Google.org Battles Bugs & Viruses

Announces More Than $14 Million in Grants to Partners Working to Predict and Prevent the Next Pandemic

Mountain View, Calif. (October 21, 2008) — Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), has announced grants of more than $14 million to support partners working in Southeast Asia and Africa to prevent the next pandemic. Google.org’s Predict and Prevent initiative is supporting efforts to identify hot spots where diseases may emerge, detect new pathogens circulating in animal and human populations, and respond to outbreaks before they become global crises. Several new lethal infectious diseases crop up every year. Examples include the well-known killers, HIV/AIDS, bird flu, and SARS, as well as drug-resistant strains of ancient scourges malaria and tuberculosis. Three-quarters of new diseases are zoonoses, meaning they’ve jumped from animals to humans.

Thomas Briese completing RNA extraction,
Columbia University.
Copyright Christopher Dawes, 2008.

"Business as usual won’t prevent the next AIDS or SARS. The teams we’re funding today are on the frontiers of digital and genetic early detection technology. We hope that their work, with partners across environmental, animal, and human health boundaries, will help solve centuries-old problems and save millions of lives," said Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org.

Identifying hot spots

Knowing where to look is critical to disease surveillance. Climate change and deforestation increase human-animal contact, and with it, disease spreads. "The holy grail is to predict disease outbreaks before they happen. For Rift Valley fever and malaria, long-term weather forecasts and deforestation maps can show us where to look for outbreaks, up to six months in advance," said Frank Rijsberman, Program Director, Google.org.

• The Woods Hole Research Center – $2 million multi-year grant to support high-resolution satellite mapping of forests to enhance monitoring of forest loss and settlement expansion in tropical countries. WHRC will create information to share with environmental and human experts so they can better anticipate the emergence of infectious diseases. For more information, please visit www.whrc.org/.
• Columbia University International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) – $900,000 multi-year grant to improve the use of forecasts, rainfall data and other climate information in East Africa, and link weather and climate experts to health specialists so they can better predict outbreaks of infectious diseases. For more information, please visit portal.iri.columbia.edu/portal/server.pt.
• University Corporation for Atmospheric Research – $900,000 multi-year grant to build and implement a system that will use weather projections to inform and target response to disease threats in West Africa. For more information, please visit www.ucar.edu/.

Detecting diseases earlier

Genetic detection filters viral information in DNA to uncover deadly new pathogens, and digital detection mines online data to reveal early signals of possible epidemics. "We want to stop viruses dead in their tracks – their animal tracks – before they jump to humans," noted Dr. Mark Smolinski, Google.org’s Threat Detective.

• Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI) – $5.5 million multi-year grant (with equal funding from the Skoll Foundation) to support the collection and analysis of blood samples of humans and animals in hot spots within Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Malaysia, Lao PDR and Madagascar. The GVFI team, headed by Dr. Nathan Wolfe, has demonstrated that potentially pathogenic animal viruses jump more frequently to humans than previously believed and will work to detect early evidence of future pandemics. For more information, please visit gvfi.org/index.html.
• Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health – $2.5 million multi-year grant to support research to accelerate the discovery of new pathogens, and to enable rapid, regional response to outbreaks by establishing molecular diagnostics in hot spot countries including Sierra Leone and Bangladesh. Dr. Ian Lipkin and colleagues have discovered more than 75 viruses to date, established critical links between infection and the development of acute and chronic diseases, including pneumonia, meningitis/encephalitis, cancer, and mental illness. For more information, please visit cii.columbia.edu/.
• Children’s Hospital Corporation supporting Healthmap and ProMED-mail – $3M multi-year grant to combine HealthMap’s digital detection efforts with ProMED-mail’s global network of human, animal, and ecosystem health specialists. Together, these programs will assess current emerging disease reporting systems, expand regional networks in Africa and Southeast Asia, and develop new tools to improve the detection and reporting of outbreaks. For more information please visit www.childrenshospital.org/, www.healthmap.org/en, and www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1000:.

"On every continent, viruses move from animals into people. GVFI’s mission is to monitor this viral exchange. Working in animal markets, with restaurant workers, and with hunters at the end of the road, we sort through this traffic to try to stop deadly diseases before they spread," said Dr. Nathan Wolfe, Founder and Director, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative.

