Drivers, start your batteries!

Since Google.org launched the RechargeIT initiative in June as part of our efforts to stop global warming, a lot has happened in the world of plug-in vehicles. Automakers have made key announcements about future plans for plug-ins. Our grantee, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), along with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), released a comprehensive assessment that found that widespread use of plug-in hybrids could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The charge for electrified transportation is heating up, and we couldn't be more excited. But consumers still can't buy plug-in vehicles – and that's a problem. It's time for us to put some money where our mouth is and help accelerate mass commercialization of plug-in vehicles.

Today, Google.org has issued a request for investment proposals (RFP) to the tune of $10 million in order to advance sustainable transportation solutions. We are inviting entrepreneurs and companies to show us their best ideas on how they can contribute to this important cause. We need catalytic investments to support technologies, products and services that are critical to accelerating plug-in vehicle commercialization. That is why we have structured this RFP to offer investment dollars to for-profit companies to promote social and environmental change. The severity of global warming requires solutions from NGOs, governments, individuals and (very importantly) the private sector. We have already made $1 million in grants to a group of outstanding non-profit organizations, and want to expand our impact by spurring innovation in the private sector. While $10 million is a fraction of the total investment needed to transform our transportation sector, we hope this RFP will help catalyze a broader response. We need the automakers to bring these cars to market, but plug-in vehicles also need an entire ecosystem of companies to flourish.

We realize that this type of open call for proposals is not the usual model for investment, but we wanted to use a process that was open to new ideas and new entrants. Part of our goal is to get as many people as possible to work on solutions to our vehicle emissions challenges. We welcome and expect to receive submissions from a wide variety of companies -- from cutting edge battery technologies to innovative service businesses – and from companies of all sizes. We also encourage participants from all over the world to submit proposals. This is a global challenge, and it will take all of us to solve it.

This open RFP process is a new approach to mission-focused investing, and we're interested to see what we can learn from it, both in terms of opportunities and gaps that exist in this space today, as well as ways that we can improve on this solicitation process for future investments. Our focus on learning is the primary reason we decided to narrow this first RFP to investments in private companies, rather than a combination of grants and investments.

We will continue to make grants as part of RechargeIT and other programs, but we're excited today to announce our first foray into investments.To learn more, read the RFP.

Note: Original message can be read Here.

All about Google

1. Corporate Information

1.1 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. Once you do, you'll be on your way to understanding why others say, "Google is the closest thing the Web has to an ultimate answer machine."

1.1.1 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.

1.2 Features Overview:

A single search reveals four elements that separate Google from its competition: speed, accuracy, objectivity and ease of use. Almost as soon as www.google.com or an international Google URL is entered, the homepage appears on the screen. The clean design of the site makes it abundantly clear how to proceed and offers little to distract the user in search of information. Search results are clearly separated from advertising, which is identified as "sponsored links."

The speed with which the results are returned is even more impressive. Google examines billions of web pages to find the most relevant pages for any query and typically returns those results in less than half a second. No other search engine accesses more of the Internet or delivers more useful information than Google.

Though a basic Google search answers most questions, it is possible to customize everything from the language of the interface to the format of the pages Google returns as results. Users can search for images, multiple file types, pages in Czech or Turkish, posts to Usenet, phone numbers, airline flight info or categories in the Open Directory. By using the preferences page, users can also select the number of results returned and filter out adult content.

There's much more to what Google offers, from an amazing spell checker to tools for translating web pages from one language to another or from HTML to a format readable by most mobile devices. Other search features include:

To use Google's built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you'd like done into the search box. example:

To use Google to find street maps, enter a U.S. street address, including zip code or city/state in the Google search box. example:

For a complete list, visit our features page at: http://www.google.com/help/features.html