WebProNews

Our elected representatives might want to get used to running into Googlers around Washington.  A fresh lobbying report indicates that Google’s ramped up its efforts in this area by quite a bit.

Between April 1st and June 30th, Google spent $950,000 on lobbying activities.  That represents an increase of 8.0 percent compared to the $880,000 it spent last quarter, and an increase of a whopping 30.1 percent compared to the $730,000 it spent during the second quarter of 2008.

As for what Google focused on, the search giant talked to lawmakers about a number of different issues, including the regulation of online advertising, online consumer protection, health information technology, and copyright issues related to the Google Book Search settlement.

Renewable energy policies and the Smart Grid were on the company’s agenda, as well, and cloud computing was discussed several different times.

It’s probably not appropriate to worry that Google’s got too tight a hold on lawmakers’ ears and wallets, though.  Jessica E. Vascellaro noted, “[O]ther tech giants still spend far more on lobbying.  For example, Microsoft spent $1.9 million in the second quarter.  AT&T spent $3.1 million.”