Search across TV, Web, and Apps

Google TV is based on the Android platform and runs the Google Chrome web browser. Users can access all of their usual TV channels as well as a world of Internet and cloud-based information and applications, including rich Adobe® Flash based content – all from the comfort of their own living room and with the same simplicity as browsing the web. When coupled with the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100, Intel’s latest system-on-a-chip designed specifically for consumer electronics, the new platform will offer home theatre quality A/V performance. Sony and Logitech said they would be delivering products based on the new Intel Atom processor and running Google TV later this year. While Google TV is designed to work with any TV operator, at launch the user experience will be fully optimized when paired with DISH Network.

Google TV expands video choice from the hundreds of channels available today through a pay TV provider to the vast storehouse of video content available through the web and streaming videos. The Google TV experience is complemented by the ability to watch streaming video from leading content platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and YouTube. Google TV will also have the capability to run apps from the Android Market.

To navigate the array of content that will now be available through a single device and on a single screen, Google TV introduces an integrated search experience to help viewers easily find relevant content across over-the-air and pay-TV channel listings, DVR, and the Internet, as well as a picture-in-picture layout to access multiple windows simultaneously. Google TV also features an innovative home screen to help viewers quickly organize their favorite content and personalize their TV viewing experience. Some of these features are only available with advanced integration from DISH Network.

Broad Alliance of Industry Leaders

Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman and CEO said, “We are very proud to be working with this distinguished set of partners, all of whom have decades of experience in hardware, design and retail.”

Sony announced plans to introduce “Sony Internet TV,” the World’s first TV lineup incorporating the Google TV platform.  The first models are planned to be introduced in the U.S. market in the Fall of 2010 with the lineup featuring both a standalone TV model and set top box-type unit incorporating a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Howard Stringer, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Corporation said, “I am delighted to announce the unique alignment of Google’s rapidly growing, open source Android platform with Sony’s unparalleled expertise in the field of TV design and technology. The addition of ‘Sony Internet TV’ will further bolster Sony’s comprehensive TV lineup and will fuse new levels of enjoyment and interactivity into the TV experience.”

Logitech will introduce a companion box that brings Google TV to existing HDTV home entertainment systems, easily integrating with any brand of HDTV and set-top box. The companion box will incorporate Logitech’s Harmony® remote control technology, and will include a controller that combines keyboard and remote control capabilities. The company also has plans to introduce an HDTV camera and video chat for Google TV, along with additional choices for navigation and control, including apps to turn a smart phone into an advanced controller for Google TV and home-entertainment systems.

Gerald Quindlen, President and CEO, Logitech said, “We committed to Google TV early on because it aligns with our strategy to support open platforms that enable new immersive experiences in the digital living room. While Google TV enables seamless discovery of all your content, Logitech enables seamless control over how you experience that content. We look forward to continued collaboration with Google and the developer community to create new Google TV experiences that have yet to be imagined.”

The Intel Atom CE4100 processor will power both the Logitech and Sony devices. Paul Otellini, Intel President and CEO praised the collaborative effort and said TV as we know it was being “reinvented.” “Today marks the next step in the evolution of TV. TV’s are becoming smarter as a result of the microprocessor and the Internet. Traditional TV programming will be merged seamlessly with the infinite amount of content on the Internet to enable every viewer to determine what they want to watch, when they want it. This is Moore’s Law transforming television, powered by the performance of Intel microprocessors.”

DISH Network has been a key partner with Google on advanced integration development for Google TV. The two partners began a joint trial over a year ago with more than 400 DISH Network and Google beta users. Based on the continuous feedback from the trial, Google and DISH Network have built the optimized Google TV experience that seamlessly integrates traditional TV, DVR and web content.

Charlie Ergen, Chairman, President and CEO of DISH Network, said, “Google TV marks the next evolution in television, and we are excited to be the first to partner with Google to bring this experience to our customers. Only DISH Network Google TV customers will be able to enjoy a unified search across TV, DVR and web; easily find related content; and manage their entire TV viewing experience. Additionally, the advanced integration will allow developers to create new and exciting applications to enrich the TV viewing experience.”

