Wrangle Your Site Categories And Product Types With Content Grouping
December 19th, 2013 | by Adam Singer | published in Google Analytics
December 19th, 2013 | by Adam Singer | published in Google Analytics
December 19th, 2013 | by Emily Wood | published in Google Blog
We launched the Transparency Report in 2010 to provide hard evidence of how laws and policies affect access to information online. Today, for the eighth time, we’re releasing new numbers showing requests from governments to remove content from our services. From January to June 2013, we received 3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 pieces of content—a 68 percent increase over the second half of 2012.
Over the past four years, one worrying trend has remained consistent: governments continue to ask us to remove political content. Judges have asked us to remove information that’s critical of them, police departments want us to take down videos or blogs that shine a light on their conduct, and local institutions like town councils don’t want people to be able to find information about their decision-making processes. These officials often cite defamation, privacy and even copyright laws in attempts to remove political speech from our services. In this particular reporting period, we received 93 requests to take down government criticism and removed content in response to less than one third of them. Four of the requests were submitted as copyright claims.
You can read more about these requests in the Notes section of the Transparency Report. In addition, we saw a significant increase in the number of requests we received from two countries in the first half of 2013:
While the information we present in our Transparency Report is certainly not a comprehensive view of censorship online, it does demonstrate a worrying upward trend in the number of government requests, and underscores the importance of transparency around the processes governing such requests. As we continue to add data, we hope it will become increasingly useful and informative in policy debates and decisions around the world.
Posted by Susan Infantino, Legal Director
December 19th, 2013 | by Rob Newton | published in Google Adwords
Engagement Ads go Multi-Screen
“We want consumers to have the same experience with our brand, whether they’re connecting with us from their laptop at work or their tablet from home,” says Kim Kyaw at Jaguar Land Rover North America. “Being able to run a consistent campaign across devices is essential, and we’ve found the cost-per-engagement pricing to be very effective.”
Mobile Device |
Lisa Brewer, Director of Audience Development, PEOPLE Digital, agrees. “We were able to strategically showcase our content in a format designed for cross-platform engagement, ensuring we delivered content wherever our users wanted to consume it, helping us have our most streamed Sexiest Man Alive reveal to date.”
Tablet |
Engagement Ads go Shoppable
Tis the season for shopping, and the “collection lightbox” format lets marketers showcase a number of items that shoppers can click and purchase, right from within the ad unit.
Engagement Ads go Easy
We’ve also made it easier than ever to set up and run a new Engagement Ads campaign, with a simple workflow and user interface. The new self-service feature gives you the chance to take more control of your ad campaign, so you can get started telling your brand’s story right away.
Set yourself up for a jolly 2014 by learning more about Engagement Ads.
Posted by James Beser, Group Product Manager
December 18th, 2013 | by Melissa Horwitz | published in Google DoubleClick
Today, marketers and agencies have countless opportunities to engage audiences with rich formats across channels and devices. And to help them capture the full opportunity, they have an abundance of ad technology solutions to choose from. In fact, the average number of ad tech platforms deployed by organizations grew from 4.3 to 4.7 this year.1
But marketers also know the real opportunity lies in creating unified, cross-channel digital experiences that span multiple touchpoints. 75% of marketers and agencies believe that an integrated platform can meet all their marketing needs – a 23% increase from 2012. And they believe the benefits range from improved customer insights, better campaign performance, and more efficient use of marketing resources.
In our new collection of insights, “Exploring the Value of Integrated Platforms,” you can see how top marketers and agencies are approaching unified buying to transform their businesses and maximize the impact of their marketing. In this collection, you can see how marketers are investing in integrated ad technology platforms to unlock the full potential of digital marketing for their organizations. We look at the latest trends in adoption, case studies and perspectives from industry leaders to answer questions like: What do today’s organizations want from digital marketing platforms? What is the value of an integrated digital platform? How are marketers investing in newly available technologies? How are they measuring success?
In the coming weeks, we will add more research, best practices and perspectives to the collection. You can stay on top of new updates by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on our Google+ page.
1 “Unraveling the Digital Display Industry: Understanding the Tools and Benefits of Digital Marketing”, DoubleClick by Google, Dec. 2013
December 18th, 2013 | by Stephanie Taylor | published in Google Open Source
As readers of this blog will know, open-source software like Linux has spurred huge innovation in cloud computing, the mobile web, and the Internet in general. Linux now powers nearly all the world’s supercomputers, runs the International Space Station, and forms the core of Android. But as open source has proliferated, so have the threats against it, particularly using patents. That’s why we’re expanding our participation in Open Invention Network (OIN), becoming the organization’s first new full board member since 2007.
