• September 3, 2008

Three months after launching a contest for application developers for its Adroid mobile operating system, Google has announced the winners. The final phase of the event awarded $275,000 each to 10 teams of finalists and $100,000 prizes to another 10.

The winning entries featured practical, on-the-go applications suited to mobile devices. Among the Android apps that earned the $275,000 prize were cab4me, for locating a taxi service; comparison-shopping tool CompareEverywhere; Ecorio, which automatically tracks a user's mobile carbon footprint; and Life360, a neighborhood social networking service.

Google last week announced the forthcoming launch of Android Market, an online outlet similar to Apple's App Store, where users can purchase and download various types of content for Android-powered devices. The first Android phone is expected to hit the U.S. market this fall.--Mark Walsh