Best Buy will bring their retail experience and consumer expertise to the project, with Google TV devices being sold at Best Buy locations nationwide later this year. “Every day, our 180,000 Blue Shirt store employees and Geek Squad Agents work with our customers to get them the best home theater experience possible”, said Brian Dunn, CEO Best Buy, “We are thrilled about the new and exciting experiences smart TVs, like Google TV, provide to our customers - and we are looking forward to showcasing those experiences in our store and ensuring customers get connected to all the products and services that bring those experiences to life.”

Finally, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 will be integrated directly into the Google Chrome browser on Google TV, enabling viewers to experience tens of millions of web pages with rich Flash content including games, animations, applications, videos, audio and more. Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO, Adobe said, “An open web ecosystem offers endless opportunities for creativity and innovation. Flash Player 10.1 extends the advantages of full web browsing and consistent, rich experiences to smartphones, tablets, netbooks and Internet-connected TVs. We’re thrilled to be part of the Google TV initiative with other industry leaders who share a common vision of enabling access to the best web experiences possible.”

Opportunity for Developers

The demonstration at I/O highlighted the unique opportunity developers have to help shape the future of Google TV. Today Google announced that they would soon release a set of TV specific APIs for web applications, encouraging web developers to begin building unique web applications for use on television sets. Later this year Google will also release an updated Android SDK, which will support applications built for Google TV.

Google also plans to open source the Google TV platform to help spur innovation in the industry and so that other developers can benefit from the project. The long term goal is to collaborate with the entire developer community to help drive entertainment in the living room forward and to introduce the next generation of TV-watching experience.

For larger online publishers, managing, delivering and measuring the performance of ads can be a hugely complicated process. Major online publishers (including social networks, entertainment sites, portals and news sites) use ad serving to manage the complex process of how and when the ads they have sold appear on their websites.

Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management at Google, said: “Google wants to help online publishers make the most money possible from their content. The upgraded DFP is part of our suite of products that are designed to help online publishers maximize their advertising revenues. Ad serving is the machinery that powers the online advertising world, so improving that technology can put a lot of money in publishers’ pockets. This upgraded platform is another major milestone in our continuing investment in the display advertising ecosystem.”

The upgraded DFP is part of Google’s suite of products – also including AdSense and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange – to help online publishers maximize their advertising revenues across all their ad space, whatever their size and however they choose to sell their ad space.

It includes a wide variety of key features that will help enable publishers to get the most value out of their online content:

* A new interface that has been completely redesigned to save time and reduce errors.
* Far more detailed reporting and forecasting data to help publishers understand where their revenue is coming from and what ads are most valuable.
* Sophisticated algorithms that automatically improve ad performance and delivery.
* A new, open, public API which enables publishers to build and integrate their own apps with DFP, or integrate apps created for DFP by a growing third-party developer community (apps under development today include sales, order management and workflow tools).
* Integration with the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange’s “dynamic allocation” feature, which maximizes revenue by enabling publishers to open up their ad space to bids from multiple ad networks. Dynamic allocation is described in this document.

DFP comes in two flavors, tailored for different publishers’ needs:

* DFP – for larger online publishers, to which current DART for Publishers customers will be upgraded over the next year.
* DFP Small Business – a simple, free version designed for growing online publishers, to which we will be upgrading Google Ad Manager customers.

To reflect Google’s continued investment in DoubleClick’s products and the central role of DoubleClick’s technology products within Google’s display advertising business, Google is also today unveiling some changes to the DoubleClick logos – including typset changes, incorporating a new “by Google” theme, and retiring the “DART” brand.

Google’s website with information about the Games in Vancouver and Whistler also features:

A gadget with up-to-date event, medal-count and athlete information, visuals of each venue and Google News updates, which people can add to iGoogle or embed in a website

Competition venues in Street View and modeled in 3D in Google Earth (also featured on Vancouver2010.com)

Real-Time Search results for the Games, combining tweets, news stories and blog posts

Links to Twitter and Facebook so people can easily share the website with their friends

A regularly updated Picasa gallery with photos from the Games, both from people attending the Games (simply use the tag “wintergames2010″ when uploading photos) and from Google News

Favourite Places in Google Maps, with “best of Vancouver” maps from 10 local experts including past Olympians

Up-to-date medal counts, schedules and event results in 30 languages are available simply by searching on Google throughout the Games for specific sports, countries or the Games generally. Users around the world can also look forward to a special doodle each day from February 12 to 28, in celebration of the Games.