For more information and a Google Earth Layer highlighting the grantees, please visit www.google.org/predict.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, 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:

Katy Bacon
Google
+1.650.214.5161
press@google.com

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Google Announces Third Quarter 2008 Results*

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New Canvas View Gadgets for iGoogle

Announcement
October 16, 2008

Today, we’re starting to roll out an updated version of iGoogle to users in the U.S. The key feature of the updated version of iGoogle is canvas view gadgets, which allows users to expand a gadget to access more content. For example, now users can read news, play games and watch videos in full-page view, without leaving their homepage. A few examples of gadgets that take advantage of this new canvas view mode include:

• News – The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post offer users the option to view full-page text and videos that load quickly.
• Games & Fun – The Sudoku gadget lets users play full-page sudoku puzzles – there are thousands of puzzles to choose from – without squinting at 6 point font. The Go Comics gadget lets users select which comics they want to see and read them in a full-screen view
• Entertainment/media – The TV Guide gadget provides full-screen TV listings that can be localized by zip code, celebrity news, and photos. If the user likes to watch movies more than TV, Flixster’s movies gadget gives the user access to trailers, ratings, theater information, and more. For music lovers, the iLike gadget gives users access to news, concerts, and even free MP3s from their favorite musicians. Users can also watch the best videos from YouTube and Current News in full screen view.
• Communication/tools – With the Gmail gadget users can now perform simple actions on Gmail without leaving their iGoogle page, like send or reply to emails. The weather gadget allows users to dive into detailed hourly weather forecast and even air quality information for their local area. The Google Finance canvas view gadget provides full-screen finance charts and news of the stocks in their portfolio.

For a full list of highlighted canvas view gadgets, see: www.google.com/ig/v2landing

We’ve also made some other changes to the iGoogle interface, like replacing the tabs with left navigation. This allows users to jump from one canvas view to another with only one click.

To ensure a great user experience, we’ve been busy testing these new iGoogle features on small groups of users. This is just the beginning and we will continue to add more features to iGoogle and gadgets to make them more useful and interactive. For developers and content owners, canvas view gadgets allow more possibilities for building rich, compelling gadgets. In addition, developers will now have an opportunity to earn revenue from their gadgets on iGoogle by placing ads in the canvas view mode of their gadgets.

For more information, please visit: googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/whats-new-with-igoogle.html

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Google Announces AdSense for Games in Effort to Fuel the Growth of Online Gaming

Announcement
October 8, 2008

Every week, over 25% of Internet users worldwide play online games, which amounts to over 200 million people. This number is growing at a rate of almost 17% each year.¹

To continue to fuel the growth of online games for users and as part of our ongoing efforts to develop new ways for publishers to earn revenue, Google announced today the availability of AdSense for Games™, a program that integrates video advertisements into web-based games, complemented by text and image ads. The program helps advertisers reach its audiences in new ways. Google is working with select game developers and publishers including Konami, Playfish, Zynga, Demand Media, games network Mochi Media, as well as beta advertisers such as Esurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures.

With this program, advertisers can now reach the growing number of gamers who are engaged in online play. For instance, in anticipation of a sporting event, an advertiser can use the technology of AdSense for Games to feature its logo within that sports event’s accompanying online game and reach its relevant demographic as a result.

 

AdSense for Games delivers video ads based on intended placements, as well as image or text ads based on contextual targeting with keywords and tags supplied by developers and publishers. Advertisers are charged on a cost-per-impression or cost-per-click basis, and ad revenue is split between Google and game developers or publishers.

AdSense for Games gives game developers a new way to monetize their games and advertisers additional tools to reach their audiences, ultimately benefiting users by spurring innovation in the online gaming space. AdSense for Games is currently available in beta to select partners in the U.S.

For more information, please see: adsense.blogspot.com and www.google.com/ads/games

¹comScore, July 2007

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Google to Announce Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif (October 6, 2008) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that it will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss third quarter 2008 financial results on Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time (4:30 p.m. Eastern Time).

The live webcast of Google’s earnings conference call can be accessed at investor.google.com/webcast. The webcast version of the conference call will be available through the same link following the conference call.

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.

