We take our responsibility to our stockholders very seriously. Our belief is that we maximize stockholder value by maintaining a long-term focus. Rather than thinking about ways in which we can create short-lived economic gains each quarter, we focus on serving our users and delivering the most relevant information as fast as we can. By providing the best user experience, we believe that we are building a company that will create more value, not just for our users, but ultimately also for our stockholders as well. In this note, I'd like to briefly mention several policies and steps we've taken to protect our stockholders' long-term interest, in accordance with corporate governance requirements.

We believe in the importance of building stockholder trust. We adhere to the highest levels of ethical business practices, as embodied by the Google Code of Conduct, which provides guidelines for ethical conduct by our directors, officers and employees. We think that we've created the optimal corporate structure to realize Google's long-term potential and have established the appropriate financial controls and management oversight of our internal processes:

• We have adopted the Google Code of Conduct to provide guidelines for the ethical conduct of our directors, officers, and employees.
• The board of directors has set Corporate Governance guidelines to provide a framework so that management and the Board can operate effectively together to achieve Google's objectives for the benefit of our stockholders.
• More than two-thirds of the directors on Google's board are independent as defined by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Nasdaq Stock Market.
• The members of our board committees are independent.
• We report our financial results in a clear and consistent manner, in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
• Google has provided its employees anonymous methods of reporting questionable accounting, internal accounting controls or auditing matters.

• Stockholders may contact our board of directors about bona fide issues or questions about Google by sending an email to directors@google.com or by writing to the Corporate Secretary at the following address:

  Google Inc.

  Attn: Corporate Secretary

  1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

  Mountain View, CA 94043

It is very important that our stockholders understand how we run this company and why. I would encourage you to read the Letters from our Founders to give you more insight into the principles on which Google was founded and that continue to define our core mission. We pledge to adhere to the highest standards of integrity, on behalf of our users, our stockholders, and the world.

Dr. Eric Schmidt,
Executive Chairman