For those in Vancouver during the Games, Google has created a special transit trip-planner in Google Maps using updated routes and schedules for Vancouver, Whistler and the Olympic bus network. These transit directions are available at maps.google.com under “Get Directions”, or at google.com/transit. Riders should be sure to check the official Vancouver 2010 website, Vancouver2010.com, for any scheduling or route changes before starting their trips.

Through the web store found at www.google.com/phone, consumers can buy the Nexus One without service (meaning any GSM network SIM card can be inserted into the device), or purchase the phone with service from one of Google’s operator partners. As new phones come to market through this channel, consumers will benefit from the ability to match a phone of their choice with the service plan that best meets their needs. Operator prices and plan details will be featured on the site.

“The Nexus One belongs in the emerging class of devices which we call ‘superphones,’ with the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ chipset making it as powerful as your laptop computer of three to four years ago. It’s our way to raise the bar on what’s possible when it comes to creating the best mobile experience for consumers,” said Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering. “We look forward to working with handset manufacturers and operators to bring more phones to market through this channel worldwide.”

Nexus One Hardware Features

* Display: 3.7″ AMOLED 480×800 WVGA display
* Thinness: 11.5mm; Weight: 130g
* Processor/Speed: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 3G QSD8250 chipset, delivering speeds up to 1GHz
* Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus with flash and geo tagging
* Onboard memory: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM
* Expandable memory: 4GB removable SD Card (expandable to 32GB)
* Noise Suppression: Dynamic noise suppression from Audience, Inc.
* Ports: 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with four contacts for inline voice and remote control
* Battery: Removable 1400 mAh
* Personalized laser engraving: Up to 50 characters on the back of the phone
* Trackball: Tri-color notification LED, alerts when new emails, chats, text messages arrive

“The Nexus One represents the unique combination of design and innovation two companies like Google and HTC can have when they collaborate,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “The Nexus One continues HTC’s strategy of offering people a portfolio of phones that meet their diverse needs.”

Nexus One Software Innovation

The Nexus One runs on Android 2.1, a version of the platform’s Eclair software, which offers advanced applications and features including:

* Google Maps Navigation: offering turn-by-turn driving directions with voice output.
* Email: multiple Gmail accounts; universal inbox and Exchange support.
* Phone book: aggregate contacts from multiple sources, including Facebook®.
* Quick Contacts: easily switch between communication and social applications.
* Android Market: access to more than 18,000 applications.

In addition, the Nexus One introduces new functionality and software enhancements:

* Enter text without typing.
* Use a voice-enabled keyboard for all text fields: speak a text message, instant message, tweet, Facebook update, or complete an email.
* Tell your phone what you want it to do.
* Search Google, call contacts, or get driving directions by just speaking into your phone.
* Take personalization to the next level.
* Dynamic, interactive, live wallpapers react to the touch of a finger.
* More widgets and five home screen panels allow for further device customization.
* Capture camera-quality pictures and video with your device.
* 5 megapixel camera includes LED flash, auto focus, zoom, white balance and color effects.
* View pictures and Picasa Web Albums in the new 3D Gallery.
* Record Hi-Res MPEG4 video, and then upload to YouTube with one click.
* Read your voicemail messages.
* Get transcribed voicemail with Google Voice integration, without changing your number.

Pricing, Availability, and Future Plans

Nexus One is initially available from the Google web store in the US without service for $529 or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA. In the near future, Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe plan to offer services to customers in their respective geographies. Today, consumers can go to www.google.com/phone to learn about the Nexus One and place an order. We will initially take orders from consumers in the US and three other markets – the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

“Making it easy for our Associates to advertise relevant content on their websites is the foundation of the Amazon Associates program. Our goal is to help our Associates earn the trust of their followers by giving them the tools to search through the millions of products on Amazon and select those that are most relevant to their audience,” said Dave Cotter, General Manager of the Amazon Associates Program. “If you’re a Blogger and you’re writing about the new Michael Crichton book, ‘Pirate Latitudes,’ you simply highlight the text you want linked to Amazon, click on “Go” in the Amazon Product Finder, and click ’Insert link.’ Setting up Associates links to Amazon and earning referral fees is now that easy.”

