Google Data » effie

Google+: 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107…

effie — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:03:00 +0000

We started the Google+ project to help make online sharing more like real-world sharing. Of course, in life we increasingly share on the go, so over the past ~90 days we’ve developed Google+ apps for Android, iOS and the mobile web.

During this time we've made lots of improvements to the project, and in fact, the team just announced its 100th new feature overall (open signups). But our work is far from done, and today we're bringing seven additional Google+ features to your mobile device.

Hangouts on your mobile (a.k.a. feature #92)

Seeing someone face-to-face is one of the most important ways you can connect with them. Unfortunately we're often too busy, too far away, or too unpredictable to make meetups a regular occurrence. That's why we're making Hangouts available on phones with Android 2.3+ and front-facing cameras (iOS support coming soon). Just find an active hangout in the Stream, and you can join your friends face-to-face-to-face:

Hangouts on your phone: Stream View (left), Green Room (center), Portrait View (right)

101, 102, 103. You asked for it

We take your feedback very seriously, and we do our best to deliver your most-requested features as quickly as possible. So today we're launching three more things you've been asking for in Google+ mobile:

Improved SMS support. Users in the US and India can now post to Google+, receive notifications, and respond to group messages via SMS (with more countries on the way). To start texting, just verify your phone number in Google+ settings.
Improved +mentions support. To add someone in your circles to a conversation (or simply get their attention), you can now +[their name] inside a post or comment.
+1’ing comments. When you read a great comment in the Stream, you can now +1 it directly from your iOS device (with Android coming soon).

SMS (left), +mentions (center), +1’ing comments (right)

104, 105, 106. Giving you more choices

The most important part of Google+ is you, so we want to make sure you have meaningful ways to personalize your experience -- from selecting just the right people to share with, to switching between the app, the web, and SMS as you see fit. Today we're excited to bring three new options to mobile users:

Edit your profile photo. You can now put your best face forward, from where you happen to be. Just visit your profile, click edit, and you can choose or take a new picture.
Customize your notifications. Some notifications may be more important than others, especially when you’re on the go. Now you can decide which ones you see (or not) on your phone.
Make some room. If you’re taking lots of photos, or installing lots of apps, then internal storage can sometimes shrink. That’s why you can now move the Google+ app to SD storage on Android devices.

Edit your profile photo (left), Notification settings (center), Move to USB (right)

107. So long Huddle, hello Messenger (and hi there, photos)

As we move from limited field trial to open beta, we’re renaming Huddle to Messenger. More importantly, we’re adding new functionality to Messenger that makes group communication even more fun: photo sharing. So now when you’re sitting down for a meal, or kicking back on vacation, you can show your circles what’s happening, right this second:

Messenger: Homescreen (left), Choosing a Photo (center), Posting a Photo (right)

We hope you enjoy today’s round of Google+ mobile features. There’s plenty left for us to do, so we’ll keep listening, and working to make your mobile experience that much better. In the meantime, you can try the new app (on Android and the mobile web today, and on iOS soon), and let us know what you think.

Posted by Punit Soni, Google+ Mobile PM

Android in spaaaace! (Part 2)

effie — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:19:00 +0000

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Back in December, Android ventured into near space, thanks to a weekend of DIY work, a couple of Nexus S phones, some weather balloons and the help of this little guy. After this first adventure, we knew it was only a matter of time before Android went further into space.

On the last manned space shuttle, Atlantis, NASA sent two Nexus S phones along for the ride as part of the STS-135 mission. The goal is to use Nexus S on the International Space Station to explore how robots can help humans experiment and live in space more efficiently.

NASA is using Nexus S phones to upgrade a trio of volleyball-sized SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites), originally developed by MIT. The phones help the robotic satellites perform tasks the astronauts used to do, like recording sensor data and capturing video footage. In the future, the phones will control and maneuver the SPHERES using the IOIO board and possibly the Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK).

A couple of our engineers built an open source sensor logging app that NASA decided was perfect for running diagnostics with the SPHERES. You can download the same app yourself from Android Market. NASA was interested in Android because it’s an open source platform, which makes it easy to customize the software on the phone to meet the specifications required to fly in space and work with the SPHERES. Nexus S was also a good fit because of its various sensors and low-powered, but high-performing, processor.