OIN protects the open-source community through a patent cross-license for Linux and related open-source technologies. The license is free and available to companies, organizations, and individual developers if they agree not to assert their own patents against Linux. OIN also defends against anti-open-source patent aggression through education, reform efforts, and its own defensive patent portfolio.
Over nearly three decades, what is now known as open-source software has benefited consumers all over the world by delivering innovative products and services. We’re committed to helping protect that innovation and are happy to expand our role in OIN.
Posted by Chris DiBona, Director of Open Source
December 17th, 2013 | by Rob Newton | published in Google Adwords
We compiled a few of the bigger changes in marketing and digital advertising in 2013, to see how far the industry has come along. View the full infographic here or see a brief summary below.
Redefining “creative”
New creative formats took center stage in 2013. Marketers invested more in social media and TrueView skippable video ad formats continued to grow on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
Redefining “integrated”
The new 360 media plan cannot overlook digital and the sheer number of screens people interact with. In 2012, Google released some research indicating that people use 3 screen combinations a day. In 2013, this manifested itself in the form of increased investments in multi-screen campaigns.
Redefining “buying”
New(Up)fronts. Programmatic. 2013 changed the way digital media spend is committed.18 digital media companies presented at the Digital Content NewFronts. And programmatic buying gained significant traction with an expected ~74% growth, according to eMarketer. As brands took to programmatic and with the growth of programmatic video, CPMs on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange increased, and Preferred Deal impressions grew 250%. DoubleClick Bid Manager powered social media ads, joined FBX.
Redefining “success”
Earlier this year, AdAge released some research indicating that 50% of display ads are not viewed, making advertising viewability a hot industry topic. Google’s viewability measurement solution, ActiveView, got MRC-accredited. Last week, Google announced that it would enable viewability-based buys on the Google Display Network. Engagement Rate was another hot metric in 2013, with Cost per Engagement pay models enabled for ad formats like Engagement Ads on the Google Display Network.
View the full infographic here.
Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team
December 17th, 2013 | by Alexis R. Shellhammer | published in Google DoubleClick
We compiled a few of the bigger changes in marketing and digital advertising in 2013, to see how far the industry has come along. View the full infographic here or see a brief summary below.
Redefining “creative”
New creative formats took center stage in 2013. Marketers invested more in social media and TrueView skippable video ad formats continued to grow on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
Redefining “integrated”
The new 360 media plan cannot overlook digital and the sheer number of screens people interact with. In 2012, Google released some research indicating that people use 3 screen combinations a day. In 2013, this manifested itself in the form of increased investments in multi-screen campaigns.
Redefining “buying”
New(Up)fronts. Programmatic. 2013 changed the way digital media spend is committed.18 digital media companies presented at the Digital Content NewFronts. And programmatic buying gained significant traction with an expected ~74% growth, according to eMarketer. As brands took to programmatic and with the growth of programmatic video, CPMs on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange increased, and Preferred Deal impressions grew 250%. DoubleClick Bid Manager powered social media ads, joined FBX.
Redefining “success”
Earlier this year, AdAge released some research indicating that 50% of display ads are not viewed, making advertising viewability a hot industry topic. Google’s viewability measurement solution, ActiveView, got MRC-accredited. Last week, Google announced that it would enable viewability-based buys on the Google Display Network. Engagement Rate was another hot metric in 2013, with Cost per Engagement pay models enabled for ad formats like Engagement Ads on the Google Display Network.
View the full infographic here.
Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team
December 17th, 2013 | by Yamini Gupta | published in Google DoubleClick
We compiled a few of the bigger changes in marketing and digital advertising in 2013, to see how far the industry has come along. View the full infographic here or see a brief summary below.
Redefining “creative”
New creative formats took center stage in 2013. Marketers invested more in social media and TrueView skippable video ad formats continued to grow on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
Redefining “integrated”
The new 360 media plan cannot overlook digital and the sheer number of screens people interact with. In 2012, Google released some research indicating that people use 3 screen combinations a day. In 2013, this manifested itself in the form of increased investments in multi-screen campaigns.
Redefining “buying”
New(Up)fronts. Programmatic. 2013 changed the way digital media spend is committed.18 digital media companies presented at the Digital Content NewFronts. And programmatic buying gained significant traction with an expected ~74% growth, according to eMarketer. As brands took to programmatic and with the growth of programmatic video, CPMs on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange increased, and Preferred Deal impressions grew 250%. DoubleClick Bid Manager powered social media ads, joined FBX.
Redefining “success”
Earlier this year, AdAge released some research indicating that 50% of display ads are not viewed, making advertising viewability a hot industry topic. Google’s viewability measurement solution, ActiveView, got MRC-accredited. Last week, Google announced that it would enable viewability-based buys on the Google Display Network. Engagement Rate was another hot metric in 2013, with Cost per Engagement pay models enabled for ad formats like Engagement Ads on the Google Display Network.
