September 6th, 2011 | by Brian Hendricks | published in Google Earth
Yesterday, the New York Times published a story about business listings on Google Maps that are incorrectly being labeled as closed as a result of spam. We thought it’d be helpful to share our view about this recent issue and directly assure business…
September 4th, 2011 | by A Googler | published in Google Blog, Uncategorized
From time to time we invite guests to post about items of interest and are thrilled to have Brian May join us to talk about friend and bandmate Freddie Mercury. Our doodle celebrating Freddie’s birthday can be seen around the world on September 5 …
September 4th, 2011 | by aidanchopra | published in Google SketchUp, Uncategorized
If you’re into such noble pursuits as geo-modeling or photo-realistic rendering, there’s a good chance that you spend a ridiculous amount of time hunting for photo-textures online. Flickr and other photo sharing sites are goldmines for content, but…
September 2nd, 2011 | by Google Students | published in Google Student Blog, Uncategorized
Did you know? Only 11% of computer science (CS) undergraduate degree recipients in 2009 at major research universities were women. And, between 2000 and 2009, there has been a 79% decline in the number of first-year undergraduate women who say they are…
September 2nd, 2011 | by Scott Knaster | published in Google Code
By Scott Knaster, Google Code Blog EditorBlogger rolled out some nice new stuff this week. It’s different inside and out. As a heavy user of Blogger (you’re soaking in it!), I’m happy with anything that helps us make a better blog for you to read…
September 2nd, 2011 | by A Googler | published in Google Blog, Uncategorized
I recently decided to propose to my girlfriend, Faigy. I knew I wanted to do something meaningful and —yes—a little over the top, so I decided to put my software engineering skills to work to create the ultimate romantic scavenger hunt. On the…
Google Apps highlights – 9/2/2011
September 2nd, 2011 | by A Googler | published in Google Blog, Uncategorized
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.Over the last few weeks, we added a few frequently-requested improvements to Goo…
September 2nd, 2011 | by Kathy Walrath [GD Team] | published in Google Desktop
In 2004, Google launched Google Desktop, a program designed to make it easy for users to search their own PCs for emails, files, music, photos, Web pages and more.
Desktop has been used by tens of millions of people and we’ve been humbled by its usage and great user feedback. However, over the past seven years we’ve also witnessed some big changes in how users store and access their own data, with many moving to web-based applications. There has been a significant shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as integration of Google Desktop functionality (like local search) into most modern operating systems. This is a positive development for users and we’re excited that most people now have instant access to their personal information. As such, we’ll be discontinuing support for Google Desktop, including all of the associated APIs, services, plugins and gadgets.
As of September 14, Google Desktop will no longer be available for download, and existing installations will not be updated to include new features or fixes.
Thanks again to all of our users. It’s been a fun journey.
Posted by the Google Desktop Team
September 2nd, 2011 | by Kathy Walrath [GD Team] | published in Google Desktop API
In 2004, Google launched Google Desktop, a program designed to make it easy for users to search their own PCs for emails, files, music, photos, Web pages and more.
Desktop has been used by tens of millions of people and we’ve been humbled by its usage and great user feedback. However, over the past seven years we’ve also witnessed some big changes in how users store and access their own data, with many moving to web-based applications. There has been a significant shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as integration of Google Desktop functionality (like local search) into most modern operating systems. This is a positive development for users and we’re excited that most people now have instant access to their personal information. As such, we’ll be discontinuing support for Google Desktop, including all of the associated APIs, services, plugins and gadgets.
As of September 14, Google Desktop will no longer be available for download, and existing installations will not be updated to include new features or fixes.
Thanks again to all of our users. It’s been a fun journey.
Posted by the Google Desktop Team
September 2nd, 2011 | by A Googler | published in Google Blog
Technology improves, people’s needs change, some bets pay off and others don’t. So, as Larry previewed on our last earnings call, today we’re having a fall spring-clean at Google.Over the next few months we’ll be shutting down a number of prod…
September 2nd, 2011 | by Michelle | published in Google Apps, Google Enterprise, Uncategorized
Posted by Amit Singh, Vice President, Google Enterprise
Yesterday our chairman Eric Schmidt took the stage at Dreamforce with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to discuss the evolution of computing. In a wide-ranging conversation, they covered everything fr…
September 2nd, 2011 | by lcoffey | published in Google Merchant
As we announced in July, the new Google Product Search Feed Specification and Policies will go into effect on September 22, 2011. After this date, accounts that do not comply with the new requirements may be suspended.
New tools to help you prepare
- First, use the new Test Data Feed feature in Google Merchant Center (under “Data Feeds”) to test whether your updated feed complies with the new requirements. You will be able to download a full error report and resolve any issues prior to submitting your actual live feed. Rest assured, your test feed won’t appear on Google Product Search.
