March 12th, 2014 | by Mary Radomile | published in Google Open Source
The Google Open Source team recently sponsored the PyTennessee conference in Nashville. Adam Fletcher, an Engineer at Google and today’s guest blogger, volunteered at the conference and helped introduce Python to an enthusiastic group of students. …
March 12th, 2014 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Apps, Google Enterprise
Editor’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Tim Dickson, Director of Technology for Auberge Resorts, a boutique luxury hotel company with hotels in seven locations, including the Auberge Resorts, Esperanza Resort, Calistoga Ranch, Solage and Malliouhana, a new property in the British West Indies. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.
It may seem counter-intuitive in an industry that strives to offer a more human touch, but at Auberge Resorts we try to minimize guest interaction with staff. Our luxury hotels offer immersive experiences ranging from mineral baths and wine tastings in Napa Valley to private casitas overlooking the Sea of Cortez in Baja Mexico. The less time our guests spend at the front desk, the more time they have to explore all that our properties have to offer. So we purchased Chromebooks for our guests to check in and out at their convenience — whether that’s from the pool or their room — but they don’t have to wait for us.
Employees at our resorts and residential vacation rental properties will be using Chromebooks behind the front desk for the day-to-day operations soon, too. They’re easy to deploy and support, which saves us money from an infrastructure and maintenance perspective and makes life easier for the small IT teams in our various locations. Plus, Chromebooks automatically check for security updates and download them as needed, saving our team from the tedious task of installing frequent patches. We can focus on providing the best services and experience for our guests, instead of dealing with computer issues.
We also switched our 2,000 employees from Microsoft Outlook to Google Apps. One of our primary goals in moving to Google Apps was to improve coordination among sales and marketing staff across the company. Employees at the resorts and offices in New York, San Diego and Los Angeles can share the same documents and spreadsheets. Sales associates can work in the same doc at the same time and see which potential guests have been called so they can avoid duplicating efforts.
Using Google Apps hasn’t just improved our productivity – it’s changing our corporate culture. Meetings used to be boring: people sat on phone calls, reading from agendas. Now, employees are excited to have discussions over Google Hangouts. They bring out our employees’ creativity and personalities, and they getting to know each other better as a result. During a recent companywide Hangout to share updates about our sustainability efforts, teams from the different resorts acted out skits to relay stories about their conservation efforts. One team installed a chicken coop on their property and wore chicken costumes on the Hangout as part of their performance, and another group told their story using a children’s rhyme.
Google Apps and Chromebooks are bringing our employees closer together, helping us improve communication and productivity and enhancing the resort experience for our guests in ways we never dreamed of before. The technology allows us to improve our customer service in a unique manner, to offer visitors more flexibility and convenience and to set our resorts apart. Guests still get the smile and top-notch service they expect from our friendly staff, but we let them be in control over their own experiences.
March 12th, 2014 | by Rob Newton | published in Google Adwords
We are constantly working to improve AdWords, and on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 9am PT, Jerry Dischler, VP of Product Management for AdWords will share a brand new set of innovations with you live on the Inside AdWords blog. Register for the livestream here.
Building on the success of enhanced campaigns, Jerry will announce a number of new features that help you use context to reach customers in even more effective ways. We’ve designed new tools so you can increase awareness and engagement everywhere your customers are online – from the web, to the mobile web, to mobile apps. And when it’s time to manage your campaigns and measure performance, we want to help you do so efficiently in AdWords with new functionality designed for the multi-screen world.
These AdWords innovations are the result of countless conversations we’ve had over the past year with advertisers, both large and small. Based on your feedback, hundreds of product managers and engineers worked hard to build these new products. Simply put, we built these new products for you.
We hope you’ll join the April 22 livestream of our announcements featured here on the Inside AdWords blog. Register for the livestream here. Until then, follow us on our +GoogleAds page for sneak previews of what’s to come. Use hashtag, #StepInsideAdWords, to join in on the conversation.
Posted by Your Inside Adwords Team
March 12th, 2014 | by Emily Wood | published in Google Blog
On the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web, we’re pleased to share this guest post from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web. In this post he reflects on the past, present and future of the web—and encourages the rest of us to fight to keep it free and open. -Ed.
Today is the web’s 25th birthday. On March 12, 1989, I distributed a proposal to improve information flows: “a ‘web’ of notes with links between them.”
