Oct 20, 2008

Business - Google makes 'open offer' to Indian developers

Having a great idea for a ‘cool’ Web-based application, is the easy part.

Taking it to fruition, finding the funding to buy server space, generate compelling content and adding features that can attract advertisers is where many potentially good plans fall by the wayside.

Alternative plan

The world’s biggest ‘search’ player on the Web has an alternative game plan. At its first ever Indian ’Developer Day’, here last week, Google offered the free use of its “App (for applications) Engine”, as a tool to overcome not just the technical hurdles, but the financial ones that confronted budding Web developers.

Core message

“Create your applications using our ‘Open’ software tools. Then run it on Google infrastructure. We will take care of all the technical and administrative problems. We will run your applications till they attract 5 million page views a month. Then you know it works - and you can monetise it in any way you like”.

This was the core message that the Head of Google’s India-based R&D, Dr Prasad Ram, delivered in his opening keynote.

In another offer to Indian developers, Dr Ram said the software development kit or SDK for Android, the new mobile handset platform it has created, would be released to the ‘Open’ software community on October 22.

A third initiative in its efforts to create an open Web ecosystem revolves around the Open Social, a set of common application programming interfaces (APIs) for Web-based social network applications, developed by Google, MySpace and other social networks. Delegates took back a CD with the Open Social APIs to kickstart their ingenuity.

The Google India event comes soon after the parent company celebrated its 10th birthday, a few weeks ago.

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