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Google used its annual developer conference here this week to show off its nearly completed mobile software system to about 3,000 computer programmers, hoping to cultivate more services and advertising.

The demonstration, held Wednesday, represented the most extensive public look so far at the system, Android. First announced nearly seven months ago, it is an open-source platform being designed for smartphones and other mobile devices that surf the Web.

These were among Android’s features: a way to unlock phones by drawing a specific shape on the touch screen instead of entering a password; bookmarks for Web sites on the device’s home page; a “compass” tool that automatically roams with the phone while a user looks at photographic images of a city map; a magnifying tool to zoom in on Web content; and a mobile version of the video game “Pac Man.”

The demonstration relied on touch-screen technology similar to that of the iPhone, but Android can also be tailored to work with a tracking ball, said Andy Rubin, who is overseeing the project.

While acknowledging the work on Android is nearly done, Rubin deflected a question about how much longer consumers would have to wait for a phone powered by the new software. Sticking to the timetable Google has used throughout the project, Rubin said Android would be released some time in the final six months of this year.

Several handset makers, including Samsung Electronics, HTC and LG Electronics, are among the 34 partners that Google has recruited to help introduce Android.

Google also hopes that programmers will create a wide variety of products that will run on Android. That is one reason that the company, which is based in Mountain View, California, chose to show off the free software at the developers’ conference.

By making it easier and more appealing for people to access the Internet on their cellphones, Google says it believes that it will eventually make more money from the ads that are shown next to search results and other Web content. The company is also starting to show more video advertising on YouTube, a subsidiary that is already is a feature on the iPhone and received a special button in Wednesday’s demonstration of Android.

Google is expected to generate more than $20 billion in advertising revenue this year, but most of it will come from ads viewed on personal computers.

With about three billion mobile phones on the market, some analysts say they believe that Google could pull in nearly $5 billion annually from the mobile market within five years.

Google is trying to increase its profit by selling more software services over Internet connections to businesses, universities and government agencies. The company also wants to make it easier for outside developers to create applications on the Web. Even if those applications are not on Google’s Web site, the company expects to get more search requests, and more advertising opportunities, if people are doing more things online. In April, Google handled nearly 62 percent of Web searches in the United States, according to comScore.

Google’s success so far is the primary reason that Microsoft spent several months trying to buy Yahoo before withdrawing an offer valued at $47.5 billion on May 3 after the two sides failed to agree on a price. Microsoft is now discussing a smaller deal with Yahoo but has not ruled out the possibility of renewing its takeover attempt.

To help developers introduce more online products, Google began offering free computing power and storage last month on a limited basis under a service called App Engine. Google said Wednesday that it planned to begin offering extra capacity this year for a fee.

The service will remain free for as much as 500 megabytes of storage and enough computing capacity to support five million monthly views of a site’s Web pages. Each additional gigabyte will cost 15 cents to 18 cents a month. Google estimated that a user would pay $40 to $50 a month for enough capacity to support up to 10 million page views a month.

via IHT