> "Qualified Developers are thoroughly vetted by Google ... and meet rigorous qualification standards."

Followed three lines later by...

> "Google does not make any representation, endorsement or warranty regarding the services of these developers."

These statements seem at odds with each other.

PR vs. CYA

Sure, and I'm clearly not a lawyer, but it seems difficult to say that you don't make any representations about them when you did exactly that 3 lines earlier. For example:

"This car is the best deal on the lot!" "I have made no representation as to the value of this car."

how exactly are they at odds? The second statement pertains to services provided by developers, not the developers themselves. Just because you pass a qualification exam, no matter how serious that exam, does not mean you can provide a quality service. The second one should just be an obvious thing that our legalese culture requires. Of course google doesn't endorse someone just for passing some online test?

Note that it's only for their specific API's, ie: KML, Maps API, Gadget Ads, AJAX Search API.

You are graded on your paid work done, community participation, references from clients, and a qualification exam. If you get enough points, you get listed in the directory.

This is interesting if it doesn't get culled by spammers.

Somewhere in Manhattan, Joel Spolsky feels a shiver running down his spine. Best of luck to both of them, though.

They only seem to be including people "qualified" in one or more of the various Google APIs.

Yea, I think 'Google Qualified' is misleading. "People that have shown compitence in our APIs" is entirely different than "People who are qualified to work for us", which I at least took the name to mean until visiting the link.

Yeah but for a company which aims to make all the world's information accessible it's clear where this thing has to go (in my opinion).

Aren't Google's API's pretty straightforward? That's one of the reasons they're popular. It seems to me that the average competent IT shop who would even know about this directory would also have developers capable of quickly utilizing Google's APIs.

Love the googly eyes in the default image. Way to make an attractive webpage guys.

Looks fishy to me. I think someone has made a project called 'qualify' and hosted it on code.google.com; google will squash it when they notice.

"The developers listed below are not Google employees." So they are really good, but not good enough to hire?

You're assuming that anyone Google is willing to hire will want to work there. That may not be the case at all.

One step closer to MCSE and CCNA, I suppose. Just another sign Google is a giant company now.