Google Code of Conduct

Preface
"Don't be evil." Googlers generally apply those words to how we serve our
users. But "Don't be evil" is much more than that. Yes, it's about providing
our users unbiased access to information, focusing on their needs and giving
them the best products and services that we can. But it's also about doing
the right thing more generally -- following he law, acting honorably and
treating each other with respect.
The Google Code of Conduct is one of the ways we put "Don't be evil" into
practice. It's built around the recognition that everything we do in connection
with our work at Google will be, and should be, measured against the highest
possible standards of ethical business conduct. We set the bar that high for
practical as well as aspirational reasons: Our commitment to the highest
standards helps us hire great people, who then build great products, which in
turn attract loyal users. Trust and mutual respect among employees and
users are the foundation of our success, and they are something we need to
earn every day.
So please do read the Code, and follow it, always bearing in mind that each
of us has a personal responsibility to incorporate, and to encourage other
Googlers to incorporate, the principles of the Code into our work. And if you
have a question or ever think that one of your fellow Googlers or the
company as a whole may be falling short of our commitment, don't be silent.
We want -- and need -- to hear from you.
Who Must Follow Our Code?
We expect all of our employees and Board members to know and follow the
Code. Failure to do so can result in disciplinary action, including termination
of employment. Moreover, while the Code is specifically written for Google
employees and Board members, we expect Google contractors, consultants
and others who may be temporarily assigned to perform work or services for
Google to follow the Code in connection with their work for us. Failure of a
Google contractor or consultant or other covered service provider to follow
the Code can result in termination of their relationship with Google.
What If I Have a Code-Related Question or Concern?
If you have a question or concern, don't just sit there. You can contact your
manager, your Human Resources representative or Ethics & Compliance. If
you want to remain anonymous, you can make a report of a suspected
violation or concern through the Ethics & Compliance Helpline.
No Retaliation
Google prohibits retaliation against any worker here at Google who reports or
participates in an investigation of a possible violation of our Code. If you
believe you are being retaliated against, please contact Ethics & Compliance.
Google Code of Conduct: Table of Contents
1. Serve Our Users
1. Integrity
2. Usefulness
3. Privacy and Freedom of Expression
4. Responsiveness
5. Take Action
2. Respect Each Other
1. Equal Opportunity Employment
2. Positive Environment
3. Drugs and Alcohol
4. Safe Workplace
5. Dog Policy
3. Avoid Conflicts of Interest
1. Personal Investments
2. Outside Employment and Inventions
3. Outside Board Memberships
4. Business Opportunities
5. Friends and Relatives; Co-Worker Relationships
6. Gifts, Entertainment and Payments
7. Reporting
4. Preserve Confidentiality
1. Confidential Information
2. Google Partners
3. Competitors; Former Employers
4. Outside Communications and Research
5. Protect Google's Assets
1. Intellectual Property
2. Company Equipment
3. The Network
4. Physical Security
5. Use of Google's Equipment and Facilities
6. Employee Data
6. Ensure Financial Integrity and Responsibility
 1. Spending Google's Money
2. Signing a Contract
3. Recording Transactions
4. Reporting Financial or Accounting Irregularities
5. Hiring Suppliers
6. Retaining Records
7. Obey the Law
1. Trade Controls
2. Competition Laws
3. Insider Trading Laws
4. Anti-Bribery Laws
8. Conclusion
I. Serve Our Users
Our users value Google not only because we deliver great products and
services, but because we hold ourselves to a higher standard in how we treat
users and operate more generally. Keeping the following principles in mind
will help us to maintain that high standard:
1. Integrity
Our reputation as a company that our users can trust is our most
valuable asset, and it is up to all of us to make sure that we continually
earn that trust. All of our communications and other interactions with
our users should increase their trust in us.
2. Usefulness
Our products, features and services should make Google more useful
for all our users, whether they're searching, advertising or posting
content, and whether they're large corporations or individuals. We
have many different types of users, but one guiding principle: 'Is what
we are offering useful?'
3. Privacy and Freedom of Expression
Always remember that we are asking users to trust us with their
personal information. Preserving that trust requires that each of us
respect and protect the privacy of that information. Our security
procedures strictly limit access to and use of users' personal
information. Know your responsibilities under these procedures, and
access data only as authorized by them, our Privacy Policy and
applicable local data protection laws.
Google is committed to advancing privacy and freedom of expression
for our users around the world. Where user privacy and freedom of
expression face government challenges, we seek to implement
 internationally recognized standards that respect those rights as we
develop products, do business in diverse markets, and respond to
government requests to access user information or remove user
content. Contact Legal or Ethics and Compliance if you have questions
on implementing these standards in connection with what you do at
Google.
4. Responsiveness
Part of being useful and honest is being responsive: We recognize
relevant user feedback when we see it, and we do something about it.
We take pride in responding to communications from our users,
whether questions, problems or compliments. If something is broken,
fix it.
5. Take Action
Any time you feel our users aren't being well-served, don't be bashful
-- let someone in the company know about it. Continually improving
our products and services takes all of us, and we're proud that
Googlers champion our users and take the initiative to step forward
when the interests of our users are at stake.
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II. Respect Each Other
We are committed to a supportive work environment, where employees have
the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. Each Googler is expected to
do his or her utmost to create a respectful workplace culture that is free of
harassment, intimidation, bias and unlawful discrimination of any kind.
Please read the Employee Handbook relevant to your locale. Located in the
HR section of our internal corporate site, the Handbook covers in greater
detail how we should conduct ourselves at work.
1. Equal Opportunity Employment
Employment here is based solely upon individual merit and
qualifications directly related to professional competence. We strictly
prohibit unlawful discrimination or harassment of any kind, including
discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion,
veteran status, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy status, sex, gender
identity or expression, age, marital status, mental or physical disability,
medical condition, sexual orientation or any other characteristics
protected by law. We also make all reasonable accommodations to
meet our obligations under laws protecting the rights of the disabled.
2. Positive Environment
Google prohibits unlawful harassment in any form -- verbal, physical or
visual.
 If you believe you've been harassed by anyone at Google, you should
immediately report the incident to your supervisor, Human Resources
or both. Similarly, supervisors and managers who learn of any such
incident should immediately report it to Human Resources. HR will
promptly and thoroughly investigate any complaints and take
appropriate action.
3. Drugs and Alcohol
Our position on substance abuse is simple: It is incompatible with the
health and safety of our employees, and we don't permit it.
Consumption of alcohol is not banned at our offices, but use good
judgment and never drink in a way that leads to impaired performance
or inappropriate behavior, endangers the safety of others or violates
the law.

Illegal drugs in our offices or at sponsored events are strictly

prohibited. If a manager has reasonable suspicion to believe that an
employee's use of drugs and/or alcohol may adversely affect the
employee's job performance or the safety of the employee or others in
the workplace, the manager may request an alcohol and/or drug
screening. A reasonable suspicion may be based on objective
symptoms such as the employee's appearance, behavior or speech.
4. Safe Workplace
We are committed to a violence-free work environment, and we will not
tolerate any level of violence or the threat of violence in the workplace.
Under no circumstances should anyone bring a weapon to work. If you
become aware of a violation of this policy, you should report it to
Human Resources immediately. In case of potential violence, contact
Google Security.
5. Dog Policy
Google's affection for our canine friends is an integral facet of our
corporate culture. We like cats, but we're a dog company, so as a
general rule we feel cats visiting our offices would be fairly stressed
out. For more on this, see our Dog Policy.
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III. Avoid Conflicts of Interest
In working at Google, we have an obligation to always do what's best for the
company and our users. When you are in a situation where competing
loyalties could cause you to pursue a personal benefit for you or your friends
or family at the expense of Google or our users, you may be subject to a
conflict of interest. All of us should avoid circumstances that present even
the appearance of such a conflict.
When faced with a potential conflict of interest, ask yourself:
 • Would this relationship or situation embarrass me or Google if it
showed up on the front page of a newspaper or the top of a blog?
• Am I reluctant to disclose the relationship or situation to my manager,
Legal or Ethics & Compliance?
• Could the potential relationship or situation create an incentive for me,
or be perceived by others to create an incentive for me, to benefit
myself, my friends or family or an associated business, at the expense
of Google?
If the answer to any of these questions is 'yes,' the relationship or situation is
likely to create a conflict of interest, and you should avoid it.
Below we provide guidance in six areas where conflicts of interest often
arise:
• personal investments
• outside employment and inventions
• outside board memberships
• business opportunities found through work
• personal relationships at work, and
• accepting gifts and other business courtesies
In each of these situations, the rule is the same - you must avoid conflicts,
and if you face a potential conflict of interest, review the situation with your
manager and Ethics & Compliance and get their approval.
1. Personal Investments
A common conflict of interest involves a Googler's personal investment
in a customer, supplier, partner or competitor of Google, where the
investment is significant enough (either in absolute value or in relation
to the Googler's net worth) that someone might reasonably think it
could cause the Googler to act in a way that benefits that personal
investment at the expense of Google. When considering whether such
an investment creates a conflict of interest, ask yourself:
○ Is the investment in a competitor?
 If the answer is yes, the investment creates a conflict of
interest.
○ If the investment is not in a competitor, but is in a customer,
supplier, or partner of Google, do you have a job or
responsibilities at Google that let you affect Google's actions in
ways that could help your investment at the expense of Google?
(Google officers -- VP and above -- have particularly broad
influence in this regard.)
  If the answer is yes, the investment creates a conflict of
interest.
If you are considering making an investment that creates a conflict of
interest, don't make the investment. If you already have an investment
that creates a conflict of interest, or are unsure whether an existing or
contemplated investment is a conflict of interest, you should contact
Ethics & Compliance.

Investments by any Googler in mutual funds or similar vehicles that

invest in a broad cross-section of publicly traded companies that may
include competitors, customers, suppliers or partners of Google are not
considered conflicts and need not be disclosed or approved.
2. Outside Employment and Inventions
As with personal investments, taking a job with a Google supplier,
customer, partner or competitor (including as a consultant or advisor,
whether paid or unpaid) can create a conflict of interest. Avoid
employment or any other personal business relationship with
companies that compete with Google. In addition, don't accept
employment or fees from a supplier, customer or partner of Google if
you have the ability to influence their relationship with Google.

