The advanced baseline imager (ABI), which will be on board the GOES-R satellite planned for launch in December 2014, will provide a best-ever opportunity for measuring land parameters from geostationary orbit. This instrument will provide the best-ever opportunity for measuring land parameters from the geostationary orbit. The following land surface products will be derived from GOES-R ABI data: land surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), green vegetation fraction (GVF), fire detection and characterization, surface albedo, and occurrence of standing water. The GOES-R land applications working group (AWG) is responsible for developing, evaluating and delivering corresponding algorithms for the above products. Currently, the land AWG team has finalized techniques needed for developing all the land surface products, except the standing water. In particular, split window techniques will be applied for the LST algorithm development and the algorithm coefficients will be stratified for dry and moist atmospheric conditions as well as for daytime and nighttime. In the NDVI algorithm development, daily NDVI will be composited from half hourly NDVI using maximum NDVI compositing technique, while weekly NDVI will be composited from the maximum daily NDVI. The fire algorithm will be heritage from the current GOES fire product. Currently, algorithms for LST, NDVI and fire identification are being tested using MSG/SERIVI data, with encouraging results. More details of these activities and achievements will be presented in this paper.