You can learn more about the project on NASA’s website. We loved being a part of the final Space Shuttle mission and working to bring the power of the Android platform to space exploration.

Posted by Thor Lewis, Creative Lead, and Charles Chen, Software Engineer

Shop your favorite catalogs with Google Catalogs

effie — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:03:00 +0000

(cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

For years, shoppers have enjoyed flipping through glossy print catalogs to be inspired, discover new trends and find great products. Today, mobile technologies can make catalog shopping more engaging, social and creative. With that in mind, we’ve created Google Catalogs—a free app for tablet devices that enables you to browse all of your favorite catalogs and interact with new layers of rich-media content.

The Google Catalogs app features digital versions of catalogs across many popular categories, including fashion and apparel, beauty, jewelry, home, kids and gifts. We’ve partnered with a variety of top brands including Anthropologie, Bare Escentuals, Bergdorf Goodman, Crate and Barrel, L.L. Bean, Lands’ End, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Sundance, Tea Collection, Urban Outfitters and Williams-Sonoma, just to name a few.

With Google Catalogs, you can:

Interact: Zoom in to see products up close, tap on tags to learn more about an item or, in some catalogs, view inspiring photo albums and videos.
Find products in nearby stores: When an item catches your eye, instantly find it in a store near you or tap “Buy on Website” to visit the merchant online.
Express your creativity: Create a collage of your favorite catalog pages and products. If you need inspiration, you can check out collages created by others.
Share with friends: Email a product or collage to all your shopping buddies.
Get instant access to new catalogs: Add catalogs to your Favorites and get notified each time a new issue arrives.
Discover new products and brands: Search for products within or across multiple catalogs to find exactly what you’re looking for.

To download the app on your iPad, visit the App Store. Visit www.google.com/catalogs/about/ to learn more, and stay tuned for Google Catalogs for Android tablets, coming soon! If you’re a merchant and would like to participate in Google Catalogs, tell us about your catalog by filling out this form on our website. Happy shopping!

Posted by Kinnari Jhaveri, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google Commerce Team

Nexus S Comes to AT&T

effie — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Since launching Nexus S with Samsung, T-Mobile and Sprint customers have enjoyed the pure Google experience, running the latest Android releases and Google mobile apps. Today we’re excited to announce a Nexus S device optimized for AT&T, available in Best Buy stores this weekend.

Nexus S runs Android 2.3 and features a 4” Super AMOLED screen, a 1 GHz processor for showing 3D graphics, front and rear facing cameras and support for NFC. It also features the latest Google mobile apps, including Google Earth, Google Maps with Navigation, Google Talk with video chat, Google Voice and Voice Actions, as well as access to more than 250,000 apps in Android Market.

Nexus S for AT&T will be available in Best Buy stores starting July 24. For those of you who just can’t wait, it’s on pre-sale today in Best Buy stores.

You can find more information at google.com/nexus or follow @googlenexus on Twitter for the latest Nexus S updates. And if you need something to pass the time until you can get your hands on one, try our Nexus Contraptions game, where you can bubble, bounce, and bump apps into the phone.

Updated 1:09pm 7/21/2011: Pre-sales are currently only available in Best Buy stores, not on www.bestbuy.com.

Posted by Hiroshi Lockheimer, Director of Engineering

Share your docs on the go with the improved Google Docs for mobile

effie — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:07:00 +0000

(Cross-posted from the Google Docs blog)

Google Docs is about collaboration, but as many of us know, others often rely on us even when we’re nowhere near a computer. That’s why we’re excited to bring the features you need to your tablet and mobile device’s browser. Today, we've updated the look of Google Docs for mobile browsers and added the ability to sort, narrow, and share multiple docs in your mobile docs list.

To get started, go to docs.google.com from your supported device’s browser. Press Sort to organize the list of docs visible in the mobile browser, or press Narrow by to specify the subset of docs you’d like to see.

To share from your mobile docs list, select one or more documents, press the Share button, and select Share, Get the link to share for public or unlisted docs, or Email as attachment. Sharing a doc in your mobile browser works the same way as it does on the desktop.

We’re committed to improving the experience of accessing your docs from your mobile device. We’d love to hear what you think is working and what isn’t in our support forums as well as in the comments of this post.