If you develop or participate in outside inventions that compete with

Google, that may create a conflict of interest. In addition, outside
inventions that you participate in or help develop that relate to our
existing or reasonably anticipated products and services, that relate to
your position at Google, or that you develop using Google corporate
resources may be subject to the provisions of Google's Confidential
Information and Invention Assignment Agreement and other
employment agreements, as well as applicable laws in your
jurisdiction. If you have any questions about potential conflicts or IP
ownership involving an outside invention or other intellectual property,
consult Ethics and Compliance or Legal.
3. Outside Board Memberships
Membership on the boards of customers, suppliers, partners or
competitors of Google is especially problematic from a conflict of
interest perspective because Board seats generally involve the ability
to influence the actions of the outside business. Do not accept a seat
on the board of directors or the advisory board of any Google
competitor, and do not accept a seat on the board or advisory board of
a Google customer, supplier or partner if your job at Google could
permit you to participate in or influence Google's relationship with that
entity.

Google officers -- VP and above -- should obtain approval from Ethics &
 Compliance before accepting an outside board membership in any
company.
4. Business Opportunities
Business opportunities discovered through your work here belong first
to Google.
5. Friends and Relatives; Co-Worker Relationships
Business relationships with relatives, spouses and significant others or
close friends where the friendship is such that it could affect your
judgment can easily leave you with the sort of conflict of interest that
can be difficult to resolve. You should not participate in a potential or
existing Google business relationship involving any of the above. This
includes, for example, being the hiring manager for a position for which
your relative or close friend is being considered or being a relationship
manager for a company associated with your spouse or significant
other.

To be clear, just because a relative, spouse/significant other or close

friend works at Google or becomes a Google supplier, customer,
partner or competitor doesn't mean there is a conflict of interest.
However, if you are also involved in that Google business relationship,
it can be very sensitive. The right thing to do in that situation is to
discuss the relationship with your manager and Ethics & Compliance.

Finally, we understand that your co-workers can quickly become your

community of friends, and that some of you may establish dating
relationships with your co-workers. While we trust and expect Googlers
to exercise good judgment in pursuing romantic relationships with their
co-workers, you should recognize that romantic relationships between
co-workers can, depending on the work roles and respective positions
of the dating co-workers, create an actual or apparent conflict of
interest. If a dating relationship does create an actual or apparent
conflict, it may require changes to work arrangements or even the
termination of employment of either or both individuals involved.
Additional guidance on this issue can be found in Google's Employee
Handbook.
6. Gifts, Entertainment and Payments
Accepting gifts or entertainment from a Google customer, supplier,
partner or competitor can easily create the appearance of a conflict of
interest, especially if the value of the gift or entertainment is
significant. As a result, Google policy prohibits Googlers accepting
significant gifts, entertainment or any other business courtesy
(including discounts or benefits that are not made available to all
Googlers) from any of our customers, suppliers, partners or
competitors. Acceptance of inexpensive "token" non-cash gifts,
 infrequent and moderate business meals and entertainment and
infrequent invitations to local sporting events and celebratory meals
can be appropriate aspects of many Google business relationships,
provided that they aren't excessive and don't create the appearance of
impropriety. However, tickets to something like the Olympics, Super
Bowl or World Cup, especially if travel and lodging are included, are a
significant gift which, if accepted, could create at least the appearance
of a conflict of interest. Don't accept significant gifts without getting
the approval of your manager and Ethics & Compliance.

Gifts from customers, suppliers, partners or competitors of cash or

cash equivalents (e.g., gift certificates or prepaid gift cards) should
never be accepted.
7. Reporting
Ethics & Compliance will periodically report to the OC, or its designee,
all matters involving Google officers – VP and above -- approved under
this section of the Code, and will periodically report to the Google Audit
Committee and Google Nominating and Corporate Governance
Committee all matters involving Google executive officers approved
under this section.
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IV. Preserve Confidentiality
We get a lot of press attention around our innovations and our culture, and
that's usually fine. However, company information that leaks prematurely
into the press or to competitors can hurt our product launches, eliminate our
competitive advantage and prove costly in other ways. Our responsibilities
extend beyond not revealing confidential Google material -- we must also:
• properly secure, label and (when appropriate) dispose of confidential
Google material;
• safeguard confidential information that Google receives from others
under non disclosure agreements; and
• take steps to keep our trade secrets and other confidential intellectual
property secret.
1. Confidential Information
Google's "confidential information" includes financial, product and user
information. Make sure that confidential company material stays that
way; don't disclose it outside of Google without authorization. At times,
a particular project or negotiation may require you to disclose
confidential information to another party: Disclosure of this information
should be on a "need to know" basis and only under a nondisclosure
agreement. Be sure to get the appropriate agreement in place before
you disclose the information.
 There are, of course, "gray areas" in which you will need to apply your
best judgment in making sure you don't disclose any confidential
information. Suppose a friend who works at a non-profit organization
asks you informally how to improve the Google search ranking of the
group's website: Giving your friend site-optimization tips available in
public articles and on websites isn't likely to be a problem, but giving
tips that aren't publicly known definitely would be. If you're in a gray
area, be cautious in what advice or insight you provide or, better yet,
ask for guidance from Ethics & Compliance.

And don't forget about pictures you and your guests take at Google -- it
is up to you to be sure that those pictures don't disclose confidential
information.

Finally, some of us will find ourselves having family or other personal

relationships with people employed by our competitors, customers,
suppliers or partners. As in most cases, common sense applies. Don't
tell your significant other or family members anything confidential, and
don't solicit confidential information from them about their company.
2. Google Partners
Just as you are careful not to disclose confidential Google information,
it's equally important not to disclose any confidential information from
our partners. Don't accept confidential information from other
companies without first having all parties sign an appropriate non-
disclosure agreement approved by Legal. Even after the agreement is
signed, try only to accept as much information as you need to
accomplish your business objectives.
3. Competitors; Former Employers
We respect our competitors and want to compete with them fairly. But
we don't want their confidential information. The same goes for
confidential information belonging to any Googler's former employers.
If an opportunity arises to take advantage of a competitor's or former
employer's confidential information, don't do it. Should you happen to
come into possession of a competitor's confidential information,
contact Legal immediately.
4. Outside Communications and Research
You probably know that our policy is to be extremely careful about
disclosing company information, and never to disclose any confidential
information without authorization. It's also a bad idea to post your
opinions or information about Google on the Internet, even if not
confidential, unless you're authorized to do so as part of your job. Your
comments may be attributed to Google, even though you didn't mean
it that way. And never discuss the company with the press unless
 you've been explicitly authorized to do so by Corporate
Communications. Finally, check with your manager and Corporate
Communications before accepting any public speaking engagement. In
general, before making any external communication or disclosure, you
should consult our Employee Communications Policy and our
Communications and Disclosure Policy.
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V. Protect Google's Assets
Google has a well-earned reputation for generosity with our employee
benefits and openness with confidential information shared within the
company. Our ability to continue these practices depends on how well we
conserve company resources and protect company assets and information.
1. Intellectual Property
Google's intellectual property rights (our trademarks, logos, copyrights,
trade secrets, "know-how" and patents) are among our most valuable
assets. Unauthorized use can lead to their loss or serious loss of value.
Any use of Google's trademarks and logos must be cleared in advance
by the Marketing team. Report any suspected misuse of trademarks,
logos or other Google intellectual property to Legal.

Likewise, respect the intellectual property rights of others.

Inappropriate use of others' intellectual property may expose Google
and you to criminal and civil fines and penalties. Please seek advice
from Legal before you solicit, accept or use proprietary information
from others or let others use or have access to Google proprietary
information. You should also check with Legal if developing a product
that uses content not belonging to Google.

A word about open source -- Google is committed to open source

software development. Consistent with our policy of respecting the
valid intellectual property rights of others, we strictly comply with the
license requirements under which open source software is distributed.
Failing to do so may lead to legal claims against Google, as well as
significant damage to the company's reputation and its standing in the
open source community. Please seek guidance from Legal and the
Open Source Programs Office before incorporating open source code
into any Google product, service or internal project.
2. Company Equipment
Google gives us the tools and equipment we need to do our jobs
effectively, but counts on us to be responsible and not wasteful with
the Google stuff we are given. Nobody's going to complain if you snag
an extra bagel on Friday morning, but company funds, equipment and
other physical assets are not to be requisitioned for purely personal
 use. Not sure if a certain use of company assets is okay? Please ask
your manager or Human Resources.
3. The Network
Google's communication facilities (which include both our network and
the hardware that uses it, like computers and mobile devices) are a
critical aspect of our company's property, both physical and
intellectual. Be sure to follow all security policies. If you have any
reason to believe that our network security has been violated -- for
example, you lose your laptop or smart phone or think that your
network password may have been compromised -- please promptly
report the incident to Information Security. For more information,
consult Google's security policies.
4. Physical Security
If you're not careful, people will steal your stuff. Always secure your
laptop, important equipment and your personal belongings, even while
on Google's premises. Always wear your badge visibly while on site.
Don't tamper with or disable security and safety devices. Watch people
who "tailgate" behind you through our doors. If you don't see a Google
badge, please ask for it (and, as appropriate, direct the person to a
receptionist for assistance). Promptly report any suspicious activity to
Google Security. For more information, review Google's physical
security policy.
5. Use of Google's Equipment and Facilities
Anything you do using Google’s corporate electronic facilities (e.g., our
computers, mobile devices, network, etc.) or store on our premises
(e.g., letters, memos and other documents) might be disclosed to
people inside and outside the company. For example, Google may be
required by law (e.g., in response to a subpoena or warrant) to
monitor, access and disclose the contents of corporate email,
voicemail, computer files and other materials on our electronic
facilities or on our premises. In addition, the company may monitor,
access and disclose employee communications and other information
on our corporate electronic facilities or on our premises where there is
a business need to do so, such as protecting employees and users or
maintaining the security of resources and property.
6. Employee Data
We collect and store personal information from employees around the
world. Access this data only in line with local law and Google internal
policies, and keep it secure according to those standards.
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VI. Ensure Financial Integrity and Responsibility
Financial integrity and fiscal responsibility are core aspects of corporate
professionalism. This is more than accurate reporting of our financials,
though that's certainly important. The money we spend on behalf of Google
is not ours; it's the company's and, ultimately, our shareholders'. Each
person at Google -- not just those in Finance -- has a role in making sure that
money is appropriately spent, our financial records are complete and
accurate and internal controls are honored. This matters every time we hire a
new vendor, expense something to Google, sign a new business contract or
enter into any deals on Google's behalf.
To make sure that we get this right, Google maintains a system of internal
controls to reinforce our compliance with legal, accounting, tax and other
regulatory requirements in every location in which we operate.
Stay in full compliance with our system of internal controls, and don't
hesitate to contact Ethics & Compliance or Finance if you have any
questions. What follows are some core concepts that lie at the foundation of
financial integrity and fiscal responsibility here at Google.
1. Spending Google's Money
A core Google value has always been to spend money wisely. When
you submit an expense for reimbursement or spend money on
Google's behalf, make sure that the cost is reasonable, directly related
to company business and supported by appropriate documentation.
Always record the business purpose (e.g., if you take someone out to
dinner on Google, always record in our expense reimbursement tool
the full names and titles of the people who attended as well as the
reason for the dinner) and comply with other submission requirements.
If you're uncertain about whether you should spend money or submit
an expense for reimbursement, check with your manager. Managers
are responsible for all money spent and expenses incurred by their
direct reports, and should carefully review such spend and expenses
before approving.
2. Signing a Contract
Each time you enter into a business transaction on Google's behalf,
there should be documentation recording that agreement, approved by
the Legal Department. Signing a contract on behalf of Google is a very
big deal. Never sign any contract on behalf of Google unless all of the
following are met:
○ You are authorized to do so under our Signature Authority and
Approval Policy. If you are unsure whether you are authorized,
ask your manager;
○ The contract has been approved by Legal. If you are using an
approved Google form contract, you don't need further Legal
approval unless you have made changes to the form contract or
are using it for other than its intended purpose; and
 ○ You have studied the contract, understood its terms and decided
that entering into the contract is in Google's interest.
All contracts at Google should be in writing and should contain all of
the relevant terms to which the parties are agreeing -- Google does not
permit "side agreements," oral or written.
3. Recording Transactions
If your job involves the financial recording of our transactions, make
sure that you're fully familiar with all of the Google policies that apply,
including our revenue recognition policy and our purchasing policy.