View the full infographic here.
Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team
December 17th, 2013 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Enterprise
Editor’s note: Today, we hear from Hiwa Afandi, Head of the Department of Information Technology for the Kurdistan Regional Government, the official ruling body of Iraqi Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.
Why did the Kurdistan Regional Government decide to move to Google Apps?
We want to improve our operational efficiency and modernize our technology. We also want to help our 300,000 employees across the Kurdistan Regional Government’s ministries and departments to collaborate and communicate more easily. Like many emerging markets in the Middle East, lack of proper infrastructure and Internet service providers in our region make it very difficult to achieve true “interconnectedness.” That’s why we see Google Apps for Business, and cloud computing in general, as the kind of innovative technology that can help us to achieve our objectives.
What factors did you consider before making the move to Google?
Pricing was definitely a consideration. We are working on several large IT projects that are resource-intensive, including a state-of-the-art data center and government cloud. We like that Google is very price-competitive. But many other benefits – such as ease of use and management, speed, and reliability – were important factors in our decision, as well. We also have full trust in Google’s data security and privacy safeguards.
How many people in the Kurdistan Regional Government are using Google Apps?
About 3,000 employees are currently using Google Apps, including my IT team of 180. Several of the early adopters will be taking the lead in a “train the trainee” program in 2014. One person in each ministry or department will become the Google administrator for that unit and will train other users on how to use Google Apps.
Is there a Google partner assisting with your move to Google Apps?
Our Google partner is BRAMS, based in Dubai. They are helping us to transition both quickly and smoothly to Google Apps from our legacy systems, such as Microsoft Exchange.
How do you see employees using Google Apps after the rollout?
Steve Jobs once said that people don’t know what they want until you show it to them. In a developing country like ours, people sometimes need time to accept and adjust to innovation. I think that once our employees see how easily they can communicate and collaborate with each other – and all from a single platform – they will want to use Google Apps more and more. They will be able to work more efficiently.
What about your IT team? Will the move to Google Apps help make them more productive?
The move to Google Apps has already made our team more productive. I introduced Google Apps to my team as soon as I joined the IT department. It didn’t take long for them to embrace tools like Google Calendar, Google Chat and Google Docs for everyday work. On a broader scale, by moving the entire Kurdistan Regional Government to Google Apps for Business, my IT team doesn’t have to worry about the technicalities of hosting and configuring a complex data center for email and collaboration solutions. That prevents a huge headache. I only have about five people devoted to Google tasks for the entire government. The rest of my team is free to focus on other responsibilities.
I want to emphasize how important that is, especially as the Kurdistan Regional Government pursues a number of other important IT initiatives. In the Middle East, skilled IT resources are difficult to find and retain, and are often expensive to hire. So, we must use our IT resources wisely. Again, that’s why Google Apps and other cloud solutions are so beneficial to us. We don’t have to worry about heavy data storage or processing infrastructure. There is no need to install hardware, implement software or perform complex integrations. We can just focus on our business and on innovation. That is a huge enabling factor for our government.
December 17th, 2013 | by SketchUp Team | published in Google SketchUp
A group of whales is called a pod. When lions congregate, they’re a pride. Get several crows together and you’ve got a murder. So what’s the proper term for an assembly of SketchUppers? A Basecamp, of course. And the next one is only about four months …
December 17th, 2013 | by Emily Wood | published in Google Blog
Every day, around the world, we search. We want to find out more about our heroes, explore far-away destinations, or settle a dinner table dispute between friends. And sometimes we just search to find out how many calories are in an avocado.
In our annual Year-End Zeitgeist (“spirit of the times”), we reflect on the people, places, and moments that captured the world’s attention throughout the year. This year marks our most global Zeitgeist to date—with 1,000+ top 10 lists across categories like Trending People, Most-Searched Events and Top Trending Searches from 72 countries.
As we get ready to turn the page to 2014, we invite you to take a global journey through the biggest moments from the past 12 months in our Year in Review video:
It’s perhaps unsurprising that the #1 trending search of 2013 was an international symbol of strength and peace: Nelson Mandela. Global search interest in the former President of South Africa was already high this year, and after his passing, people from around the world turned to Google to learn more about Madiba and his legacy.
Tragedies like the Boston Marathon, the 6th trending term globally, and Typhoon Haiyan, #2 on our global events list, also captured the world’s attention. And our human desire to help came through, with [donate to the Philippines] ranking highly around the world.
