Google Data » A Googler

Google Data » A Googler https://googledata.org Everything Google: News, Products, Services, Content, Culture Sat, 14 Mar 2015 22:51:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.7.5 Better together: Constitute, Google Docs, & the National Constitution Center https://googledata.org/google-docs/better-together-constitute-google-docs-the-national-constitutions-center/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=better-together-constitute-google-docs-the-national-constitutions-center https://googledata.org/google-docs/better-together-constitute-google-docs-the-national-constitutions-center/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2015 18:49:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=313f36c250cacdd031f34bed3c84bccb This post comes to us from Zachary Elkins, Director of the Constitute Project. The Constitute Project was launched in 2013 as a way for constitution-makers, scholars, and everyday people to explore alternative ideas in constitutional design. -Ed.

Constitutional reform happens more often than you might think. On average, countries around the world replace their constitutions every 19 years and amend them every two years. It’s not an easy task, even if it’s common. Constitutions are often the result of deliberation, discussion and discovery—discovery that often comes from writing together.

But collaborative writing can be challenging. It’s hard to write something with other people and still make it cohesive, harmonic and readable. These pitfalls are particularly salient for constitutions—documents that are supposed to represent the aspirations and principles of a people.

That’s where Constitute comes in. A project of the Comparative Constitutions Project and seeded by Google Ideas, Constitute allows anyone to read, search and compare every constitution in the world, indexed by topic. Constitute is built for people to analyze text, but they can move from analysis to drafting by exporting constitutional excerpts directly to Google Docs—a shared space to create and debate a new “founding” document.

Today a new set of exhibits at the National Constitution Center helps bring this hands-on approach to the general public. Created in 1988, the NCC is an interactive museum in Philadelphia dedicated to the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitute exhibit has two components. The first is an installation of Constitute that invites visitors to view the U.S. Constitution (and other Constitutions) in comparative perspective.

In the second component, select visitors can put this analysis to work in a space we’re calling the “Drafting Lab.” There, people can use Constitute and Google Docs to participate with fellow drafters in each of the stages of Constitution-making—from research to deliberation to drafting.

The Lab might be the first of its kind in the world: a space for citizens and drafters of all kinds to imagine, rethink and rediscover constitutional ideas. We don’t really know what happens when drafters work simultaneously on the same piece of “parchment” (a Google Doc) and share the same workspace. So the sessions in the Drafting Lab may be illuminating for both scholars and for participants.

If you're unable to visit the NCC and do some drafting in person, you can always give it a try at home by visiting constituteproject.org.

May the constitution-making begin!

Posted by Zachary Elkins, Director, Constitute Project]]> This post comes to us from Zachary Elkins, Director of the Constitute Project. The Constitute Project was launched in 2013 as a way for constitution-makers, scholars, and everyday people to explore alternative ideas in constitutional design. -Ed.

Constitutional reform happens more often than you might think. On average, countries around the world replace their constitutions every 19 years and amend them every two years. It’s not an easy task, even if it’s common. Constitutions are often the result of deliberation, discussion and discovery—discovery that often comes from writing together.

But collaborative writing can be challenging. It’s hard to write something with other people and still make it cohesive, harmonic and readable. These pitfalls are particularly salient for constitutions—documents that are supposed to represent the aspirations and principles of a people.

That’s where Constitute comes in. A project of the Comparative Constitutions Project and seeded by Google Ideas, Constitute allows anyone to read, search and compare every constitution in the world, indexed by topic. Constitute is built for people to analyze text, but they can move from analysis to drafting by exporting constitutional excerpts directly to Google Docs—a shared space to create and debate a new “founding” document.

The Lab might be the first of its kind in the world: a space for citizens and drafters of all kinds to imagine, rethink and rediscover constitutional ideas. We don’t really know what happens when drafters work simultaneously on the same piece of “parchment” (a Google Doc) and share the same workspace. So the sessions in the Drafting Lab may be illuminating for both scholars and for participants.

If you're unable to visit the NCC and do some drafting in person, you can always give it a try at home by visiting constituteproject.org.

May the constitution-making begin!

Posted by Zachary Elkins, Director, Constitute Project ]]> https://googledata.org/google-docs/better-together-constitute-google-docs-the-national-constitutions-center/feed/ 0 Updated mobile apps for Docs, Sheets and Slides https://googledata.org/google-docs/updated-mobile-apps-for-docs-sheets-and-slides/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=updated-mobile-apps-for-docs-sheets-and-slides https://googledata.org/google-docs/updated-mobile-apps-for-docs-sheets-and-slides/#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2015 18:31:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=7129312a0e9a1e6a4ddf9567699baa0b Docs, Sheets and Slides make it easier to get things done while you’re on the go.

Doing, not just viewing
You’ve asked for more editing tools on mobile, so today’s improvements include real-time spell-checking in documents, hiding rows and columns in spreadsheets, and grouping shapes in presentations.

Keeping your content safe
Online security is really important, so we offer functionality like two-step verification to protect your Google account. Starting today, Google Docs supports Touch ID on iOS, so you can unlock Docs, Sheets and Slides with your unique fingerprint.

Making everything more accessible
If you’re blind or have low vision, we have improved support and performance for TalkBack on Android and VoiceOver on iOS to create, edit, and share files in Docs, Sheets and Slides. The updated apps also respond well to screen magnification, in case you need to zoom in for a closer look.

These updates are rolling out now, so look for them on Google Play and the App Store (Docs, Sheets, Slides), and download the new versions as they become available. For even more news and tips, you can now follow Google Docs on Google+, Twitter and Facebook.

Posted by Jude Flannery, Engineering Director]]> https://googledata.org/google-docs/updated-mobile-apps-for-docs-sheets-and-slides/feed/ 0 Making it easier to manage pages on your blog https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/making-it-easier-to-manage-pages-on-your-blog/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=making-it-easier-to-manage-pages-on-your-blog https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/making-it-easier-to-manage-pages-on-your-blog/#comments Thu, 27 Feb 2014 17:15:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=5560bca3cd47058b58e3aae2557ec136 Adding pages to your blog can be a great way to organize content - like ‘About me’ or ‘Advertise’ sections. To make managing pages easier, we redesigned the ‘Pages’ tab in the Blogger dashboard to make it look and feel more like something you’re already familiar with: managing posts.

The new look for the pages list on each blog

With the new design, you can:

View important details about your pages like view count and comments
Manage multiple pages at once with new selection tools
Easily see whether pages are in draft, imported, or published states

The new look for the summary of pages on each blog

Linking to your Pages

Managing the Pages Widgets for your blog is now done through the Layout UI. Multiple Pages Widgets can be added, if you want different pages linked to from different areas of the layout.

The 'Pages' widget as it appears in the list, after clicking 'Add a Gadget'

For a Horizontal list, add a Pages Widget under the Header (e.g. "Navigation Pages" below)
For a Vertical list, add a Pages Widget to a side column (e.g. "External Pages" below)

A layout with two Pages widgets, titled 'Navigation Pages' (horizontal) and 'External Pages' (vertical)

Adding external links

To add a link to a URL which is not one of your pages, when editing or adding the Pages Widget, click '+ Add external link' at the top of the 'Pages to Show' list.

Dialog for Pages widget configuration

This will show a dialog where you can set the title and URL to add to the list.

Dialog for adding external links to the Pages widgets

Happy blogging!

Posted by Cal Smith and Katrina Le

]]> Adding pages to your blog can be a great way to organize content - like ‘About me’ or ‘Advertise’ sections. To make managing pages easier, we redesigned the ‘Pages’ tab in the Blogger dashboard to make it look and feel more like something you’re already familiar with: managing posts.

The new look for the pages list on each blog

With the new design, you can:

View important details about your pages like view count and comments
Manage multiple pages at once with new selection tools
Easily see whether pages are in draft, imported, or published states

The new look for the summary of pages on each blog

Linking to your Pages

Managing the Pages Widgets for your blog is now done through the Layout UI. Multiple Pages Widgets can be added, if you want different pages linked to from different areas of the layout.

The 'Pages' widget as it appears in the list, after clicking 'Add a Gadget'

For a Horizontal list, add a Pages Widget under the Header (e.g. "Navigation Pages" below)
For a Vertical list, add a Pages Widget to a side column (e.g. "External Pages" below)

A layout with two Pages widgets, titled 'Navigation Pages' (horizontal) and 'External Pages' (vertical)

Adding external links

To add a link to a URL which is not one of your pages, when editing or adding the Pages Widget, click '+ Add external link' at the top of the 'Pages to Show' list.

Dialog for Pages widget configuration

This will show a dialog where you can set the title and URL to add to the list.

Dialog for adding external links to the Pages widgets

Happy blogging!

Posted by Cal Smith and Katrina Le

]]> https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/making-it-easier-to-manage-pages-on-your-blog/feed/ 0 Earn money from your blog this holiday season https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/earn-money-from-your-blog-this-holiday-season/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=earn-money-from-your-blog-this-holiday-season https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/earn-money-from-your-blog-this-holiday-season/#comments Wed, 11 Dec 2013 16:15:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=a7746f7effe168b5a310295dcbfeacae

The holiday season is here and retailers are spending more on online advertising to promote their products. Your blog has valuable space and you can earn some extra money by placing Google AdSense ads next to your content.

If you don’t already have AdSense set up on your blog, visit the Earnings tab of your Blogger dashboard to give it a try. It’s free and only takes a moment to sign up.

And if you’ve tried AdSense out in the past, head to your blog and give it a second look. It now has updated controls, so you can match the ads that appear to the style of your blog.

Happy holidays!

Posted by Ian Cohan-Shapiro, Marketing Manager

]]>

]]> https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/earn-money-from-your-blog-this-holiday-season/feed/ 0 Saying Goodbye to iGoogle https://googledata.org/igoogle/saying-goodbye-to-igoogle/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=saying-goodbye-to-igoogle https://googledata.org/igoogle/saying-goodbye-to-igoogle/#comments Fri, 01 Nov 2013 07:35:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=85f68a87f2794373c192a0cd8fd6b02f

As we announced on the Official Google Blog nearly a year and a half ago, today we’re retiring iGoogle. Moving forward, iGoogle will redirect to www.google.com. If you’ve been using iGoogle gadgets to access information from Google products like Gmail and Finance, you can continue to do so via our new app launcher.

We know that many of you enjoyed your customized iGoogle experience, so if you’re looking for alternatives, there are some options that might fit your needs.

Sincerely,

The iGoogle Team

________________________

Frequently-asked questions

1. What will happen to my iGoogle data?

All iGoogle data will be systematically deleted from Google servers.

2. Will there be any way to retrieve my data from Google in the future?

No. All user data will be permanently, and irrevocably deleted.

3. Will this affect my other Google services?

No. It simply means you will access them in a different way. You will still be able to use Google Chrome as your web browser, and you will still be able to access all Google services, such as Gmail, Google Search, Google Bookmarks, Google Calendar, Google Finance, Google Translate, etc., by opening them directly.

4. Why was iGoogle discontinued?

Please refer to our blog post for more information.

5. What will happen with third party gadgets?

Gadgets provided by third party developers will continue to be served. Google Sites, and other third party sites that have installed these gadgets will not be affected.

]]>

We know that many of you enjoyed your customized iGoogle experience, so if you’re looking for alternatives, there are some options that might fit your needs.

Sincerely,

The iGoogle Team

________________________

Frequently-asked questions

1. What will happen to my iGoogle data?

All iGoogle data will be systematically deleted from Google servers.

2. Will there be any way to retrieve my data from Google in the future?

No. All user data will be permanently, and irrevocably deleted.

3. Will this affect my other Google services?

4. Why was iGoogle discontinued?

Please refer to our blog post for more information.

5. What will happen with third party gadgets?

Gadgets provided by third party developers will continue to be served. Google Sites, and other third party sites that have installed these gadgets will not be affected.

]]> https://googledata.org/igoogle/saying-goodbye-to-igoogle/feed/ 0 Automatically share your blog posts to Google+ https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/automatically-share-your-blog-posts-to-google/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=automatically-share-your-blog-posts-to-google https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/automatically-share-your-blog-posts-to-google/#comments Tue, 10 Sep 2013 04:01:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=3d74447c23300082a7650bc12a428918

Notifying your followers that you've published a new blog post not only gets the conversation going, it encourages them to reshare your content with others. In this way it's critical for growing your blog's audience and engagement. But it takes time. And we want to give you that time back.

Starting today you can automatically share your blog posts publicly to Google+ — as soon as you publish them, with no additional clicks. And of course: if you've enabled Google+ Comments, any replies on Google+ will also appear on your blog.

Blog post

Google+ post

If you've connected a Google+ page or profile to your blog, this new feature will start working the next time you publish a post. If you'd rather not share to Google+, or you'd prefer to be prompted each time, you can adjust your preferences in the Google+ tab of your Blogger Dashboard.

Happy blogging!

Posted by Marc Ridey, Software Engineer

]]>

Blog post

Google+ post

Posted by Marc Ridey, Software Engineer

]]> https://googledata.org/google-blogger-buzz/automatically-share-your-blog-posts-to-google/feed/ 0 A final farewell https://googledata.org/uncategorized/a-final-farewell/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-final-farewell https://googledata.org/uncategorized/a-final-farewell/#comments Tue, 02 Jul 2013 07:33:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=5a5875c1f0e18c2af22c1e9dd490f2cb

Thank you for stopping by.

Today, we powered down Google Reader. We understand you may not agree with this decision, but we hope you'll come to love these alternatives as much as you loved Reader.

Sincerely,

The Google Reader Team

Frequently-asked questions:

1. What will happen to my Google Reader data?

All Google Reader subscription data (eg. lists of people that you follow, items you have starred, notes you have created, etc.) will be systematically deleted from Google servers.

2. Will there be any way to retrieve my subscription data from Google in the future?

Note -- all subscription data will be permanently, and irrevocably deleted. Google will not be able to recover any Google Reader subscription data for any user after July 15, 2013.

3. Why was Google Reader discontinued?

Please refer to our blog post for more information.

]]> https://googledata.org/uncategorized/a-final-farewell/feed/ 0 Celebrating 10 years of shared success https://googledata.org/uncategorized/celebrating-10-years-of-shared-success-3/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=celebrating-10-years-of-shared-success-3 https://googledata.org/uncategorized/celebrating-10-years-of-shared-success-3/#comments Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:35:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=0442854b2f5a24731fcd3ef5ee3531b2

Ten years ago we launched AdSense to help publishers earn money by placing relevant ads on their websites. I can still remember the excitement and anticipation as AdSense went live that first day.

Our small team huddled together in a cramped conference room, and right away we saw that publishers were as excited about AdSense as we were.

Fast-forward 10 years, and AdSense has become a core part of Google’s advertising business. The AdSense community has grown to include more than 2 million publishers, and last year alone, publishers earned more than $7 billion from AdSense. AdSense is a community that thrives because of all the content creators we are so fortunate to partner with. Their stories inspire us to do our part to make AdSense great.

On this occasion, it’s especially inspiring to hear the stories of partners who have been with us since the very beginning—like a retiree in New Zealand who was able to pursue her dream of writing about her garden, a tech support expert in Colorado who can spend more time with his kids, and a theme park reviewer who now sends employees around the world to test and review rides—all thanks to money earned from AdSense.

As part of our 10th anniversary celebration, we hope you’ll tune into our live Hangout on Air today at 10 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. GMT) on the AdSense Google+ page. I look forward to joining several of our partners to share stories from the early days of AdSense, talk about how we’ve all grown since then, and discuss the future for publishers and online advertising. And if you want even more 10th anniversary celebration, just visit our AdSense 10th anniversary page at any time.

Posted by Susan Wojcicki, SVP, Ads and Commerce

]]>

Ten years ago we launched AdSense to help publishers earn money by placing relevant ads on their websites. I can still remember the excitement and anticipation as AdSense went live that first day.

Our small team huddled together in a cramped conference room, and right away we saw that publishers were as excited about AdSense as we were.

