December 18th, 2008 | by Lawrence Chang | published in Google Mobile
Whether you’re using Google search through the search widget on the Android home screen, the built-in search box of the iPhone’s Safari browser, or google.com on either device, you’ll now end up with search results optimized for your phone. In some s…
December 18th, 2008 | by mquagliarello | published in Youtube
“>From October’s announcement of full-length TV
to early December’s HD player launch, we’ve invested a lot to make your YouTube experience an entertaining and enjoyable one. With your help we have transformed YouTube into a place where anyone can dialogue with Queen Rania, learn how to cook from bite-size “Food Network” videos, and enjoy full-length classic TV shows — all on a single platform. With thousands of partners and a seemingly infinite diversity of content on YouTube, we realize searching for and finding videos that matter most to you is a priority. That’s why today we’re testing three new entertainment landing pages — youtube.com/news, “>youtube.com/music, & “> youtube.com/movies. Browse the “>youtube.com/music page to see rising music videos as well as major label and indie-specific playlists. If you’re feeling newsy, check out the youtube.com/news tab to view breaking stories around the world and the latest Google News video hits. Or visit youtube.com/movies to find full-length films from MGM, Lionsgate, Cinetic Media, Documentary Channel, IndieFlix, Image Entertainment and more!
Today also marks the expansion of our HD player and HD search. Now if you select the “watch in HD” option below any HD-enabled video, that video will automatically play in widescreen. (To see new widescreen HD player in action, watch the video below.) You can also conduct a search for HD videos only by selecting the new “HD” option under the Videos tab.
Rounding out today’s yuletide offerings is our expanded e-Commerce platform. Through e-Commerce, YouTubers in the United States can click-to-buy DVDs on Amazon.com related to the movies, TV shows, and other videos they’re watching on YouTube. We’re also taking our first steps to roll this out internationally, so starting today anyone in the UK will be able to download songs from Apple’s iTunes UK store (www.apple.com/uk/itunes) directly from related YouTube music videos. Over the coming weeks and months, we will continue to add retail links to our library of music videos and movies, including any videos claimed by partners through our content identification and management system.
Happy holidays and, as always, have fun watching!
The YouTube Team
December 18th, 2008 | by Brian Shih | published in Google Reader
As 2008 draws to a close, we’d like to leave you with a little gift. And since we know the one thing everyone wants is more stuff to read (don’t forget you can hide unread counts!), we’ve got just the thing.
You may have noticed that we added a little…
December 18th, 2008 | by Ashley Hedges | published in Google CPG
A few weeks ago, we introduced you to Google Flu Trends, a new tool from Google that tracks flu activity across the U.S. up to two weeks faster than the data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It works by measuring the amoun…
December 18th, 2008 | by Janelle | published in Google RechargeIT
By David Bercovich, Program Manager, Google.org
There’s a great deal of talk about the high cost of oil and the billions of dollars that the US and other oil-importing nations spend each year to buy oil. As part of the Google.org Geo Challenge Grants Program, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has created a map of US oil imports by country since 1973. By clicking on the green light to play, you can see the countries supplying oil to the U.S. (either in terms of barrels or dollar value) and how our imports have changed over the last 35 years. The thicker the line in the map, the more oil produced or imported. While this map highlights data on United States oil imports, the picture is similar for every oil-importing country in the world.
The map highlights 5 eras of oil consumption, from the oil shocks of the 1970s to the price collapse in the 1980s to recent events including Hurricane Katrina and gas approaching $5 per gallon before retreating rapidly recently. (You can see these selections by clicking on the buttons below the map on the RMI website.) One interesting time period is from 1982 to 1985, when low prices caused oil imports from the Middle East to decline to very low levels.
The map also looks at potential oil from offshore drilling and exploration of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The screenshot below illustrates the impact of off-shore drilling. With the map zoomed or ‘drilled’ 3-5 levels down and centered near Alabama (and the map pushpin that represents offshore), check out the very thin line that shows the potential peak production of 220,000 barrels per day. The lines represent estimates of production in 20-30 years, and even with this very long timeline, the amount of oil that could be generated from offshore drilling is miniscule compared to our oil needs today.