Posted by Hossein Attar, Software Engineer

Google Sites owners: Sites now auto-optimizes for mobile devices

effie — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:04:00 +0000

As the dramatic growth of the mobile web changes the way people consume content, it’s becoming increasingly important for publishers to provide a good mobile experience. With this in mind, we just added automatic mobile rendering in Google Sites for iOS 3.0+ and Android 2.2+ devices, and a mobile version of the Google Sites lists. Learn more on the Google Docs blog.

Posted by Luciano Cheng, Software Engineer

Three new updates to Google Sync for iPhone and iPad

effie — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:36:00 +0000

(Cross-posted on the Google Enterprise Blog)

We don’t have to tell you that the workforce is increasingly mobile, and that workers on the go expect to be fully productive on email and calendar from their mobile devices. But we do want to tell you that we have a few new features for Google Sync users that will help employees work efficiently from anywhere on their iPhones and iPads.

Google Sync keeps your phone’s native mail and calendar apps in sync with your Gmail, Calendar and Contacts. Today, three new updates to Google Sync for iOS will allow you to:

Search all your emails in Gmail, not just the emails stored locally by the iOS mail app.
Accept, decline or edit calendar events from the iOS calendar app.
Send email from the address you want. We recognize that some of you manage multiple email addresses from a single Gmail account.Gmail’s “Send Mail as” feature lets you send messages with another email address listed as the sender instead of your Gmail address, e.g. joe@altostrat.com instead of joe@gmail.com. Now the iOS mail app will respect these settings.

These three updates are available to both Gmail and Google Apps email accounts.
For more information, visit Setting up Google Sync with your iOS device

Posted by Steve Hardt, Software Engineer

Launch a mobile business with The Guide to the App Galaxy

effie — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:52:00 +0000

The Guide to the App Galaxy, which we showed off last week at Google I/O, is designed to help mobile app developers—regardless of platform—navigate the complexities of launching an app and building a business on mobile. As you maneuver through the "galaxy” using the arrow keys on your keyboard, you’ll get the basics about app promotion, monetization and measurement—with tips from Google as well as successful developers. Read more on the Official Google Blog.

Post content by Lauren Usui, Product Marketing Manager

Introducing “News near you” on Google News for mobile

effie — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:21:00 +0000

(Cross-posted from the Google News blog)

Google News for mobile lets you keep up with the latest news, wherever you are. Today we’re excited to announce a new feature in the U.S. English edition called “News near you” that surfaces news relevant to the city you’re in and surrounding areas.

Location-based news first became available in Google News in 2008, and today there’s a local section for just about any city, state or country in the world with coverage from thousands of sources. We do local news a bit differently, analyzing every word in every story to understand what location the news is about and where the source is located.

Now you can find local news on your smartphone. Here’s an example of a “News near you” mobile section automatically created for someone in Topeka, Kansas:

To use this feature, visit Google News from the browser of your Android smartphone or iPhone. If this is the first time you are visiting Google News on your phone since this feature became available, a pop-up will ask you if you want to share your location. If you say yes, news relevant to your location will appear in a new section called “News near you” which will be added at the bottom of the homepage. You can reorganize the sections later via the personalization page.

You can turn off the feature at any time either by hiding the section in your personalization settings or by adjusting your mobile browser settings. Please visit the Help Center for further details.

So, go to news.google.com from your smartphone and get the latest news from wherever you are.

Posted by Navneet Singh, Product Manager, Google News

New ways to discover great apps on Android Market

effie — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:53:00 +0000

We’ve seen tremendous growth in Android Market lately. With over 200,000 apps supporting over 300 Android devices, we’ve had 4.5 billion applications installed to date. But with so many apps available, how do you find the ones you really want? Whether you’re looking for the most popular apps, hot new apps, or just the very best apps available, we want to help make sure that you find what you’re looking for.

Today, we’re excited to announce 5 new features for Android Market focused on helping you find apps you’ll love.

New top app charts - We’ve revamped our top app charts to be fresher and country-specific, so you get the most current, relevant results. We’ve also added top new free, top new paid, and top grossing lists, all right on the Android Market home page.

Editors’ Choice - These are some of the very best apps available for Android, as chosen by the Android Market staff. They span everything from games to productivity and beyond.

Top Developers - We’re also recognizing those developers creating the highest quality, most popular, and most notable apps available on Android Market. They’ll get a special icon on our Android Market website, appearing wherever the developer name is shown, starting today for an initial set of over 150 developers.