Though CERN, as a physics lab, couldn’t justify such a general software project, my boss Mike Sendall allowed me to work on it on the side. In 1990, I wrote the first browser and editor. In 1993, after much urging, CERN declared that WWW technology would be available to all, without paying royalties, forever.
This decision enabled tens of thousands to start working together to build the web. Now, about 40 percent of us are connected and creating online. The web has generated trillions of dollars of economic value, transformed education and healthcare and activated many new movements for democracy around the world. And we’re just getting started.
How has this happened? By design, the underlying Internet and the WWW are non-hierarchical, decentralized and radically open. The web can be made to work with any type of information, on any device, with any software, in any language. You can link to any piece of information. You don’t need to ask for permission. What you create is limited only by your imagination.
So today is a day to celebrate. But it’s also an occasion to think, discuss—and do. Key decisions on the governance and future of the Internet are looming, and it’s vital for all of us to speak up for the web’s future. How can we ensure that the other 60 percent around the world who are not connected get online fast? How can we make sure that the web supports all languages and cultures, not just the dominant ones? How do we build consensus around open standards to link the coming Internet of Things? Will we allow others to package and restrict our online experience, or will we protect the magic of the open web and the power it gives us to say, discover, and create anything? How can we build systems of checks and balances to hold the groups that can spy on the net accountable to the public? These are some of my questions—what are yours?
On the 25th birthday of the web, I ask you to join in—to help us imagine and build the future standards for the web, and to press for every country to develop a digital bill of rights to advance a free and open web for everyone. Learn more at webat25.org and speak up for the sort of web we really want with #web25.
Posted by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web
March 11th, 2014 | by Maps Devel | published in Google Maps
Since we introduced the ability to embed the new Google Maps, a growing number of sites across the web have been helping their visitors visualize and remember places, using maps built for them. However, we know that many sites require multiple maps, and repeatedly generating them can be a challenge.
Today we’re making this easier by launching the Google Maps Embed API, giving developers the ability to generate HTML snippets that embed Google Maps within their own website. Using the API to take control of your embedded maps, you can now effortlessly customize the location and appearance of the map with a handful of simple URL parameters.
For example, our friends at the Guggenheim in New York are using the Google Maps Embed API, allowing visitors to save the location to Google Maps directly from the website. Visitors can then quickly plan their day and navigate to the museum by pulling up their saved places on any device with Google Maps.
Over in San Francisco, SFMOMA is using the Google Maps Embed API to show the museum’s temporary exhibit locations. Visitors can get easily get directions to these locations and save them to Google Maps for later viewing on any of their devices.
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In addition, over the coming weeks, we’ll be updating existing classic Google Maps embeds to the new format so visitors can enjoy a consistent embedded Google Maps experience across the web. This also means that starting today, the Maps/Earth APIs Terms of Service will apply to all updated embedded Google Maps.
Finally, as with our existing embedded maps, the Google Maps Embed API is free and without limits, and the new API also includes the same on-map ad experience we introduced to embedded maps in November.
To get started, head over to our developers page and embed away!
Posted by Ben Greenwood and Ken Hoetmer, Product Managers, Google Maps APIs
March 11th, 2014 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Apps
Add-ons are enabled by default. Google Apps admins have the option to disable add-ons through Drive settings in the Admin console. Users will always see the Add-ons menu and can browse them but will not be able to install them if the feature is disabled by the admin.
Scheduled release domain admins have the option to disable the feature in the Admin console before it launches to their users in a few weeks.
Release Track:
Add-ons menu: Rapid release
Admin console setting: Rapid release and Scheduled release
Editions included:
Google Apps for Business, Education and Government
For more information:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/4530135
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2014/03/bring-little-something-extra-to-docs.html
whatsnew.googleapps.com
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March 11th, 2014 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Apps, Google Enterprise
(Cross-posted on the Google Drive Blog)
You use Google Docs and Sheets to get all sorts of stuff done—whether you’re staying up late to finish that final paper or just getting started on a new project at the office. But to help take some of that work off your shoulders, today we’re launching add-ons—new tools created by developer partners that give you even more features in your documents and spreadsheets.
To browse through add-ons for Docs and Sheets, select Get add-ons in the Add-ons menu of any open document or spreadsheet. (Add-ons for spreadsheets are only available in the new Google Sheets).
