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Google Announces Strategy to Move Beyond the Desktop and into New International Markets

Award-Winning Search Engine to Soon Announce New Wireless Products and Partnerships, and New International Search Services

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – April 25, 2000 – Google Inc., one of the fastest growing search engines on the web, today announced a companywide commitment to aggressively bring its award-winning search engine to users around the world, and to web surfers who access the Internet not only from traditional desktop PCs, but from the new class of web-ready wireless phones and information appliances. The company plans to leverage the explosive growth of the global Internet community, and the growing use of wireless web devices to establish itself as the world’s leading search engine for finding information.

Google’s technology was designed from the ground up to easily scale to the growth of the Internet, and to be accessed on an infinite number of popular and emerging computing platforms. After months of initial beta testing and a successful launch in September 1999, Google has received widespread industry support and numerous awards, and has witnessed an approximately 25 percent monthly increase in website traffic. The company will now bring Google technology to Internet users worldwide in their native languages, and will optimize the search engine to enable any web-ready device and computing platform to access the site. Users will be able to use Google to access a wealth of Internet-based information, regardless of the data type, language, or platform being used.

"Google’s search engine will have broad appeal to mobile web surfers," said Charul Vyas, research analyst at International Data Corporation (IDC). "Google is well positioned to take advantage of the growth in wireless Internet access. New types of Internet access devices are on track to quickly surpass consumer PC shipments worldwide."

Google Goes Global

Recognizing that almost half its website traffic consistently comes from non-U.S. Internet users, Google has embarked on an aggressive mission to bring more localized versions of its search engine to Google users all over the world. Users can now visit the Google website and beta test new technology for searching in 10 foreign languages, including French, German, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish. By year-end, the company hopes to offer Google in numerous additional languages.

According to a recent survey conducted by IDC, the worldwide Internet economy will soar past the $1 trillion mark in 2001. By 2003, it will grow to approximately $3 trillion.

"The Google search engine was designed with simplicity and ease-of-use in mind, therefore enabling us to quickly localize the technology to a wide variety of global markets," said Larry Page, Google’s CEO and co-founder. "Users around the world can now efficiently search and retrieve the information they are looking for in 10 different languages."

Google Expands Beyond the Desktop

Google’s search engine is ideally suited for use on the rapidly growing class of wireless Internet access devices and information appliances. The site’s high-performance, clean interface functions ideally in this emerging the wireless world, with smaller screen sizes and reduced bandwidth.

According to GartnerGroup, there are currently 300 million Internet users worldwide today. This number is expected to reach 1 billion by 2005. A recent study from Cap Gemini America predicts that 78 percent of current Internet users will begin using the wireless Internet as soon as next year. Furthermore, IDC forecasts that the worldwide market for information appliances will exceed 89 million units in 2004, from a market of 11 million units in 1999.

Google plans to develop new search services optimized for wireless phone and Palm Computing handheld users. The company plans to announce partnerships with wireless content providers and developers of a new class of information appliances. On April 5, AOL/Netscape announced that Google is directly integrated within the latest version of its web browser, which was designed to run efficiently on information appliances, in addition to desktop PCs.

"Computer form factors are shrinking on a daily basis and becoming more integrated into our personal lives, therefore changing the way people browse traditional web sites," said Vaughan Pratt, Stanford University professor of computer science and CEO of TIQIT Computers Inc., a leading provider of tiny PCs. "Google’s simple interface helps the users of these new products quickly find the information they are searching for."

"The post PC market is an opportunity for our company to showcase new, innovative technology and to create new business opportunities," said Sergey Brin, Google’s president and co-founder. "Google is exclusively focused on being the world’s leading search engine for Internet users around the globe. No matter what device you use to access the web, we plan to support it."

Benefits of Google Search Technology

Designed for Internet users worldwide, Google’s search engine offers web surfers simple, fast, and highly relevant search results for every web-connected computer, including the emerging class of wireless devices such as Palm handhelds, pagers, and Internet-ready mobile phones. The key benefits of Google’s search engine include its ease of use and clean interface, sophisticated text matching, and highly relevant results. Google is based on a variety of innovative technologies including its advanced patent-pending technology called PageRank, which ensures that the most important results always come up first. This scalable approach to search enables Google to get better as the Internet gets bigger.

About Google

Google exists to provide the world’s best Internet search experience, and accomplishes this for millions of users daily by delivering a powerful, speedy and easy method for finding the best information. Google’s technological innovations and simple interface have powered the company to numerous awards, including "Best Search Engine on the Internet" from Yahoo! Internet Life, and the top ranking for user satisfaction and loyalty in the Search & Portal Site Tracking Study conducted by NPD New Media Services. Leading sites such as Netscape’s Netcenter and Washingtonpost.com rely on Google. A privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif., Google’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. For the information you need, visit www.google.com.

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Google is a trademark of Google, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

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