Posted by Susan Wojcicki, SVP, Ads and Commerce

]]> https://googledata.org/uncategorized/celebrating-10-years-of-shared-success-3/feed/ 0 Powering Down Google Reader https://googledata.org/google-reader/powering-down-google-reader/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=powering-down-google-reader https://googledata.org/google-reader/powering-down-google-reader/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:06:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=1201fcf4f15a47f0fb68a667683f1303
Posted by Alan Green, Software Engineer

We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too.

There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.

To ensure a smooth transition, we’re providing a three-month sunset period so you have sufficient time to find an alternative feed-reading solution. If you want to retain your Reader data, including subscriptions, you can do so through Google Takeout.

Thank you again for using Reader as your RSS platform.]]>
Posted by Alan Green, Software Engineer

Thank you again for using Reader as your RSS platform. ]]> https://googledata.org/google-reader/powering-down-google-reader/feed/ 0 Quickoffice + Google Apps = better document conversion and an iPad app https://googledata.org/google-apps/quickoffice-google-apps-better-document-conversion-and-an-ipad-app/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=quickoffice-google-apps-better-document-conversion-and-an-ipad-app https://googledata.org/google-apps/quickoffice-google-apps-better-document-conversion-and-an-ipad-app/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:20:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=7baeb0f7e848e1e8732c7f3bcf6b2051

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Director of Product Management, Google Drive

Since the Quickoffice team joined Google a few months ago, we’ve been working to make it easier for you to work with your legacy Microsoft Office files -- both by converting them to Google documents and by editing them directly in Quickoffice.

Better conversion to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides
You’ve always had the option to convert documents from popular formats into Google Docs, where you can share and work together in real-time. In the past few months, we’ve incorporated Quickoffice conversion technology into this process so your Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files look even better when you convert them to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, respectively.

Left: Old conversion of Excel to Google Sheets

Right: Improved conversion after integrating Quickoffice technology

Using Quickoffice to edit Office files on your iPad
Converting old files to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides is the easiest way to share and work together, but perhaps not everyone you work with has gone Google yet. To complement what you can do with Google documents, we’re also making it easier for you to make quick edits to Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files without conversion. Starting today, the Quickoffice iPad app is available for free to all Apps for Business customers, and iPhone and Android versions are on the way. With the app, you can open and edit any Office files you’ve stored in Google Drive right from your iPad.

Whether you’re converting Office files to Google documents or you just need to make a couple quick edits without converting, it should be easy to get work done whenever you need to, on any device. Stay tuned for more document conversion and mobile editing improvements in 2013.

Update: At launch, only Google Apps for Business users who are allowed to use Drive apps by their administrator will be able to use this version of the Quickoffice app. Learn more in our Help Center. ]]> https://googledata.org/google-apps/quickoffice-google-apps-better-document-conversion-and-an-ipad-app/feed/ 0 Japan’s political candidates hang out with voters on Google+ https://googledata.org/google-blog/japans-political-candidates-hang-out-with-voters-on-google/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=japans-political-candidates-hang-out-with-voters-on-google https://googledata.org/google-blog/japans-political-candidates-hang-out-with-voters-on-google/#comments Sat, 15 Dec 2012 04:07:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=aa3cb8ac675c240385929eb0d8b85c5a
Voters asked questions that reflected the most pressing issues on the Japanese people’s minds: the ailing economy, social security and the future of energy programs. For instance, one 21-year old student asked a politician about welfare and economic self-reliance, in response to which the politician explained his vision to create more opportunities for young people.

After announcing these Hangouts on November 29, we invited citizens to upload their questions on to Google+ using the hashtag #政治家と話そう (“talk to politicians”). Ten participants representing a cross-section of voters across Japanese society—including a college student from Tokyo, a housewife from Mie prefecture, and a businessman from Shizuoka prefecture—were chosen to join the Hangouts. People who tuned in said that it gave them a chance to witness an in-depth conversation between politicians and voters up close, which is rare in Japan’s incredibly short and intense campaign season of 12 days.

These Hangouts are part of Google Japan’s effort to help voters get information about the candidates before they head to the polls on December 16. To help voters get access to information about more than 1,000 candidates and 12 political parties, we launched our Japan elections site, called Erabou 2012 (“Choose 2012”), at google.co.jp/senkyo. This site serves as a hub for all latest elections-related information, pulling together candidate profiles and party platforms. If you missed the Hangouts live, you can also watch the recordings there and on the Japan Politics YouTube Channel.

Posted by Mak Arima, Country Managing Director, Google Japan ]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/japans-political-candidates-hang-out-with-voters-on-google/feed/ 0 Boost your journalism career with the 2013 Google Journalism Fellowship https://googledata.org/google-blog/boost-your-journalism-career-with-the-2013-google-journalism-fellowship/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=boost-your-journalism-career-with-the-2013-google-journalism-fellowship https://googledata.org/google-blog/boost-your-journalism-career-with-the-2013-google-journalism-fellowship/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=524a2504fcf253a43813fdc30f449ba4
We recognize the value that quality journalism plays in a functioning society and would like to help the next generation of reporters gain valuable skills and experience on the path to creating great content.

This 10-week program will give eight students the opportunity to contribute to a variety of organizations—from those that are steeped in investigative journalism to those working for press freedom around the world and to those that are helping the industry figure out its future in the digital age. Throughout, fellows will gain skills and contacts to help them as they move forward with their careers.

This program will be of particular interest to students studying data journalism, online freedom of expression or new business models for the industry.

Our partners in the first Google Journalism Fellowship are:

For more information, visit our website and apply. The deadline for applications is January 31, 2013.

Posted by Maggie Shiels, former BBC journalist, Google Corporate Communications]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/boost-your-journalism-career-with-the-2013-google-journalism-fellowship/feed/ 0 Winter cleaning https://googledata.org/google-blog/winter-cleaning/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=winter-cleaning https://googledata.org/google-blog/winter-cleaning/#comments Fri, 14 Dec 2012 20:02:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=0440643ddfc9512e014c3996ad2b1fed

On January 4, 2013, we’ll be shutting down several less popular Google Calendar features. You’ll be unable to create new reservable times on your Calendar through Appointment slots*, but existing Appointment slots will continue working for one year. In addition, we’ll discontinue two Calendar Labs—Smart Rescheduler (we recommend Find a time view or Suggested times as alternatives) and Add gadget by URL. Finally, Check your calendar via sms and Create event via sms (GVENT)—U.S.-only features for creating and checking meetings by texting information to Google—will be discontinued today, as most users prefer mobile Calendar apps.
Google Sync was designed to allow access to Google Mail, Calendar and Contacts via the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync® protocol. With the recent launch of CardDAV, Google now offers similar access via IMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV, making it possible to build a seamless sync experience using open protocols. Starting January 30, 2013, consumers won't be able to set up new devices using Google Sync; however, existing Google Sync connections will continue to function. Google Sync will continue to be fully supported for Google Apps for Business, Government and Education. Users of those products are unaffected by this announcement.
In addition to Google Sync, we’re discontinuing Google Calendar Sync on December 14, 2012 and Google Sync for Nokia S60 on January 30, 2013. We’re also ending service for SyncML, a contacts sync service used by a small number of older mobile devices on January 30, 2013.
The Issue Tracker Data API allows client applications to view and update issues on Project Hosting on Google Code in the form of Google Data API feeds. We’ll shut down the Issue Tracker API on June 14, 2013.
Punchd is an app that keeps loyalty punch cards on your smartphone. On June 7, 2013, we will discontinue the Punchd Android and iOS apps, and merchants will no longer honor Punchd loyalty cards. Users can continue to earn punches and redeem rewards at participating businesses until June 7, 2013. We remained focused on developing products that help merchants and shoppers connect in new and useful ways.

Technology offers us a way to make a big impact on the world. In 2013, we’ll keep working hard to build a seamless, amazing Google experience for you.

*Update January 17, 2013: We'll continue to support appointment slots in Calendar for all Google Apps for Business, Education and Government customers.

Posted by Venkat Panchapakesan, VP, Engineering]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/winter-cleaning/feed/ 0 The Seoul of a startup https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-seoul-of-a-startup/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-seoul-of-a-startup https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-seoul-of-a-startup/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=282a616745321e40027451444f34edaf
Over the past year, the Google for Entrepreneurs team has partnered with Global K-Startup, a competition aimed at finding and supporting the next generation of international-ready startups. The competition received 246 applications, and the 30 top teams were incubated and mentored. In October, venture capitalists from around the world gathered to hear pitches from the top teams and select six to go on a trip to Silicon Valley and London. The Google for Entrepreneurs team helped select the finalists, and was thrilled to host the winners at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. and at Campus London. Check out the winners:

BrainGarden - vocabulary learning mobile application with social game feature
Whatugot - social networking mobile application for collection and sharing favorites
WATCHA - movie recommendation application with personal collection gallery features
KnowRe - innovative adaptive learning solution focused on math education
Alarmmon - mobile gaming alarm application with various character branding
Classting - web/mobile application for classroom management and inter-class connection and collaboration

2012 Global K-startup winners visiting Google campus in November

Starting in 2013, we’re growing our support of South Korean startups with the help of the technology innovation hub AppCenter, the Kstartup accelerator program, and the Korean Communications Commission. Together, we’ll bring tech entrepreneurs more community events, workshops, and contests. We’re also improving the Android and Google TV device testing library. To kick things off, Kstartup is opening applications for its new class of startups. Apply today or find out more about upcoming events and opportunities with AppCenter and Google for Entrepreneurs.

Posted by Bridgette Sexton, Global Entrepreneurship Manager]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-seoul-of-a-startup/feed/ 0 Google Maps is now available for iPhone https://googledata.org/google-blog/google-maps-is-now-available-for-iphone-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-maps-is-now-available-for-iphone-2 https://googledata.org/google-blog/google-maps-is-now-available-for-iphone-2/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 04:25:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=9b57107d651d7050e06289a7e0f707cc Apple App Store. It’s designed from the ground up to combine the comprehensiveness and accuracy of Google Maps with an interface that makes finding what you’re looking for faster and easier.

The app shows more map on screen and turns mobile mapping into one intuitive experience. It’s a sharper looking, vector-based map that loads quickly and provides smooth tilting and rotating of 2D and 3D views. The search box at the top is a good place to start—perhaps by entering the name of a new and interesting restaurant. An expandable info sheet at the bottom shows the address, opening hours, ratings and reviews, images, directions and other information.

At the heart of this app is our constantly improving map of the world that includes detailed information for more than 80 million businesses and points of interest. Preview where you want to go with Street View and see inside places with Business Photos to decide on a table or see if it’s better at the bar. To get you there, you’ve got voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation, live traffic conditions to avoid the jams and if you want to use public transportation, find information for more than one million public transit stops.

The world around us is constantly changing and, thanks to feedback from you, we make tens of thousands of daily updates to keep Google Maps accurate and comprehensive. Here’s a helpful hint for the new app: if you see something off, simply shake your phone to send us feedback.

To complete the Google Maps ecosystem, we’re also releasing the Google Maps SDK for iOS, and a simple URL scheme to help developers use Google Maps when building their beautiful and innovative apps.

The new Google Maps app is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch (4th gen) iOS 5.1 and higher, in more than 40 countries and 29 languages, including Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Please note some of the features mentioned in this post aren’t available in all countries.

Visit the App Store today and download the new Google Maps app. We believe this delightful new experience is a great starting point—and we’ll continue to improve Google Maps for you, every day.

Posted by Daniel Graf, Director, Google Maps for Mobile]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/google-maps-is-now-available-for-iphone-2/feed/ 0 Unleashing creativity in Google’s CSI:Lab https://googledata.org/google-blog/unleashing-creativity-in-googles-csilab/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=unleashing-creativity-in-googles-csilab https://googledata.org/google-blog/unleashing-creativity-in-googles-csilab/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:51:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=7d3062ea6034e62279df869684ab2692 This is the first in a series of posts profiling Googlers who facilitate classes as part of our “Googlers-to-Googlers” program (known internally as “g2g”). The g2g community consists of a group of Googlers who are passionate about teaching, sharing and learning from one another. Regardless of role, level or location, g2g's community-based approach makes it possible for all Googlers to take advantage of a variety of learning opportunities. Our philosophy is: the best teacher you've ever had could be the one in the cube next to you. - Ed

For most people, the term “CSI” evokes images of crime scene investigators solving murder mysteries, like on the popular TV series. But I hadn’t heard of the TV show when I created the CSI:Lab at Google. This program on Creative Skills for Innovation is taught through our “Googlers-to-Googlers” (g2g) program—where Googlers teach other Googlers about topics that interest them. We don’t lift fingerprints or take down criminals, but like the show, CSI:Lab is all about reaching an end goal through brainstorming, getting your hands dirty and an “ensemble” performance.

Here I am welcoming a CSI:Lab

Over the course of my travels a few years ago, I had the opportunity to observe a variety of diverse places and cultures, from Shanghai to Capetown. Experiencing dissimilar cultures allowed me to see how people from different walks of life innovate to survive and thrive, and deepened my interest in the topic of innovation. One of the reasons I was drawn to Google was its unique innovation culture. Soon after arriving here in February 2010, I began to delineate what was tangible about that aspect of the Google culture and was determined to figure out how I could immerse both myself and others in it more. This led me to think about how I could use the knowledge I gathered on innovation from my travels to teach those with different occupations and mindsets—from a salesperson to a project manager to an engineer—to think more about how to be innovative and to ignite change in a company.

In my 20 percent time, I decided to develop a class with a “lab” component to show Googlers how to “experience innovation.” I wanted to get a diverse group of people together in one room to solve challenging problems by learning from each other’s experiences, and by developing their own inner strengths. The goal was to enable Googlers to experience an approach to innovation where one learns by doing, rather than by listening.

CSI:Lab is user-centered and prototype driven. In each class, small groups are formed to answer a broad challenge that entices folks to think big—such as, “How would you change the commuting to work experience?” Participants are asked to interview potential “users” of their solutions to generate insights. After the surveys, all the ideas are posted on a white board. For example, in this case individual hi-tech jet packs or “Marty McFly” skateboards might reduce commute time and aid the environment. Ultimately, one idea is chosen and the group then develops a physical prototype (think Play-Doh and pipe cleaners) of their solution, to learn and prove how and why it is the best. Each class is intentionally made up of groups of Googlers from varying parts of the company—for example, engineering, global business, or project management—to encourage the groups to collaborate and learn from each other’s experience.

CSI:Lab brainstorm session. The prompt: Re-imagine advertising.

Googlers developing their solution’s prototype to the challenge:

What is the learning space of the future?

Since April 2010, I’ve been humbled to run the Lab in 37 Google offices worldwide, and about 9,000 Googlers have participated. Today, we have more than 50 Googlers who act as ambassadors for the Lab, designing and facilitating more Labs as part of the g2g program. From New York to Tokyo to Sao Paulo, the different people and cultures of each lab offer a new perspective. And CSI:Lab inspires Googlers long after the sessions are over. One Googler told me that after the Lab, he used his experience to develop a prototype for a solution to one of his team’s issues. He described how good it felt to take a risk to reach a solution, and ultimately he convinced a team of other Googlers to work with him to refine and implement his idea. Ultimately, seeing these ideas absorbed by participants and put to use within the company is what CSI:Lab is all about.

Take a peek at five tips to help you embrace the CSI:Lab spirit and add more creativity and innovation to your everyday life—whether it be at home or at the office!

Know and own what inspires you. Understand where your inspiration comes from and do it 10x more than you do now. For example, if your inspiration comes from museums, then go to museums 10x more often; if your inspiration comes from people, talk to 10 new people each week.
Think like a child. Be open and question everything around you. Try not to pre-judge thoughts or ideas; develop them.
Dive into something new. Involve yourself in areas at work where you’re unfamiliar with the content and want to learn more. People are generally happy to share their knowledge and you can often teach them something too just by bringing a fresh perspective to their work.
Play with fun and unusual materials when developing an idea. We all constantly use our computers and paper and pen, so think outside the box to get your mind flowing. Want to “prototype” a solution you’ve thought of? Grab some pipe cleaners, construction paper, LEGO figures, feathers...you name it! See how the materials inspire you.
Invest in your physical space. Having a supportive environment can make a big difference, so learn how what types of space inspire creativity. To create a more open, playful environment, try a flexible workplace with no offices. Or, help ideas flow more freely by making lots of whiteboard space easily accessible. For example, at Google’s Mountain View campus, we’ve created our own innovation space, called “The Garage” (a nod to the iconic Silicon Valley workspace). “The Garage” is big enough for 170 Googlers to use the area to create, collaborate and experiment.

