Google's Linux-based Android platform for mobile phones has drawn a lot of attention since it was announced in November of last year, from phone makers as well as users. Now it appears the platform is about to cross the finish line, and Google is putting its developer search into overdrive.

Google presented the software, which is nearing completion, to developers in San Francisco yesterday at the yearly developer summit. Among the demonstrated features are a bookmarking service, a zoom tool for web content, a compass that works with a Google Earth-style photographic map, and a mobile Pac Man game. Google has been soliciting outside developers to create applications for Andriod for some time, announcing the $10 million Android Developer Challenge less than a week after the platform itself was revealed, and recently releasing the first-round finalists.

The platform itself debuted in February at the Mobile World Congress, with a wide-array of manufacturers revealing handsets, and cell service provider T-Mobile announcing that it would offer an Android phone for sale before the end of 2008.