Google Pilots Program To Expand the Universe of Gadgets
June 27 -- Today, Google announced a new pilot initiative called Google Gadget Ventures aimed at bootstrapping an economic ecosystem around gadgets. Since the launch of Google Gadgets more than a year ago, we've seen an increasing opportunity for individuals and companies to build successful businesses around this technology and are piloting this program to help support additional growth.
Google Gadget Ventures will offer third-party gadget development and gadget-related businesses two types of funding:
* Grants of $5,000 to developers who've built gadgets in our directory that already receive at least 250,000 weekly page views. To apply, qualified Gadget developers will be asked to submit a one-page proposal.
* Seed investments of $100,000 to previous Google Gadget Ventures grant recipients who'd like to build a business around the Google Gadgets platform. Qualified developers will be asked to submit a business plan.
The developer community is an extremely important part of our development ecosystem. Our hope for Google Gadget Ventures is to enable developers to grow and diversify the universe of gadgets in a profitable and sustainable way. Ultimately this will result in a wider variety of engaging and useful online content, which is a win for our users. For more information, please see http://www.google.com/gadgetventures.