Immediately report to Finance any transactions that you think are not
being recorded correctly.
4. Reporting Financial or Accounting Irregularities
It goes without saying (but we're going to say it anyway) that you
should never, ever interfere in any way with the auditing of Google's
financial records. Similarly, you should never falsify any record or
account, including time reports, expense accounts and any other
Google records.

Familiarize yourself with our Reporting of Financial and Accounting

Concerns Policy. If you suspect or observe any of the conduct
mentioned above or, for that matter, any irregularities relating to
financial integrity or fiscal responsibility, no matter how small,
immediately report them to Ethics & Compliance.
5. Hiring Suppliers
As Google grows, we enter into more and more deals with suppliers of
equipment and services. We should always strive for the best possible
deal for Google. This almost always requires that you solicit competing
bids to make sure that you're getting the best offer. While price is very
important, it isn't the only factor worth considering. Quality, service,
reliability and the terms and conditions of the proposed deal may also
affect the final decision. Please do not hesitate to contact the
Purchasing team if you have any questions regarding how to procure
equipment or services.
6. Retaining Records
It's important that we keep records for an appropriate length of time.
The Google Record Retention Policy suggests minimum record
retention periods for certain types of records. These are great
guidelines, but keep in mind that legal requirements, accounting rules
and other external sources sometimes specify longer retention periods
for certain types of records, and those control where applicable. In
addition, if asked by Legal to retain records relevant to a litigation,
audit or investigation, do so until Legal tells you retention is no longer
 necessary. If you have any questions regarding the correct length of
time to retain a record, contact the Record Retention team.
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VII. Obey the Law
Google takes its responsibilities to comply with laws and regulations very
seriously and each of us is expected to comply with applicable legal
requirements and prohibitions. While it's impossible for anyone to know all
aspects of every applicable law, you should understand the major laws and
regulations that apply to your work. Take advantage of Legal and Ethics &
Compliance to assist you here. A few specific laws are easy to violate
unintentionally and so are worth pointing out here:
1. Trade Controls
U.S. and international trade laws control where Google can send or
receive its products and/or services. These laws are complex, and
apply to:
○ imports and exports from or into the U.S.;
○ imports and exports of products from or into other countries,
especially when those products contain components or
technology of U.S. origin;
○ exports of services or providing services to non-U.S. persons; and
○ exports of technical data, especially when the technical data is of
U.S. origin.
What constitutes an "import" or "export" under the law is pretty broad.
For example:
○ exposing or allowing access by non-U.S. nationals to U.S.
technical data can be an "export", regardless of what country the
exposure occurred in;
○ permitting the download of software from the U.S. into a non-U.S.
country is an "export" from the U.S. and can be an "import" into
the non-U.S. country; and
○ transporting technical data or software on your laptop or tools or
equipment in your luggage out of the U.S and into a non-US
country may be an export and import, respectively.
The bottom line: If you are in any way involved in sending Google
products, services, software, equipment or any form of technical data
from one country to another, work with your manager to be absolutely
sure that the transaction stays well within the bounds of applicable
laws. If you or your manager are not sure, please contact Ethics &
Compliance.
2. Competition Laws
 Most countries have laws designed to encourage and protect free and
fair competition. Generally speaking, these laws prohibit 1)
arrangements with competitors that restrain trade in some way, 2)
abuse of intellectual property rights and 3) use of market power to
engage in unfair price discrimination and other forms of unfair
practices.

Although the spirit of these laws -- known as "antitrust," "competition,"

or "unfair competition" laws -- is straightforward, their application to
particular situations can be quite complex. To ensure that Google
complies fully with these laws, each of us should have a basic
knowledge of how they apply to our work. Some real life things to be
cautious about include:
○ sharing of competitively sensitive information (e.g., prices, costs,
market distribution, etc.) with competitors at trade and industry
conferences; and
○ making statements (in emails, IMs, presentations, memos or
anyplace else) that wrongly suggest that Google has few or no
competitors or that we seek to harm our competitors or
improperly exploit our success.
Please contact Legal whenever you have any antitrust/competition law
concerns.
3. Insider Trading Laws
As we said earlier, internally we share information, including non-public
information, about Google's business operations pretty freely (think of
TGIF). In addition, you may overhear a hallway conversation or come
across a memo at a copy machine, either of which might involve
confidential information. To use this nonpublic information to buy or
sell stock, or to pass it along to others so that they may do so, could
constitute insider trading. Insider trading not only violates this Code, it
violates the law. Don't do it.

You should familiarize yourself with Google's Insider Trading Policy. It

describes company-wide policies that address the risks of insider
trading, such as:
○ a prohibition on any Google employee hedging Google stock; and
○ periodic blackout windows when no Google employee may trade
Google stock.
4. Anti-Bribery Laws
Like all businesses, Google is subject to lots of laws, both U.S. and non-
U.S., that prohibit bribery in virtually every kind of commercial setting.
The rule here is simple – don't bribe anybody, anytime, for any reason.
You should also be careful when you give gifts and pay for
entertainment or other business courtesies on behalf of Google. We
want to avoid the possibility that the gift, entertainment or other
business courtesy could be perceived as a bribe, so it's always best to
provide such business courtesies infrequently and, when we do, to
keep their value moderate. If you have a question about a gift or
business courtesy you would like to provide on behalf of Google,
contact Ethics and Compliance.

Offering gifts, entertainment or other business courtesies that could be

perceived as bribes becomes especially problematic if you're dealing
with a government official. Several laws around the world including the
U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the OECD Convention Against
Corruption of Foreign Government Officials, specifically prohibit
offering or giving anything of value to government officials to influence
official action or secure an improper advantage. This not only includes
traditional gifts, but also things like travel, political or charitable
contributions and job offers. Distinguish these improper benefits from
reasonable, infrequent and moderate expenditures for gifts and
business entertainment for government officials, as well as travel and
lodging expenses for trips directly promoting our products or services.
Payment of such expenses can be acceptable (assuming they are
permitted under local law), subject to specific requirements, including
pre-approval as required by Google policy.

In addition, laws in countries where Google does business may further

limit gifts and business courtesies to government officials of that
country. For example, the U.S. has strict rules that severely limit the
ability of a company or its employees to give gifts and business
courtesies to a U.S. government official and also limit the official's
ability to accept such gifts. The Honest Leadership and Open
Government Act ("HLOGA") prohibits giving any gifts, including travel
and other courtesies, to Members, Officers and employees of the U.S.
Senate and House of Representatives unless they fit within one of a
number of specific exceptions. Gifts to employees of the U.S. executive
branch are also regulated and subject to limits. Gifts to state and local
government officials in the U.S. may also be subject to legal
limitations. Other countries may have similar laws.

Before offering any gifts or other business courtesies to a U.S. or other

government official, you should consult Google's Business Courtesies
to Government Officials Policy. Carefully follow the limits and
prohibitions described there, and obtain any required pre-approvals. If
after consulting the Policy you aren't sure what to do, ask Ethics and
Compliance.
Back to top
VIII. Conclusion
Google aspires to be a different kind of company. It's impossible to spell out
every possible ethical scenario we might face. Instead, we rely on one
another's good judgment to uphold a high standard of integrity for ourselves
and our company. We expect all Googlers to be guided by both the letter and
the spirit of this Code. Sometimes, identifying the right thing to do isn't an
easy call. If you aren't sure, don't be afraid to ask questions of your manager,
Legal or Ethics & Compliance.
And remember . . . don't be evil, and if you see something that you think isn't
right -- speak up!

Corporate Governance Guidelines

1. Introduction
2. Board Structure and Composition
3. Principal Duties of the Board of Directors
4. Board Procedures
5. Board Committees
6. Director Continuing Education
7. Board Performance
8. Board Compensation
9. Auditor Rotation
10.Communications with Stockholders
11.Periodic Review of the Corporate Governance Guidelines
A. Introduction
These Corporate Governance guidelines established by the Board of
Directors of Google Inc. provide a structure within which our directors and
management can effectively pursue Google’s objectives for the benefit of its
stockholders. The Board intends that these guidelines serve as a flexible
framework within which the Board may conduct its business, not as a set of
binding legal obligations. These guidelines should be interpreted in the
context of all applicable laws, Google’s charter documents and other
governing legal documents.
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B. Board Structure and Composition
1. Size of the Board. The authorized number of directors will be determined from
time to time by resolution of the Board, provided the Board consists of at
least five members.
2. Board Membership Criteria. The Nominating and Corporate Governance
Committee will evaluate and recommend candidates for membership on the
 Board consistent with criteria established by the Board, including director
nominees to be proposed by the Board to Google’s stockholders for election
or any director nominees to be elected or appointed by the Board to fill
interim director vacancies on the Board.
3. Director Independence. The Board believes that a majority of directors on the
Board should be independent as defined by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002,
the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and
the NASDAQ Stock Market. The Board also believes that it is often in the best
interest of Google and its stockholders to have non-independent directors,
including current and (in some cases) former members of management,
serve as directors.
4. Director Tenure. Directors are reelected each year and the Board does not
believe it should establish term limits because directors who have developed
increasing insight into Google and its operations over time provide an
increasing contribution to the Board as a whole. To ensure the Board
continues to generate new ideas and to operate effectively, the Nominating
and Corporate Governance Committee shall monitor performance and take
steps as necessary regarding continuing director tenure.
5. Directors Who Change Their Present Job Responsibility. The Board believes
that directors who experience a material reduction in their job responsibilities
in the position they held when they came on the Board should deliver a
notice of such change in status to the Board.
C. Principal Duties of the Board of Directors
1. To Oversee Management and Evaluate Strategy. The fundamental
responsibility of the directors is to exercise their business judgment to act in
what they reasonably believe to be the best interests of Google and its
stockholders. It is the duty of the Board to oversee the chief executive officer
and the Presidents who together run the Company on a daily basis. The Board
also monitors management’s performance to ensure that Google operates in
an effective, efficient and ethical manner in order to produce value for
Google’s stockholders. The Board also evaluates Google’s overall strategy
and monitors Google’s performance against its operating plan and against
the performance of its peers.

