Google's first developer conference, I/O, was definitely a huge success for the company. Hosted at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, it attracted more than 2,900 developers despite the $400 they had to pay to get in. However, Google made sure everybody got their money's worth.

Despite usual free junk like t-shirts & whatnot, Google made sure guests were treated with plenty of quality free food, drinks and massages, among other things.

Google's free offerings also extend to its software tools: Android, Google Earth, Google Gear plug-in and App Engine, among others. Of course, we are talking about a for-profit company, which means that Google has good hopes that it will eventually make more money in the long term.

Google essentially creates new advertising platforms and spaces, expanding its already leading grip on advertising. It is offering tools for developers to expand Google's future advertising space. It is a win-win situation for both Google and the developers.

Google’s hosted computing environment, Google App Engine, was launched in April as a free preview service, available only for the first interested 10,000 developers. After receiving a large number of requests, a waiting list was introduced and an additional 65,000 developers were let in. Google announced that developers will eventually have to pay to use the App Engine if they go over a certain number of page views.

Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms at Google, said consumers can expect to see the Android available on mobile phones in the second half of 2008, emphasizing that security, unlike in older platforms, will not be an issue anymore. Android is a software stack for mobile devices developed and promoted by Google that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.