Today, along with the Brookings Institution, RMI is hosting “The Oil Solutions Initiative ” a summit to identify solutions to break America’s dependence on oil, with Google in attendance. In 2004, RMI’s Chief Scientist, Chairman and Co-founder Amory Lovins and a team of RMI collaborators drafted Winning the Oil Endgame (PDF of the book) – a roadmap for the United States to get completely off oil by 2050.
Google.org’s RechargeIT initiative is driving toward the commercialization of plug-in vehicles that can wean the US off gasoline. In our Clean Energy 2030 Plan we show that increasing conventional automobile mileage, deploying millions of plug-in hybrids and accelerating the turnover of the fleet would reduce oil consumption by 51% by 2030. That decrease would have an even larger effect on oil imports because we produce about one-third of our oil in the US. Google and RMI have worked together on a number of projects including RMI’s “Smart Garage” Charrette, a summit to identify the barriers and breakthroughs needed to electrify the U.S. auto fleet.
While oil prices have declined rapidly over the past five months, most people expect oil prices to remain high into the near future. When asked whether or not the drop in oil prices reduces the need to act, President-Elect Barack Obama responded that we go from “shock to trance” and as a result “never make any progress.”
If you are a non-profit with a great idea like this one, please consider applying for funding to develop your project. We are currently accepting applications for the December 22, 2008 deadline.
December 18th, 2008 | by elaine | published in Google Earth
[Cross-posted with the Google.org Blog]There’s a great deal of talk about the high cost of oil and the billions of dollars that the US and other oil-importing nations spend each year to buy oil. As part of the Google.org Geo Challenge Grants Program…
December 18th, 2008 | by Inside AdWords crew | published in Google Adwords
This week, we released version 7.0 of AdWords Editor for Windows and Mac. The new version includes the long-awaited first page bid estimates and keyword Quality Score, along with several updates to the Keyword Opportunities tool. Version 7.0 also provi…
December 18th, 2008 | by SketchUp Team | published in Google SketchUp
More and more construction firms are using SketchUp Pro to help them visualize and communicate the 3D aspects of their work. Blach Construction, based in California, is one such firm. They’ve been kind enough to furnish us with a description of how the…
December 18th, 2008 | by Google Grants Team Member | published in Google Grants
The holidays bring much joy, but this year, they may also bring uncertainty for those feeling the affects of this economic downturn. Wallets are a little tighter this year, so it’s important to remember that there are other ways to ‘give’ without g…
December 18th, 2008 | by Cyrus Mistry | published in Google Enterprise
We are excited that our 10th Enterprise Labs experiment in just over a year is also the 5th experiment (see others like our Google Apps Integration) that lets Google Search Appliance users reach securely into the cloud, tapping into the vast resources …
December 18th, 2008 | by John Mueller | published in Google Webmaster Central
Submitting a Sitemap to Google just became even easier. No longer do you have to specify the Sitemap file type—we’ll determine the type of data you’re submitting automatically. Let’s take a quick look at the kinds of Sitemap files we support as well …
December 18th, 2008 | by Evelyn O'Keeffe | published in Google Conversions
Let’s start with the founding principles! With any website, you want to make sure that the maximum number of users entering your site then go on to ‘convert’ by making a purchase or enquiry with you. If you’re paying for traffic through online ad…
December 18th, 2008 | by Evelyn O'Keeffe | published in Google Conversions
Now, more than ever, getting the best return on investment from your website and advertising is important. You’re working hard to drive traffic to your site but is that traffic then converting into sales or leads? At Google, we’re committed to maki…
December 17th, 2008 | by Trevor Claiborne | published in Google Website Optimizer
We think Website Optimizer makes it pretty easy for you to run experiments on your website, but there are always times when you have questions or just want to double-check before launching your experiment. Maybe you’re looking for advice on copywriting…
December 17th, 2008 | by Stephanie Liu | published in Youtube API
Posted by Stephanie Liu, YouTube APIs and Tools TeamIt’s that time again — survey time. If you’re a YouTube APIdeveloper, we’d love to know how it’s going and what we can do better. Take a few minutes and fill out our survey.We always welcome feedback…