Contacts:

Maria Shim
Investor Relations
650.253.7663
marias@google.com

Jane Penner
Corporate Communications
650.214.1624
jcpenner@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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Google and Celebs Pair Up to Register Voters

Announcement
October 1, 2008

There’s lots of buzz about turnout this year, but 1 in 4 Americans still aren’t registered to vote.

We’re trying to help increase participation by making sure voters have easy access to voting information. Google’s Voter Info Map (maps.google.com/vote) currently puts registration, absentee, and early voting information in one place. (If you’re on a phone, you can check out our mobile version at m.google.com/elections.)

We got together with a few others to spread the word. Leonardo DiCaprio, will.i.am, Tobey Maguire, Forest Whitaker, and a few of their friends just released the first in a series of public service announcements to encourage young Americans to register to vote. The video, with a link to our voter info map, can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhDRVKDcXQo.

And stay tuned – we’re working closely with state and local election officials, the Voting Information Project (www.votinginfoproject.org) and the League of Women Voters (www.lwv.org/Election2008/index.html) to centralize official voting information. We’ll be following up in the next two weeks with more background on the project. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us with any feedback or questions you might have.

You can also find the video and more details about our efforts to get out the vote on the Official Google Blog: googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/nows-time-register-to-vote.html.

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Google TV Ads Platform Adds Bloomberg TV to U.S. Inventory

Google to Bring New Advertising Clients to the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® Network

NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (September 25th, 2008) – Continuing efforts to make television advertising more relevant, accountable and measurable, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® network will make national cable advertising time in the U.S. available through the Google TV Ads™ platform. By offering self-service buying opportunities through Google TV Ads, the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network will expand its reach to a wider range of advertisers, including those that are new to the medium.

With the addition of BLOOMBERG TELEVISION inventory, advertisers using the Google TV Ads platform can not only reach the high-net-worth BLOOMBERG TELEVISION U.S. audience but can also gain access to viewership data at an unprecedented scale. Google’s TV Ads platform can report second-by-second data from millions of anonymized set-top-boxes, allowing advertisers to measure viewership of their ads more precisely than ever before. With this data, advertisers can better understand what consumers are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their campaigns to maximize the return on their TV ad investments. Google’s digital platform also makes it easier for advertisers to find relevant programming through its keyword search functionality.

“We’re pleased to be partnering with BLOOMBERG TELEVISION to continue to make TV advertising more relevant and measurable,” said Mike Steib, director of Google TV Ads. “We will now be able to give advertisers, many of whom have never tried TV advertising before, access to the desirable BLOOMBERG TELEVISION demographic.”

"The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION audience is the wealthiest and most powerful in cable television,” said Trevor Fellows, head of advertising sales at Bloomberg. “As high net worth viewers are extremely difficult to quantify using traditional methods, we believe that involvement with Google TV Ads from an early stage will help us and our advertisers learn more about our audience.”

Google TV Ads offers greater accountability in advertising. With Google’s auction-based pricing system, advertisers only pay for impressions delivered to their ads, and they can receive integrated digital reporting within 24 hours. The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network joins Google TV Ads’ growing list of inventory, which also includes NBC Universal and DISH Network.

"We’re very happy with the progress of Google TV Ads," said Michael Kelly, executive vice president for DISH Network, Google TV Ads’ current inventory partner. "Google TV Ads has brought more accurate, accessible, and up-to-date viewer measurement to the industry, enhancing value to our advertisers."

The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION service is the only 24/7 business and financial news television network. BLOOMBERG TELEVISION content is created exclusively by the global BLOOMBERG NEWS® service, with 143 bureaus in 69 countries. BLOOMBERG TELEVISION programming offers viewers a snapshot of the markets with fast, accurate reporting of world indexes, currencies, U.S. Treasuries, commodities futures, agricultural futures, and exchange traded funds, as well as special features, insight and analysis, and proprietary coverage of leading stocks and industry sectors. The worldwide service broadcasts in seven languages.

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’s Media Contact:

Elisabeth Diana
650-214-1515
press@google.com

Bloomberg’s Media Contact:

Heidi Tan
212-617-5375
htan14@bloomberg.net

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Google and Google TV Ads are trademarks of Google Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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