Directors are expected to invest the time and effort necessary to understand
Google’s business and financial strategies and challenges. The basic duties of
the directors include attending Board meetings and actively participating in
Board discussions. Directors are also expected to make themselves available
outside of board meetings for advice and consultation.
2. To Select the Chair and Chief Executive Officer. The Board will select the
chairman of the Board and the chief executive officer in compliance with
Google’s Certificate of Incorporation, which provides that the chairman of the
board will not be a current employee of Google, or someone employed by
Google any time within the prior three years, unless the appointment is
approved by two-thirds of the directors. However, if there is no chief
executive officer or president of Google as a result of the death, resignation
or removal of such officer, then the chairman of the Board of Directors may
 also serve in an interim capacity as the chief executive officer of Google until
the Board appoints a new chief executive officer.
3. To Evaluate Management Performance and Compensation. At least annually,
the Leadership Development and Compensation Committee will evaluate the
performance of the chief executive officer and the other officers. On an
annual basis it will determine the compensation of the chief executive officer
and the other officers. It will also evaluate the compensation plans, policies
and programs for officers and employees to ensure they are appropriate,
competitive and properly reflect Google’s objectives and performance.
4. To Review Management Succession Planning. The Leadership Development
and Compensation Committee will review and recommend to the Board plans
for the development, retention and replacement of executive officers of
Google.
5. To Monitor and Manage Potential Conflicts of Interest. All members of the
Board must inform the Audit Committee of the Board of all types of
transactions between them (directly or indirectly) and Google as soon as
reasonably practicable even if these transactions are in the ordinary course of
business. The Audit Committee of the Board will review and approve all
related party transactions for which audit committee approval is required by
applicable law or the rules of the NASDAQ Stock Market. The Board will also
ensure that there is no abuse of corporate assets or unlawful related party
transactions.
6. To Ensure the Integrity of Financial Information. The Audit Committee of the
Board evaluates the integrity of Google's accounting and financial reporting
systems, including the audit of Google’s annual financial statements by the
independent auditors, and that appropriate systems of control are in place.
The Audit Committee reports to the Board on a regular basis and the Board,
upon the recommendation of the Audit Committee, takes the actions that are
necessary to ensure the integrity of Google's accounting and financial
reporting systems and that appropriate controls are in place.
7. To Monitor the Effectiveness of Board Governance Practices. The Nominating
and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board will periodically review
and evaluate the effectiveness of the governance practices under which the
Board operates and make changes to these practices as needed.
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D. Board Procedures
Directors are expected to prepare for, attend, and contribute meaningfully in
all Board and applicable committee meetings in order to discharge their
obligations.
1. Frequency of Board Meetings. Regular meetings of the Board shall be held at
such times and places as determined by the Board. There will be at least four
regularly scheduled meetings of the Board each year but the Board will meet
more often if necessary.
2. Attendance at Board Meetings. To facilitate participation at the Board
meetings, directors may attend in person, via telephone conference or via
video-conference. Materials are distributed in advance of meetings.
 3. Other Commitments. Each member of the Board is expected to ensure that
other existing and future commitments, including employment
responsibilities and service on the boards of other entities, do not materially
interfere with the member’s service as director. The members of the Board
cannot have more than five (5) public company board memberships,
including membership on the Google Board.
4. Board Membership Limits of the Chief Executive Officer. The chief executive
officer cannot have more than three (3) public company board memberships,
including membership on the Google Board.
5. Executive Sessions of Non-Management Directors. NASDAQ rules require
independent Board members to regularly meet in executive session without
non-independent directors. The Board’s policy is to hold executive sessions
without the presence of management, including the chief executive officer
and other non-independent directors in connection with each regularly
scheduled Board meeting, and at other times as necessary. Committees of
the Board may also meet in executive session as deemed appropriate.
6. Board Access to Management. Members of the Board will have access to
Google’s management and employees as needed to fulfill their duties.
Furthermore, the Board encourages management to, from time to time, bring
managers into meetings of the Board who: (a) can provide additional insight
into the items being discussed because of personal involvement in these
areas, and/or (b) are managers with future potential that senior management
believes should be given exposure to the Board.
7. Code of Ethics. Google has adopted a Code of Conduct to provide guidelines
for the ethical conduct by directors, officers and employees. The Code of
Conduct is posted on Google’s website.
8. Engaging Experts. The Board and each committee of the Board will have the
authority to obtain advice, reports or opinions from internal and external
counsel and expert advisers and will have the power to hire independent
legal, financial and other advisers as they may deem necessary or
appropriate, without consulting with, or obtaining approval from,
management of Google in advance.
9. Minimum Share Ownership Requirement. In an effort to more closely align the
interests of our directors and executive officers with those of our
stockholders, each director and executive officer will be required to meet the
following minimum share ownership requirements: (i) each director shall own
at least 500 shares of Google stock; (ii) our Founders and our Chief Executive
Officer shall own at least 7,500 shares of Google stock; and (iii) our Senior
Vice Presidents shall own at least 2,000 shares of Google stock. Our directors
shall have two years from the date they became a director of Google to come
into compliance with these ownership requirements. Our executive officers
shall have five years from the date they became executive officers of Google
to come into compliance with these ownership requirements.
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E. Board Committees
 1. Number and Composition of Committees. The Board currently has the
following standing committees: an Audit Committee, a Leadership
Development and Compensation Committee, a Nominating and Corporate
Governance Committee and an Executive Committee. From time to time the
Board may form a new committee or disband a current committee depending
on the circumstances. Each committee complies with the independence and
other requirements established by applicable law and regulations, including
SEC and NASDAQ rules.
2. Committee Appointments. Members of all standing committees are appointed
by the Board. The Board determines the exact number of members and can
at any time remove or replace a Committee member.
3. Committee Proceedings. The Chair of each committee of the Board will, in
consultation with appropriate committee members and members of
management, and in accordance with the committee’s charter, determine the
frequency and length of committee meetings and develop the committee’s
agenda.
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F. Director Continuing Education
The Board believes that ongoing education is important for maintaining a
current and effective Board. Accordingly, the Board encourages directors to
participate in ongoing education, as well as participation in accredited
director education programs. The Board will reimburse directors for expenses
incurred in connection with these education programs.
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G. Board Performance
The Board develops and maintains a process whereby the Board, its
committees and its members are subject to evaluation and self-assessment.
The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee oversees this
process.
Back to top
H. Board Compensation
The Leadership Development and Compensation Committee of the Board has
the responsibility to review and recommend to the Board compensation
programs for non-employee directors.
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I. Auditor Rotation
The Audit Committee of the Board will ensure that the lead audit partner and
the audit review partner be rotated every 5 years as is required by the rules
of the SEC.
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J. Communications with Stockholders
 1. Stockholder Communications to the Board. Stockholders may contact
the Board about bona fide issues or questions about Google by sending
an email to:
Google Inc.

Attn: Corporate Secretary

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View, CA 94043

Email: [email protected]
2. Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Each director is encouraged to attend the
Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
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K. Periodic Review of the Corporate Governance Guidelines
These guidelines shall be reviewed periodically by the Nominating and
Corporate Governance Committee and the Board will make changes when
appropriate based on recommendations from the Committee.
Back to top
Last updated: April 08, 2009