Better related apps - On the left side of an app page, you’ll now see two groups of related apps: apps frequently browsed by people who viewed this app, and apps that people tend to install alongside this app. For example, people who view ScoreMobile, my favorite sports score app, often also view other sports score apps, while those who install ScoreMobile tend to also install apps for specific sports leagues or teams. We’ll also show you related apps once you decide to install an app.

Trending apps - Finally, we’ve added a new section to the Android Market homepage showing trending apps – those apps that are quickly growing in daily installs. Look here to stay ahead of the curve and find new apps as they get hot.

We hope you find these features helpful as you explore the many greats apps available on Android Market. These new features are available now on http://market.android.com, and will be coming soon to Android Market on phones and tablets.

Posted by Fernando Delgado, Product Manager, Android Market

Android In Spaaaace!

effie — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:47:00 +0000

Here at Google, we’re all about exploration. It’s no surprise that some of our favorite products are built to let you explore the world in ways never before possible. Google Maps lets you find your way all around the world. Google Earth lets you explore the planet in detail, complete with trees and oceans. And Google Sky Map lets you explore the skies right from your Android device. Well, we wanted to do a little exploring of our own, so we decided to venture into near space, with the help of some Androids.

Recently, we travelled to Ione, CA and sent seven payloads up, up, and away into near space, each equipped with a Nexus S. We took some cues from others who have sent homemade weather balloon rigs far up, and we wanted an opportunity to collect some interesting data about the sensors in Nexus S – GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer. We also couldn’t resist what looked like a great way to spend a weekend. Sending the balloons up also gave us an opportunity to capture some stunning imagery and videos of Earth. Take a look at unaltered footage of an Android at over 100,000 ft above the Earth’s surface:

The Rig
How did we get our little Android commanders that high up? Well, first the Android platform provides a robust development environment and Nexus S has a great set of embedded sensors, both of which made it easy for us to write the apps we needed for this project. Going forward with other similar projects we have an open environment that we can modify at any level necessary. We then worked with UCSC student Greg Klein to prepare each of the payloads, which were housed in foam coolers. We secured a nylon load line to the cooler and attached to it a radar reflector, a parachute, and finally, a weather balloon. Every payload had an APRS transmitter attached to a GPS that was known to work at high altitudes, as well as batteries for power. The remainder of each payload was different for each balloon: some had digital cameras taking pictures and some had video cameras mounted at various angles (up, down, and at the horizon).

These phones were running a variety of apps: Google Maps for Mobile 5.0 (with offline map data) which allowed us to see what was directly below the balloon, Google Sky Map to see if we could identify the real stars in the backdrop, Latitude to report location when the phones had a data connection, and our own custom sensor logging app that sampled all the available sensors on the device. We even manned our payloads with some special astronauts: small Android robots, and boy did they fly. Check out an in-depth look at how we prepared and launched the payloads:

What We Found
The payloads collected a lot of data, and many reached high altitudes, with the highest topping out at 107,375 ft., over 20 miles high, or over three times the height of an average commercial jet. We also clocked one of the payloads at 139 mph at its fastest.

In tracking the sensors on each of the phones, we observed that the GPS in Nexus S could function up to altitudes of about 60,000 ft. and would actually start working again on the balloon’s descent. We also saw that Nexus S could withstand some pretty harsh temperatures (as low as -50˚C). Some interesting data we collected:
Maximum Speed: 139 mph
Maximum Altitude: 107,375 ft (over 20 miles, over 30 km)
Maximum Ascent Rate: 5.44 m/s
Average Flight Duration: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Average Descent Time: 34 minutes

By analyzing all the collected data, we were able to find some interesting trends. For instance, we determined the speed and altitude of the jet stream: about 130mph at 35,000 ft.

In the end, the team recovered all of the payloads sent up, we even recovered the payload we sent as a test a week prior to the actual launch. We had a blast taking Android all the way up to near space. If you're interested in launching a balloon of your own, click here for more info. We have more exciting things coming your way as we use the openness of the Android platform to experiment here at mission Android headquarters.

*Special thanks to Arshan Poursohi, Greg Klein, and Tommy Nourse for all their help.

