inc.
• iLike
• Indeed.com
• KlickSports, Inc.
• LabPixies Ltd.
• LimitNone
• LjmSite
• LoveMyGadgets
• Mesa Dynamics, LLC
• MuseStorm Inc.
• Netvibes
• NewsGator
• NY Times
• Oberon Media
• Outside.In
• PayPal
• PROTRADE
• Puxa
• Qloud
• RockYou
• Shelfari
• SideStep, Inc.
• Slide
• Theikos
• TooStep
• VirtualTourist
• Votigo
• Whizz
• Widgetbox
• Zytu Inc.

Links to these gadgets are available at code.google.com/apis/opensocial.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Media Contact:

Rachael Horwitz
Google
+1 415-336-4469
rhorwitz@google.com

###

Google, orkut, and OpenSocial are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.

*This release has been modified from its original version as of 3:21 pm, November 2, 2007.

Read More