A snapshot of the Garage

Posted by Frederik G. Pferdt, Global Program Manager for Innovation & Creativity]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/unleashing-creativity-in-googles-csilab/feed/ 0 Zeitgeist 2012: What piqued your curiosity this year? https://googledata.org/google-blog/zeitgeist-2012-what-piqued-your-curiosity-this-year/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=zeitgeist-2012-what-piqued-your-curiosity-this-year https://googledata.org/google-blog/zeitgeist-2012-what-piqued-your-curiosity-this-year/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=ad2bf4c67a0125d8d1b464455f2eaac1
On our 2012 Zeitgeist website, you can explore the most popular and hottest trending search terms from around the world. This year’s site is our most global to date, with a total of 838 lists from 55 countries. We’ve also added a number of new features, including an interactive map that shows where and when some of the hottest terms spiked around the world, and a Google Zeitgeist Android app coming out later today (with an iOS version coming soon too).

For a round-the-globe tour through 2012, take a look at our video:

So what kinds of things were top of mind this year? While there are perennial themes—“what is love?” topped the list in 10 countries—it’s the unusual and surprising that caught our attention in 2012.

Global superstar Whitney Houston topped many countries’ lists as well as three of our overall trending lists—her unexpected death surprising fans around the world. From Korea, YouTube sensation PSY’s “Gangnam Style” signature dance took the world by storm, landing him the #1 spot in many countries and making his song the second most trending query of 2012. (PSY’s video became the #1 most watched in YouTube history—stay tuned for YouTube’s Rewind for more.)

Then there was the superhuman. Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s epic free fall jump made him the #6 globally trending person of the year, while the 2012 Olympics and its various athletes made it into almost every country’s top trends. And NBA player Jeremy Lin also rose on the charts this year, making him the #1 trending athlete globally.

People researched a breadth of other topics, too. Web users took a serious interest in threats to the open Internet, with proposals like SOPA and ACTA both finding their way to the top of many countries’ lists. The U.S. elections brought attention to the candidates and issues, not least the presidential campaigns’ most notorious political gaffes. And while it might not be surprising to see that tragic natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy ranked highly (#3 on the global trending list), it is reassuring to find searches like [donate to Sandy] spiking as well.

We hope you enjoy exploring what people around the world were searching for in 2012. It’s quite a snapshot of what makes us human: a blend of guilty pleasures and higher pursuits.

Posted by Amit Singhal, SVP & Google Fellow]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/zeitgeist-2012-what-piqued-your-curiosity-this-year/feed/ 0 The evolution of This Exquisite Forest https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-evolution-of-this-exquisite-forest/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-evolution-of-this-exquisite-forest https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-evolution-of-this-exquisite-forest/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:01:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=c5c0524107f444c1a73756f16dba92fb few months ago we released This Exquisite Forest, a Chrome Experiment that lets you create collaborative animations using an online drawing tool. Since then, thousands of people from all over the world have contributed to the project, creating unique animations like Looking Up / Looking Down, Wine after Coffee and Animated Typography. For any of these animations, you can click the button in the lower right to add to the story and branch it in a new direction.

Today, we’d like to share The Endless Theater, a new way to wander the forest by viewing a continuous stream of different animations. In addition, now you can embed animations directly into your site or blog, so it’s even easier to share your work with the world. Just go into the lightbox view and click “Embed.”

A project of this scale and diversity is really only possible on the web, where people can view and contribute from all over the world using only a browser. Thank you all for making the forest so full of life. Please continue to explore, find your favorite animations, and add to the story.

Posted by Aaron Koblin, Creative Lab

(Cross-posted from the Chrome blog)]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-evolution-of-this-exquisite-forest/feed/ 0 Steel + silicon = business success in Detroit https://googledata.org/google-blog/steel-silicon-business-success-in-detroit/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=steel-silicon-business-success-in-detroit https://googledata.org/google-blog/steel-silicon-business-success-in-detroit/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=0f0bef452b024df44a89b8502e4b8649 From time to time we invite guests to post about items of interest and are pleased to have Linzie Venegas join us today. Linzie is head of sales and marketing for Ideal Shield, a manufacturing company in Detroit, Mich. that specializes in bumper post sleeves. Based in a city forged in tradition and steel, Ideal Shield has seen great success on the web—a story Linzie tells us in this post. -Ed.

When my great-grandparents moved from Mexico to Detroit in 1917, they were looking for a better life. They had no idea that one day their grandson, my father Frank Venegas, would invent a product and start a business that would help transform their adopted hometown. Thanks to my dad’s hard work and a little help from the web, that’s exactly what Ideal Shield has done.

Ideal Shield specializes in manufacturing bumper post sleeves. You may have seen these around—they’re colorful covers that slide over the steel pipes that keep cars from running into buildings. As a young child, my first job at Ideal was to assemble mailers for potential customers. Our mailers were unique—I would place a pack of jelly beans into each envelope. Talk about a great way to get a high “clickthrough rate!” Today, I head sales and marketing for the company, and we’ve taken our family business online with phenomenal results.

Ideal Shield’s father-daughter team Frank and Linzie Venegas in the factory surrounded by bumper post sleeves and guard rails.

We began using Google AdWords in 2004 to help potential customers find our product because many people didn’t know what it was. We were drawn to AdWords because everyone could see our ads—but we only had to pay for the customers who clicked through to our website. We also found that the leads were very qualified and had a higher close rate than leads from other sources. So far this year, for every $1 we've spent on AdWords we’ve gotten back $22. We’ve been able to have great success—without jelly beans!—using Google AdWords.

The energy we’ve put into our online presence has produced tremendous growth for our business; we’ve been able to grow our workforce by 20 percent. We’ve also focused on building our local community of Southwest Detroit. Each year we hire many interns from the local high school, Detroit Cristo Rey, and teach them skills that will last a lifetime. We’ve outfitted the junior and senior classes at Detroit Cristo Rey with Chromebooks so that they’ll have access to the power of the web anywhere, and many teachers there use the free Google Apps for Education suite with their students. This year, we were proud to hear that Detroit Cristo Rey achieved a 100% graduation rate and a 100% college acceptance rate. We also work with the Michigan Minority Business Development Council to teach other small businesses in the community the importance of an online strategy and how the web can help small businesses thrive.

My dad started Ideal with himself, my mother and a couple of laborers; today this family business has more than 35 employees and annual sales of $14 million. With help from the web, his hard work, determination and “out of the box” thinking have made Ideal a symbol of strength and renewal in Southwest Detroit. My father has always told me that if you take care of the community, the community will take care of you. Detroit is our community—it’s our heart, it’s our home. We’ve been surprised and delighted at how much the web has contributed to Ideal Shield, and we’re happy to share that success with Detroit. We can’t wait to do more!

Posted by Linzie Venegas, Head of Sales and Marketing, Ideal Shield Detroit]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/steel-silicon-business-success-in-detroit/feed/ 0 Chromebooks for classrooms: $99 for the holidays https://googledata.org/google-blog/chromebooks-for-classrooms-99-for-the-holidays/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chromebooks-for-classrooms-99-for-the-holidays https://googledata.org/google-blog/chromebooks-for-classrooms-99-for-the-holidays/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=ab2c5d9ef40f7ea7279e5931199e27ee
To help budget-strapped classrooms across the country, we’re working with DonorsChoose.org, an online charity that connects donors directly to public school classroom needs. For the holiday season, teachers can request the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook—the most widely deployed Chromebook in schools—at a special, discounted price of $99 including hardware, management and support.

If you’re a full-time public school teacher in the U.S., visit DonorsChoose.org and follow the instructions to take advantage of this opportunity by December 21, 2012. Your request will be posted on DonorsChoose.org where anyone can make a donation to support your classroom. When you reach your funding goal, you’ll receive your Chromebooks from Lakeshore Learning, DonorsChoose.org’s exclusive fulfillment partner for this program.

If you’re not a teacher, please share this opportunity with the teachers who have made a difference in your life! Or if you’re interested in supporting a classroom directly, read through the list of Chromebook projects and donate what you can. Be sure to check back often for new projects.

Thank you for your support in giving the gift of hassle-free technology to teachers and students. Working together, we can ensure “The virus ate my homework” is never uttered in a classroom again, and we can help classrooms get off to a strong start in the New Year!

Happy holidays.

Update Dec 11: We’ve seen a tremendous response—thanks to all the teachers who have applied so far! Please check DonorsChoose.org for the latest status of the program.

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Group Product Manager]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/chromebooks-for-classrooms-99-for-the-holidays/feed/ 0 Supporting Israel’s “start-up nation” https://googledata.org/google-blog/supporting-israels-start-up-nation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=supporting-israels-start-up-nation https://googledata.org/google-blog/supporting-israels-start-up-nation/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=b1355912277c8a47ceb269596b6efc8c Campus London to help support the vibrant start-up community there and help energize the U.K. Internet economy. Today, we’re launching Campus Tel Aviv—a one-floor event & community space in downtown Tel Aviv, made available to early stage start-ups and developers.

With the Internet economy contributing 6.4 percent of Israel’s GDP and with the world’s second largest center of tech start-ups after Silicon Valley, it’s no wonder that Israel is commonly referred to as “start-up nation.” For some time now, we’ve been supporting Internet and mobile entrepreneurs in Israel with tech talks, events and hackathons. We hope that Campus Tel Aviv will enable us to do more to support local innovation.

The Campus space will be used by start-ups and partners for events, a “device lab” will give developers the chance to try out projects on a range of devices, and entrepreneurs will get access to Google’s teams and other experts. We’re also working with tech incubators, accelerator programs and other partners to bring their start-ups to Campus for an initiative called “Launch Pad.” It’s a two-week “bootcamp” for more than 100 start-ups each year, aimed at enhancing existing accelerator programs by providing expertise in user experience and design, product strategy, global marketing, business development and more.

At the launch of Campus Tel Aviv—from left to right, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister), Meir Brand (Managing Director, Google Israel, Greece, South & Sub-Saharan Africa), Yossi Matias (Head of Israel R&D Center).

In 1998, when Larry and Sergey founded Google, we were a start-up in a garage. In many ways, we remain a start-up at heart, and we’re committed to helping new entrepreneurs and developers around the world succeed. We hope that Campus Tel Aviv will contribute to future Israeli tech innovation and, in doing so, make the web and the mobile space better. You can find out more about Campus Tel Aviv on our website.

Posted by Amir Shevat, Developer Relations Manager & Eyal Miller, New Business Development - Co-leads, Campus Tel Aviv]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/supporting-israels-start-up-nation/feed/ 0 Honouring computing’s 1843 visionary, Lady Ada Lovelace https://googledata.org/google-blog/honouring-computings-1843-visionary-lady-ada-lovelace/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=honouring-computings-1843-visionary-lady-ada-lovelace https://googledata.org/google-blog/honouring-computings-1843-visionary-lady-ada-lovelace/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2012 05:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=70101a6d9f0eae5c08b0f9f4ce2c83a6 Silicon Valley Comes to the U.K. initiative. While there, we asked about some of the paintings on the wall. When we got to a large portrait of a regally dressed woman, our host said “and of course, that’s Lady Lovelace.” So much of world history leaves out or minimizes the contributions of women, and so “of course” most of us had no idea who she was. You can imagine our surprise when we learned she was considered by some to be the world’s first computer programmer—having published the first algorithm intended for use on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.

Lady Ada Lovelace, painted by Margaret Carpenter in 1836, from the U.K. Government Art Collection. Photo thanks to Wikimedia Commons.

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was born nearly two centuries ago in 1815. Her mother, mathematician Anne Isabelle Milbanke, was determined Ada would not fall prey to the same immoralities as Ada’s father, the “mad, bad and dangerous to know” poet Lord Byron. Thus, in an attempt to thwart any similar tendencies, she had Ada tutored in science and mathematics from a young age. It’s fair to say this did not completely work, as Ada went on to lead a rather colourful life. However it did fortuitously result in Ada becoming a mathematician like her mother, and pursuing what she termed “poetical science.”

After a chance encounter when aged 17, Ada became friends with Charles Babbage and grew fascinated by his idea to build an “Analytical Engine.” In 1843 Ada published a description of Babbage's machine. While partly a translation of an Italian work, Ada added voluminous self-penned notes, which made up the bulk of the document. Included in her notes were step-by-step instructions for how the machine could calculate a sequence of Bernoulli numbers, prepared in collaboration with Babbage. In effect, this was the world’s first published algorithm.

Most importantly, the notes set out Ada's far-reaching vision for what the Analytical Engine signified. While Babbage saw it as a mathematical calculator, Ada understood it had much more potential. She realised it was, in essence, a machine that could manipulate symbols in accordance with defined rules, and—crucially—that there was no reason the symbols had to represent only numbers and equations.

“The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” Ada Lovelace, 1843

As Ada eloquently argued, such a device could do far more than mathematics. She even mused about its potential to compose music:

“Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.”

This was an astounding conceptual leap from calculation to computing. Ada envisaged a day when a single machine would be capable of a myriad of tasks, limited only by the creativity of its programmer. At the time—nearly a century before the first computers were built—it was a flash of brilliance.

After our visit to Downing Street, we returned to the U.S. determined to learn more about Ada, and to revive her memory. Today, her birthday, is an apt moment. In addition to this post, Google is honouring Ada with a doodle in recognition of her prophetic vision for computing.

Design of doodle by Kevin Laughlin

Unfortunately, Babbage's machines were never built in his lifetime, and Ada's vision of computing was lost to obscurity for more than a century. It wasn’t until 1991 that the Science Museum London built Babbage’s Difference Engine from his original drawings. That machine is now on show there, and a second one is now at the Computer History Museum in California. Plans are now afoot to build a replica of the Analytic Engine—so perhaps Ada’s algorithm will at last be run on the machine for which it was intended.

Ada's experience is sadly all too familiar. Too often, the contributions of women in science and technology are left untold, and to fade from view. While Ada’s story has been rediscovered, many others remain little known. That's why initiatives such as Ada Lovelace Day are so valuable, as a catalyst for raising the profile of women in science, past and present. Several wonderful biographies of Ada have been written already, and biographer Walter Isaacson has turned his attention to Ada as part of his next book.

Visibility is also the reason why we launched the Women Techmakers series on GDL, to help shine a light on the roles and contributions of the many talented technical women in our industry today. We hope our series will complement other efforts to raise the profile of women, such as the new AOL/PBS supported website and documentary Makers.com or the work of Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis on SeeJane to improve gender balance and reduce stereotypes in childrens’ television globally.

We hope today's doodle inspires people to find out more about Ada, and about the contributions made by women in general to science and technology.

Posted by Megan Smith, VP, Google[x] and Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations ]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/honouring-computings-1843-visionary-lady-ada-lovelace/feed/ 0 Google+: Communities and photos https://googledata.org/google-blog/google-communities-and-photos/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-communities-and-photos https://googledata.org/google-blog/google-communities-and-photos/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:33:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=2b34dd6fdb3a0107d399a4e7a96d2643 For our international readers, this post is also available in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish (Spain, Latin America). - Ed.

During the holidays we reconnect with loved ones and rediscover what makes us tick. And it's times like these that remind me why we started Google+ in the first place: to make online sharing as meaningful as the real thing. Too often our online tools miss the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions, and Google+ aims to fix this. Fortunately we've got a vibrant community to guide us.

Today Google+ is the fastest-growing network thingy ever. More than 500 million people have upgraded, 235 million are active across Google (+1'ing apps in Google Play, hanging out in Gmail, connecting with friends in Search...), and 135 million are active in just the stream.

This enthusiasm, we think, stems from our building tools that build real relationships—in a live hangout, around a breathtaking photo, or with an inner circle of friends. So today we're launching two new improvements that help bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software.