Our Philosophy
Never settle for the best
"The perfect search engine," says Google co-founder Larry Page, "would
understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want."
Given the state of search technology today, that's a far-reaching vision
requiring research, development and innovation to realize. Google is
committed to blazing that trail. Though acknowledged as the world's leading
search technology company, Google's goal is to provide a much higher level
of service to all those who seek information, whether they're at a desk in
Boston, driving through Bonn, or strolling in Bangkok.
To that end, Google has persistently pursued innovation and pushed the
limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use
search service that can be accessed from anywhere. To fully understand
Google, it's helpful to understand all the ways in which the company has
helped to redefine how individuals, businesses and technologists view the
Internet.
Ten things Google has found to be true
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience
possible. While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are
able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder
value. Google has steadfastly refused to make any change that does not
offer a benefit to the users who come to the site:
• The interface is clear and simple.
• Pages load instantly.
• Placement in search results is never sold to anyone.
• Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction.
By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has built the most
loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come not through TV ad
campaigns, but through word of mouth from one satisfied user to another.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
Google does search. With one of the world's largest research groups focused
exclusively on solving search problems, we know what we do well, and how
we could do it better. Through continued iteration on difficult problems,
we've been able to solve complex issues and provide continuous
improvements to a service already considered the best on the web at making
finding information a fast and seamless experience for millions of users. Our
dedication to improving search has also allowed us to apply what we've
learned to new products, including Gmail, Google Desktop, and Google Maps.
As we continue to build new products* while making search better, our hope
is to bring the power of search to previously unexplored areas, and to help
users access and use even more of the ever-expanding information in their
lives.
3. Fast is better than slow.
Google believes in instant gratification. You want answers and you want
them right now. Who are we to argue? Google may be the only company in
the world whose stated goal is to have users leave its website as quickly as
possible. By fanatically obsessing on shaving every excess bit and byte from
our pages and increasing the efficiency of our serving environment, Google
has broken its own speed records time and again. Others assumed large
servers were the fastest way to handle massive amounts of data. Google
found networked PCs to be faster. Where others accepted apparent speed
limits imposed by search algorithms, Google wrote new algorithms that
proved there were no limits. And Google continues to work on making it all
go even faster.
4. Democracy on the web works.
Google works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting websites
to determine which other sites offer content of value. Instead of relying on a
group of editors or solely on the frequency with which certain terms appear,
Google ranks every web page using a breakthrough technique called
PageRank™. PageRank evaluates all of the sites linking to a web page and
assigns them a value, based in part on the sites linking to them. By analyzing
the full structure of the web, Google is able to determine which sites have
been "voted" the best sources of information by those most interested in the
information they offer. This technique actually improves as the web gets
bigger, as each new site is another point of information and another vote to
be counted.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
The world is increasingly mobile and unwilling to be constrained to a fixed
location. Whether it's through their PDAs, their wireless phones or even their
automobiles, people want information to come to them. Google's innovations
in this area include Google Number Search, which reduces the number of
keypad strokes required to find data from a web-enabled cellular phone and
an on-the-fly translation system that converts pages written in HTML to a
format that can be read by phone browsers. This system opens up billions of
pages for viewing from devices that would otherwise not be able to display
them, including Palm PDAs and Japanese i-mode, J-Sky, and EZWeb devices.
Wherever search is likely to help users obtain the information they seek,
Google is pioneering new technologies and offering new solutions.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
Google is a business. The revenue the company generates is derived from
offering its search technology to companies and from the sale of advertising
displayed on Google and on other sites across the web. However, you may
have never seen an ad on Google. That's because Google does not allow ads
to be displayed on our results pages unless they're relevant to the results
page on which they're shown. So, only certain searches produce sponsored
links above or to the right of the results. Google firmly believes that ads can
provide useful information if, and only if, they are relevant to what you wish
to find.
Google has also proven that advertising can be effective without being
flashy. Google does not accept pop-up advertising, which interferes with your
ability to see the content you've requested. We've found that text ads
(AdWords) that are relevant to the person reading them draw much higher
clickthrough rates than ads appearing randomly. Google's maximization
group works with advertisers to improve clickthrough rates over the life of a
campaign, because high clickthrough rates are an indication that ads are
relevant to a user's interests. Any advertiser, no matter how small or how
large, can take advantage of this highly targeted medium, whether through
our self-service advertising program that puts ads online within minutes, or
with the assistance of a Google advertising representative.
Advertising on Google is always clearly identified as a "Sponsored Link." It is
a core value for Google that there be no compromising of the integrity of our
results. We never manipulate rankings to put our partners higher in our
search results. No one can buy better PageRank. Our users trust Google's
objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust.
Thousands of advertisers use our Google AdWords program to promote their
products; we believe AdWords is the largest program of its kind. In addition,
thousands of web site managers take advantage of our Google AdSense
program to deliver ads relevant to the content on their sites, improving their
ability to generate revenue and enhancing the experience for their users.
7. There's always more information out there.
Once Google had indexed more of the HTML pages on the Internet than any
other search service, our engineers turned their attention to information that
was not as readily accessible. Sometimes it was just a matter of integrating
new databases, such as adding a phone number and address lookup and a
business directory. Other efforts required a bit more creativity, like adding
the ability to search billions of images and a way to view pages that were
originally created as PDF files. The popularity of PDF results led us to expand
the list of file types searched to include documents produced in a dozen
formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. For wireless users,
Google developed a unique way to translate HTML formatted files into a
format that could be read by mobile devices. The list is not likely to end there
as Google's researchers continue looking into ways to bring all the world's
information to users seeking answers.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
Though Google is headquartered in California, our mission is to facilitate
access to information for the entire world, so we have offices around the
globe. To that end we maintain dozens of Internet domains and serve more
than half of our results to users living outside the United States. Google
search results can be restricted to pages written in more than 35 languages
according to a user's preference. We also offer a translation feature to make
content available to users regardless of their native tongue and for those
who prefer not to search in English, Google's interface can be customized
into more than 100 languages. To accelerate the addition of new languages,
Google offers volunteers the opportunity to help in the translation through an
automated tool available on the Google.com website. This process has
greatly improved both the variety and quality of service we're able to offer
users in even the most far flung corners of the globe.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
Google's founders have often stated that the company is not serious about
anything but search. They built a company around the idea that work should
be challenging and the challenge should be fun. To that end, Google's culture
is unlike any in corporate America, and it's not because of the ubiquitous
lava lamps and large rubber balls, or the fact that the company's chef used
to cook for the Grateful Dead. In the same way Google puts users first when
it comes to our online service, Google Inc. puts employees first when it
comes to daily life in our Googleplex headquarters. There is an emphasis on
team achievements and pride in individual accomplishments that contribute
to the company's overall success. Ideas are traded, tested and put into
practice with an alacrity that can be dizzying. Meetings that would take hours
elsewhere are frequently little more than a conversation in line for lunch and
few walls separate those who write the code from those who write the
checks. This highly communicative environment fosters a productivity and
camaraderie fueled by the realization that millions of people rely on Google
results. Give the proper tools to a group of people who like to make a
difference, and they will.
10. Great just isn't good enough.
Always deliver more than expected. Google does not accept being the best
as an endpoint, but a starting point. Through innovation and iteration,
Google takes something that works well and improves upon it in unexpected
ways. Search works well for properly spelled words, but what about typos?
One engineer saw a need and created a spell checker that seems to read a
user's mind. It takes too long to search from a WAP phone? Our wireless
group developed Google Number Search to reduce entries from three
keystrokes per letter to one. With a user base in the millions, Google is able
to identify points of friction quickly and smooth them out. Google's point of
distinction however, is anticipating needs not yet articulated by our global
audience, then meeting them with products and services that set new
standards. This constant dissatisfaction with the way things are is ultimately
the driving force behind the world's best search engine.

* Full-disclosure update: When we first wrote these "10 things" four years
ago, we included the phrase "Google does not do horoscopes, financial
advice or chat." Over time we've expanded our view of the range of services
we can offer –- web search, for instance, isn't the only way for people to
access or use information -– and products that then seemed unlikely are now
key aspects of our portfolio. This doesn't mean we've changed our core
mission; just that the farther we travel toward achieving it, the more those
blurry objects on the horizon come into sharper focus (to be replaced, of
course, by more blurry objects).

oogle User Experience

Our aspirations
The Google User Experience team aims to create designs that are useful,
fast, simple, engaging, innovative, universal, profitable, beautiful,
trustworthy, and personable. Achieving a harmonious balance of these ten
principles is a constant challenge. A product that gets the balance right is
"Googley" – and will satisfy and delight people all over the world.
Ten principles that contribute to a Googley user experience
1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams.

The Google User Experience team works to discover people's actual needs,
including needs they can't always articulate. Armed with that information,
Google can create products that solve real-world problems and spark the
creativity of all kinds of people. Improving people's lives, not just easing
step-by-step tasks, is our goal.

Above all, a well-designed Google product is useful in daily life. It doesn't try
to impress users with its whizbang technology or visual style – though it
might have both. It doesn't strong-arm people to use features they don't
want – but it does provide a natural growth path for those who are
interested. It doesn't intrude on people's lives – but it does open doors for
users who want to explore the world's information, work more quickly and
creatively, and share ideas with their friends or the world.
2. Every millisecond counts.

Nothing is more valuable than people's time. Google pages load quickly,
thanks to slim code and carefully selected image files. The most essential
features and text are placed in the easiest-to-find locations. Unnecessary
clicks, typing, steps, and other actions are eliminated. Google products ask
for information only once and include smart defaults. Tasks are streamlined.

Speed is a boon to users. It is also a competitive advantage that Google

doesn't sacrifice without good reason.
3. Simplicity is powerful.

Simplicity fuels many elements of good design, including ease of use, speed,
visual appeal, and accessibility. But simplicity starts with the design of a
product's fundamental functions. Google doesn't set out to create feature-
rich products; our best designs include only the features that people need to
accomplish their goals. Ideally, even products that require large feature sets
and complex visual designs appear to be simple as well as powerful.

Google teams think twice before sacrificing simplicity in pursuit of a less

important feature. Our hope is to evolve products in new directions instead
of just adding more features.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.

Designing for many people doesn't mean designing for the lowest common
denominator. The best Google designs appear quite simple on the surface
but include powerful features that are easily accessible to those users who
want them. Our intent is to invite beginners with a great initial experience
while also attracting power users whose excitement and expertise will draw
others to the product.

A well-designed Google product lets new users jump in, offers help when
necessary, and ensures that users can make simple and intuitive use of the
product's most valuable features. Progressive disclosure of advanced
features encourages people to expand their usage of the product. Whenever
appropriate, Google offers smart features that entice people with complex
online lives – for instance, people who share data across several devices and
computers, work online and off, and crave storage space.
5. Dare to innovate.

Design consistency builds a trusted foundation for Google products, makes

users comfortable, and speeds their work. But it is the element of
imagination that transforms designs from ho-hum to delightful.

Google encourages innovative, risk-taking designs whenever they serve the

needs of users. Our teams encourage new ideas to come out and play.
Instead of just matching the features of existing products, Google wants to
change the game.
6. Design for the world.

The World Wide Web has opened all the resources of the Internet to people
everywhere. For example, many users are exploring Google products while
strolling with a mobile device, not sitting at a desk with a personal computer.
Our goal is to design products that are contextually relevant and available
through the medium and methods that make sense to users. Google
supports slower connections and older browsers when possible, and Google
allows people to choose how they view information (screen size, font size)
and how they enter information (smart query parsing). The User Experience
team researches the fundamental differences in user experiences throughout
the world and works to design the right products for each audience, device,
and culture. Simple translation, or "graceful degradation" of a feature set,
isn't sufficient to meet people's needs.

Google is also committed to improving the accessibility of its products. Our

desire for simple and inclusive products, and Google's mission to make the
world's information universally accessible, demand products that support
assistive technologies and provide a useful and enjoyable experience for
everyone, including those with physical and cognitive limitations.
7. Plan for today's and tomorrow's business.

Those Google products that make money strive to do so in a way that is

helpful to users. To reach that lofty goal, designers work with product teams
to ensure that business considerations integrate seamlessly with the goals of
users. Teams work to make sure ads are relevant, useful, and clearly
identifiable as ads. Google also takes care to protect the interests of
advertisers and others who depend on Google for their livelihood.

Google never tries to increase revenue from a product if it would mean

reducing the number of Google users in the future. If a profitable design
doesn't please users, it's time to go back to the drawing board. Not every
product has to make money, and none should be bad for business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.

If people looked at a Google product and said "Wow, that's beautiful!" the
User Experience team would cheer. A positive first impression makes users
comfortable, assures them that the product is reliable and professional, and
encourages people to make the product their own.

A minimalist aesthetic makes sense for most Google products because a

clean, clutter-free design loads quickly and doesn't distract users from their
goals. Visually appealing images, color, and fonts are balanced against the
needs for speed, scannable text, and easy navigation. Still, "simple
elegance" is not the best fit for every product. Audience and cultural context
matter. A Google product's visual design should please its users and improve
usability for them.
9. Be worthy of people's trust.

Good design can go a long way to earn the trust of the people who use
Google products. Establishing Google's reliability starts with the basics – for
example, making sure the interface is efficient and professional, actions are
easily reversed, ads are clearly identified, terminology is consistent, and
users are never unhappily surprised. In addition, Google products open
themselves to the world by including links to competitors and encouraging
user contributions such as community maps or iGoogle gadgets.