“This is something that Bloggers of all shapes and sizes will benefit from as they look for ways to add compelling content to their blogs and make money,” said Rick Klau, Product Manager, Google Blogger. “Our goal is to do more than simply give our bloggers the easiest tools in the market for creating blogs, it’s to make Blogger the easiest platform for bloggers to make money on. This integration is a testament to that commitment.”

* Performance Profiling with Speed Tracer: Speed Tracer is a new tool built using modern HTML5 technologies that allows developers to diagnose performance problems in the browser, providing insight that hasn’t been available before about low-level operations deep within the browser.

* Incremental Downloading with Code Splitting: As applications grow larger, developers want to ensure that their applications start as quickly as possible, without requiring application “boot up” time as the code downloads. Code Splitting enables developers to safely and easily slice and dice their application code so that key functionality can load immediately and other features can be loaded later as needed.

* Declarative UI with UiBinder: Team projects benefit from a workflow that allows smooth collaboration between designers and developers. UiBinder is a new declarative UI framework in Google Web Toolkit which enables rapid design iteration and a clean separation between presentation layer and application logic.

The contest was open to all students from 1st-10th standard where they were given the freedom to imagine their own version of the Google logo, inspired by the theme “My India”. The contest was judged by an esteemed panel of judges that comprised renowned cartoonist, N. Ponnappa, internationally acclaimed artist Raghava KK and the faculty of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad - India’s premier design institute. The doodles were evaluated on the basis of artistic merit, creativity and how well the doodle vision has been explained.

Puru Pratap Singh’s doodle was chosen from over 4000 doodles submitted by students across the country, and was selected based on artistic merit, creativity, and expression of the theme.

Puru Pratap Singh, a 4th standard student from Gurgaon (NCR), has been announced as the winner of the Doodle 4 Google competition. This announcement was made by Shailesh Rao, Managing Director, Google India and Dennis Hwang at a celebration today in New Delhi for the 46 semi-finalists and their families. Each Doodle submitted represented the immense creative talent and richness of ideas of students across the country.

The winning doodle is titled “My India - Full of Life”. In addition to having his doodle on the Google homepage appear all day on 14th November, Puru will receive a laptop computer, a t-shirt with his doodle and a INR I,00,000 technology grant for his school. The champion doodler has been drawing since he could hold a crayon. In addition, all finalists will be given a Doodle4Google™ certificate along with a Google goody bag.

“At Google we like to play! “Doodle4Google™ symbolizes that playful spirit of Google and is a celebration of creativity and in this case, of India. We are excited to present the results of India’s first edition of this contest and laud the young Indian doodlers who have showcased their wonderful creativity in the form of inspiring doodles that represent the various facets of India,” remarks Shailesh Rao, Managing Director, Google India

Adds Dennis Hwang, the Master Doodler “India is a land of creative minds. For centuries, Indian art has continued to fascinate people from across the globe. It was amazing to see how young kids could come out with highly creative Doodles that truly define the culture and tradition of this incredible country. Choosing the successful entry was not easy as every Doodle depicts India in a unique manner.”

"Mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a very short time," said Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management at Google. "AdMob is the quintessential Silicon Valley startup – generating impressive year on year revenue growth – and we’re excited to welcome this talented team to Google."

"I think people underestimate how important ads have been to funding the development of innovative content on the Internet. Our goal all along at AdMob has been to make it possible for developers and publishers to bring their products and ideas to mobile with the same business model," said Omar Hamoui, Founder and CEO of AdMob. "We’re proud of the progress we’ve made towards accomplishing this goal, and joining Google will only accelerate this process, ultimately leading to very real benefits for end users around the world. As publishers and developers generate more revenue from their mobile products, they will invest more, and their mobile offerings will become richer, more creative and more robust."