Google+ Communities: for all the people you ought to know
From photography to astronomy (and everything in between), Google+ has always been a place to crowd around common interests and meet new people. What’s been missing, however, are more permanent homes for all the stuff you love: the wonderful, the weird, and yes, even the things that are waaay out there. With Google+ Communities there’s now a gathering place for your passions, including:

Public or private membership to support all kinds of groups—from topics and interests to local neighborhoods to regular poker nights
Discussion categories to find the conversations you care about most
The option to start hangouts and plan events with community members
The ability to share with your community from any +1 button across the web

To give it a try just click on the new "Communities" icon (rolling out today), then create or join your favorite community. It’s only a preview, and mobile’s coming soon, so we’re keen to get your feedback.

Snapseed: beautiful photos with your mobile device
Great pictures aren’t taken, they’re made—and Nik Software has been helping people make awesome photos for years. Having welcomed Nik to the Google family, we're excited to bring their Snapseed app (last year's iPad app of the year) to Android. It includes:

Basic adjustments like tune, straighten and crop
Creative filters like drama, black & white, and vintage that you can apply individually or in combination
Control Point technology to selectively enhance your photo—to brighten just a face, for instance, or deepen just the sky
The ability to share your creations via Google+ and other services

Snapseed is rolling out now to Google Play and the App Store, and starting today, both versions are free.

Sample image created with Snapseed; gallery available here

This time of year we honor the past, and imagine what’s ahead. So we want to thank you for lending your big hearts to this small project. And we invite you to a future where everyone’s cared for and comfortable in their own skin—in life and online. Let’s keep building Google+ together, and let’s be excellent to each other this holiday season.

Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/google-communities-and-photos/feed/ 0 Explore digital archives of buildings in Japan affected by the 2011 tsunami https://googledata.org/google-blog/explore-digital-archives-of-buildings-in-japan-affected-by-the-2011-tsunami/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=explore-digital-archives-of-buildings-in-japan-affected-by-the-2011-tsunami https://googledata.org/google-blog/explore-digital-archives-of-buildings-in-japan-affected-by-the-2011-tsunami/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=5f98136e1f15c92e382d12dad0025557 released Street View imagery of areas in Northeastern Japan that were affected by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Our hope was that the 360-degree panoramas would provide a comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use way for people around the world to view the damage to the region by enabling a virtual walk through of the disaster zones.

The panoramas were only the start of our digital archiving project. Last month we took the next step—using the technology behind Business Photos to photograph the inside of buildings in Northeastern Japan that were heavily damaged but still standing. We worked with four city governments in the Tōhoku area to photograph more than 30 buildings, and today we’re bringing this imagery to Google Maps and our Memories for the Future site. The new imagery enables you to walk through the buildings and switch between floors to get a first-hand glimpse at the extent of the destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

The timing of the project was critical. There has been a strong debate in these areas whether to keep the buildings up as a permanent reminder of the tragedy or to tear them down to allow emotional wounds to heal. After long consultations with their citizens, many local governments have decided to move forward with demolishing the buildings. Knowing this, we quickly moved to photograph the buildings before they started to be dismantled.

The panorama below shows an elementary school very close to the ocean. Thankfully, all the students survived the disaster as they had been well drilled to rush to escape at the sound of tsunami warnings.

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Panorama of Kamaishi Municipal Toni Elementary School

Other sites include Rikuzentakata city public housing, a building that physically demonstrates the heights of the tsunami wave. Everything up to the fourth floor is completely ruined, but the fifth floor remains mostly unscathed.

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Panorama of Rikuzentakata City Public Housing

We’ve also captured imagery of Ukedo Elementary School and a few other buildings in Namie Town—located in the restricted area (PDF) within 20km of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In the elementary school, you can see holes in the gym floor, where a graduation banner still hangs in the gym, though the ceremony never took place.

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Panorama of Ukedo Elementary School

We’ll continue to photograph more buildings in two Iwate Prefecture cities, Ōfunato and Kamaishi, over the coming weeks. By the end of the year, we also hope to complete the collection of imagery from five new cities in the Miyagi prefecture. We look forward to making this new imagery available as soon as it’s ready to pay tribute to both the tragedy of the disaster and the current efforts to rebuild. City governments in Northeastern Japan that are interested in this digital archiving project are welcome to contact us through this form.

Posted by Kei Kawai, Group Product Manager, Street View]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/explore-digital-archives-of-buildings-in-japan-affected-by-the-2011-tsunami/feed/ 0 Building a better map of Europe https://googledata.org/google-blog/building-a-better-map-of-europe-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=building-a-better-map-of-europe-2 https://googledata.org/google-blog/building-a-better-map-of-europe-2/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 23:31:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=61e2533265e74ece156bfa828e4e2255
Today’s update is part of a project called Ground Truth that began in 2008. Through this initiative, we acquire high-quality map data from authoritative sources around the world and then apply a mix of advanced algorithms, supplemental data (including satellite, aerial and Street View imagery), and human input to create a map that corresponds as closely as possible to the real-world facts that you’d find if you were to visit that location.

For example, this update adds a new 70-km section of Bulgaria’s Trakiya motorway, which opened recently to drivers but hasn’t been reflected on most maps of the region until now.

Explore this area on Google Maps

But roads and highways alone don’t define the character of a place, and they aren’t always sufficient to help you get around. So Google Maps also integrates information such as walking paths, ferry lines, building outlines, park boundaries, university campuses and more—providing a richer, more comprehensive and more realistic experience for locals, visitors and armchair travelers alike.

Our new map of Spain, for example, not only shows the famous Museo del Prado and Parque del Retiro in Madrid, but also includes additional building models in surrounding neighborhoods, the well-known “Estanque” (or pond) in the center of the park, and detailed walking paths throughout both the park and the nearby Royal Botanical Gardens.

Explore this area on Google Maps

Of course, the world is always changing, and we want Google Maps to change with it. So when you notice something on the map that needs updating, let us know through the simple “Report a problem” tool in the lower right corner of the map. We’ll make the appropriate changes to the map—often within just a few minutes or hours of reviewing and verifying your feedback! This tool launches today in the 10 places where we’ve updated our maps, and is already available in dozens of other countries around the world.

With today’s release, the maps that we’ve built through our Ground Truth initiative are now available in a total of 40 countries worldwide. To see the progress we’ve made to date, take a look at the image below (click for a full-size version).

We hope today’s launch of more comprehensive and accurate maps of Europe will help you explore amazing places from Barcelona and Budapest to Bratislava and beyond.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP Google Maps and Google Earth]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/building-a-better-map-of-europe-2/feed/ 0 The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad: version 2.0 https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/the-gmail-app-for-iphone-and-ipad-version-2-0-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-gmail-app-for-iphone-and-ipad-version-2-0-2 https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/the-gmail-app-for-iphone-and-ipad-version-2-0-2/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:38:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=a9936c7af97251951ee3bb4d9b573270 Posted by Matthew Izatt, Product Manager, Gmail

(Cross-posted from Gmail blog.)

Six months ago, our team set out to completely rebuild the Gmail app for iPhone and iPad to give you you a faster, sleeker, and easier experience on iOS. The result? Version 2.0. With version 2.0 of the app, you'll get a totally new look and feel, plus a bunch of improvements like profile pictures in messages, numerous new animations from swivels to transitions and infinite scrolling in the message lists.

The app adds many new time-saving features like being able to RSVP to Google Calendar invites as well as +1 and comment on Google+ posts directly from the app.

Last, but certainly not least, we've added a feature many of you have been waiting for: multiple account support. You can now login to up to five Google Accounts from the menu and switch between them with a couple taps.

You can download the app right now from the App Store. We're excited to hear what you think!
]]> https://googledata.org/google-enterprise/the-gmail-app-for-iphone-and-ipad-version-2-0-2/feed/ 0 New Global Impact Awards program provides $23M for nonprofit tech innovators https://googledata.org/google-blog/new-global-impact-awards-program-provides-23m-for-nonprofit-tech-innovators/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-global-impact-awards-program-provides-23m-for-nonprofit-tech-innovators https://googledata.org/google-blog/new-global-impact-awards-program-provides-23m-for-nonprofit-tech-innovators/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=e08bcd8797c6683944b93555cb854917
Today we’re launching the Global Impact Awards to support organizations using technology and innovative approaches to tackle some of the toughest human challenges. From real-time sensors that monitor clean water to DNA barcoding that stops wildlife trafficking, our first round of awards provides $23 million to seven organizations changing the world.

charity: water: Real-time technology to monitor water and ensure it gets to more people
One in nine people across the globe lack access to clean water. At any given time, approximately one-third of water pumps built by NGOs and government groups in remote areas are not functioning. charity: water will use its $5 million Global Impact Award to install remote sensors at 4,000 water points across Africa by 2015, monitoring and recording actual water flow rate to ensure better maintenance of and access to clean water for more than 1 million people.

Consortium for the Barcode of Life: DNA barcoding to identify and protect endangered wildlife
More than 2,000 endangered species are protected from illegal trade by UN regulations. Intercepting wildlife transferred across borders is critical to slowing illegal trade, but detection tools are expensive and unavailable. The Smithsonian Institution’s Consortium for the Barcode of Life will use its $3 million Global Impact Award to work with researchers in six developing countries to create and implement “DNA barcoding,” a public library of DNA barcode tests that enforcement officials can use as a front-line tool.

DonorsChoose.org: New program to enroll more underrepresented students in advanced classes
In the U.S., girls and disadvantaged students are less likely to study math and science in college or pursue related careers, in part because they’re not exposed to advanced classes in high school. DonorsChoose.org will use its $5 million Global Impact Award to work with the College Board and provide public schools across the U.S. with the start-up materials needed to create 500 new AP science and math courses. DonorsChoose.org will also help successful teachers reinvest in their classrooms and students.

Equal Opportunity Schools: Data to identify high-performing yet underrepresented students
Every year, more than 600,000 low-income students in the U.S. miss out on advanced classes that provide college training. Using data analytics, Equal Opportunity Schools will use its $1.8 million Global Impact Award to identify 6,000 high-performing yet underrepresented students and move them into advanced classes.

Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: Tools to analyze and promote gender equality in media
What kids see on screen has a profound effect on how they see the world, from body image to academic performance. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media will use its $1.2 million Global Impact Award to support the development of automated technology that analyzes female portrayals in children’s media.

GiveDirectly: Mobile technology to put money directly into the hands of the poor
Despite assumptions, direct cash transfers are a proven approach to lifting people out of poverty. Research documents substantial positive impacts on a wide range of indicators, including farm profits and infant birth weight. GiveDirectly will use its $2.4 million Global Impact Award to scale its model of direct cash transfers.

World Wildlife Fund: New technologies to advance anti-poaching efforts
The illegal wildlife trade, estimated to be worth $7-10 billion annually, devastates endangered species, damages ecosystems, and threatens local livelihoods and regional security. World Wildlife Fund will use its $5 million Global Impact Award to adapt and implement specialized sensors and wildlife tagging technology.

We invite you to learn more about Google’s new Global Impact Awards and the other ways we give. As we reflect back over this year, I’m proud to report that we’ve been able to support organizations changing the world with more than $100 million in grants, $1 billion in technology and 50,000 hours of Googler volunteering.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Giving at Google]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/new-global-impact-awards-program-provides-23m-for-nonprofit-tech-innovators/feed/ 0 Help train the next generation of computer scientists with a CS4HS grant from Google https://googledata.org/google-blog/help-train-the-next-generation-of-computer-scientists-with-a-cs4hs-grant-from-google/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=help-train-the-next-generation-of-computer-scientists-with-a-cs4hs-grant-from-google https://googledata.org/google-blog/help-train-the-next-generation-of-computer-scientists-with-a-cs4hs-grant-from-google/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=f268d6bd1ad47847e68f37e5be9e8137
With a grant from Google, university, college and technical college faculty develop these three to five day workshops—hands-on, interactive opportunities for K-12 teachers to learn how to teach CS to their students. Some programs are geared toward CS teachers, while others are for non-CS teachers who want to incorporate computer science into their curriculum. No two programs are exactly alike, and it is the creative and passionate material that organizers develop which makes this program so unique—and successful.

2013 marks the fifth consecutive year for our CS4HS program, and we’ve grown significantly. Hundreds of students and thousands of teachers have been through these workshops to date, and our program has spread to include places in Africa, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand and the U.S. Our alumni are connected to each other, other educators and organizers through our teacher’s forum, which also enables K-12 teachers interested in CS education to join the discussion and ask questions.

We’re accepting applications on our website from now until February 16, 2013. To qualify, you must work for an accredited university, college or technical school in one of the qualifying regions. Each region has a slightly different application process, so make sure to read up on your area at www.cs4hs.com.

If you’re not a university faculty member, but still want to be involved, reach out to a local area university and encourage the CS Chairperson to apply; peruse information on our K-12 educators page to start bringing CS into your classroom; and check for updates on our website starting in March to find a program near you.

We’re excited to help even more educators learn how to bring computer science to their students, whether they’re teaching CS, math, history, or any other subject. Together, we can start the next generation of CS professionals on their way.

Posted by Erin Mindell, Program Manager, Google Education]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/help-train-the-next-generation-of-computer-scientists-with-a-cs4hs-grant-from-google/feed/ 0 Keep the Internet free and open https://googledata.org/google-blog/keep-the-internet-free-and-open/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=keep-the-internet-free-and-open https://googledata.org/google-blog/keep-the-internet-free-and-open/#comments Sun, 02 Dec 2012 23:11:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=ae9d8eac1ab4c28563f61f53053b0e8e
Our protocols were designed to make the networks of the Internet non-proprietary and interoperable. They avoided “lock-in,” and allowed for contributions from many sources. This openness is why the Internet creates so much value today. Because it is borderless and belongs to everyone, it has brought unprecedented freedoms to billions of people worldwide: the freedom to create and innovate, to organize and influence, to speak and be heard.

But starting in a few hours, a closed-door meeting of the world’s governments is taking place in Dubai, and regulation of the Internet is on the agenda. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is convening a conference from December 3-14 to revise a decades-old treaty, in which only governments have a vote. Some proposals could allow governments to justify the censorship of legitimate speech, or even cut off Internet access in their countries.

You can read more about my concerns on CNN.com, but I am not alone. So far, more than 1,000 organizations from more than 160 countries have spoken up too, and they’re joined by hundreds of thousands of Internet users who are standing up for a free and open Internet. On an interactive map at freeandopenweb.com, you can see that people from all corners of the world have signed our petition, used the #freeandopen hashtag on social media, or created and uploaded videos to say how important these issues are.

If you agree and want to support a free and open Internet too, I invite you to join us by signing the petition at google.com/takeaction. Please make your voice heard and spread the word.

Update December 15, 2012: At the conclusion of the ITU meeting in Dubai on Friday, 89 countries signed the treaty, while 55 countries said they would not sign or that additional review was needed. We stand with the countries who refused to sign, and with the millions of you who have voiced your support for a free and open web.

Posted by Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/keep-the-internet-free-and-open/feed/ 0 Announcing the Africa News Innovation Challenge winners https://googledata.org/google-blog/announcing-the-africa-news-innovation-challenge-winners/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=announcing-the-africa-news-innovation-challenge-winners https://googledata.org/google-blog/announcing-the-africa-news-innovation-challenge-winners/#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:54:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=cf0c664bc3a6e8d265a6c639787b9dbf announced in May this year—the latest in a series of projects to spur innovation in African journalism.

Run by the the African Media Initiative, other partners include Omidyar Network, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the U.S. State Department, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). The response to the challenge was really enthusiastic, with more than 500 proposals submitted.

The 20 winners are all exciting digital journalism projects that will contribute to solving some of the biggest challenges facing the African media industry. They range from mobile apps to mobilise citizens against corruption and improved infographics to communicate complex issues, to developing new platforms for sharing content on buses and taxis. Key themes among the projects include a growing concern about manipulated online content, the security of communications with whistleblowers and sources, and the need to improve engagement with audiences.