A greater challenge is to make sure that Google demonstrates respect for

users' right to own and control their own data. Google is transparent about
how it uses information and never shares data outside Google without a
user's explicit consent. Our products warn users about such dangers as
insecure connections, different privacy policies on other websites, actions
that may make users vulnerable to spam, or the possibility that data shared
outside Google may be stored elsewhere. Google is reassuring but truthful
about data sharing so that users can make informed choices. The larger
Google becomes, the more essential it is to live up to our "Don't be evil"
motto.
10. Add a human touch.

Google includes a wide range of personalities, and our designs have

personality, too. Text and design elements are friendly, quirky, and smart –
and not boring, close-minded, or arrogant. Google text talks directly to
people and offers the same practical, informal assistance that anyone would
offer to a neighbor who asked a question. And Google doesn't let fun or
personality interfere with other elements of a design, especially when
people's livelihood, or their ability to find vital information, is at stake.

Google doesn't know everything, and no design is perfect. Our products ask
for feedback, and Google acts on that feedback. When practicing these
design principles, the Google User Experience team seeks the best possible
balance in the time available for each product. Then the cycle of iteration,
innovation, and improvement continues.

Company Overview
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it
universally accessible and useful.
As a first step to fulfilling that mission, Google's founders Larry Page and
Sergey Brin developed a new approach to online search that took root in a
Stanford University dorm room and quickly spread to information seekers
around the globe. Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest
search engine -- an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant
results in a fraction of a second.
When you visit www.google.com or one of the dozens of other Google
domains, you'll be able to find information in many different languages;
check stock quotes, maps, and news headlines; lookup phonebook listings for
every city in the United States; search billions of images and peruse the
world's largest archive of Usenet messages -- more than 1 billion posts
dating back to 1981.
We also provide ways to access all this information without making a special
trip to the Google homepage. The Google Toolbar enables you to conduct a
Google search from anywhere on the web. And for those times when you're
away from your PC altogether, Google can be used from a number of wireless
platforms including WAP and i-mode phones.
Google's utility and ease of use have made it one of the world's best known
brands almost entirely through word of mouth from satisfied users. As a
business, Google generates revenue by providing advertisers with the
opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective online advertising that is
relevant to the information displayed on any given page. This makes the
advertising useful to you as well as to the advertiser placing it. We believe
you should know when someone has paid to put a message in front of you,
so we always distinguish ads from the search results or other content on a
page. We don't sell placement in the search results themselves, or allow
people to pay for a higher ranking there.
Thousands of advertisers use our Google AdWords program to promote
their products and services on the web with targeted advertising, and we
believe AdWords is the largest program of its kind. In addition, thousands of
web site managers take advantage of our Google AdSense program to
deliver ads relevant to the content on their sites, improving their ability to
generate revenue and enhancing the experience for their users.
To learn more about Google, click on the link at the left for the area that most
interests you. Or type what you want to find into our search box and hit
enter.
What's a Google?
"Googol" is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The term
was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward
Kasner, and was popularized in the book, "Mathematics and the Imagination"
by Kasner and James Newman. Google's play on the term reflects the
company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available
on the web.

Google Milestones
Google Timeline
Check out the interactive version of our company history.

