Google Announces Winner of Global Code Jam 2006

Petr Mitrichev of Russia bests field of 21,000 to take home top prize in New York City

NEW YORK, NY – Oct. 27, 2006 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced that Petr Mitrichev won today’s Global Code Jam competition and was awarded with a $10,000 first prize. Mitrichev topped a field of over 21,000 registered competitors from around the world, a record number for GCJ. Second place went to Ying Wang of the United States. Andrey Stankevich came in third. Second through tenth places carry a cash prize of $5,000.

Additional cash prizes went to the other top 100 finalists, who represented 24 different countries. Each finalist was flown to New York this week to compete in the championship round and see firsthand what is happening in the Google New York office. Last year, Marek Cygan of Poland took home the grand prize.

"We’re thrilled to bring together such a talented, diverse group of programmers here in New York to celebrate the best in engineering," said Craig Nevill Manning, engineering director. "Google is passionate about fostering a community of people who want to build the next generation of tools for users around the globe and providing them with the opportunity to meet and discuss challenging problems."

This is the fourth annual Global Code Jam, which is produced in conjunction with TopCoder, the leader in online programming competition, skills assessment and competitive software development. Google’s Global Code Jam is a celebration of the art of computer science and demonstrates the value Google places on excellent coding.

The competition, which began Sept. 5, attracted 21,000 registrants from more than 100 countries. All entrants participated in an initial qualification round, and 1000 of those went on to a two-round competition field. The top 100 scorers from round two of this phase came to Google’s New York offices for the finals. All of the programming for any round could be done in Java, C++, C#, Python or VB.NET.

More information about Google Code Jam 2006 can be found at www.google.com/codejam.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Media Contact:

Megan Lamb
Google Inc.
703-926-5292
mlamb@google.com

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