The projects have the potential to be replicated by media elsewhere in Africa, or to be scaled up across the continent, to create wide and sustained impact. Some projects will also develop new tools to support newsrooms and boost media revenues to support sustainable journalism. Winners will receive cash grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000; technology support from a team of four developers at AMI’s jAccelerator lab in Kenya, and business development support from top media strategists affiliated with the World Association of Newspapers & News Publishers. Ten of the winners will also be flown to the Knight Foundation’s annual M.I.T. Civic Media Conference in the U.S., while the rest will be showcased at other important industry events.

The ANIC winners are:

actNOW (Ghana)
AdBooker (South Africa)
Africa Check (South Africa / Nigeria)
skyCAM (Kenya / Nigeria)
Africa’s Wealth (renamed NewsStack) (Nigeria / Namibia)
Citizen Desk (Mozambique)
Code4Ghana (Ghana)
ConvergeCMS (Kenya / Tanzania / Uganda)
CorruptionNET (South Africa)
DataWrapper (Nigeria / Senegal / Tanzania)
End-to-End (renamed LastMile Crowdmapping) (Liberia / Ghana / Kenya)
FlashCast (Kenya)
Green Hornet (South Africa)
ListeningPost (South Africa)
MoJo: Keeping media honest by monitoring online journalism (South Africa)
openAFRICA (Kenya / Nigeria / Rwanda / South Africa)
ODADI (renamed Code4SouthAfrica) (South Africa)
Oxpeckers (South Africa)
Wikipedia Zero (Cameroon / Ivory Coast / Tunisia / Uganda)
ZeroNews (pan-African)

You can learn more about the winners’ projects on the ANIC website.

We can’t wait to see how these innovations unfold and we look forward to working with more African journalists to help them use technologies to tell important stories.

Posted by Julie Taylor, Communications Manager, Sub Saharan Africa

(Cross-posted from the Africa Blog)]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/announcing-the-africa-news-innovation-challenge-winners/feed/ 0 Meet Google’s Top Contributors, a community of help https://googledata.org/google-blog/meet-googles-top-contributors-a-community-of-help/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=meet-googles-top-contributors-a-community-of-help https://googledata.org/google-blog/meet-googles-top-contributors-a-community-of-help/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:34:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=f3770c2a5c6b49d40ba040c587aa5d66 Google Help Forums, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve met a Google Top Contributor. Last September, we told you a little bit about the Top Contributors when we hosted our 2011 Top Contributor Summit. Since then, Top Contributors continue to help millions of people get the most out of Google’s products by answering questions in Google’s Help Forums.

They also continue to give important feedback to Google. Top Contributors have advocated for features and improvements like custom colors in Google Calendar, more locations for offline Google Maps on Android devices, and protected ranges in Google Sheets. In short, they help Google build better products.

Starting today, you can find out more about Top Contributors on our new website for the program. You can learn about Google Help Forums, meet a few of the Top Contributors, and get a better understanding of what these incredible folks do to impact people’s lives in the forums every day.

We hope that the website brings the world of Google Help Forums to light and shows our thanks for the dedication Top Contributors show each day. To meet a Top Contributor or get some help, just stop by a forum and say hello. And let us know if you want more information on joining the Top Contributor Program!

Posted by Adrienne Ludwick, Top Contributor Program Manager]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/meet-googles-top-contributors-a-community-of-help/feed/ 0 VetNet: A place for veterans and military spouses to build civilian careers https://googledata.org/google-blog/vetnet-a-place-for-veterans-and-military-spouses-to-build-civilian-careers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vetnet-a-place-for-veterans-and-military-spouses-to-build-civilian-careers https://googledata.org/google-blog/vetnet-a-place-for-veterans-and-military-spouses-to-build-civilian-careers/#comments Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=85be7ccf83fabf8eb6eaf6b7940c503c Veterans Job Bank to connect veterans with employers, today populated with more than a million jobs. And we created a Resume Builder to help job-seekers represent their experience in just a few clicks with Google Docs.

After years of working with the community, we’ve come to realize that it isn’t more tools that are needed, but rather organizing the ones that already exist, and making them easier to find. Perhaps the most complex challenge facing the veteran community today is the sheer volume of resources available to help them transition to civilian life. While this abundance is the measure of a grateful nation, and a tribute to those who served, in the end, the most important result is individuals and families getting the help they need.

With this in mind, we’ve put the powers of Google+ behind a single hub called VetNet. Today, VetNet launches as a partnership with three founding organizations: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes program, the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and Hire Heroes USA. In the long run, other organizations will be able to offer their services to the veteran community, all in the same easy-to-use place.

Through VetNet, these founding partners offer a full spectrum of employment resources for members of the community. Whether starting a job search from scratch, looking for mentors in a specific industry or starting a business, transitioning service members, veterans and military spouses will be able to connect with career services, job opportunities and each other.

All of the content and resources are organized into three tracks by objective, each hosted on its own Google+ page.

Basic Training Track (google.com/+VetNetBasic): The place to start. From resumes to interviewing tips to advice from buddies. Dial into our first Resume Workshop today at 3pm EST.
Career Connections Track (google.com/+VetNetCareer): Walmart, GE and Capital One are just a few of the companies that are participating in VetNet to help veterans and military spouses find civilian careers. Check out today’s Vets In Finance panel at 2pm EST.
Entrepreneur Track (google.com/+VetNetEntrepreneur): An 8-week college-level course on the fundamentals of starting a business, starting next week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

To stay abreast of the most exciting events happening across all tracks, follow +VetNetHQ on Google+.

We’re proud to join forces with the Chamber, IVMF and Hire Heroes USA—to help them do what they do so well, and to simplify the process of finding and using resources for the veterans community. Our hope is simply to connect help to those who need it. If you’re a member of the community looking any career advice or help, get started at VetNetHQ.com. For those of us who have not served, please do what you can to spread word of VetNet to those who have.

Posted by Andy Berndt, Creative Lab]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/vetnet-a-place-for-veterans-and-military-spouses-to-build-civilian-careers/feed/ 0 Get ready for winter: Mapping the Canadian Arctic and global ski resorts https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-ready-for-winter-mapping-the-canadian-arctic-and-global-ski-resorts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=get-ready-for-winter-mapping-the-canadian-arctic-and-global-ski-resorts https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-ready-for-winter-mapping-the-canadian-arctic-and-global-ski-resorts/#comments Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=0ed5ebfba5f441e3b8a695f8f67baa2b
Canada’s Arctic
When we visited Canada’s far north this past August, we worked with the nonprofit group Nunavut Tunngavik and the residents of Cambridge Bay to improve the map of this remote, but culturally rich, Nunavut hamlet. The map this community helped build using Google Map Maker, as well as the 360-degree images we collected using Street View trike and tripod technologies, is now available for all the world to see on Google Maps.

To get a sense of what it’s like to live up in the north, you can walk down Omingmak Street, make your way to the bridge (where locals fish for Arctic Char) and head out to the Old Stone Church. Check out some Arctic souvenirs in the Arctic Closet, or visit the Ice Hockey and Curling Arena—it’s uninsulated and freezes over once they flood it in the winter! You can also learn more about Inuit history and culture at the Kitikmeot Heritage Society and the Arctic Coast Visitors Centre.

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Explore the intersection of Omingmak (“musk ox”) Street and Tigiganiak (“fox”) Road

Ski and snow resorts across the globe
You can also view some of the world’s best runs right on Google Maps before you get there. Whether you’re looking to discover a piste you’ve never tried before, or just want to take in some winter wonderland scenery, we’ve added Street View imagery for resorts across Europe (including runs in Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Italy and Spain), Canada (including runs in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario) and the U.S. (including runs in Utah and Michigan).

For example, take a look at Sölden, a popular ski resort in the Ötztal valley of Tyrol, Austria. It’s not just tourists who flock there every year, but fans of professional skiing—Sölden regularly hosts the giant slalom competition as part of the Alpine World Cup in late October.

View Larger Map

You can also visit Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah. With 19 chairlifts, 4,000 acres of skiable terrain and an average of 355 inches of snow each winter, Canyons is the largest ski and snowboard terrain park in the state.

View Larger Map

Visit the to see some of our favorite images of the Arctic and resorts available on Google Maps. As winter sets in, we encourage you to experience it all from the comfort (and warmth) of your couch—or check it out online, then dig out your thermal underwear and snow boots to hit the slopes!

Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Program Manager, Google Street View]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-ready-for-winter-mapping-the-canadian-arctic-and-global-ski-resorts/feed/ 0 Join the Arabic Web Days movement https://googledata.org/google-blog/join-the-arabic-web-days-movement/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=join-the-arabic-web-days-movement https://googledata.org/google-blog/join-the-arabic-web-days-movement/#comments Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:20:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=e84bdd7a53389f82dafafc28b966f131 Note: the video below is in Arabic only.)

For the next 30 days, we’re holding a series of online and offline events along with our partners Vinelab, Wamda, Yamli and Taghreedat, as well as Twitter, Wikipedia, TED, Soundcloud, and regional organizations Al Arabiya, TwoFour54 and Qatar Foundation’s Qatari Computing Research Institute. Here’s how you can get involved:

Participate in a series of Hangouts on Google+ to get tips and tricks from industry experts on contributing Arabic content to the web—through online journalism, YouTube videos, Wikipedia editing, translation of English content, SEO and more
Join the YouTube Tweet Up in Doha, Qatar on December 15 to learn how to create viral Arabic videos and make money through YouTube
Participate in the region's first Arabic infographics competition with Tajseed
Volunteer to be part of a TED initiative to create quality Arabic digital content via Arabic subtitling during a kick-off event with TED, twofour54 and Taghreedat in Abu Dhabi on December 4
Sign up for developer training at g|days in Jordan on December 5-6 and Egypt on December 9-10 to learn about Arabic localization, webmaster tools, SEO and YouTube for Business
Learn about the Egyptian Ministry of Education’s educational channels on YouTube which include different curricula from first to twelfth grade, as well as e-Lessons via video and Google+ Hangouts.
Celebrate 12/12/12 as National Arabic Web Day
Connect with us: add the Arabic Web Days badge to your site, upload a video to youtube.com/arabicwebdays, visit our website: www.arabicwebdays.com and follow us on Google+ and Twitter (in Arabic)

To get more details and to sign up for any of the above events, visit Arabic Web Days on Google+ or see the Arabia Blog. Until then, let’s go Arabic!

Posted by Maha Abouelenein, Head of Communications, Middle East and North Africa]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/join-the-arabic-web-days-movement/feed/ 0 Discover the world of open source with Google Code-in 2012 https://googledata.org/google-blog/discover-the-world-of-open-source-with-google-code-in-2012-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=discover-the-world-of-open-source-with-google-code-in-2012-2 https://googledata.org/google-blog/discover-the-world-of-open-source-with-google-code-in-2012-2/#comments Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=1060b3ad1362e1b2ef384f42c3b762ba Google Code-in contest, pre-university students (13-17 years old) can learn more and create open source software that people all over the world can use—and win cool prizes along the way.

Starting Monday, November 26 and for the following 50 days, contest participants will work on fun online tasks for 10 different open source organizations. Possible challenges include documentation, marketing outreach, software coding, user experience research and more.

Participants earn points for each task they successfully complete and can earn prizes like T-shirts and certificates of completion. This year we’re doubling the number of grand prize winners to 20 talented students, who will win a trip to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. They’ll spend a day getting a tour of the “Googleplex,” meeting and talking with Google engineers, plus enjoy another full day exploring San Francisco and other surprises.

Some of the 2011 Google Code-in Grand Prize Winners by the Golden Gate Bridge

Last year, 542 students from 56 countries and 360 schools completed 3,054 tasks during the eight-week contest. This year we want to encourage even more students to participate in the contest and learn about open source development. If you’d like to sign up, please review our Frequently Asked Questions and the contest rules on our program site. You can also watch our screencast, check out some sample tasks from last year’s contest and join our discussion list for any other questions. For details on important dates for the contest, see the timeline. You can register for your account on the program site when the contest opens on Monday, November 26 at 9:00am PST.

Finally, our Open Source Programs team will be hosting a Hangout on Air on the Google in Education page November 26 at 2:00pm PST to discuss the details of the Google Code-in contest and answer any questions.

We hope you’ll spend your winter (or summer, for our friends in the southern hemisphere) learning about the ins and outs of open source development through hands-on experience. Ready...set...

Posted by Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/discover-the-world-of-open-source-with-google-code-in-2012-2/feed/ 0 Something to smile about: A 5,000-mile walk across Asia, guided by Google Maps https://googledata.org/google-blog/something-to-smile-about-a-5000-mile-walk-across-asia-guided-by-google-maps/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=something-to-smile-about-a-5000-mile-walk-across-asia-guided-by-google-maps https://googledata.org/google-blog/something-to-smile-about-a-5000-mile-walk-across-asia-guided-by-google-maps/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2012 22:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=9160a6728193f1c0cb1421cac6e2c235 International Children’s Surgical Foundation (ICSF) and Dr. Geoff Williams, who provides free facial-reconstructive surgeries for children with cleft lips/palates in developing countries. Although cleft palates are quite correctable, if left untreated the deformity can cause serious health issues. Many children don’t have the surgery because the cost of each procedure ($250 USD) is out of reach for their families.

Inspired to do something to help, Winston set out on a 5,000-mile trek across Southeast Asia to raise money and awareness for the ICSF—a mission he dubbed Smile Trek. Armed with sturdy boots, a 20-pound vest carrying essentials and an Android phone with Google Maps, Winston set off on his mission in October 2011. In the last year, he has walked (yes, walked!) through Brunei, China, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Along the way he’s met countless individuals who have contributed to his cause, whether it was a place to stay, a hot meal or a monetary donation on his website.

Trekking along: Winston, standing in front of a durian fruit stand near Sematan, the westernmost town of Malaysian Borneo

Out on the road, Winston’s Android phone and Google Maps became “the hub” of his entire operation. He used Google Maps to find accurate and easy-to-use walking directions everywhere he went, whether it was through remote villages and farms, down tiny dirt roads, or across rice paddies and desolate sugar cane fields. “Walking directions in Google Maps were critical to my trek. The directions were accurate and efficient—it’s essential to take the shortest route when you’re walking 20-25 miles each day,” said Winston. “But the best part was being routed onto roads and trails through areas I otherwise never would have discovered with, say, driving directions, or even a physical map.”

View the complete map of Winston's journey on his site

In addition to using Google Maps, Winston relied on many other Google products during his trek. He used Google Latitude to keep his family, friends and supporters informed of his whereabouts, and MyTracks to record his speed, distance and the places he visited. He also used Google Translate to communicate with locals, and in one case found it essential: when bit by a stray dog outside of Bangkok, he typed "I got bit by a dog, can someone take me to a hospital?" into his app. A taxi driver took him to the hospital, where he got 11 shots!

Today, after walking 5,000 miles in 408 days, Sgt. Fiore completes his journey, with more than $65,000 raised for ICSF. The money will help to fund more than 200 life-saving surgeries for children in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world. If you’d like to contribute to the International Children’s Surgery Fund and Winston Fiore’s effort, we encourage you to visit smiletrek.org.

Posted by Jennifer J. Chen, Product Manager, Google Maps ]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/something-to-smile-about-a-5000-mile-walk-across-asia-guided-by-google-maps/feed/ 0 Supporting people with disabilities through outreach and accessibility tools https://googledata.org/google-blog/supporting-people-with-disabilities-through-outreach-and-accessibility-tools/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=supporting-people-with-disabilities-through-outreach-and-accessibility-tools https://googledata.org/google-blog/supporting-people-with-disabilities-through-outreach-and-accessibility-tools/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2012 19:35:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=e85af8b97dba376d897ddcc212b16fbd
It’s because of the wide impact better accessibility tools can have that we partner with organizations like the Vision Serve Alliance, which brings together the CEOs of U.S. nonprofits that serve the blind and visually impaired to network and share best practices.

On Thursday, November 8 we welcomed 63 of these executives to Google’s San Francisco, Calif. office. There, we showed how we’re making Google’s products more accessible to blind and visually impaired users. We also shared insight into Google's culture—our commitment to openness, transparency and encouraging Googlers to bring their whole selves to work.