Our company has packed a lot in to a relatively young life. We've captured
some of the key milestones in Google's development.
1995-1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 -
2007 - 2008 - 2009
1995-1997
1995
• Larry Page and Sergey Brin meet at Stanford. (Larry, 22, a U Michigan grad, is
considering the school; Sergey, 21, is assigned to show him around.)
According to some accounts, they disagree about most everything during this
first meeting.
1996
• Larry and Sergey, now Stanford computer science grad students, begin
collaborating on a search engine called BackRub.
• BackRub operates on Stanford servers for more than a year -- eventually
taking up too much bandwidth to suit the university.
1997
• Larry and Sergey decide that the BackRub search engine needs a new name.
After some brainstorming, they go with Google -- a play on the word "googol,"
a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed
by 100 zeros. The use of the term reflects their mission to organize a
seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.
1998
August
• Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim writes a check for $100,000 to an entity
that doesn't exist yet: a company called Google Inc.
September
• Google sets up workspace in Susan Wojcicki's garage at 232 Santa Margarita,
Menlo Park.
• Google files for incorporation in California on September 4. Shortly thereafter,
Larry and Sergey open a bank account in the newly-established company's
name and deposit Andy Bechtolsheim's check.
• Larry and Sergey hire Craig Silverstein as their first employee; he's a fellow
computer science grad student at Stanford.
December
• "PC Magazine" reports that Google "has an uncanny knack for returning
extremely relevant results" and recognizes us as the search engine of choice
in the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998.
1999
February
• We outgrow our garage office and move to new digs at 165 University Avenue
in Palo Alto with just 8 employees.
April
• Yoshka, our first "company" dog, comes to work with our senior vice president
of operations, Urs Hoelzle.
May
• Omid Kordestani joins to run sales -- the first non-engineering hire.
June
• Our first press release announces a $25 million round from Sequoia Capital
and Kleiner Perkins; John Doerr and Michael Moritz join the board. The release
quotes Moritz describing "Googlers" as "people who use Google."
August
• We move to our first Mountain View location: 2400 E. Bayshore. Mountain
View is a few miles south of Stanford University, and north of the older towns
of Silicon Valley: Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose.
November
• Charlie Ayers joins as Google's first chef. He wins the job in a cook-off judged
by the company's 40 employees. Previous claim to fame: catering for the
Grateful Dead.
2000
April
• On April Fool's Day, we announce the MentalPlex: Google's ability to read
your mind as you visualize the search results you want. Thus begins our
annual foray in the Silicon Valley tradition of April 1 hoaxes.
May
• The first 10 language versions of Google.com are released: French, German,
Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish.
• We win our first Webby Awards: Technical Achievement (voted by judges) and
Peoples' Voice (voted by users).
June
• We forge a partnership with Yahoo! to become their default search provider.
• We announce the first billion-URL index and therefore Google becomes the
world's largest search engine.
September
• We start offering search in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, bringing our total
number of supported languages to 15.
October
• Google AdWords launches with 350 customers. The self-service ad program
promises online activation with a credit card, keyword targeting and
performance feedback.
December
• Google Toolbar is released. It's a browser plug-in that makes it possible to
search without visiting the Google homepage.
2001
January
• We announce the hire of Silicon Valley veteran Wayne Rosing as our first VP
of engineering operations.
February
• Our first public acquisition: Deja.com's Usenet Discussion Service, an archive
of 500 million Usenet discussions dating back to 1995. We add search and
browse features and launch it as Google Groups.
March
• Eric Schmidt is named chairman of the board of directors.
• Google.com is available in 26 languages.
April
• Swedish Chef becomes a language preference.
July
• Image Search launches, offering access to 250 million images.
August
• We open our first international office, in Tokyo.
• Eric Schmidt becomes our CEO. Larry and Sergey are named presidents of
products and technology, respectively.
October
• A new partnership with Universo Online (UOL) makes Google the major
search service for millions of Latin Americans.
December
• Keeping track: Our index size grows to 3 billion web documents.
2002
February
• Klingon becomes one of 72 language interfaces.
• The first Google hardware is released: it's a yellow box called the Google
Search Appliance that businesses can plug into their computer network to
enable search capabilities for their own documents.
 • We release a major overhaul for AdWords, including new cost-per-click
pricing.
April
• For April Fool's Day, we announce that pigeons power our search results.
• We release a set of APIs, enabling developers to query more than 2 billion
web documents and program in their favorite environment, including Java,
Perl and Visual Studio.
May
• We announce a major partnership with AOL to offer Google search and
sponsored links to 34 million customers using CompuServe, Netscape and
AOL.com.
• We release Google Labs, a place to try out beta technologies fresh from our
R&D team.
September
• Google News launches with 4000 news sources.
October
• We open our first Australian office in Sydney.
December
• Users can now search for stuff to buy with Froogle (later called Google
Product Search).
2003
January
• American Dialect Society members vote "google" the "most useful" Word of
the Year for 2002.
February
• We acquire Pyra Labs, the creators of Blogger.
March
• We announce a new content-targeted advertising service, enabling publishers
large and small to access Google's vast network of advertisers. (Weeks later,
on April 23, we acquired Applied Semantics, whose technology bolsters the
service named AdSense.)
April
• We launch Google Grants, our in-kind advertising program for nonprofit
organizations to run in-kind ad campaigns for their cause.
October
• Registration opens for programmers to compete for cash prizes and
recognition at our first-ever Code Jam. Coders can work in Java, C++, C# or
VB.NET.
December
• We launch Google Print (which later becomes Google Book Search), indexing
small excerpts from books to appear in search results.
2004
January
• orkut launches as a way for us to tap into the sphere of social networking.
February
• Larry Page is inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
• Our search index hits a new milestone: 6 billion items, including 4.28 billion
web pages and 880 million images.
March
• We move to our new "Googleplex" at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in
Mountain View, giving 800+ employees a campus environment.
• We formalize our enterprise unit with the hire of Dave Girouard as general
manager; reporters begin reporting in April about our vision for the enterprise
search business.
• We introduce Google Local, offering relevant neighborhood business listings,
maps, and directions. (Later, Local is combined with Google Maps.)
April
• For April Fool's we announce plans to open the Googlunaplex, a new research
facility on the Moon.
May
• We announce the first winners of the Google Anita Borg Scholarship, awarded
to outstanding women studying computer science. Today these scholarships
are open to students in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe.
August
• Our Initial Public Offering of 19,605,052 shares of Class A common stock
takes place on Wall Street on August 18. Opening price: $85 per share.
September
• There are more than 100 Google domains (Norway and Kenya are #102 and
#103). The list has since grown to more than 150.
October
• We formally open our office in Dublin, Ireland, with 150 multilingual Googlers,
a visit from Sergey and Larry, and recognition from the Deputy Prime Minister
of Ireland, Mary Harney.
• Google SMS (short message service) launches; send your text search queries
to GOOGL or 466453 on your mobile device.
 • Larry and Sergey are named Fellows by the Marconi Society, which recognizes
"lasting scientific contributions to human progress in the field of
communications science and the Internet."
• We spotlight our new engineering offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad, India
with a visit from Sergey and Larry.
• Google Desktop Search is introduced: you can now search for files and
documents stored on your hard drive using Google technology.
• We launch the beta version of Google Scholar, a free service for searching
scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints,
abstracts and technical reports.
• We acquire Keyhole, a digital mapping company whose technology will later
become Google Earth.
November
• Our index of web pages reaches 8 billion.
December
• We open our Tokyo R&D (research & development) center to attract the best
and brightest among Japanese and other Asian engineers.
• The Google Print Program (since renamed Google Book Search) expands
through digital scanning partnerships with the libraries of Harvard, Stanford,
University of Michigan, and Oxford plus the New York Public Library.
2005
February
• We hit a milestone in Image Search: 1.1 billion images indexed.
• Google Maps goes live.
March
• We launch code.google.com, a new place for developer-oriented resources,
including all of our APIs.
• Some 14,000 programmers from six countries compete for cash prizes and
recognition at our first coding competition in India, with top scores going to
Ardian Kristanto Poernomo of Singapore.
• We acquire Urchin, a web analytics company whose technology is used to
create Google Analytics.
April
• Our first Google Maps release in Europe is for the U.K.
• For April Fool's, we announce a magical beverage that makes its imbibers
more intelligent, and therefore better capable of properly using search
results.
• Google Maps now features satellite views and directions.
• Google Local goes mobile, and includes SMS driving directions.
 • My Search History launches in Labs, allowing you to view all the web pages
you've visited and Google searches you've made over time.
• We release Site Targeting, an AdWords feature giving advertisers the ability to
better target their ads to specific content sites.
May
• We release Blogger Mobile, enabling bloggers to use their mobile phones to
post and send photos to their blogs.
• Google Scholar adds support for institutional access: searchers can now
locate journal articles within their own libraries.
• Personalized Homepage (now iGoogle) is designed for people to customize
their own Google homepage with content modules they choose.
June
• We hold our first Summer of Code, a 3-month $2 million program that aims to
help computer science students contribute to open source software
development.
• Google Mobile Web Search is released, specially formulated for viewing
search results on mobile phones.
• We unveil Google Earth: a satellite imagery-based mapping service
combining 3D buildings and terrain with mapping capabilities and Google
search.
• We release Personalized Search in Labs: over time, your (opt-in) search
history will closely reflect your interests.
• API for Maps released; developers can embed Google Maps on many kinds of
mapping services and sites.
August
• Google scores well in the U.S. government's 2005 machine translation
evaluation. (We've done so in subsequent years as well.)
• We launch Google Talk, a downloadable Windows application that enables you
to talk or IM with friends quickly and easily, as well as talk using a computer
microphone and speaker (no phone required) for free.
September
• Overlays in Google Earth illuminate the devastation wrought by Hurricane
Katrina around New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Some rescue teams use
these tools to locate stranded victims.
• DARPA veteran Vint Cerf joins Google to carry on his quest for a global open
Internet.
• Dr. Kai-Fu Lee begins work at our new Research and Development Center in
China.
• Google Blog Search goes live; it's the way to find current and relevant blog
postings on particular topics throughout the enormous blogosphere.
October
• Feed aficionados rejoice as Google Reader, a feed reader, is introduced at the
Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.
• Googlers volunteer to produce the first Mountain View book event with
Malcolm Gladwell, author of "Blink" and "The Tipping Point." Since then, the
Authors@Google program has hosted more than 480 authors in 12 offices
across the U.S., Europe and India.
November
• We release Google Analytics, formerly known as Urchin, for measuring the
impact of websites and marketing campaigns.
• We announce the opening of our first offices in São Paulo and Mexico City.
December
• Google Transit launches in Labs. People in the Portland, Oregon metro area
can now plan their trips on public transportation at one site.
• Gmail for mobile launches in the United States.
2006
January
• Our first Code Jam in China concludes in Beijing. The winner, graduate
student Chuan Xu, is one of more than 13,000 registrants.
• We announce the acquisition of dMarc, a digital radio advertising company.
• Google.cn, a local domain version of Google, goes live in China.
• We introduce Picasa in 25 more languages, including Polish, Thai and
Vietnamese.
February
• We release Chat in Gmail, using the instant messaging tools from Google Talk.
• Eric Schmidt is inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
• Dr. Larry Brilliant becomes the executive director of Google.org, our
philanthropic arm.
• Google News for mobile launches.
March
• We announce the acquisition of Writely, a web-based word processing
application that subsequently becomes the basis for Google Docs.
• A team working from Mountain View, Bangalore and New York collaborates to
create Google Finance, our approach to an improved search experience for
financial information.
April
• For April Fool's we unveil a new product, Google Romance: "Dating is a search
problem."
 • We launch Google Calendar, complete with sharing and group features.
• We release Maps for France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
May
• We release Google Trends, a way to visualize the popularity of searches over
time.
June
• We announce Picasa Web Albums, allowing your to upload and share your
photos online.
• The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) adds "Google" as a verb.
• We announce Google Checkout, a fast and easy way to pay for online
purchases.
• Gmail, Google News and iGoogle become available on mobile phones in eight
more languages besides English: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch,
Russian, Chinese and Turkish.
• Gmail launches in Arabic and Hebrew, bringing the number of interfaces up to
40.
July
• At Google Code Jam Europe, nearly 10,000 programmers from 31 countries
compete at Google Dublin for the top prizes; Tomasz Czajka from Poland wins
the final round.
August
• We launch free citywide WiFi in Mountain View.
• More than 100 libraries on 10 campuses of the University of California join the
Google Books Library Project.
• Star Trek's 40th Anniversary Convention in Las Vegas features a Google booth
showcasing tools appropriate for intergalactic use.
• Apps for Your Domain, a suite of applications designed for organizations of all
sizes, and including including Gmail and Calendar, is released.
• Google Book Search begins offering free PDF downloads of books in the public
domain.
September
• We add an archive search to Google News, with more than 200 years of
historical articles.
• Featured Content for Google Earth includes overlays from the UN
Environmental Program, Discovery Networks, the Jane Goodall Institute, and
the National Park Service.
• The University Complutense of Madrid becomes the first Spanish-language
library to join the Google Books Library Project.
October
 • Together with LitCam and UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning, we launch
the Literacy Project, offering resources for teachers, literacy groups and
anyone interested in reading promotion.
• We announce our acquisition of YouTube.
• We release web-based applications Docs & Spreadsheets: Word processor
Docs is a reworking of Writely (acquired in March).
• Google Custom Search Engine launches, giving bloggers and website owners
the ability to create a search engine tailored to their own interests.
• We acquire JotSpot, a collaborative wiki platform, which later becomes Google
Sites.
November
• The first nationwide Doodle 4 Google contest in the U.K. takes place with the
theme My Britain. More than 15,000 kids in Britain enter, and 13-year old
Katherine Chisnall is chosen to have her doodle displayed on
www.google.co.uk. There have been Doodle 4 Google contests in several
other years and countries since.
December
• We release Patent Search in the U.S., indexing more than 7 million patents
dating back to 1790.
2007
January
• We announce a partnership with China Mobile, the world's largest mobile
telecom carrier, to provide mobile and Internet search services in China.
February
• We release Google Maps in Australia, complete with local business results and
mobile capability.
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets is available in eleven more languages: French,
Italian, German, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean,
Turkish, Polish, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil) and Russian.
• For Valentine's Day, we open up Gmail to everyone. (Previously, it was
available by invitation only).
• Google Apps Premier Edition launches, bringing cloud computing to
businesses.
• The Candidates@Google series kicks off with Senator Hillary Clinton, the first
of several 2008 Presidential candidates, including Senator Barack Obama and