- For additional guidance, you can now view our new video tutorials:
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- Understanding changes
- Providing high quality data
- Troubleshooting tools
- We are revamping the “Data Quality” tab in Google Merchant Center to enable you to quickly view the most critical data quality errors, and learn how to fix them (coming soon).
Understanding the new requirements
We’ve received a few questions about specific attributes and have addressed these below. It’s a lot to read, but should save you time in the long run. Also, before you cancel vacation for your IT staff, please note that many of the requirements only apply to certain countries and categories.
- Google Product Category (aka GPC): This attribute ensures that your products appear in the right category (you wouldn’t want that Harry Potter DVD showing up under “Books”) and that we apply the correct set of enforcement rules for a given category.
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- GPC is only required for feeds targeting the US, UK, Germany, France or Japan
- You don’t necessarily have to send us this attribute. It is only required for items that belong to one of the following seven categories:
1. Apparel & Accessories > Clothing
2. Apparel & Accessories > Shoes
3. Apparel & Accessories
4. Media > Books
5. Media > DVDs & Movies
6. Media > Music
7. Software > Video Game Software
- For items falling under these categories, you must include one of these seven values appropriately for each item.
- More granular categorization is always preferred, but don’t stress out about this. If you can follow the level of categorization above, then you’ve satisfied our requirements.
- Images: We made image_link required for all products. Images are especially important for product in the “Apparel & Accessories” category, where shoppers love to see the different variations of a product.
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- Required worldwide (except Japan)
- For products that fall under “Apparel & Accessories” (and all corresponding sub-categories), we require unique images for products that differ by the variant attribute ‘color’, or ‘pattern’, or ‘material.’ No one likes seeing a black sweater when they click on the red one.
- We recommend sending separate images for variant products in other categories as well, but these are only required for “Apparel & Accessories.”
- Apparel/ Variants: Variety is the spice of life, and we’re working to create a richer shopping experience for apparel & accessories that come in multiple colors, patterns, sizes, etc.
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- Apparel variants are only required for feeds targeting the US. For feeds targeting other countries, the attributes are recommended and may be required in the future.
- Variant-level information is required only for products in the “’Apparel & Accessories’ category, and all related subcategories
- You only need to send us data for variant attributes if your product varies by that specific attribute. So, if your shirts are all made of cotton, there’s no need to send the “Material” attribute. However, if your shirts were available in three colors and three sizes, you would send us nine separate line items, varying by color and size.
- There is no penalty for not sending variant level data for other categories
- If you include variants, you also need to ensure that you send an “item_group_id” to connect those variants and that these group of variants share the same common title. More on this below.
- Item_Group_ID: We use this attribute to cluster together all the variants you send us for a given item. Sort of like Crazy Glue for variants.
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- This attribute is required only for variant Apparel products in the US.
- If you have a “Parent SKU” shared by all variants of a product, you can provide that as the value for ‘item group id’.
- If you send us an item_group_id attribute, we will automatically look for variant attributes. Conversely, if you did send us Item_group_id, you should ensure you send us at least one variant attribute.
- Size: This is an important Variant attribute for “Apparel & Accessories.”
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- Size is only required for feeds targeting the US.
- Separate your products into different line items in the feed (each line will have a different “size” attribute, and maybe even vary by other attributes)
- There’s no need to send separate images for separate sizes (unless the appearance of the item changes because of the size)
Please refer back to our detailed Product Feed Specification and Help Center for more information. We hope these tips will help you be more fully prepared to make the most of Google Product Search as we head into the most important selling season of the year for online retailers.
Shop On!
Posted by Mayuresh Saoji, Senior Product Manager, Google Product Search
Amirsys’ STATdx® diagnostic support portal + Google Search Appliance = better medical decision-making
September 2nd, 2011 | by Ashley | published in Google Enterprise
Posted by Roth LaFleur, Product Manager for AmirsysEditors note: Today’s guest blogger is Roth LaFleur, Product Manager for Amirsys, a company specializing in delivering useful, timely medical information to physicians and other healthcare providers….
Maps API for Flash deprecation announcement
September 2nd, 2011 | by Thor Mitchell | published in Google Maps
When we launched the Google Maps API for Flash in May 2008 we were responding to strong demand from ActionScript developers for a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications and exploit the performance and cross-platform strengths of Flash.
…
September 2nd, 2011 | by Scott Knaster | published in Google Code, Uncategorized
YanivMatthiasBy Yaniv Inbar and Matthias Linder, Client APIs TeamOver the last year, we’ve launched a number of developer APIs, such as the Tasks API, the Books API, the Search API for Shopping, and the CustomSearch API. At Google I/O we announced a…