The attendees talked with representatives from the Google self-driving car team about the technology’s potential impact on mobility for the blind and visually impaired, as previously demoed by Steve Mahan from the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center. Other teams of Googlers also joined the event to demonstrate accessibility features in products like Chrome and Android. Chromevox is a screen reader that's built into Chrome OS and the Chrome browser. Android’s built-in accessibility features include text-to-speech, haptic feedback, gesture navigation, trackball and directional-pad navigation, all of which help visually impaired users navigate their mobile devices.

In line with our efforts to empower all people with disabilities, on December 3 we’re celebrating the International Day of Disability in Google offices in North America. We’ll have 7-minute flash talks about how Google’s work on accessibility empowers different communities, and a global product accessibility improvement day where Googlers test our products for accessibility bugs.

Posted by Seval Oz, New Business Development Senior Manager]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/supporting-people-with-disabilities-through-outreach-and-accessibility-tools/feed/ 0 Thanksgiving gone Google https://googledata.org/google-blog/thanksgiving-gone-google/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=thanksgiving-gone-google https://googledata.org/google-blog/thanksgiving-gone-google/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:56:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=d1a8751f22d049c95887831dad2228bf giving thanks and connecting with family and friends. Yet, all too often we get caught up in the holiday rat race—the mad dash to the airport, the supermarket, the mall—and forget to take time out to enjoy the holiday.

To kick off the holidays this year, we wanted to crank up the fun and tone down the stress. So we did a little planning for you and created a one-stop-Google-shop to get you through the week.

Cooking
With tools like recipe search and YouTube cooking videos that show you the right (and wrong) ways to carve a deep-fried turkey, Google can help you master your Thanksgiving meal with lots of laughs along the way. You can also join members of the Google+ cooking community for cooking lessons over live hangouts. Learn how to make new dishes like pumpkin brulee for the sweet tooths at the table or mix things up this year with a vegan-friendly feast.

Connecting
Though we can’t control the skies and guarantee a turbulence-free flight home, we can help minimize the time you spend waiting around, with real-time flight updates. Download the Google Search App to get flight updates on the go. And don’t forget to download TV shows, music and more from Google Play to stay entertained on board.

Of course, for those of you who couldn’t make it home this year, you can still get everyone together with Google+ Hangouts. Try scheduling a hangout to video chat with up to nine people you’d otherwise miss this holiday.

Sports
Whether you’re rooting for the Cowboys or the Jets, Texans or the Patriots, we can help you stay on top of all the scores and stats. If you’re on the run, ask for real time scores or game details using Voice Search on the Google Search App.

Shopping
This year Black Friday starts on Thursday, with Wal-Mart, Target and Toys R Us all kicking off sales on Thanksgiving night. To help you get a head start on the deal-seekers, try our new shortlists, a super-simple alternative to sharing lists of links or bookmarks, as well as 360-degree imagery for many of the season’s hottest toys on Google Shopping. For those of you brave enough to face the masses at the store, use indoor Google Maps to get in and get out of the mall fast.

By putting all your favorite Google features in one place, we hope we can help make things just a little bit easier this Thanksgiving—giving you more time to make memories with those who matter most and enjoy every last bite of that much deserved pumpkin pie. Visit our Thanksgiving hub to get started.

Posted by Carolyn Witte, Search Marketing Team]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/thanksgiving-gone-google/feed/ 0 Investing in green energy in Greene County, Iowa https://googledata.org/google-blog/investing-in-green-energy-in-greene-county-iowa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=investing-in-green-energy-in-greene-county-iowa https://googledata.org/google-blog/investing-in-green-energy-in-greene-county-iowa/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:01:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=a491bf6b11e61ff6e0865ca256cc02fc
Today we‘re announcing that we’ve made an equity investment of $75 million in a 50MW wind farm in Rippey, a small town in Greene County, about an hour outside of Des Moines. The Rippey project, developed by RPM Access, is expected to produce enough energy to power over 15,000 Iowa homes. The project, which is now in operation, uses turbines produced by Nordex USA at their Jonesboro, Ark. facility.

Investment team members Nick Coons and Steffi Russell-Egbert visiting the Rippey project on a (windy) day in October.

We’ve taken two approaches to greening the grid in Iowa, a state where we operate a data center. Back in 2010, we entered into a long-term contract to purchase wind energy from NextEra Energy Resources’ Story County II wind farm. This time, we’re investing directly into a wind project, which has been contracted to sell all of the energy to the Central Iowa Power Cooperative, an Iowa-based utility that will deliver the energy to local consumers. We’re happy to help make more renewable energy available to Iowans and to support the growing wind energy industry in the state.

This project brings our committed investment to the renewable energy sector to more than $990 million. Read more about our previous investments on our Google Green site.

Posted by Axel Martinez, Assistant Treasurer, Head of Capital Markets]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/investing-in-green-energy-in-greene-county-iowa/feed/ 0 The results are in—Zagat’s America’s Top Restaurants revealed https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-results-are-in-zagats-americas-top-restaurants-revealed/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-results-are-in-zagats-americas-top-restaurants-revealed https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-results-are-in-zagats-americas-top-restaurants-revealed/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:38:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=a9e877f5e36f132ee3f9be9df6d98af0 America’s Top Restaurants Survey covering 1,822 of the nation’s top-rated restaurants. From Boston to Portland and Chicago to Miami, the results of this year’s Zagat Survey are based on millions of reviews from everyday diners who shared their experiences through their favorite Google products.

Winners include perennial favorites like the “exceptional” American Gary Danko (San Francisco), Eric Ripert’s French “seafood shrine” Le Bernardin (New York), and the “flawless” New American Bacchanalia (Atlanta), as well as top spots like Alinea (Chicago), Urasawa (Los Angeles) and Joël Robuchon (Las Vegas).

While many of the top restaurants break out the china and crystal, a number of standouts included in the guide are casual gourmet places like pizzerias: Settebello (Vegas and Salt Lake City), Supino Pizzeria (Detroit’s No.1 restaurant), Serious Pie (Seattle) and Dough (San Antonio); sandwich specialists: Bäco Mercat (LA), Cochon Butcher (New Orleans) and Melt Bar & Grilled (Cleveland); burger specialists: B Spot (Cleveland), Flip Burger Boutique (Atlanta) and Sketch (Philadelphia); and BBQs: Union Woodshop, Slows Bar BQ and Zingerman’s Roadhouse (Detroit).

Thanks to those of you who share your restaurant adventures with us, we also have a snapshot of what dining out in America looks like. Based on surveyors in 10 major cities, we have found that the average number of meals cooked at home (7.0 per week) outpaces the average number of meals they eat/take out (6.1)—a trend that has been building since the Great Recession. We also know that diners in Houston eat out the most (4.1 times per week vs. the 3.2 national average), and that at 19.6 percent, the City of Brotherly Love is also the city of most generous tippers.

Zagat ratings and reviews for tens of thousands of restaurants at every price point and cuisine are available via the Google products you use every day, like search, Google+, Maps and mobile.

Congratulations to this year’s winners and bon appétit!

Posted by Bernardo Hernandez, Managing Director, Zagat]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-results-are-in-zagats-americas-top-restaurants-revealed/feed/ 0 A healthy grant to support healthy buildings https://googledata.org/google-blog/a-healthy-grant-to-support-healthy-buildings/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-healthy-grant-to-support-healthy-buildings https://googledata.org/google-blog/a-healthy-grant-to-support-healthy-buildings/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:50:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=94a36959521f35b9e796c95a09b4dde5 creating the healthiest work environments possible and promoting transparency within the wide world of building materials.

Today, we’re taking a step toward that future with a $3 million grant to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a leading non-profit organization that works to create greener buildings and communities in the U.S. and around the world.

There’s a lack of clear and accessible information on building ingredients, which means that a lot of us might be exposed to potentially harmful and toxic chemicals in building materials—whether it’s in the desk you sit at every day or the building’s paints, tiles and carpeting. This grant is designed to improve human health and well-being by supporting more industry research and better standards around healthy materials.

We’ve already done a lot to eliminate many of these chemicals in our offices around the world, and we want to make it easier for others to do the same. The USGBC has had great success with their widely adopted LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. LEED is certifying 1.7 million square feet every day with 9.3 billion square feet participating in LEED across all 50 states and 138 countries. We think they’re in a great position to build on this track record to create real and lasting change in the industry.

But it isn't enough just to have better labeling or standards about the ingredients in various products. We also need to know more about the ingredients themselves, which is why this grant also supports more scientific research and outreach so we can all do a better job of understanding how building materials impact human health. By doing so, we hope to empower consumers and businesses alike to make more informed decisions about the materials they purchase and use in their day-to-day lives.

Posted by Lacy Caruthers, Sustainability Team]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/a-healthy-grant-to-support-healthy-buildings/feed/ 0 Honoring the spirit of Veterans Day year-round https://googledata.org/google-blog/honoring-the-spirit-of-veterans-day-year-round/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=honoring-the-spirit-of-veterans-day-year-round https://googledata.org/google-blog/honoring-the-spirit-of-veterans-day-year-round/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:11:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=9a7c8f2d1956bca7b51a64b344e142df

Veterans Day 2012 doodle

This year, we’re honoring the spirit of Veterans Day with a week of activities from November 7-14. Googlers deployed with Team Rubicon to Rockaway Beach, N.Y. to help residents recover from Hurricane Sandy, cooked dinner for military families at VA Puget Sound Fisher House, hosted a Meals Ready-to-Eat luncheon in Atlanta, Ga., and ran a U.S. Marine Corps Combat Fitness Test in Mountain View, Calif.—just a few of the events underway around the United States.

Our commitment to supporting the military veteran community at large continues to strengthen, with a focus on helping veterans make a successful transition to civilian life. Here are some examples of how Google tools and employees have joined the fight against veteran unemployment, in particular:

20 resume workshops at Google offices for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the U.S. as well as the U.K. Many of these veterans belong to the Student Veterans of America.
A scholarship program for veterans studying computer science and our inaugural Student Veterans Summit
Our first-ever Google for Entrepreneurs Day for hundreds of veterans and military spouses who are aspiring business owners in San Diego, Calif.
VetNet, a career services platform coming soon on Google+, in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes Foundation, IVMF and Hire Heroes USA

We’ve also put our technology to work as sponsors of Veterans Week NYC, including:

Google technology training for more than 100 wounded warriors and caregivers in NYC and a panel discussion, also broadcast on Google+, with advice for wounded warriors on transitioning to the civilian workplace.
A live broadcast of the Bob Woodruff Foundation's annual Stand Up For Heroes concert on YouTube and Google+ to raise awareness and funds for wounded warriors.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, November 14, a broadcast of the Big Apple Circus for military families around the country, hosted by the USO. You can join in the fun on Google+ where we’ll stream the performance live.

Honoring wounded warriors with The Boss at Stand Up For Heroes on November 8.

Photo by Stefan Radtke.

Please follow our new Google for Veterans & Families Google+ page to stay abreast of our support for the community all year long. Every day is Veterans Day here at Google.

Update Dec 7: You can now watch video from the November 14 Big Apple Circus on YouTube.

Posted by Carrie Laureno, Audience Evangelist and Founder, Google Veterans Network]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/honoring-the-spirit-of-veterans-day-year-round/feed/ 0 Deck the halls with tools for shopping https://googledata.org/google-blog/deck-the-halls-with-tools-for-shopping/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=deck-the-halls-with-tools-for-shopping https://googledata.org/google-blog/deck-the-halls-with-tools-for-shopping/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=96abff6a7f5fb61da54c942410fb02d0
Explore products in 360-degree detail on Google Shopping
Having trouble imagining what a toy actually looks like from the online picture? Now, when searching for a subset of toys on Google Shopping, you can see 360-degree photos of the products. These interactive images bring the in-store feeling of holding and touching a product to your online browsing.

Look for the “3D” swivel icon on the product image to see a toy in 360-degree view, on HTML5 enabled browsers. We’ve also put together a Holiday Toy Collection featuring this enhanced imagery—explore the collection on this site. 360-degree imagery is coming for other types of products soon.

If you’re a retailer or manufacturer interested in displaying these rich images of your products on Google Shopping, please fill out this form.

Use Shortlists to stay organized and collaborate with friends
New in Google Shopping, Shortlists make it easier to research products and plan purchases with friends and family. Instead of using bookmarked websites and docs containing long lists of URLs, or back-and-forth emails with friends, you can now consolidate all your shopping research in one place. With Shortlists, you can easily:

Keep track of products you like from Google Shopping and across the web
View product photos, prices and specs side by side
Share your Shortlist with friends, who can add their own ideas

Create a Shortlist by visiting google.com/shopping/shortlists or clicking the “Add to Shortlist” button as you browse products on Google Shopping.

Discover great deals and store promotions on Google Shopping
To help you make the most of your holiday budget, Google Shopping now shows discounts or promotions on the products you're viewing. If discounts or promotions are available, you can click on the link and visit the retailer’s site to redeem the offer.

That’s not all...a few more new Google Shopping features
Here are a few of the other tools we’ve created to make your holiday shopping a little easier:

Not sure you’ve found the perfect gift? Read reviews from people you know and write your own product reviews on Google Shopping.
Found an item that’s almost perfect but not quite? Now you can view “visually similar” results for even more types of products and categories, including jewelry, coats, handbags and more.
Buying an important gift? Look for the Google Trusted Store logo as you shop. It indicates a store ships quickly and delivers excellent customer service.
Shopping on the go? Browse for gift ideas, find local sales and research products with the new and improved Google Shopper 3.0, currently available for Android.
Still need some inspiration? Browse holiday catalogs from the top retailers directly on Google Shopping.

Happy holiday shopping!

Posted by Vineet Buch, Group Product Manager, Google Shopping]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/deck-the-halls-with-tools-for-shopping/feed/ 0 Transparency Report: Government requests on the rise https://googledata.org/google-blog/transparency-report-government-requests-on-the-rise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=transparency-report-government-requests-on-the-rise https://googledata.org/google-blog/transparency-report-government-requests-on-the-rise/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=aa5ab0852bc4e672ee68e44c845bddd4 Transparency Report in early 2010, there wasn’t much data out there about how governments sometimes hamper the free flow of information on the web. So we took our first step toward greater transparency by disclosing the number of government requests we received. At the time, we weren’t sure how things would look beyond that first snapshot, so we pledged to release numbers twice a year. Today we’re updating the Transparency Report with data about government requests from January to June 2012.

This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise. As you can see from the graph below, government demands for user data have increased steadily since we first launched the Transparency Report. In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.

The number of government requests to remove content from our services was largely flat from 2009 to 2011. But it’s spiked in this reporting period. In the first half of 2012, there were 1,791 requests from government officials around the world to remove 17,746 pieces of content.

You can see the country-by-country trends for requests to hand over user data and to remove content from our services in the Transparency Report itself, but in aggregate around the world, the numbers continue to go up.

As always, we continue to improve the Transparency Report with each data release. Like before, we’re including annotations for this time period with interesting facts. We’re also showing new bar graphs with data in addition to tables to better display content removal trends over time. We’ve now translated the entire Transparency Report into 40 languages, and we’ve expanded our FAQ—including one that explains how we sometimes receive falsified court orders asking us to remove content. We do our best to verify the legitimacy of the documents we receive, and if we determine that any are fake, we don’t comply.

The information we disclose is only an isolated sliver showing how governments interact with the Internet, since for the most part we don’t know what requests are made of other technology or telecommunications companies. But we’re heartened that in the past year, more companies like Dropbox, LinkedIn, Sonic.net and Twitter have begun to share their statistics too. Our hope is that over time, more data will bolster public debate about how we can best keep the Internet free and open.

Posted by Dorothy Chou, Senior Policy Analyst]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/transparency-report-government-requests-on-the-rise/feed/ 0 Ghetto Film School uses Google+ to teach master classes in filmmaking https://googledata.org/google-blog/ghetto-film-school-uses-google-to-teach-master-classes-in-filmmaking/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ghetto-film-school-uses-google-to-teach-master-classes-in-filmmaking https://googledata.org/google-blog/ghetto-film-school-uses-google-to-teach-master-classes-in-filmmaking/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:38:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=b1a997a43cb64e1622142b03e3370f9a Virtual Photo Walks.