Senator John McCain, to visit the Googleplex.
• We introduce traffic information to Google Maps for more than 30 cities
around the US.
March
 • Our first Latin American software coding contest ends with Fábio Dias Moreira
of Brazil taking the grand prize. He scored more points than 5,000 other
programmers from all over the continent.
• We sign partnerships to give free access to Google Apps for Education to
70,000 university students in Kenya and Rwanda.
April
• This April Fool's Day is extra busy: not only do we introduce the Gmail Paper
Archive and TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider) -- we lose (and find) a real
snake in our New York office!
• We add eight more languages to Blogger, bringing the total to 19.
May
• In partnership with the Growing Connection, we plant a vegetable garden in
the middle of the Googleplex, the output of which is incorporated into our
café offerings.
• We move into permanent space in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Governor Jennifer
Granholm helps us celebrate. The office is an AdWords support site.
• At our Searchology event, we announce new strides taken towards universal
search. Now video, news, books, image and local results are all integrated
together in one search result.
• Google Hot Trends launches, listing the current 100 most active queries,
showing what people are searching for at the moment.
• Street View debuts in Google Maps in five U.S. cities: New York, San Francisco,
Las Vegas, Miami, and Denver.
• On Developer Day, we announce Google Gears (now known just as Gears), an
open source technology for creating offline web applications.
June
• Google Maps gets prime placement on the original Apple iPhone.
• YouTube becomes available in nine more domains: Brazil, France, Italy, Japan,
the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Ireland and the U.K.
• We announce a partnership with Salesforce.com, combining that company's
on-demand CRM applications with AdWords.
• We unveil several "green" initiatives: RechargeIT, aimed at accelerating the
adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the completion of our installation
of solar panels at the Googleplex, in Mountain View, and our intention to be
completely carbon-neutral by the end of 2007. We also announce the Climate
Savers Computing Initiative, in collaboration with Intel, Dell, and more than
30 other companies.
• Google Earth Outreach is introduced, designed to help nonprofit organizations
use Google Earth to advocate their causes.
July
 • We announce the acquisition of Postini.
• The first CNN/YouTube debate takes place between the eight U.S. Democratic
Presidential candidates. (The Republicans get their turn in November 2007.)
• Google Finance becomes available for non-U.S. markets for the first time, in
Canada.
• Google Apps is now available in 28 languages.
August
• We ask your for you interpretation of how Gmail travels around the world, and
receive more than 1,100 video responses from more than 65 different
countries.
• To infinity and beyond! Sky launches inside Google Earth, including layers for
constellation information and virtual tours of galaxies.
September
• AdSense for Mobile is introduced, giving sites optimized for mobile browsers
the ability to host the same ads as standard websites.
• Together with the X PRIZE Foundation we announce the Google Lunar X
PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon for a $30 million prize purse.
• We add Presently, a new application for making slide presentations, to Google
Docs.
• Google Reader becomes available in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch,
English (U.K.), Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese and Korean.
October
• We partner with IBM on a supercomputing initiative so that students can learn
to work at Internet scale on computing challenges.
November
• We announce OpenSocial, a set of common APIs for developers to build
applications for social networks.
• Android, the first open platform for mobile devices, and a collaboration with
other companies in the Open Handset Alliance, is announced. Soon after, we
introduce the $10 million Android Developer Challenge.
• Google.org announces RE<C, an initiative designed to create electricity from
renewable sources that are cheaper than coal. The initial focus is on support
for solar thermal power and wind power technologies.
December
• The Queen of England launches The Royal Channel on YouTube. She is the
first monarch to establish a video presence this way.
2008
January
 • Google.org announces five key initiatives: in addition to the previously-
announced RE<C and RechargeIT, there is a new dedication to solutions that
can predict and prevent crises worldwide, improve public services, and fuel
the growth of small enterprises.
• We bid in the 700 MHz spectrum auction to ensure that a more open wireless
world becomes available to consumers.
February
• For people searching in Hebrew, Arabic, or other right-to-left languages, we
introduce a feature aimed at making searches easier by detecting the
direction of a query.
• Google Sites, a revamp of the acquisition JotSpot, debuts. Sites enables you
to create collaborative websites with embedded videos, documents, and
calendars.
March
• We finally complete the acquisition deal for DoubleClick.
• Together with Yahoo and MySpace, we announce the OpenSocial Foundation,
an independent non-profit group designed to provide transparency and
operational guidelines around the open software tools for social computing.
April
• We feature 16 April Fool's jokes from our offices around the world, including
the new airline announced with Sir Richard Branson (Virgle), AdSense for
Conversations, a Manpower Search (China), and the Google Wake-Up Kit.
Bonus foolishness: all viewers linking to YouTube-featured videos are
"Rickrolled."
• A new version of Google Earth launches, incorporating Street View and 12
more languages. At the same time, KML 2.2, which began as the Google Earth
file format, is accepted as an official Open Geospacial Consortium standard.
• Google Website Optimizer comes out of beta, expanding from an AdWords-
only product. It's a free website-testing tool with which site owners can
continually test different combinations of their website content (such as
images and text), to see which ones yield the most sales, sign-ups, leads or
other goals.
• We launch Google Finance China allowing Chinese investors to get stock and
mutual fund data as a result of this collaboration between our New York and
Shanghai teams.
• We introduce a collection of 70+ new themes ("skins") for iGoogle,
contributed by such artists and designers as Dale Chihuly, Oscar de la Renta,
Kwon Ki-Soo and Philippe Starck.
May
• Following both the Sichuan earthquake in China and Cyclone Nargis in
Myanmar (Burma), Google Earth adds new satellite information for the
region(s) to help recovery efforts.
 • Reflecting our commitment to searchers worldwide, Google search now
supports Unicode 5.1.
• At a developer event, we preview Google FriendConnect, a set of functions
and applications enabling website owners to easily make their sites social by
adding registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting, and
reviews, plus applications built by the OpenSocial developer community.
• With IPv4 addresses (the numbers that computers use to connect to the
Internet) running low, Google search becomes available over IPv6, a new IP
address space large enough to assign almost three billion networks to every
person on the planet. Vint Cerf is a key proponent of broad and immediate
adoption of IPv6.
• Google Translate adds 10 more languages (Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech,
Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish), bringing
the total to 23.
• We release Google Health to the public, allowing people to safely and
securely collect, store, and manage their medical records and health
information online.
• We introduce a series of blog posts detailing the many aspects of good search
results on the Official Google Blog.
• California 6th grader Grace Moon wins the U.S. 2008 Doodle 4 Google
competition for her doodle "Up In The Clouds."
June
• Real-time stock quotes go live on Google Finance for the first time.
• With the launch of Google Site Search, site owners can enable Google-
powered searches on their own websites.
• We launch Gmail Labs, a set of experimental Gmail features, including saved
searches and different kinds of stars, which let you customize your Gmail
experience.
• A new version of Maps for Mobile debuts, putting Google Transit directions on
phones in more than 50 cities worldwide.
• For the first time, Google engineers create the problems for contestants to
solve at the 7th Annual Code Jam competition.
July
• We provide Street View for the entire 2008 Tour de France route -- the first
launch of Street View imagery in Europe.
• Our first downloadable iPhone app, featuring My Location and word
suggestions for quicker mobile searching, debuts with the launch of the Apple
3G iPhone.
• We work with the band Radiohead to make a music video of their song
"House of Cards," using only data, and not cameras.
 • Our indexing system for processing links indicates that we now count 1
trillion unique URLs (and the number of individual web pages out there is
growing by several billion pages per day).
August
• Street View is available in several cities in Japan and Australia - the first time
it's appeared outside of North America or Europe.
• Google Suggest feature arrives on Google.com, helping formulate queries,
reduce spelling errors, and reduce keystrokes.
• Just in time for the U.S. political conventions, we launch a site dedicated to
the 2008 U.S. elections, with news, video and photos as well as tools for
teachers and campaigners.
September
• Word gets out about Chrome a bit ahead of schedule when the comic book
that introduces our new open source browser is released earlier than planned
on September 1. The browser officially becomes available for worldwide
download a day later.
• We get involved with the U.S. political process at the presidential nominating
conventions for the Democratic and Republican parties.
• We release an upgrade for Picasa, including new editing tools, a movie maker,
and easier syncing with the web. At the same time, Picasa Web Albums is
updated with a new feature allowing you to "name tag" people in photos.
• Google News Archive helps to make more old newspapers accessible and
searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions
of pages of news archives.
• T-Mobile announces the G1, the first phone built on the Android operating
system. At the same time, we release a new Android Software Developer Kit,
and the Open Handset Alliance announces its intention to open source the
entire Android platform by the end of 2008. The G1 becomes available for
purchase in October.
• We launch Transit for the New York metro region, making public transit
information easily available for users of the largest transportation agency in
the U.S.
• Thanks to all of you, Google celebrates 10 fast-paced years.
October
• We release the first draft of Clean Energy 2030, a proposal to wean the U.S.
off of coal and oil for electricity use and to reduce oil use by cars 40 percent
by 2030. The plan could generate billions in savings as well as millions of
"green jobs."
• We introduce Google Earth for the iPhone and iPod touch, complete with
photos, geo-located Wikipedia articles, and the ability to tilt your phone to
view 3D terrain.
 • Googlers in Mountain View build a zip line to travel across the small
Permanente Creek separating a few of our bulidings.
November
• In a vote by 5-0, the FCC formally agrees to open up "white spaces," or
unused television spectrum, for wireless broadband service. We see this
decision as a clear victory for Internet users and anyone who wants good
wireless communications.
• After we discover a correlation between certain search queries and CDC data
on flu symptoms, we release Google Flu Trends, an indicator of flu activity
around the U.S. as much as two weeks earlier than traditional flu surveillance
systems.
• We announce the availability of the LIFE photo archive in Google Image
Search. Only a fraction of the approximately 10 million photos have ever
been seen before.
• SearchWiki launches, a way for you to customize your own search experience
by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results.
Comments can also be read by other users.
December
• We invite musicians around the globe to audition to participate in the YouTube
Symphony Orchestra, the world's first collaborative online orchestra.
• Google Friend Connect is available to any webmaster looking to easily
integrate social features into their site.
• Street View coverage more than doubles in the United States, including
several states never before seen on Street View (Maine, West Virginia, North
Dakota, and South Dakota).
• We partner with publishers to digitize millions of magazine articles and make
them readily available on Google Book Search.
2009
January
• We kick off January with the launch of Picasa for Mac at Macworld.
• The Vatican launches a YouTube Channel, providing updates from the Pope
and Catholic Church.
• Together with the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the
PlanetLab Consortium, and academic researchers, we announce
Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform that provides tools to test
broadband connections.
February
• The latest version of Google Earth makes a splash with Ocean, a new feature
that provides a 3D look at the ocean floor and information about one of the
world's greatest natural resources.
 • We introduce Google Latitude, a Google Maps for mobile feature and an
iGoogle gadget that lets you share your location with friends and see the
approximate location of people who have decided to share their location with
you.
• After adding Turkish, Thai, Hungarian, Estonian, Albanian, Maltese, and
Galician, Google Translate is capable of automatic translation between 41
languages, covering 98% of the languages read by Internet users.
• Our first message on Twitter gets back to binary: I'm 01100110 01100101
01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100
01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010. (Hint: it's a button on
our homepage.)
March
• We launch a beta test of interest-based advertising on partner sites and on
YouTube. This kind of tailored advertising lets us show ads more closely
related to what people are searching for, and it gives advertisers an efficient
way to reach those who are most interested in their products or services.
• We release Google Voice to existing Grand Central users. The new application
improves the way you use your phone, with features like voicemail
transcription and archive and search of all of your SMS text messages.
• We celebrate our San Francisco office's Gold rating from the U.S. Green
Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
Green Building Rating System. We see it as a sign that we're on track with our
approach to building environmentally friendly offices.
• The White House holds an online town hall to answer citizens' questions
submitted on Google Moderator.
• We launch new iGoogle backdrops inspired by video games, including classics
like "Mario," "Zelda," and "Donkey Kong."
• We announce Google Ventures: a venture capital fund aimed at using our
resources to support innovation and encourage promising new technology
companies.
• Using our transliteration technology, we build and release a feature in Gmail
that makes it easy to type messages in Indian languages like Hindi or
Malayalam.
• Google Suggest goes local with keyword suggestions for 51 languages in 155
domains.
April
• Our April Fool's Day prank this year is CADIE, our "Cognitive Autoheuristic
Distributed-Intelligence Entity" who spends the day taking over various
Google products before self-destructing.
• We announce an update to search which enables people to get localized
results even if they don't include a location in their search query.
 • For India's 15th general election, we launch the Google India Elections
Centre, where people can check to see if they're registered to vote, find their
polling place, as well as read news and other information.
• Over 90 musicians from around the world — including a Spanish guitarist, a
Dutch harpist and a Lithuanian birbyne player — perform in the first-ever
YouTube Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
• We rebuild and redesign Google Labs as well as release two new Labs: Similar
Image search and Google News Timeline. Later in the month, we introduce
Toolbar Labs.
• We begin to show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. search pages
when people search for names, giving people more control over what others
find about them when they search on Google.
• We release 11 short films about Google Chrome made by Christoph Niemann,
Motion Theory, Steve Mottershead, Go Robot, Open, Default Office, Hunter
Gatherer, Lifelong Friendship Society, SuperFad, Jeff&Paul, and Pantograph.
May
• To clear brush and reduce fire hazard in the fields near our Mountain View
headquarters, we rent some goats from a local company. They help us trim
the grass the low-carbon way!
• At our second Searchology event, we introduce a few new search features,
including the Search Options panel and rich snippets in search results.
• We launch Sky Map for Android, which uses your Android phone to help you
identify stars, constellations and planets.
• Christin Engelberth, a sixth grader at Bernard Harris Middle School in San
Antonio, Texas, wins the second U.S. Doodle 4 Google competition with her
doodle "A new beginning."
• At our second annual Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, we
preview Google Wave, a new communication and collaboration tool.
And on and on
What's next from Google? It's hard to say. We don't talk much about what lies
ahead, because we believe one of our chief competitive advantages is
surprise. You can always take a peek at some of the ideas our engineers are
currently kicking around by visiting them at Google Labs. Have fun, but be
sure to wear your safety goggles.