The deal will help Google in its efforts to develop more effective tools for creating, serving and analyzing emerging mobile ads formats. As this ecosystem continues to grow, the company expects these new marketing media to offer significant benefits:

• Advertisers will be better able to engage mobile users with AdMob’s ad formats
• Publishers and developers will be able to monetize their content more effectively, which has benefits for the wider mobile ecosystem
• Users will see more relevant ads and ultimately get access to more ad-supported content and applications – improving their mobile experience

"Attracting the world’s top engineering talent and people with entrepreneurial vision to Google has always been crucial to our success. AdMob’s proven track record in innovating at speed will help maintain that culture – which is why we are so excited to be working with them," added Vic Gundotra, Vice President of Engineering at Google.

Both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions.

Today we’re announcing the opportunity for users to directly give us their suggestions for the off-the-beaten-path & pedestrian-only locations they’d like to see featured in Street View on Google Maps. We often get requests from our users to photograph all sorts of new locations for Street View, and now we want to hear everyone’s best ideas of where to send the trike next. Locations can be nominated within six categories:

• Parks & Trails
• University Campuses
• Theme Parks & Zoos
• Pedestrian Malls (ie: outdoor shopping areas, boardwalks)
• Landmarks
• Sports Venues (ie: golf courses, racing tracks, stadium grounds)

Nominations will be open until October 28 and can be submitted at www.google.com/trike. We’ll then comb through all of the suggestions and allow the public to cast their final votes on a winner from each category for the Street View trike to visit. For any privately-owned or operated location, like a campus or theme park, we’ll work directly with the relevant organization prior to collecting the imagery.

The Street View trike began as a 20% project by Daniel Ratner, a Senior Mechanical Engineer on the Street View team. “I began thinking about building a bicycle-based Street View system after realizing how many interesting places around the world - ranging from historic landmarks to beautiful trails to shopping districts - aren’t accessible by car,” says Dan. “When I’m riding the trike, so many people come up to me and ask where it’s off to next or how they can get imagery of their favorite spot, so I can’t wait to see what our users come up with.”

Google Maps currently features Street View imagery taken from the trike in several locations in California, many gathered by Dan himself: LEGOLAND California, Arastradero Open Preserve, San Diego State University, Monterey coastal bike path, and Santa Monica Pier. We have let users nominate their favorite places for the Street View trike to visit in a handful of other countries; in the United Kingdom, we received around 10,000 submissions and more than 35,000 votes. We look forward to seeing what suggestions our users have for new locations all around the United States.

“Better technology can help make display advertising work better for all involved,” said Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management at Google. “We’re focused on growing the display advertising pie for everyone. The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is a major part of that goal.”

The new DoubleClick Ad Exchange has been rebuilt using Google’s technology and infrastructure. It contains a wide variety of key features that will help improve returns for advertisers and enable publishers to get the most value out of their online content.

On the “sell side”, participation in the new Ad Exchange is designed for major online publishers. It already includes a wide variety of large premium publishers including newspapers, large portals, entertainment and branded sites. In addition, ad space on Google’s third party AdSense publisher sites, representing over 76% of U.S. online audiences and 73% of global online audiences1, is being made available through the new Ad Exchange. This will increase the volume of quality display advertisers available to Google’s AdSense publishers.

On the “buy side”, the new Ad Exchange is designed for ad networks and agency networks - companies that connect web sites with advertisers. It already includes over 40 ad networks across North America and Europe, including most of the 25 largest ad networks in the US2, with more now to be added. Additionally, AdWords advertisers will be able to run ads on sites in the Ad Exchange, using their existing AdWords interface.

Features of the new Ad Exchange include a completely new interface; a “real-time bidding” feature to allow ad networks to use their own technology to bid on an impression-by-impression basis; a “dynamic allocation” system, which automatically generates online publishers the highest return for every impression by allocating ads to the highest-paying sales channel, based on real time data; more granular publisher and advertiser controls; payments and clearing managed by Google; and a new API to allow ad networks to extend the functionality of the Ad Exchange.