Google is wrapping up a two-day sales meeting in DC today, where it hopes to convince federal contractors, engineers and the military that Google is ready to take on more government work.
Google has been selling products to the U.S. government for about three years. One of those products is Google Earth, which the military uses for battlefield information in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the Washington Post article, Google hopes to sell enhanced versions of Google Earth, custom search applications and Google Apps Premier to government agencies.
Google’s government work has been the subject of much speculation. Last year a former high-ranking Marine (who believes the WTC attacks were really an orchestrated demolition) said that Google had been working in tandem with the CIA.
Stephen Arnold, who is quoted in the Washington Post article (linked above) as saying Google is interested in powering the government’s back office, told me last year that Google’s technology could be used to predict the locations of terrorist attacks.