Google Launches Reseller Program for Google Apps

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (January 14, 2009) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a program enabling technology solution providers to sell Google Apps™ to businesses around the world. Authorized resellers will be able to sell, customize and support Google Apps Premier Edition for customers of all sizes, creating new revenue opportunities for partners and easier access to Google’s popular cloud services for more businesses.

"Google Apps has reached a level of maturity where it is useful and valuable for almost any business" said Dave Girouard, President of Enterprise, Google. "This program gives IT solution providers an easy way to introduce cloud computing to their service offerings, while helping more businesses make the transition to this new era of technology."

Google will provide resellers with training, support, and tools for sales and marketing, as well as access to tools for integrating Google Apps into their customers’ business operations. Resellers will bill their customers directly, enabling them to retain a close relationship with customers. Resellers can also bundle additional services and support with Google Apps. Google Apps customers will benefit from the additional attention to their specific business and technical requirements.

Google has already rolled out the program successfully to more than 50 pilot partners worldwide.

"We believe strongly that all companies will adopt SaaS to one degree or another, and Google’s reseller program empowers us to be experts in the cloud," says Tony Safoian, President of IT firm SADA Systems Inc. "Reselling Google Apps opens up new opportunities via new conversations we could not have had with prospective clients as little as two years ago. What Google Apps offers – if you take into consideration the pace of innovation, the collaboration tools, and the built-in disaster recovery – is not available anywhere else at any price; when you add that our clients can save 75% of costs versus doing this all on-premise, it is often an easy sell."

The reseller program will include:

• a portal with a rich set of business and technical information, and online discussion groups
• sales training, technical training, and customer marketing materials
• reseller tools for setting up business customers, provisioning end users, management, and reporting
• integration APIs (REST-based) for directory synchronization, migration, reporting, and single sign-on

"Google Apps is the key to growing our "Enabling Enterprise 2.0" business," said Laurent Gasser, CEO of Paris-based technology solutions provider Revevol. "Revevol founders were the first European professionals trained on Apps in November 2006, because we saw very early the huge potential of these tools. Today, the maturity of Google Apps after such a short period of time is amazing. For our large organization clients, Apps is now a real option on all deals where CIOs and top management are looking to replace their legacy solutions while saving costs and enabling anytime, anywhere access to information."

The Google Apps reseller program is now open for applications from interested firms around the world. Potential resellers will be evaluated based on relevant experience and credit worthiness, and can learn more at www.google.com/apps/resellers. Applications are encouraged from companies with a strong SaaS orientation and a business model built around providing value-added services and solutions. Authorized resellers will be able to begin selling Apps by the end of March.

More than 1 million businesses and 10 million users benefit from Google Apps, ranging from large global companies like Genentech and the Telegraph Media Group to employees in the Washington D.C. government to small businesses all over the world. The Google Apps Premier Edition suite of communication and collaboration tools includes Gmail™, Google Calendar™, Google Docs™, Google Sites™, Google Talk™, and Google Video™ for business.

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.

Media Contact:

Andrew Kovacs
650.253.8899
akovacs@google.com

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Google, Google Apps, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Video are trademarks of Google Inc.

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Google to Announce Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2008 Financial Results

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif (January 12, 2009) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced that it will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss fourth quarter and fiscal year 2008 financial results on Thursday, January 22, 2009 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.

Following the earnings conference call, Google will host an additional question-and-answer session to provide an opportunity for financial analysts to ask more detailed product and financial questions. This follow-up call will also be webcast and available at 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.

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 launches Picasa for Mac

Announcement
January 5, 2009

Makes it Easy to Edit Photos and Share Online for Free

Today, we’re launching Picasa for Mac (in beta) – free soft ware that helps Mac users easily or ganize their photos in one place, edit pictures, and share them online with friends, family, and the world.

Picasa for Mac makes it easy to manage large photo collections and helps users make professional-looking edits without any technical knowledge, including:

• A drag-and-drop photo collage tool that gives users control over layout and content
• A retouching brush to wipe out scratches and blemishes – and repair old photos
• A slideshow movie maker that uploads users photo montage videos to YouTube with a click
• Smart auto-cropping that guides users on how to zoom in on their subject
• And, auto red-eye removal.

Many of us take pictures so that we can show them to the people we care about. Picasa for Mac integrates seamlessly with Picasa Web Albums, Google’s free photo-sharing site, whic h offers features lik e name tags – the ability for users to automatically organize and share their photos based on the faces in each p icture.

People who already share photos on Picasa Web Albums will find that Picasa for Mac allows them to easily and quickly manage their online and local photo collections. Millions of Mac users have been sharing photos on Picasa Web Albums , and while we’ve previously offered a Mac uploader and iPhoto plugin for Picasa Web Albums, Picasa includes additional sharing features like automatic web sync. Picasa for Mac "plays nice" with iPhoto, and takes a read-only approach to editing photos stored in the iPhoto library, duplicating files as needed, so that users’ iPhoto libraries are never affecte d when they use Pic asa. Avid iPhoto users who currently use our Picasa Web Albums Uploader plugin can continue to do so, although features like automatic web sync, photo collages, and more will only be found in the Picasa application.

This first beta of Picasa for Mac matches the speed and most core features of Picasa on Windows – and we’ll be working on m ore refinements to the Mac interface and feature set as time goes on.

Picasa for Mac is available for free download in US English at: picasa.google.com/mac/. We’ll be demoing it live at the Google booth at Macworld 2009.