Ghetto Film School had a different idea. They’ve been running filmmaking programs for young people in their South Bronx neighborhood since 2000, and when they heard about Google+, they thought it would be a great way to bring what they do to teenagers beyond the Bronx. And from that simple idea, Ghetto Film School’s MasterClass series—discussions between great directors and young filmmakers from around the world—was born.

Ghetto Film School’s story is the latest addition to the Google+ Stories YouTube channel. Each video captures how people—from small business owners to astronomy fans to journalists—are using Google+ to connect with others who share their interests. Have a Google+ story of your own? We’d love to hear about it.

Posted by Kevin Proudfoot, Executive Creative Director, Creative Lab]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/ghetto-film-school-uses-google-to-teach-master-classes-in-filmmaking/feed/ 0 Let indoor Google Maps be your guide this holiday shopping season https://googledata.org/google-blog/let-indoor-google-maps-be-your-guide-this-holiday-shopping-season/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=let-indoor-google-maps-be-your-guide-this-holiday-shopping-season https://googledata.org/google-blog/let-indoor-google-maps-be-your-guide-this-holiday-shopping-season/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=1603a9e9a370ae2b8fc4965dc98e159f indoor Google Maps on your Android device to stay cool, calm, collected and most of all, one step ahead of the crowd.

On Black Friday and throughout this holiday season, simply zoom in to a participating store on Google Maps to devise your shopping game plan. An indoor floor plan with helpful labels will automatically appear, and the familiar “blue dot” icon will help you figure out the fastest way to the accessories department, the food court when you need to refuel, and the closest restroom or ATM when you need a break from your marathon shopping session. For many locations, you can even get indoor walking directions to find the best route from one store to the next.

Indoor Google Maps for Mall of America in Bloomington, MN (left)
and for Macy's in New York, NY (right)

These accurate, easy-to-use indoor maps are available for a number of popular retail locations across the globe including many local malls and select Best Buy, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Harrod’s, Selfridges, John Lewis and other stores. With the help of your Android device, you can beeline it to the camcorder you’ve been eyeing for your dad, and then quickly make your way to that sweater you know your sister will love. For list of additional venue partners, including some in Belgium that just became available today, check out this list.

Indoor Google Maps for West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (left)
and for Nordstrom in Seattle, WA (right)

We hope these indoor maps make finding your way in and around retail stores easier, less stressful and more efficient this holiday season. To access them, simply update Google Maps on your Android by visiting Google Play on your phone or desktop. Happy holiday shopping!

Posted by Cedric Dupont, Product Manager, Google Maps]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/let-indoor-google-maps-be-your-guide-this-holiday-shopping-season/feed/ 0 The new Acer Chromebook https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-new-acer-chromebook-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-new-acer-chromebook-2 https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-new-acer-chromebook-2/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=036f63e841b1c5322644e955e15710c7 better, simpler computer and making it available for everyone is at the core of the Chromebook vision. It’s exciting to see people using Chromebooks as the perfect additional computer in the home, and we continue to work with our partners to make them easy-to-use and more affordable. Today, we’re delighted that our partner Acer is introducing a new addition to the Chromebook family: the new Acer C7 Chromebook.

The new Acer C7 Chromebook delivers a hassle-free computing experience with speed, built-in security and the simplicity of automatic updates. It features a full-size keyboard, fully clickable trackpad, an extra bright 11.6-inch display and over 3.5 hours of battery life. Powered by an Intel Core processor, the Acer Chromebook is fast—boots up in 18 seconds, resumes instantly and high-definition videos play smoothly (yes, videos like Gangnam Style in 1080p, in case you’re one of the few left who hasn’t seen it). You can easily store your stuff on the Chromebook or in the cloud, with a 320GB hard drive and 100GB of free storage on Google Drive.*

As you’d expect from a Chromebook, it’s easy to share with others around the home. Moms, dads, siblings or even your roommate can all have separate accounts and simply log in to get things done. And because Chromebooks bring you the best of Google, if you use products like Gmail, Drive, Maps, YouTube and Google+, your stuff is always available and everything just works.

Starting tomorrow, the Acer Chromebook will be available for $199 in the U.S. on Google Play, BestBuy.com and rolling out this week in select Best Buy stores. In the U.K., it’s available on Google Play, Amazon UK, PC World and Currys. We’re working hard to bring it to more countries soon.

Together with Acer, it’s great to welcome the newest addition to the Chromebook family. We hope it will make a great additional computer for your family, too. New Chromebooks, for everyone.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome & Apps

*You will have 100 GB of free storage for 2 years, starting on the date you redeem the offer on eligible Chrome devices.

Update 11/15: The latest update for the Acer C7 Chromebook enhances battery life to 4 hours. You should get this update when you open your computer for the first time. Thanks to auto-updates, you already have a better computer than the one you bought.

(Cross-posted on the Chrome Blog)]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-new-acer-chromebook-2/feed/ 0 JAM with Chrome: Play music live with your friends online https://googledata.org/google-blog/jam-with-chrome-play-music-live-with-your-friends-online/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jam-with-chrome-play-music-live-with-your-friends-online https://googledata.org/google-blog/jam-with-chrome-play-music-live-with-your-friends-online/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2012 10:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=81f4905176434a7b28901c0ae812e5e2 JAM with Chrome is an interactive web application that enables friends in different locations to play music together in the Chrome browser on their computers. No matter what your level of talent—from daydreaming air guitarist to music pro—you can JAM together in real time over the web.

When you enter the site, you can choose from a selection of 19 different instruments, from acoustic and bass guitars to drum kits and keyboards. Once you get playing, you can switch instruments as often and as many times as you like.

In the default “easy mode” you can experiment by clicking individual strings, drum pads or keys, or you can play around with the four different autoplay functions and let the machines do the work. Switch to “pro mode” to play any instrument using your keyboard.

Invite up to three friends in different locations to join your JAM via the sharing buttons on the site. Here’s “Keyboard Cat” jamming with his friends:

JAM with Chrome is a Chrome Experiment that uses the latest modern web technologies, including HTML5 features such as the Web Audio API, Websockets, Canvas and CSS3. For more detailed information on the technologies used, check out the technology link in the app.

Go on, get the band together at jamwithchrome.com.

Posted by Emma Turpin, Google Creative Lab

(Cross-posted from the Chrome Blog)]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/jam-with-chrome-play-music-live-with-your-friends-online/feed/ 0 Marking the fall of the Iron Curtain https://googledata.org/google-blog/marking-the-fall-of-the-iron-curtain/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=marking-the-fall-of-the-iron-curtain https://googledata.org/google-blog/marking-the-fall-of-the-iron-curtain/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2012 09:04:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=abf2d7a2184fa9916e9be5c34db93276
To mark this turning point in history, we’re releasing a collection of online exhibitions under the theme of The Fall of the Iron Curtain. Partners, including The DDR Museum in Berlin, Polish History Museum, Romanian broadcaster TVR and Getty Images, have created 13 exhibitions containing documents, videos and photos telling the stories behind how events unfolded.

Independent historians have also contributed their expertise. For example, Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University, provides video commentary on events as part of his exhibition The Fall of the Wall: Revelation, not Revolution.

Some of the other exhibitions include:

Solidarity & the fall of The Iron Curtain - the creation and evolution of the Solidarity trade union leading to Lech Walesa's election as President of Poland in 1990
Visions of Division - Professor Patrick Major, a specialist in Cold War history, gives an account of life in a divided Germany and the everyday human cost of the Wall
Years of change - diary of a fictitious author documenting events in Berlin such as the staged elections, the first protests and David Hasselhoff's concert at the wall
The Berlin Job - a personal account of life in East Berlin made by independent curator Peter Millar, one of the only non-German correspondents in East Berlin in the 1980s
Romanian Revolution - a series of four exhibitions containing more than 50 videos documenting the live TV transmission of the overthrow of Romanian dictator Ceausescu

The Fall of the Iron Curtain is the latest chapter in the work of the Google Cultural Institute, following the launch last month of 42 online historical exhibitions telling the stories behind major events of the last century. You can explore all the exhibitions on www.google.com/culturalinstitute and follow us on our Google+ page.

If you’re a partner interested in working with the Google Cultural Institute to turn your archives into online exhibitions, we’d love to hear from you—please fill out this form.

Posted by Mark Yoshitake, Google Cultural Institute

(Cross-posted from the Google Europe blog)]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/marking-the-fall-of-the-iron-curtain/feed/ 0 AMBER Alerts for missing children now in Google Search and Maps https://googledata.org/google-blog/amber-alerts-for-missing-children-now-in-google-search-and-maps/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amber-alerts-for-missing-children-now-in-google-search-and-maps https://googledata.org/google-blog/amber-alerts-for-missing-children-now-in-google-search-and-maps/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:12:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=87dde47dfaa6da08feb3174785a8d272 National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the Google Public Alerts platform. Public Alerts are designed to bring you emergency alerts when and where they’re relevant to you, and AMBER Alerts aim to help bring abducted children home safely.

If you’re using Google Search or Maps on desktop and mobile you’ll see an AMBER Alert if you search for related information in a particular location where a child has recently been abducted and an alert was issued. You’ll also see an alert if you conduct a targeted search for the situation. By increasing the availability of these alerts through our services, we hope that more people will assist in the search for children featured in AMBER Alerts and that the rates of safe recovery will rise.

AMBER Alerts will provide information about the abducted child and any other details about the case as they become available. Additional details could include the make and model of the vehicle he/she was abducted in or information about the alleged abductor.

Screenshot for a test version of an AMBER alert

The US Department of Justice’s AMBER Alert™ Program is a voluntary partnership between law enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies and others to engage the entire community in the most serious child-abduction cases. We are working with NCMEC, who will provide the AMBER Alert data to Google and make it possible to display information in Public Alerts.

We’re working closely with Missing Children Europe and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to try and scale this service to more countries. We’ll keep exploring different ways to improve child protection through innovative technologies, like what has been used to reduce exploitation and improve reporting to NCMEC.

Posted by Phil Coakley, software engineer, Google Public Alerts team]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/amber-alerts-for-missing-children-now-in-google-search-and-maps/feed/ 0 Celebrating Leonardo Torres-Quevedo, Spanish inventor of the world’s first computer game https://googledata.org/google-blog/celebrating-leonardo-torres-quevedo-spanish-inventor-of-the-worlds-first-computer-game/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=celebrating-leonardo-torres-quevedo-spanish-inventor-of-the-worlds-first-computer-game https://googledata.org/google-blog/celebrating-leonardo-torres-quevedo-spanish-inventor-of-the-worlds-first-computer-game/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 09:30:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=5c26ef79cf19dcbd1a6e84e897123140 Leonardo Torres-Quevedo. Next week, as part of our ongoing effort to celebrate Europe’s computing heritage, we’re commemorating Torres-Quevedo’s legacy and his remarkable machine—"El Ajedrecista" (in English, "The Chess Player")—in partnership with the Telecommunication Engineering department of the Technical University of Madrid.

Photo thanks to Wikimedia Commons
Torres-Quevedo’s inventions span many fields. He was the second in the world to demonstrate wireless remote control, beaten to the post only by Nikola Tesla. His designs for airships were used by both the French and British during WWI. He was a global leader in cable car design, creating the “Spanish aero car” over the Niagara Whirlpool which, nearly a century on, remains a tourist attraction. However, his most remarkable achievements were in the field of automation, developing machines that are antecedents to what we now call computers and robots.

Torres-Quevedo’s ambitions were bold. As Scientific American proclaimed in 1915: “He would substitute machinery for the human mind.” In the 1890s, Torres-Quevedo built a series of mechanical devices that solved algebraic equations. In 1920 he wowed a Paris audience with an electromechanical arithmometer with a typewriter attachment. You simply typed a formula—say, “24x48”—and the machine would calculate and automatically type the answer “=1152” in reply.

But El Ajedrecista, an algorithmically powered machine that could play an end-game of chess against a human opponent completely automatically, is his most notable creation. Although it’s a far cry from Deep Blue, El Ajedrecista can lay claim to being the world’s first (analog) computer game.

.
Photos thanks to Museo Torres Quevedo
The machine didn’t just calculate its moves—it had mechanical arms that physically moved its pieces, in the form of electrical jacks, across a grid. In later models the arm mechanism was replaced by magnets, and play took place on a more ordinary-looking chess board. You couldn’t cheat the machine as it could spot illegal moves; and you couldn’t win, as the game always started at a point (machine’s King and Rook versus human’s King) from which the machine could never lose.

In honor of El Ajedrecista’s 100th birthday, we’re working with the Telecommunication Engineering department of the Technical University of Madrid to stage a conference commemorating Torres-Quevedo’s legacy. The conference, taking place on November 7, will feature lectures and panel discussions, as well as an exhibition of Torres-Quevedo’s devices—including El Ajedrecista itself. Attendance is free—if you want to join us, request an invitation.

Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/celebrating-leonardo-torres-quevedo-spanish-inventor-of-the-worlds-first-computer-game/feed/ 0 Google’s most advanced voice search has arrived on iOS https://googledata.org/google-blog/googles-most-advanced-voice-search-has-arrived-on-ios/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=googles-most-advanced-voice-search-has-arrived-on-ios https://googledata.org/google-blog/googles-most-advanced-voice-search-has-arrived-on-ios/#comments Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:26:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=49a7f85be01bc98dc4ff611a691d92fb
Fast and accurate voice recognition technology enables Google to understand exactly what you’re saying. Getting an answer is as simple as tapping on the microphone icon and asking a question like, “Is United Airlines flight 318 on time?” Your words appear as you speak, you get your answer immediately and—if it’s short and quick, like the status and departure time of your flight—Google tells you the answer aloud.

You can get answers to an increasingly wide variety of questions thanks to Knowledge Graph, which gives our search technology an understanding of people, places and things in the real world. Here are a few of the questions that Google can answer:

“What does Yankee Stadium look like?” Google will show you hundreds of pictures instantly.
“Play me a trailer of the upcoming James Bond movie.” The trailer starts playing immediately right within Google Search.
“When does daylight savings time end?” The answer will appear above the search results, so you can set your clock without having to click on a link.
“Who’s in the cast of The Office?” See a complete cast list and find out who made you crack up last night.

Download the Google Search App on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and find out how much wood a woodchuck would chuck (if a woodchuck could chuck wood).

Posted by Kenneth Bongort, Engineer, Google Search]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/googles-most-advanced-voice-search-has-arrived-on-ios/feed/ 0 Public Alerts on Google Search and Maps for Android for superstorm Sandy preparedness information https://googledata.org/google-blog/public-alerts-on-google-search-and-maps-for-android-for-superstorm-sandy-preparedness-information/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=public-alerts-on-google-search-and-maps-for-android-for-superstorm-sandy-preparedness-information https://googledata.org/google-blog/public-alerts-on-google-search-and-maps-for-android-for-superstorm-sandy-preparedness-information/#comments Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:55:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=189fb4ed341d13af4743ad32b83d1a66 Earlier today we posted about efforts to provide information to those affected by the former hurricane and now superstorm Sandy.

We also want to let you know that Public Alerts are now available on Google Search & Maps in your browser, on Google Maps for Android and also on Google Now for Android devices running Jellybean.

Public Alerts provide warnings for natural disasters and emergency situations. They appear based on targeted Google searches, such as [Superstorm Sandy], or with location-based search queries like [New York]. In addition to the alert, you’ll also see relevant response information, such as evacuation routes, crisis maps or shelter locations.

We were planning on announcing the new features in a few days, but wanted to get them out as soon as possible so they can be helpful to people during this time.

This is part of our continuing mission to bring emergency information to people when and where it is relevant. Public Alerts are primarily available in English for the U.S., but we are working with data providers across the world to expand their reach.

If you are searching for superstorm Sandy, you’ll see content at the top of the Search page specific to this crisis. For other searches, you’ll see public alerts where and when they are live.

Public Alerts on desktop search

Public Alerts on mobile

Desktop search showing content for Sandy-related query

We’re able to gather relevant emergency safety information thanks to a strong network of partners, including NOAA and USGS. Their commitment to open standards like the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is what makes this all possible. We’ve also developed partnerships to bring you even more relevant alerts in the future, including local emergency data from Nixle.