2013 also had moments that made us move. People uploaded more than 1.7 million video versions of the Harlem Shake to YouTube, propelling it to the #5 spot on our global list; it was also the second most trending video on YouTube. And unashamedly, we all wanted to learn about twerking, which topped this year’s “what is…” list of search terms (although I’m still not sure I understand that one!).
Here’s a full look at our top 10 global trending searches of 2013:
You can also explore more global trends this year—directly from our Zeitgeist homepage. Check out the top 100 trending searches of 2013, and simply click one to dig deeper on Google Trends. Or if you’d rather be nostalgic, you can take a look back at each year’s Zeitgeist from 2001 on.
Finally, we’ve made an interactive 3D global map showcasing the top search trends of 2013 by day in cities around the world. You can easily spin the globe, select a city and explore the topics that brought people to search on any day of the year—from local sports games to international news stories.
As I reflect on the year behind us, I’m excited about what’s to come in the year ahead. What will you be searching for?
Posted by +Amit Singhal, Senior Vice President and Google Fellow
December 16th, 2013 | by Ikai | published in Youtube API
function searchByKeyword() {
var results = YouTube.Search.list("id,snippet",
{q : "google apps script", maxResults: 25});
for(var i in results.items) {
var item = results.items[i];
Logger.log("[%s] Title: %s", item.id.videoId, item.snippet.title);
}
}
December 16th, 2013 | by Research @ Google | published in Google Research
Posted by David Konerding, Staff Software Engineer
In April 2011, we announced the Google Exacycle for Visiting Faculty, a new academic research awards program donating one billion core-hours of computational capacity to researchers. The Exacycle project enables massive parallelism for doing science in the cloud, and inspired multiple proposals aiming to take advantage of cloud scale. Today, we would like to share some exciting results from a project built on Google’s infrastructure.
Google Research Scientist Kai Kohlhoff, in collaboration with Stanford University and Google engineers, investigated how an important signalling protein in the membrane of human cells can switch off and on by changing its three-dimensional structure following a sequence of local conformational changes. This research can help to better understand the effects of certain chemical compounds on the human body and assist future development of more potent drug molecules with fewer side effects.
The protein, known as the beta-2 adrenergic receptor, is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), a primary drug target that plays a role in several debilitating health conditions. These include asthma, type-2 diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. The receptor and its close GPCR relatives bind to many familiar molecules, such as epinephrine, beta-blockers, and caffeine. Understanding their structure, function, and the underlying dynamics during binding and activation increases our chances to decode the causes and mechanisms of diseases.
To gain insights into the receptor’s dynamics, Kai performed detailed molecular simulations using hundreds of millions of core hours on Google’s infrastructure, generating hundreds of terabytes of valuable molecular dynamics data. The Exacycle program enabled the realization of simulations with longer sampling and higher accuracy than previous experiments, exposing the complex processes taking place on the nanoscale during activation of this biological switch.
The paper summarizing the results of Kai’s and his collaborators’ work is featured on the January cover of Nature Chemistry, with artwork by Google R&D UX Creative Lead Thor Lewis, to be published on December 17, 2013. The online version of his paper was published on their website today.
We are extremely pleased with the results of this program. We look forward to seeing this research continue to develop.
December 13th, 2013 | by Stephanie Taylor | published in Google Open Source
Today marks the halfway point for Google Code-in 2013, a contest for 13-17 year old pre-university students interested in learning more about open source software development. There is still plenty of time for students to compete in the contest, 3.5 weeks to be exact.
Students will earn a certificate by completing one task in the contest and can earn a Google Code-in 2013 t-shirt when they complete 3 tasks. Many students are also working very hard for a chance at one of the 20 grand prize trips to Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters next April.
During the contest students work on tasks in categories like coding, documentation, quality assurance, outreach, research, training and user interface. Each of these tasks is assigned a mentor who can help the student if they have questions while completing the task.
Google Code-in is a great way for students to use the skills they have been learning in the classroom and apply them to a real open source software project.
Google Code-in 2013 statistics at the halfway point of the contest:
United States – 86
India – 39
Romania – 18
Singapore – 16
Germany – 10
For contest rules, frequently asked questions and the timeline you can visit the contest site. We encourage students to continue checking the Google Code-in 2013 list of available tasks as new tasks are being added daily for students to work on. The last day to register for the contest and claim a task is Sunday, January 5, 2014 at 17:00 UTC.
Students can join the group discussion list for answers to general questions about the contest from other students, mentors and Google Code-in program administrators.
Good luck students, keep up the awesome work!
By Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs
December 13th, 2013 | by Ibrahim Ulukaya | published in Youtube API
Since the YouTube Live Streaming API is announced, we’ve seen great tools and apps that helped eligible channels to stream their content on YouTube.