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Google and NORAD Team-Up Again to Track Santa Around the World

Announcement
December 23, 2008

Follow Old St. Nick in Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Maps for mobile, iGoogle, and Twitter

He made his list, he’s checked it twice. Santa and his reindeer are ready for their flights! Because of Google’s work with NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), children around the world will again be able to follow Santa’s journey in Google Earth and Google Maps this Christmas. NORAD has been tracking Santa for over 50 years through its NORAD Tracks Santa program and this year Google is again enabling anyone to follow Santa around the world as he delivers his gifts. Of course, the tracking itself doesn’t begin until Christmas Eve, but until then, families can find a new kid-friendly game or activity every day until December 24th, at www.noradsanta.org.

When Santa and his reindeer do take off at 6:00 am EST on Christmas Eve, a Google Map with Santa’s current location will appear at www.noradsanta.org and will be updated as his journey progresses. Users can also track Santa in 3D in Google Earth by downloading a special NORAD Tracks Santa KML. They can add the NORAD Tracks Santa iGoogle gadget to their iGoogle page anytime. Be sure to visit www.noradsanta.org to catch hi-res Santa Cam video of the sleigh zooming past various locations around the globe over the course of the night, and for locations without video, photos from Panoramio can be viewed in Google Maps. There are also a few new ways to track Santa this Christmas: users can track Santa on their mobile phones with Google Maps for Mobile, and can also follow his whereabouts on Twitter by adding @noradsanta.

Read more about Google’s partnership with NORAD on the Official Google Blog.

Please feel free to contact Google representative Aaron Stein with any questions – steina@google.com

A NORAD representative can be reached at 719.554.3525 or 719.640.3359

Happy Holidays from Google!

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Google Announces 2008 Year-end Zeitgeist

Announcement
December 10, 2008

Continuing our annual tradition, today we are excited to announce our 2008 year-end Zeitgeist. “Zeitgeist” means “the spirit of the times” and our end of year Zeitgeist pages use aggregated search queries to determine the top trends, fads and memes of the year. This year’s Zeitgeist also includes top 10 lists from more than 30 countries around the world, providing a fascinating snapshot of what was top of mind for Google users worldwide.

To check out what was hot this year in politics, entertainment, sports, and more, please visit www.google.com/zeitgeist2008.

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Hallmark Channel and Google to Form Strategic TV Advertising Agreement

Agreement Gives Advertisers Access to Hallmark Channel Family-Friendly Programming

NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF., December 3, 2008 – Hallmark Channel and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today a strategic agreement to offer advertisers access to high-quality family-friendly programming through the Google TV Ads program. Advertisers will now be able to reach even more viewers by using Google TV Ads platform to place ads on both Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel.

In November, Hallmark Channel was seen in 86 million homes across the U.S. and over the past year has consistently ranked in the top ten prime time ratings. The network will air in 2009 more than 30 original movies – its largest-ever slate. Hallmark Movie Channel broadcasts a mix of classic theatrical films, presentations from the acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame library, Hallmark Channel original movies and special events. Using the Google TV Ads platform, advertisers, starting in early 2009, will be able to access both networks’ national audiences and receive viewership data at an unprecedented scale. Google TV Ads advertisers – many of them new to the television medium – can then better understand what consumers are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their campaigns to maximize return-on-investment.

“Partnering with Google is a milestone for Hallmark Channel’s continued advertising success,” said Bill Abbott, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, Hallmark Channel. “The Google TV Ads platform will allow more advertisers to access the network’s acclaimed roster of family-friendly programming – entertainment that audiences cherish during the holidays.”

Google TV Ads offers greater accountability and relevancy in advertising. With Google’s innovative targeting tools and auction-based pricing system, advertisers can find the right context and audience for their advertising message, only pay for impressions delivered to their ads, and receive digital reporting within 24 hours. Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel join Google TV Ads’ growing list of inventory partners, which also includes six networks from the NBC Universal family — Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth, and Chiller—along with Bloomberg Television and 96 networks through DISH Network.

“Hallmark Channel’s strong family-friendly brand and programming attracts an important viewer demographic that Google TV Ads’ advertisers can now access ,” said John Saroff, Manager of Strategic Partner Development for Google TV Ads. “Combined with our platform’s measurement technology, this collaboration signifies an important step towards making television advertising more accountable for advertisers and more relevant for viewers.”

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.

About Hallmark Channel

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 86 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,450 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Prime Time and Total Day household ratings and is the nation’s leading network in providing quality family programming. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel which plays the greatest family movies of all time, Hallmark Movie Channel, and launched Hallmark Movie Channel HD in April, 2008. For more information, visit www.hallmarkchannelpress.com.

Hallmark Channel’s Media Contacts:

Jennifer Geisser
212-445-6654
jgeisser@hallmarkchannel.com

Jaime Saberito
212-4445-6644
jsaberito@hallmarkchannel.com

Google’s Media Contact:

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

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

Source: Nielsen Media Research estimates that from October 27 through November 30, 2008, Hallmark Channel was available in over 85 million homes across the U.S. and during the period from December 31, 2007 to November 23, 2008, ranked in the top ten prime time household coverage area ratings.

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The fastest-rising search terms of 2008

Announcement
December 2, 2008

To kick off the month of December we wanted to whet your appetite for our year-end Zeitgeist with this sneak peek of the fastest-rising search terms in the U.S. for 2008. We combed through billions of anonymous, aggregated search queries to bring you this snapshot of what’s been top-of-mind for Americans in the past 11 months.

When compared to 2007, the following terms have seen the most growth over the past year.

1. obama
2. facebook
3. att
4. iphone
5. youtube
6. fox news
7. palin
8. beijing 2008
9. david cook
10. surf the channel

You’ll see even more top search lists when we release our 2008 Zeitgeist next week. In the meantime, you can get some holiday gift ideas by checking out the season’s most popular searches on Google Product Search.

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