Once you install an add-on it will become available across all of your documents or spreadsheets and you can start using it right away.
Here are just a few examples of how add-ons can help you do more with Docs and Sheets:
Get approvals from Docs and Sheets
Need to gather approvals or feedback? Letter Feed Workflows routes your document to the right people and adds a simple “Approve” button right inside your document or spreadsheet. You’ll be notified as soon as it’s approved, and can publish the final version with a single click.
Print address labels and name tags
With Avery Label Merge you can seamlessly import addresses or names from Sheets into Docs for printing. Just pick the type of Avery labels you’ll be printing and your document will be formatted to match the layout of your label pack.
Create a bibliography without leaving Docs
Citing sources is about to get much easier for the millions of students who use Google Docs to write papers. The EasyBib Bibliography Creator helps you cite books, journals, and websites in MLA, APA, and Chicago style by entering in titles, journal article names, and websites right inside your document.
Send customized emails
With Merge by Mailchimp you can send customized emails from Google Docs. Use merge tags to pull info from a spreadsheet into your document. Once your data is merged, hit send and your personalized emails will be delivered.
These are just some of the many add-ons that are available for you to use right now in the Docs or Sheets add-on stores, with lots more on the way.
March 11th, 2014 | by John A.Smith | published in Google Adsense
Tecamachalco.net, a news portal and business directory, was founded in 2004 by Jorge Eustaquio. The site covers news, history, sports and culture from Tecamachalco, a city in the south-east of Mexico. Today, the site employs two people in addition to Jorge.
Jorge read about AdSense in a blog and decided to test the monetization solution. “I liked the idea of not only having local advertisers from Tecamachalco, but also from other regions in Mexico as well as internationally,” he says. The revenue generated since beginning with AdSense has played a key part in enabling him to invest in similar projects for other towns in Mexico.
Using combined AdSense and Google Analytics reports, Jorge was surprised to learn that almost 40% of his audience currently come from users located in other countries. He plans to continue with AdSense, as his earnings have allowed him “to invest in new projects and take on more staff when necessary.”
Read the full story.
Posted by Barbara Sarti – Inside AdSense Team
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March 11th, 2014 | by Rob Newton | published in Google Adwords, Youtube
On April 15, we will go from three TrueView formats to two: TrueView in-stream and TrueView in-display. This will effectively combine the in-search and in-display formats into one format called TrueView in-display.
In addition to simplifying campaign creation and management, this change offers the following:
What do you need to do?
Starting April 15, all new video campaigns will use new campaign settings and simplified ad formats. At the same time, you’ll have access to an upgrade center where you can upgrade any or all of your existing campaigns to the new functionality. Starting May 15, all campaigns will be automatically upgraded.
We believe this change will make TrueView an even more effective tool to help you build your brand with videos. For further reading, please visit our Help Center article.
Posted by Ryo Akasaka, Product Manager, AdWords for Video
March 11th, 2014 | by Research @ Google | published in Google Research
Posted by Maggie Johnson, Director of Education and University Relations
A few days ago, I attended the annual SIGCSE (Special Interest Group, Computer Science Education) conference in Atlanta, GA. Google has been a platinum sponsor of SIGCSE for many years now, and the conference provides an opportunity for thousands of CS educators to come together, share ideas and engage in the resurgence of activity and interest in CS education.
Seven years ago, the number of CS majors at the undergraduate level hit an all time low; the number of students taking the Advanced Placement CS exam fell 15% between 2001 and 2007, and the number of college freshmen intending to major in CS plummeted more than 70% during the same period. This was a concern for CS educators, as advancing U.S. students’ understanding of the principles and practices of computing is critical to developing a globally competitive workforce for the 21st century.
Since 2007, though, many significant things have happened. First, a commission of ten secondary and higher education faculty came together to design a new Advanced Placement CS course called CS Principles. This reinvention of AP CS not only introduces students to programming, but also gives them an understanding of the fundamental concepts of computing, its breadth of application and its potential for transforming the world. Additionally, since 2007 the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), a community that plays a key role in professional development, CS standards definition (another critical stake in the ground), and scaling of the new AP CS, has grown to 16,000+ members.
