Google Data

Have you ever wanted to use a new feature of Google App Engine, but were uncertain of how to get started? Documentation and sample applications are a great way to start learning about App Engine, but sometimes a more interactive approach can make all t…

Update: This change also applies to  tags, which were not mentioned in the original announcement.

If you follow the YouTube Creator Blog, you might have recently seen a post announcing that video tags (also known as keywords) would no longer be displayed to viewers of a video on YouTube’s website. They aren’t going away from the video itself, though—the owner of the video can still create tags for new videos and edit tags for existing videos, and video tags will still provide an important signal used to surface relevant results when searching for videos.

We’re going to be making some corresponding changes to all versions of the YouTube Data API to mimic this behavior in API responses. Starting later today, August 28, on the staging server and September 4 on the production server, any time you get a video entry back from any API method, it will have an empty element. This is a valid response from the API that your application should already handle gracefully, since videos are not required to have any keywords to begin with.

The exception to this rule is when you make authenticated requests to the API, and you request a video entry that’s owned by the currently authorized user. In that scenario, you will get back a element that contains the full list of tags for the video, and you can read, update, or remove those video tags using the standard API operations.

Important: If your application allows video owners to update the metadata of their videos, please ensure that you include the proper Authorization header for both read and write operations. Otherwise, you could accidentally return an empty list of video tags when retrieving an existing video, and end up overwriting the video’s tags if you update the metadata. Video tags continue to play an important role in helping viewers discover your videos when searching on YouTube.com or via the API, so if your application does support metadata editing, please make sure you allow owners to tag their videos properly.

Cheers,
—Jeffrey Posnick, YouTube API Team

Posted by Anna Agishtein, Google Apps TeamSummer vacation is heading into the final stretch, but summer camps are still going strong. At the end of the summers that I spent as a camper, I always came home with new friendships and a renewed sense of co…

The first presidential nominating convention, held in 1832, was meant to give Americans a voice in the selection of the presidential nominee. Fast forward to 2012 and these conventions still represent a major moment in American politics—and we’re h…

Since 2008, Google Map Maker has enabled anyone with an interest in cartography to update the maps of the areas they know, and improve their level of detail and accuracy. Whether adding new businesses, outlining building footprints, fixing road geometr…

(Cross-posted on the Google.org Blog.)Update 9/3/2012: We’ve just added NOAA’s post-Isaac imagery of New Orleans, Slidell and more to the Hurricane Isaac map.Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to make landfall as early as Tuesday or Wedn…

3D Basecamp is the world’s premier gathering of SketchUp people. Part user conference, part pep rally, this year’s edition is set to take place in our hometown of Boulder, Colorado on October 15th, 16th and 17th.

With fewer than 150 spots available, we expect Basecamp to fill up quickly. If you’re planning to join us, might I suggest setting an alarm on your phone for when registration opens. Be there or be cube! (Because a cube is a square in 3D. Har har!)

To register, and to learn all about Basecamp, please visit our event website:

Good luck, and see you in Boulder!

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist

One of the fantastic benefits of the Internet is that it puts incredible information and entertainment at our fingertips. We can instantly watch videos, listen to music, read news articles and much more. It’s important to remember, however, that thes…

Posted by Monique le Conge, Department Director, Palo Alto LibraryEditors note: Today’s guest blogger is Monique le Conge, Department Director for the Palo Alto Library, a municipal library funded by the City of Palo Alto, California. Join Monique on…

We are constantly evaluating our products to make sure that we are investing in tools that create the most value for our customers. Sometimes this requires making some changes…as we will be with DoubleClick Ad Planner. Starting on September 5, 2012, …

We are constantly evaluating our products to make sure that we are investing in tools that create the most value for our customers. Sometimes this requires making some changes…as we will be with DoubleClick Ad Planner. Starting on September 5, 2012, …

Posted by Ariel Levine, Google Play Operations Specialist

Thanks to everyone who’s been a loyal reader of the Google Books Search blog over the years. As part of an effort to simplify our communications channels, we’re retiring this blog and moving on over to the official Google Inside Search Blog. We’re looking forward to continuing the conversation about Google Books search there.

For those of you interested in eBooks, be sure to follow Google Play at play.google.com/+ to learn all about upcoming author Hangouts plus new content, features and releases on Google Play.

This article is part of our Developer Spotlight Series that promotes new tools and applications built using the Google Analytics Developer platform. To see other tools, check out our App Gallery. Interested in having us showcase your story? Let us know…

It’s Friday again, and we’re having a ball. Following in Curiosity’s wheel tracks, +Paul Saxman and +Brendan Kenny hosted Mars Mania and the Google Maps APIs! Working with imagery from the Mars rover and the Custom Street View Panorama API,…

Have you ever wanted to hear directly from some of the Google teams driving AdWords product and customer service improvements? Well, here’s a great opportunity to do exactly that!On Wednesday August 29, 2012 at 1pm PST (4pm EST), we will host a Hango…