To learn more about Public Alerts, visit our Public Alerts homepage. If you’re a data provider, and would like to contribute to our efforts, please see our FAQ.

We hope that this information makes it easier for you to stay safe.

Posted by Nigel Snoad, product manager, Google Crisis Response]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/public-alerts-on-google-search-and-maps-for-android-for-superstorm-sandy-preparedness-information/feed/ 0 Get Ready to Vote with Google https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-ready-to-vote-with-google/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=get-ready-to-vote-with-google https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-ready-to-vote-with-google/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:03:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=732be7081b69f53dc184648c94343c6e increasingly search for information about how to register to vote, where to vote and who is on their ballot. Even though it is 2012, important voting information is disorganized and hard to find on the Internet. To help voters research candidates and successfully cast their ballot on Election Day, we’ve launched our new Voter Information Tool.

You can enter your address to find information on your polling place, early vote locations, ballot information with links to candidates’ social media sites and voting rules and requirements. The tool is easy to embed on any website and is open source so developers can modify it to create custom versions. We're working with a number of media partners to ensure the tool is accessible across the web, and partners like Foursquare and AT&T are doing great work building apps on our Civic Information API.

We hope this tool will help make getting to the polls and casting your ballot as simple as possible.

Posted by Jesse Mwaura, Google Politics & Elections Team

(Cross-posted on the Politics and Elections blog)]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-ready-to-vote-with-google/feed/ 0 New Crisis Response maps feature preparedness information for Hurricane Sandy https://googledata.org/google-blog/new-crisis-response-maps-feature-preparedness-information-for-hurricane-sandy-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-crisis-response-maps-feature-preparedness-information-for-hurricane-sandy-2 https://googledata.org/google-blog/new-crisis-response-maps-feature-preparedness-information-for-hurricane-sandy-2/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:16:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=092f60bc3d73cc2e360bfb49b163e2ac Already responsible for a reported 41 deaths across the Caribbean, late-season Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall again early this week on the East Coast of the United States.

Some are calling the hurricane “Frankenstorm” due to its potential mix of both winter and tropical cyclone weather. Regardless of what you call it, we hope that you get the information you need to make preparations and stay safe if you are in the area. It has the potential to be one of the worst storms the area has seen in decades.

The Google Crisis Response team has assembled a Hurricane Sandy map to help you track the storm’s progress and provide updated emergency information.

View larger map.

On the map, you’ll find the following emergency preparedness information:

Location tracking, including the hurricane’s current and forecasted paths, courtesy of the NOAA-National Hurricane Center
Public alerts, including evacuation notices, storm warnings, and more, via weather.gov and earthquake.usgs.gov
Radar and cloud imagery from weather.com and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Evacuation information and routes
Shelters and recovery centers will appear as they become operational
Storm footage and storm-related YouTube videos, curated by Storyful

We’ve also launched a map specific to New York City, featuring evacuation zone information from NYC Open Data, open shelters, weather information and live webcams.

View larger map.

You can easily share and embed these maps on your website — just hit the “Share” button at the top of the map to get the HTML code. We’ll continue to update these maps as more information becomes available.

Posted by Ka-Ping Yee, Software Engineer, Google Crisis Response

(Cross-posted on the Google.org blog)

]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/new-crisis-response-maps-feature-preparedness-information-for-hurricane-sandy-2/feed/ 0 Nexus: The best of Google, now in three sizes https://googledata.org/google-blog/nexus-the-best-of-google-now-in-three-sizes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nexus-the-best-of-google-now-in-three-sizes https://googledata.org/google-blog/nexus-the-best-of-google-now-in-three-sizes/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:09:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=1011741b339ec802f77a15f1191ebb7f People increasingly have more than one device, and they switch between them many times a day. Nexus—Google’s hardware line for Android devices—gets rid of the hassle. Just sign in with your Google Account and everything is there ready to go, whatever device you’re using: photos, emails, contacts, bookmarks, even your entertainment on Google Play.

Today, we’re excited to announce three great new Nexus devices … in small, medium and large. And they all run Android 4.2, a new flavor of Jelly Bean—which includes the latest version of Google Now and other great new features.

Nexus 4 with Google Now and Photo Sphere
Nexus 4 is our latest smartphone, developed together with LG. It has a quad-core processor which means it's super fast, a crisp 4.7" (320 ppi) display that's perfect for looking at photos and watching YouTube, and with wireless charging you just set the phone down on a charging surface to power it up, no wires needed. While Nexus 4 is incredibly powerful under the hood, it also features the latest version of Jelly Bean, Android 4.2—the simplest and smartest version of Android yet. Starting with the camera, we've reinvented the photo experience with Photo Sphere, which lets you capture images that are literally larger than life. Snap shots up, down and in every direction to create stunning 360-degree immersive experiences that you can share on Google+ with friends and family—or you can add your Photo Sphere to Google Maps for the world to see.

Android 4.2 brings other great goodies like Gesture Typing, which lets you glide your finger over the letters you want to type on the keyboard—it makes typing fast, fun and a whole lot simpler. Android 4.2 also adds support for wireless display so you can wirelessly watch movies, YouTube videos and play games right on your Miracast-compatible HDTV.

Learn more about all of the new features of Android 4.2, Jelly Bean, here.

Google Now—even more useful
We designed Google Now to make life simpler by giving you the right information at just the right time in easy to read cards, before you even ask. And the feedback has been awesome. So today we’re adding more cards that we hope you’ll find useful. Flight information, restaurant reservations, hotel confirmations and shipping details—how often have you found yourself wading through your email to get this information at the last moment? So next time you book a table for dinner, you’ll get a reminder with all the details without ever having to lift a finger. You’ll also get cards for nearby attractions, interesting photo spots, movies times at nearby theaters or concerts by your favorite artists.

Nexus 7: Thin, light and now even more portable
Nexus 7 brings you the best of Google–YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Maps–and all the great content from Google Play in a slim, portable package that fits perfectly in your hand. To give you more room for all that great content you can now get Nexus 7 with 16GB ($199) or 32GB ($249) of storage. But we also wanted to make this highly portable tablet even more mobile. So we added HSPA+ mobile data. Nexus 7 is now also available with 32GB and HSPA+ mobile ($299), which can operate on more than 200 GSM providers worldwide, including AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.

Nexus 10: Powerful and shareable
Nexus 10 is the ultimate tablet for watching movies or reading magazines. We wanted to build a premium entertainment device, so we partnered with Samsung to do just that. Nexus 10 is the highest resolution tablet on the planet with a 10.055" display at 2560-by-1600 (300ppi), that's over 4 million pixels right in your hands. It comes with a powerful battery that will get you up to nine hours of video playback and more than 500 hours of standby time. With a set of front-facing stereo speakers, you can watch movies right from your Nexus 10 and they simply sound awesome. But what makes Nexus 10 unique is that it's the first truly shareable tablet. With Android 4.2, you can add multiple users and switch between them instantly right from the lockscreen. We believe that everyone should have quick and easy access to their own stuff -- email, apps, bookmarks, and more. That way, everyone can have their own home screens, their own music, and even their own high scores.

Google Play: More entertainment, more countries
We’ve recently added a ton of great new entertainment to Google Play, such as movies and TV shows from Twentieth Century Fox. Earlier this year we expanded our service beyond movie rentals and now you can purchase movies and build a library of your favorites in Google Play. Today we’re bringing movie purchasing to more countries - Canada, the U.K., France, Spain and Australia.

We’re also excited to announce two new partnerships. We’re now working with Time, Inc. to bring you even more magazines like InStyle, PEOPLE, TIME and others. And we’ve partnered with Warner Music Group who will be adding their full music catalog with new songs coming each day. We’re now working with all of the major record labels globally, and all the major U.S. magazine publishers, as well as many independent labels, artists and publishers.

On November 13, we're bringing music on Google Play to Europe. Those of you in the U.K, France, Germany, Italy and Spain will be able to purchase music from the Google Play store and add up to 20,000 songs—for free—from your existing collection to the cloud for streaming to your Android devices or web browser. We’re also launching our new matching feature to streamline the process of uploading your personal music to Google Play. We’ll scan your music collection and any song we match against the Google Play catalog will be automatically added to your online library without needing to upload it, saving you time. This will be available in Europe at launch on November 13 and is coming to the U.S. soon after. This will all be for free—free storage of your music, free matching, free syncing across your devices and free listening.

Great value
We’ve always focused on building great devices at great value. And we think today’s devices offer the very best that money can buy. Here are more details on when and where you can pick up your next Nexus device:

Nexus 4: 8GB for $299; 16GB for $349; available unlocked and without a contract on 11/13 on the Google Play store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain and Canada. The 16GB version will also be available through T-Mobile for $199, with a 2-year contract (check here for more details).
Nexus 7: 16GB for $199 and 32GB for $249; available in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan, and also through our retail partners Gamestop, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and Walmart.

Nexus 7 with 32GB and mobile data: $299 and unlocked, on sale 11/13 in the Google Play store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain and Canada.

Nexus 10: 16GB for $399; 32GB for $499; available on 11/13 in the Google Play Store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan. You'll also be able to purchase the 32GB version in more than 2,000 Walmart stores in the U.S.

A Nexus device is much more than simply a phone or tablet. It’s your connection to the best of Google—all of your stuff and entertainment, everywhere you go with no hassle. Now you have three new Nexus devices, a new improved version of Jelly Bean and more entertainment than ever before—all available on Google Play. The playground is open.

Posted by Andy Rubin, SVP, Mobile and Digital Content

Update 2:30pm: This post has been updated with the availability of Nexus 10 at Walmart.]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/nexus-the-best-of-google-now-in-three-sizes/feed/ 0 Get your Google back https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-your-google-back/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=get-your-google-back https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-your-google-back/#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:28:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=e20cb650f2e2e7ce509ec47a6efecfb5 simple site to help you get your Google back.

The Google Search app comes with a clean and recognizable user interface. Our new voice search lets you naturally speak questions. The image search and image previews are built for swiping. And, as usual, you get immediate results as you type with Google Instant. The doodles you enjoy on special occasions will be right there on the homepage and even show up on the Google tile on your start screen.

The Chrome browser is the same Chrome you know and love, with some customizations to optimize for touchscreens, including larger buttons and the ability to keep Chrome open next to your other favorite apps. It delivers the fast, secure web experience you’ve come to expect from Chrome on all your devices.

To get both Google Search and Chrome installed on your Windows 8 machine, head to our site and learn how to get your familiar Google apps back.

Posted by Tamar Yehoshua, Product Management Director, Search]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/get-your-google-back/feed/ 0 Trekking the Grand Canyon for Google Maps https://googledata.org/google-blog/trekking-the-grand-canyon-for-google-maps/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trekking-the-grand-canyon-for-google-maps https://googledata.org/google-blog/trekking-the-grand-canyon-for-google-maps/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:00:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=19c07d0b15c70410571a5cc3a31218b0 Google Maps, you’ve been able to explore panoramic views of amazing places around the world ranging from the Swiss Alps to the Amazon to Antarctica, and a variety of urban cities, university campuses, ancient ruins and ski resorts as well.

Today, demonstrating the rocky and rugged paths we’ll travel to make Google Maps even more complete, we’re collecting imagery from a place no car, trike or snowmobile has ever been before. On its first official outing, the Street View team is using the Trekker—a wearable backpack with a camera system on top—to traverse the Grand Canyon and capture 360-degree images of one of the most breathtaking natural landscapes on the planet.

Operations Manager Steve Silverman (left) and Product Manager Ryan Falor (right) hiking the Bright Angel Trail on the South Rim with Trekkers

The narrow ridges and steep, exposed trails of the Grand Canyon provide the perfect terrain for our newest camera system. The Trekker—which its operator controls via an Android phone and automatically gathers photos as he walks—enables the collection of high-quality imagery from places that are only accessible on foot.

Falor controlling the the Trekker with his Android device

This week, photos are being gathered from portions of the South Rim at Grand Canyon National Park, including the ridge, the famous Bright Angel Trail, South Kaibab Trail and more. These panoramic views will soon be live on Google Maps, giving everyone from real-life visitors to armchair travelers the opportunity to marvel at this beautiful, majestic site from the comfort of their computers or mobile devices.

The team hiking the Bright Angel Trail

So get ready for the virtual adventure that awaits! And in the meantime, we’ll keep on trekken’ and working hard to bring you panoramic imagery of more visually stunning places we have yet to explore and share on Google Maps.

Posted by Ryan Falor, Product Manager, Google Street View]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/trekking-the-grand-canyon-for-google-maps/feed/ 0 Watch the Hajj from the Grand Mosque of Mecca live on YouTube https://googledata.org/google-blog/watch-the-hajj-from-the-grand-mosque-of-mecca-live-on-youtube/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=watch-the-hajj-from-the-grand-mosque-of-mecca-live-on-youtube https://googledata.org/google-blog/watch-the-hajj-from-the-grand-mosque-of-mecca-live-on-youtube/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:01:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=bcbcc4edd151e585c135843a65036abb Hajj. This year, millions more from around the world will be able to experience the ritual via the live stream from Mecca, Saudi Arabia on the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information's YouTube channel.

The Hajj represents one of the five pillars of Islam; it requires all Muslims around the world who are able-bodied and can afford it to perform the pilgrimage once in their lifetime. The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th and last month of the Islamic calendar.

This live stream was made possible by our cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information, which also broadcast Islamic prayers live from the Grand Mosque in Mecca during this year’s Ramadan.

Watch on www.youtube.com/makkahlive.

Posted by Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, Head of Emerging Arabia, Google]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/watch-the-hajj-from-the-grand-mosque-of-mecca-live-on-youtube/feed/ 0 The new Chromebook, for everyone https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-new-chromebook-for-everyone-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-new-chromebook-for-everyone-2 https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-new-chromebook-for-everyone-2/#comments Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:50:00 +0000 https://googledata.org/?guid=0363b8f4e07ec6ea7858c98160212f49
A few years ago, we set out on a journey to build a better computer that’s faster, simpler and more secure. When we introduced a few Chromebooks into the market, many of you early adopters joined us on this journey. For folks living entirely in the cloud, the Chromebook is now a primary computer.

Many people use the Chromebook today as the perfect additional computer for their home. For families, it’s easy to use and share: for kids doing homework on the couch, parents catching up on emails at the kitchen counter and grandparents staying connected on video chat. There’s no need to worry about security updates and maintenance is easy; all you need to do is charge the battery. It just works.

This gets to the heart of the Chromebook vision. In order to have one, two or more computers around the house, they need to be easy to use and much more affordable. So together with Samsung, we designed a new laptop—the new Samsung Chromebook for $249—the computer for everyone.

The new Chromebook is a great computer at any price, but it’s an incredible computer at $249. It’s one of the lightest laptops on the market. You can easily carry it around all day—it’s 2.5 pounds, a mere 0.8 inches thick, with more than 6 hours of battery life for the typical user. And with 100 GB of free storage on Google Drive*, you can get to all of your stuff anytime, anywhere.

Even with its compact design, it’s packed with performance—it boots up in less than 10 seconds and resumes instantly. High-resolution videos (in 1080p) are beautiful to watch and when using the touchpad, you’ll notice smooth scrolling due to a hardware-accelerated user interface. And as you‘d expect from a Chromebook, it’s easy to share with others. Everyone—mom, dad, grandparents, tech lovers, tech haters—can have separate accounts where all of their stuff is kept safe. Finally, if you’re an active Google user of products like Gmail, Drive, Search, Maps, YouTube, Play or Google+ Hangouts, everything just works seamlessly.

Starting today, the new Samsung Chromebook is available for pre-order online from Amazon, Best Buy, PC World and other retailers. Next week it will be available for sale from these same online retailers as well as the Google Play store. You can also buy them at over 500 Best Buy stores across the U.S and over 30 PC World and Currys stores in the U.K.

So if you ever felt it was too complicated and too expensive to have an additional computer (or two), we hope you (and the entire family) will give the new Chromebook a try.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Chrome & Apps

*You will have 100 GB of free storage for 2 years, starting on the date you redeem the offer on eligible Chrome devices. ]]> https://googledata.org/google-blog/the-new-chromebook-for-everyone-2/feed/ 0