Finally, late last year, code.org launched Hour of Code with over 29 million students participating, which is an unprecedented scale in CS education. This event raised awareness and provided enormous opportunity for follow-on with teachers and students who realized that coding is not only accessible, but fun. Their next step is to scale Exploring Computer Science this fall to 30 school districts (and counting) including some of the biggest districts in the country, in addition to developing K-5 and middle school curriculum.
Last week at SIGCSE, Google had an opportunity to present two new programs and a transition of an existing program:
The growth in awareness and activity in CS education over the past two years has been amazing and it continues to grow rapidly, thanks to the hard work of many. Google is proud to work with the many organizations in CS education to support and scale their work, through programs and funding. We strive to develop new programs where there are gaps, utilizing our technical infrastructure, our experience with scale, and a deep understanding of the potential of CS to transform the world in positive ways. This has been core to Google’s philosophy since we started 16 years ago.
March 11th, 2014 | by Jane Smith | published in Google Enterprise
Editor’s note: Today’s guest blogger is Andrew DiMichele, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Omada Health in San Francisco. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.
Every young company has to make careful decisions about technology purchases and how to get the most value for their money. At Omada Health, the decisions get more challenging: How do we stay compliant with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)? Can we manage how people in our company access and share protected health information? Can we assure our customers that we can keep this data secure – and can we do it affordably?
Chromebooks allow us to build our business in a way that we think is best for reducing the impact of chronic disease. Omada creates software programs that help at-risk people improve their health. Insurers and employers buy our programs, which help people share their progress as they become healthier and receive support from a social community. Our first product, Prevent, is a 16-week online program that helps people lose weight and change the factors that put them at risk for Type 2 Diabetes.
All work by our health coaches is done with participants, but their task is still to make sure the program’s goals are being met. These coaches work from home or at client sites – for instance, they may be nutritionists or dieticians with their own businesses. We need to give them tools for managing Omada programs and participants without worrying that data is being accessed by unauthorized people. We considered allowing health coaches to use their own computers, or supplying them with laptops from other brands, but we realized we’d have no way to control how or where they download information, or who else might use the machines and gain access to our participant data.
Supplying health coaches with Chromebooks is the simplest, most cost-effective way we’ve found to provide easy yet secure access to program information. Through the management console, we configure our Chromebooks to delete local data when users log off, so if a Chromebook is lost or stolen, data won’t fall into the wrong hands. We limit logins to our health coaches only, so no one else can use a Chromebook to gain entry to our coaching and program solutions. Because Chrome is the browser on Chromebooks, and because we can prevent other programs from being loaded onto the devices, we can protect ourselves from malware and viruses that could damage our networks.
When we talk to prospective customers for our Prevent program, they have many questions about how we secure health information and remain compliant. Giving Chromebooks to our health coaches makes us confident we can meet these strict requirements in a way that doesn’t break the bank.
March 10th, 2014 | by Rob Newton | published in Google Adwords
Introducing Consumer Ratings Annotations
Over the next few days, we’ll be rolling out consumer ratings annotations, a new format for search ads that provides detailed consumer opinion data. Consumer ratings annotations highlight one or more strongly rated aspects of your business as part of your ad. For example, if you’re an insurance company, this annotation may be focused on claims handling. If you’re an airline, it may highlight your rewards program.
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| Example of a search ad on Google.com showing consumer ratings annotations |
Testing with our beta advertisers has shown that consumer ratings annotations can increase click-through rates (CTR) by 10% on average. Many advertisers have already seen the positive impact of this format. Brian Borkowski, Director of Digital Marketing at Farmers Insurance Group, says, “Consumer ratings annotations help us stand out from competitors and attract new customers. When we looked at our ads that displayed these ratings, we saw an increase in CTR, which speaks to the awareness, trust and impact from this format.”
Consumer Ratings Annotations: Powered by Google Consumer Surveys
Data for this annotation comes from hundreds of thousands of surveys we’ve run using the Google Consumer Surveys platform. Google Consumer Surveys provides a controlled platform for sampling consumer opinion, helping to avoid some of the potential biases and risks with other types of open-to-everyone review platforms. Each rating is based on at least hundreds of completed surveys, with the average above 1000. We plan to regularly refresh the survey data to keep the ratings current.
