Google I/O '08 Keynote: Client, Connectivity, and the Cloud

Google gives Web developers a leg up with App Engine

From Computerworld -

Google is giving 10,000 developers the chance to create and run their Web applications on its infrastructure with the launch Tuesday of a preview release of Google App Engine.

"The goal is to make it easy to get started with a new Web app, and then make it easy to scale when that app reaches the point where it's receiving significant traffic and has millions of users," said Google product manager, Paul McDonald in a blog post.

"Google App Engine gives you access to the same building blocks that Google uses for its own applications, making it easier to build an application that runs reliably, even under heavy load and with large amounts of data."

The preview is available for the first 10,000 developers who sign up, with plans to increase that number in near future. It is open to developers from around the globe, and the preview release, at present, is just in English.

You can read the entire article here.

HTC shipping out 50000 mobiles with Google OS?

From Engadget -

A UBS analyst is reportedly confirming that HTC will ship about 50,000 cellphones running on a mobile OS made by Google by the end of this year. Analyst Benjamin Schachter also suggested that the first batch wouldn't "be for sale" -- rather, they'd be used exclusively by developers "to understand how the software works."

These reports also help substantiate the belief that Google will likely be focusing on software, and furthermore, Mr. Schachter insinuated that he wouldn't be too awfully shocked if another handset maker (such as LG, imagine that) also jumped in to provide hardware.

Google to Sell Web-Page Ads Visible on Mobile Phones

From New York Times -

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17 — Google said Monday that it would begin selling ads on Web pages that are viewed on cellphones. The company said that its new product, AdSense for Mobile, would establish a cellphone advertising network in which Google would match ads with the content of mobile Web pages, much as it does online.

Other Internet giants, including Yahoo and AOLTime Warner, as well as some start-ups, have also created advertising networks tailored for mobile phones.

Dilip Venkatachari, product management director for AdSense, said the ads would provide a new source of revenue for publishers and could encourage more online sites to create mobile-focused Web sites. Like most other Google advertising systems, ad prices will be set through an auction and and advertisers will pay when a user clicks on its ad.

Mr. Venkatachari said Google had encouraged publishers to have no more than two ads per mobile page, a smaller number than typically appear on a PC’s Web browser.

Google has been testing the system with a limited number of advertisers and publishers this year. On Tuesday, it will open it to all mobile publishers in 13 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, China and India.

Last summer, Google began selling ads that appear next to search results on mobile phones through a program known as AdWords. Last week, it said that all of its online AdWords advertisers, which are said to number in the hundreds of thousands, would be eligible to have their ads appear next to search results on cellphones.

Google’s further inroads into mobile advertising have long been expected. But the market remains relatively small, and analysts do not expect the new service to contribute much soon to Google’s bottom line.

Still, advertisers and publishers appear to be growing increasingly comfortable with mobile advertising. AdMob, a start-up that runs a mobile advertising network, showed 230 million ads in January and expects to show about 1.5 billion this month, said Omar Hamoui, its founder and chief executive.

“The reason that Google and others are getting in is that the market is growing so rapidly, so people are getting very excited,” Mr. Hamoui said.

Earlier in the year, AOL acquired Third Screen Media, an AdMob competitor, while Microsoft acquired ScreenTonic, a mobile ad company based in Paris. On Monday, Nokia said it would buy Enpocket, a company in Boston that displays ads on cellphones.

Five Facts About Google Phone

From GigaOM -

1. Google Phone is based on a mobile variant of Linux, and is able to run Java virtual machines.

2. All applications that are supposed to run on the Google Phone are java apps. The OS has ability to run multimedia files, including video clips.

3. The UI is typical of mobile phones, and the image (with red background) floating around isn’t representative of the Google Phone UI. The entire UI is said to be done in Java and is very responsive. The UI has a “search box.”

4. There is a special browser which has pan-and-browse features that are common to modern browsers such as browsers for iPhone and Symbian phones. The entire browser is apparently written in Java and is based on the WebKit core, the same engine in Safari and in iPhone, and Google has been making optimizations to speed it up.

5. Initially there was one prototype, but over past few months Google has the mobile OS running on 3-to-5 devices, most of them likely made by HTC and all have Qwerty apps. The model that folks have seen is very similar to the T-Mobile Dash. Around 3GSM, there were rumors that Google, Orange and HTC were working together on mobile devices.

Could GPay Be Google’s Killer Phone App?

From TechCrunch -

A new patent was published August 30 that would suggest that Google is developing a mobile phone payment system.

The Text Message Payment patent details a system where by Google offers a mobile focused payments under the title of GPay.

