Beauty Queen Infamy, Winter and Weather Search Queries Mark This Week's Google Zeitgeist

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Google Year-End Zeitgeist Highlights Most Popular Search Queries and Trends of 2006

Announcement
December 19, 2006

Social networking sites top the list this year’s most searched queries

Google today announced its annual Zeitgeist, featuring lists and charts of the most popular and fastest-rising global search terms that people have typed into Google.com. If you’re interested in revisiting this year’s top scandals, or learning who wins in a Suri vs. Shiloh face-off, or which sport is most popular – visit www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2006.html to read all about what spurred people’s collective curiosity in 2006.

This year’s Google Zeitgeist reveals the following trends:

• What’s hot: the who, what and how of what’s being searched
• Current events: top searched scandals, political figures and global regions
• Milestones: most searched divorces, weddings, deaths and births of 2006
• Entertainment: what movies and TV shows were hot this year
• Sports: top searched sporting events, who retired and whose jerseys were most sought after

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Seasonal Grab-Bag Of Queries Mark This Week's Google Zeitgeist

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Adding the "D" to Google Apps for Your Domain

Announcement
December 14, 2006

Getting powerful communication and collaboration tools up and running for your organization just got a little easier. That’s because we’ve added domain registration services to Google Apps for Your Domain, a platform that allows organizations to offer tools like email and shared calendaring to all of their users – and have them all hosted by Google so there’s no hardware or software to install or maintain.

Starting today, we’re partnering with eNom and GoDaddy.com, two industry leaders in domain registration, to offer users without a domain an easy way to find, register, and buy a domain and start immediately using our services. When you register a new domain as part of the sign-up process for Google Apps for Your Domain, we’ll work with our partners behind the scenes and automatically configure everything so it works with all of the services available through Google Apps for Your Domain right out of the gate. We also give you full control of your domain settings, so you can use your domain for other services not provided by Google.

We are offering domains for $10 per year, which includes private registration to protect your personal information. We currently support .com, .org, .net, .biz, .info, and expect to support more domains over time.

Google Apps for Your Domain includes Gmail web email, Google Calendar shared calendaring, Google Talk instant messaging, Google Page Creator web page creation tools, and the Start Page feature for creating a personalized home page for users on your domain. It’s available now to organizations of all sizes at www.google.com/a.

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Google Now Searches More Than 7 Million US Patents

Announcement
December 14, 2006

Have you ever wondered who invented the zipper, the lawn mower – or maybe the eraser? Well now Google makes it easier than ever to search the over 7 million patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). With patents dating back to 1790, users can search inventions just like they search on Google today, or by criteria, such as patent number, inventor, or filing date. Our goal with Google Patent Search is to make this public domain government information more easily accessible using web search technology.

For more information on this new search capability, check out our blog post at googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-you-can-search-for-us-patents.html.

To try out Google Patent Search for yourselves, just visit www.google.com/patents! You’ll be sure to find everything from the bizarre to the fascinating.

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Google Adds New Features to the Google Toolbar for Firefox

Announcement
December 14, 2006

Firefox users can customize their search experience with the latest version of Google Toolbar

The latest version of the Google Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox® is now available. This new beta version of the Google Toolbar includes new features that enable users to personalize their search experience and browse their favorite content more efficiently.

Google Toolbar was designed to make the Internet easier to use and help people find the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. With the Google Toolbar, users can access Google search capabilities from any website, without first having to visit the Google homepage. Google Toolbar 3 Beta offers Firefox users all the features of the Toolbar for Internet Explorer and more, including custom buttons, online bookmarks, Google Docs & Spreadsheets integration and new sharing capabilities.

Users can now personalize their Toolbar through the addition of custom buttons. Custom buttons enable users to visit, search and get the latest RSS/Atom feeds from their favorite sites with just the click of a button. For example, news enthusiasts can now add buttons for their favorite news sites and view the latest headlines for each site directly from their Toolbar, putting the information they need at their fingertips, right when they want it.

The new beta version of the Google Toolbar also enables users to create, label and manage bookmarks for their favorite sites with a single click. Bookmarks are now saved to a user’s Google Account, making them accessible from any computer. For example, if a user bookmarks an interesting news article at work that they want to read later, they can now easily access the saved bookmark from their home computer by simply logging in to their Google Account.

With the Google Docs & Spreadsheets (docs.google.com) feature enabled in Toolbar 3 Beta, users can save time by automatically opening files from their browser. Users who turn on the feature can choose up to three ways to open most popular files types in a new Firefox window using Google Docs & Spreadsheets:

• click a link to a file on a web page
• drag a file icon from their desktop into the browser
• double-click on a file icon

Additionally, enhanced sharing capabilities enable users to easily send and share web page content via Gmail, SMS and Blogger by selecting the section of the page they want to share and clicking the new "Send To" button.

Google Toolbar 3 Beta for Firefox is now offered globally in 26 languages. Some features may vary by language and/or region. Google Toolbar 3 Beta is a free downloadable application that requires Windows XP/2000 SP3+, Mac OS X 10.2+ or Linux. Toolbar 3 Beta can be downloaded from tools.google.com/firefox/toolbar/FT3/intl/en/

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Google Inc. to Launch Transferable Stock Option Program for its Employees

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., December 12, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today a program that will enable employees to sell vested stock options in an online auction. Under the Transferable Stock Option (TSO) program, employees will still be able to exercise their options, but will also be able to sell their options to financial institutions as an alternative.

This program represents an innovative way to compensate employees and will increase the efficiency of Google’s equity compensation by increasing the per-option value of employee stock options. Google will amend the terms of eligible employee stock options to make vested options transferable. The auction will be managed by Morgan Stanley. Smith Barney will serve as the employee stock option administrator. Google is working with multiple financial institutions to participate as bidders in the auction.

The ability to sell options is not a novel concept – today people can buy and sell options to purchase Google stock and the stock of many other companies on the public markets. What is novel is that Google is extending this ability to trade options to employee stock options. If an employee chooses to sell options in the TSO program, he or she will use an internal online tool built by Morgan Stanley to sell them to the highest-bidding financial institution. The financial institutions buying the options will then likely hold them until maturity and then settle with Google.

Google’s employee stock options typically have a ten-year term from the grant date. Under the TSO program, Google’s employee stock options, upon transfer, will have a lifespan of the lesser of two years or up to the remaining term under the original grant.

Google expects this program will go into effect in the second quarter of 2007. Only stock options issued since Google’s initial public offering will be eligible for this program, and Google’s Executive Management Group may not participate in the program.

This program will not result in a change to the accounting method used for employee stock options. However, in the near term Google expects that the amount it recognizes as stock-based compensation will be greater than it would otherwise have been after the program goes into effect.

Google has discussed the TSO program with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Google will ensure the program complies with applicable securities laws.

For more information about this new program, please visit the Google Blog at googleblog.blogspot.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.

Google may file a registration statement (including a prospectus) with the SEC for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents Google has filed with the SEC for more complete information about Google and this offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, Google will arrange to send you the prospectus after filing if you request it by calling toll-free 1-866-468-4664 or sending an e-mail to investors@google.com.

Contacts:

Media
Steve Langdon
650.253.4950
slangdon@google.com

Investors
Maria Shim
650.253.7663
marias@google.com

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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.

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Worldly Concerns Characterize This Week's Google Zeitgeist

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Christmas Season Hits The Ground Running In The Weekly Google Zeitgeist

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