Learn more
For the last few years, we’ve been working on bringing trust and transparency to your search ads with formats like seller ratings and review extensions. Consumer ratings annotations will soon start showing with several hundred advertisers’ search ads in the US, UK and Canada. We hope to expand availability to more advertisers in the future, so drop us a line if you’re interested in showing consumer ratings annotations with your ads.
To learn more about consumer ratings annotations, check out the AdWords Help Center.
Authored by Shreyas Doshi, Group Product Manager, AdWords
March 10th, 2014 | by Mary Radomile | published in Google Open Source
Cross Posted from the Official Google Blog
Tobi Mueller started coding when his grandfather, who works in IT, gave him access to a spare PC. It was a sweet 286 machine which Tobi learned to program with the then-popular teaching language Pascal. He eventually became interested in free and open source software, but it was Google Summer of Code (GSoC) that helped transform Tobi into the free software contributor he is today.
Tobi was a GSoC student in 2007 for GNOME, a free software desktop environment. He’s been a regular contributor to the GNOME community ever since—and in 2012, Tobi was elected to the GNOME Foundation board of directors.
Tobi is one of more than 7,500 students who have participated in Google Summer of Code program over the past nine years. Every summer, GSoC participants work with various organizations in the open source community, building important technical skills and gaining workplace experience. Students aren’t the only ones who benefit; their projects also give back to the open source community. Karen Sandler, GNOME’s executive director, told us how Google Summer of Code “encourages and empowers” new contributors and helps “invigorate projects.”
So if you’re a university student looking to earn real-world experience this summer, we hope you’ll consider coding for a cool open source project with Google Summer of Code. We’re celebrating the 10th year of the program in 2014, and we’d love to see more student applicants than ever before. In 2013 we accepted almost 1,200 students and we’re planning to accept 10 percent more this year.
You can submit proposals on our website starting now through Friday, March 21 at 12:00pm PDT. Get started by reviewing the ideas pages of the 190 open source projects in this year’s program, and decide which projects you’re interested in. There are a limited number of spots, and writing a great project proposal is essential to being selected to the program—so be sure to check out the Student Manual for advice. For ongoing information throughout the application period and beyond, see the Google Open Source blog.
Good luck to all the open source coders out there, and remember to submit your proposals early—you only have until March 21 to apply!
Posted by Carol Smith, Google Open Source team
March 10th, 2014 | by Emily Wood | published in Google Blog
Tobi Mueller started coding when his grandfather, who works in IT, gave him access to a spare PC. It was a sweet 286 machine which Tobi learned to program with the then-popular teaching language Pascal. He eventually became interested in free and open source software, but it was Google Summer of Code (GSoC) that helped transform Tobi into the free software contributor he is today.
Tobi was a GSoC student in 2007 for GNOME, a free software desktop environment. He’s been a regular contributor to the GNOME community ever since—and in 2012, Tobi was elected to the GNOME Foundation board of directors.
Tobi is one of more than 7,500 students who have participated in Google Summer of Code program over the past nine years. Every summer, GSoC participants work with various organizations in the open source community, building important technical skills and gaining workplace experience. Students aren’t the only ones who benefit; their projects also give back to the open source community. Karen Sandler, GNOME’s executive director, told us how Google Summer of Code “encourages and empowers” new contributors and helps “invigorate projects.”
So if you’re a university student looking to earn real-world experience this summer, we hope you’ll consider coding for a cool open source project with Google Summer of Code. We’re celebrating the 10th year of the program in 2014, and we’d love to see more student applicants than ever before. In 2013 we accepted almost 1,200 students and we’re planning to accept 10 percent more this year.
You can submit proposals on our website starting now through Friday, March 21 at 12:00pm PDT. Get started by reviewing the ideas pages of the 190 open source projects in this year’s program, and decide which projects you’re interested in. There are a limited number of spots, and writing a great project proposal is essential to being selected to the program—so be sure to check out the Student Manual for advice. For ongoing information throughout the application period and beyond, see the Google Open Source blog.
Good luck to all the open source coders out there, and remember to submit your proposals early—you only have until March 21 to apply!
Posted by Carol Smith, Google Open Source team
March 10th, 2014 | by Kim | published in Google DoubleClick
Marketers and agencies have countless opportunities to engage audiences with rich formats across channels and devices. But today, organizations are using an average of 4.7 ad tech platforms to execute what should be a seamless experience across search,…