Examples of payment scenarios given in the patent include paying for goods from a vending machine, as well as purchasing items directly from offline retailers.

While it’s certainly possible that the GPay Mobile payments system could well be platform independent, GPay could also end up as an exclusive offering of the rumored GPhone, Google's mobile phone. This will give Google the jump over other mobile operators by enabling mobile payments natively from the handset.

Google competitor PayPal currently offers their own mobile payments system, but it hasn’t set the world on fire; Google on the other hand would have the advantage of embedding GPay in the GPhone.

Forget iPhone, the Gphone is here

From Rediff August 24, 2007 01:53 IST

Google is believed to be a fortnight away from the worldwide launch of its much-awaited Google Phone (Gphone) and has started talks with service providers in India for an exclusive launch on one of their networks.

Talks are believed to be taking place with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, respectively India's first and third largest mobile telephony operators, and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Sources close to the development said a simultaneous launch across the US and Europe is expected, and announcements would be sent to media firms in India and other parts of the world. US regulatory approval, which is expected soon, is the only hurdle that Google is waiting to cross, they added. Google plans to invest USD7-8 billion for its global telephony foray.

In India, it is also believed to be in talks with Indian providers to offer data and content and platforms including Instant Messaging (IM) and Search functions. However, these could not be confirmed.

Reports of Google getting into handset manufacturing as an answer to Apple's iPhone has been doing rounds in cyberspace and international media for some time. These reports suggest that Google has developed a prototype that will hit the markets in a year's time. The US-based company has neither confirmed nor denied these reports. The Wall Street Journal too had reported that Google had invested "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the project and was involved in discussions with US-based T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

Globally, Google is likely to participate in the upcoming auction for 700 MHz spectrum for which it is prepared to spend up to $4.6 billion. The firm is also introducing ads to YouTube videos which could be replicated on mobile phones. Ironically, Google recently partnered Apple to produce services such as e-mail and maps for its iPhone handset. And Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said recently that more Google services for the iPhone would be rolled out.

More at Rediff.

Google is working on a mobile OS, and it's due out shortly

From Engadget, August 28, 2007 -

We've actually got some hot news from a number of very trustworthy sources about Google's plans for the mobile space. Namely, Google's mobile device platform is well on its way, and will be announced in the very near future.

The "Gphone OS" began development after Google's very quiet 2005 acquisition of mobile software company Android, started by Danger cofounder and former-prez / CEO Andy Rubin. At Google, Andy's team has developed a Linux-based mobile device OS (no surprise) which they're currently shopping around to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a flexible, customizable system -- with really great Google integration, of course.

As for the timeframe, we keep hearing Google will announce its mobile plans some time post-Labor Day (September 3rd); from what we've heard Google isn't necessarily working on hardware of its own, but is definitely working with OEMs and ODMs to get them to put the Gphone OS on upcoming devices. Think of it more in terms of Windows Mobile or Palm OS, Google wants to supply the platform but not sell the hardware. Still, don't entirely rule out the idea.

Google shows phone prototype to vendors

August 02, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- Google has developed a prototype mobile phone that could reach the market within a year. It plans to offer consumers free subscriptions by bundling advertisements with its search engine, e-mail and Web browser software applications, according to a story published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

Google is showing the prototype to phone manufacturers and network operators as it continues to hone the technical specifications that will allow the phone to offer a better mobile Web browsing experience than current products. It declined to comment on the report of the prototype, but confirmed that it is working with partners to expand its software applications from the traditional Internet to mobile devices.

More at Computerworld.

Google Readies $4.6 Billion To Enter Wireless

July 20, 2007 12:40PM -Google has allocated $4.6 billion for the upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz band, putting it in direct competition with AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and others. The company says that its participation in the auction depends on the FCC adopting "open access" to the spectrum, a notion strongly opposed by several telcos.

Open access, according to its proponents, could mean that you buy a cell phone, load any software Relevant Products/Services you want on it, and then choose your carrier. This is different from the current system of "locked" cell phones in the U.S., where you get your phone and services from the carrier.

More at NewsFactor Network.

Google Purchases Web Phone Service

From The New York Times -

Google has GrandCentral Communications, a Fremont, CA-based service that lets people use a single number for all their phones. Its users can also create a single mailbox, accessible over the Internet, for all their phone messages.

GrandCentral was founded in 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, two executives who worked for Dialpad Communications, a Web phone company that was acquired by Yahoo in 2005.

GrandCentral’s investors include Minor Ventures, a San Francisco venture capital firm. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.