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June 27, 2007

Google Offers Money For Gadgets

Duncan Riley

27 comments »

googgv.pngGoogle has announced the launch of Google Gadget Ventures, a new pilot program that will help fund third-party gadget development and gadget-related businesses.

Google will offer two types of funding: $5,000 grants for gadget developers who want to improve an existing gadget, and $100,000 seed investments for new gadget-related businesses. Applications will be restricted initially to gadget developers who have more than 250,000 pageviews per week on their gadget.

Google aims to “help create an ecosystem where developers can spend more time doing what they love — building great gadgets”. In other words Google wants more gadgets for iGoogle and Google Gadgets and what better way to encourage development than to offer money to gadget builders. It probably goes without saying that this is a smart move by Google; Google’s gadget specific offerings are all smart products but still lag in gadget choice compared to competitors such as Yahoo Widgets, a number of Web OS and Widget specific startups and even OSX.

A full FAQ for the program is available here.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  1. Варна морето WebTech 2007

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:37 am

  2. Zoli's Blog

    June 28th, 2007 at 5:00 am

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    June 29th, 2007 at 12:08 am

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  1. manfromnantucket

    June 27th, 2007 at 10:38 pm

    wait - “$100,000 seed investments for new gadget-related businesses. Applications will be restricted initially to gadget developers who have more than 250,000 pageviews per week on their gadget.”

    So, it sounds like you have to first develop the gadget and build traffic for either the 5k or the 100k incentive???

    Do they take equity? what?

  2. Mike Malone

    June 27th, 2007 at 10:43 pm

    @manfromnantucket

    The article only shows the 250k pageview requirement for the $5k “improvement” grant. The $100k “development” grant requires a detailed business plan, etc. but has no pageview requirement (which makes sense).

    Seems like a smart move by Google… I’ve developed a few gadgets and it sure got my attention!

  3. Andrew

    June 27th, 2007 at 11:00 pm

    they just want to save money, probably realized they can’t pay 100 mil for simple gadgets anymore

  4. beyondwww

    June 27th, 2007 at 11:10 pm

    Very much agree with Andrew, Google definitely is looking for some money saving and yet again looking into what every one is upto.

    Definitely a smart move.

  5. Andrew

    June 27th, 2007 at 11:15 pm

    1 million page views per month…wouldn’t something of that caliber be able to monetize and not give up equity for a measly $5000

    I would be worried with Google taking your ideas from the business plans and showing you the door. Pitching to a VC, you really don’t have to worry with them stealing your ideas….Google on the other hand? Hell no

    But I’m sure many new developers will fall for their trick, probably the same people who still believe google’s “do no evil” philosophy

  6. Doug

    June 27th, 2007 at 11:17 pm

    I wonder if this is a means of diverting talent back to gadgets from the Facebook platform.

  7. Adi Crazy

    June 27th, 2007 at 11:18 pm

    Andrew: lol…I cant agree less. Googl-spying and money-making in new attaire, yet again!!

  8. beyondwww

    June 27th, 2007 at 11:34 pm

    Lolz. “Do no Evil” is no longer valid, and you bet many developers are going to fall for the trick. 1 million page viewer ship would get me a hell more than $5k if I just opt for some CPA Network and I still own the thing.

  9. Joe B.

    June 27th, 2007 at 11:53 pm

    Where is the catch?

  10. ajaxus.net

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:20 am

    so guys, lets get our hands on coding!

  11. ?

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:31 am

    You need to sign up NDA before you apply?

    There’s are lot of corporate theives refuse to pay but waste time.

  12. beyondwww

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:36 am

    Well Google would not be one of those, it would definitely would like to control.

  13. who can get 250,000 pageviews per week?

    June 28th, 2007 at 12:56 am

    250,000 pageviews per week!!! that’s crazy….

  14. fluencev6616

    June 28th, 2007 at 1:23 am

    I am glad to hear that!
    have an opinion with #3.

  15. alex

    June 28th, 2007 at 2:57 am

    great, use your money to crush smaller competitors out of the market.

  16. lakai

    June 28th, 2007 at 3:06 am

    Good plan, though! Buy developers, have to most comprehensive content, rule the widget, aehm sorry gadget, market. What will competitors do that cannot afford these kind of spendings?

  17. Concrete Stain

    June 28th, 2007 at 6:48 am

    Looks like a good thing / I will def book mark to look into later -

    -Rbowles

  18. Ravi

    June 28th, 2007 at 7:15 am

    “Do no Evil”?
    what could possible be the non-evil thing about this whole idea? I do the grunt work, google pays me 5k, takes my idea. hell no!

  19. bdb

    June 28th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

    Dumbest comment stream EVER on TC!

  20. David Mackey

    June 30th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

    Wow, impressive. Now I want to get into the gadget production business (but won’t).

  21. Sachman

    June 30th, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    It’s a win/win for everyone - http://tinyurl.com/34rhym

  22. Mary Bresticker

    July 3rd, 2007 at 2:14 pm

    Well, that’s just darn clever of the Google folks. They must just surely have some of the best marketers in the business.

  23. kalimrieddy praveen

    July 25th, 2007 at 7:31 am

    hai

  24. Mahin

    July 27th, 2007 at 1:14 pm

    If i have 250,000 page views for my gadget.. why would i want to sell it off to google ?? The seed money is mostly required in the initial stages.. Anywyas I developed a gadget recently.. checkout my site and leave comments if you find it useful.

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