Google institutes MVP/GDE award to recognize developer community contributions

Possibly inspired by Microsoft's MVP award, Google has started a Google Developers Expert (GDE) program "that recognizes and rewards outstanding developers". There are lots of similarities to Microsoft's MVP award - the GDE award too is annual, it provides awardees access to Product teams & developer releases, and an invitation to an annual summit at Google headquarters (MS has it in Seattle/Redmond). There is similarly even a member directory & a badge for winners.

There is no mention of any material rewards though. Microsoft gifts MVP awardees an MSDN/Technet Subscription & other goodies now & then.

The GDE awards will be given out in the areas of Android, Cloud, HTML5, Chrome, and Google Maps to experts who contribute to the developer community.

Also see:
MS MVP Authors from India