Posted by Zi Wang, Captain, Mission Android Headquarters

The wait is over: Announcing Nexus S availability in the U.S.

effie — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:06:00 +0000

Last week we announced Nexus S, a pure Google phone. With a brilliant 4” Contour Display, a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, the latest Google mobile apps and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) pre-installed, we’re excited about getting this great device out there.

We’re pleased to announce that starting today, this phone will be available for sale through Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores across the U.S. and online. The phone is sold unlocked and can be bought for $529.99 without a service plan or for $199.99 with a T-Mobile service plan.

Can't make it to a store? Order online now through Best Buy. By the way, some of our old friends also can’t wait to get their hands on a Nexus S!

Update Dec 16 10:52am PST: Looking to purchase a no-contract Nexus S from Best Buy? Look no further.

Posted by Kenzo Fong Hing, Product Marketing Manager

你好, नमस्ते and bonjour to better mobile web Gmail

effie — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:56:00 +0000

There are many ways to get your Gmail on your phone. The mobile webapp version of Gmail (which you can get to by going to gmail.com in your browser) is the best way to get the most Gmail features on your iPhone or Android-powered device. Features such as search, stars, labels and threaded conversations all work in the mobile webapp just as they do in the desktop Gmail experience. Today, we’re bringing the latest version of our HTML5 webapp to 44 new languages.

Before today, this new version was only available for U.S. English, but we’re now expanding to Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK and American), Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Portuguese (for both Portugal and Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish (for both Spain and South America), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, Urdu and Vietnamese.

If your phone’s default language is one of those listed, go to gmail.com in your phone’s browser and the new interface will appear in your language automatically. We’ve been rolling these changes out, so some of you may have already seen them. You’ll get a bunch of new goodies including offline support, smart links (titles will appear in links for Google Maps, YouTube and Google Docs), the ability to add and remove labels, layout improvements and more—in addition to the existing features like starring, better threaded conversations and search.

This new version works for iPhones running iOS 2.2.1 and above, and all versions of Android. Go to gmail.com in the browser of your iPhone or Android-powered device to try it out, and if you have any feedback, let us know in our forum.

Posted by Scott Eblen, Product Manager

How to check your email from your phone (and 50 other things you might want to teach your parents)

effie — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:29:00 +0000

My dad loves planning big family gatherings around the holidays. He always emails our extended family a few weeks early, and we’ll all plan out logistics in an email thread - food responsibilities, addresses, times-- everything. Logistics can get pretty crazy when it comes to the actual day of the event, and we’re rarely at a computer on that day. I always find that my dad starts to lose track of the million things in his email that he needs to remember.

If only my dad knew that he could check Gmail on his Android phone using either the built-in mail app or the web app. Then he could always keep track of his messages while on the go, especially during the busy holiday season.

To help my dad, and parents everywhere, a few of us at Google decided to create a website, TeachParentsTech.org, where “kids” of any age can send how-to videos to their moms, dads, uncles - everybody! Here’s a video I made that walks you through how to check email from your mobile phone.

To see more videos or to send someone a tech support care package of your own, visit TeachParentsTech.org.

Post contentPosted by Edward Chiang, Associate Product Manager

Introducing Nexus S with Gingerbread

effie — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:04:00 +0000

The very first Android phone hit the market in November 2008. Just over two years later, Android’s vision of openness has spurred the development of more than 100 different Android devices. Today, more than 200,000 Android devices are activated daily worldwide. The volume and variety of Android devices continues to surpass our wildest expectations—but we’re not slowing down.

Today, we’re pleased to introduce the latest version of the Android platform, Gingerbread, and unveil the next Android device from the Nexus line of mobile products—Nexus S. And for developers, the Gingerbread SDK/NDK is now available as well.

Nexus S is the lead device for the Gingerbread/Android 2.3 release; it’s the first Android device to ship with the new version of the Android platform. We co-developed this product with Samsung—ensuring tight integration of hardware and software to highlight the latest advancements of the Android platform. As part of the Nexus brand, Nexus S delivers what we call a “pure Google” experience: unlocked, unfiltered access to the best Google mobile services and the latest and greatest Android releases and updates.

Take a look at our backstory video for more on the vision behind this product and to understand why we think “a thousand heads are better than one”:

Nexus S is the first smartphone to feature a 4” Contour Display designed to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand and along the side of your face. It also features a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, front and rear facing cameras, 16GB of internal memory, and NFC (near field communication) hardware that lets you read information from NFC tags. NFC is a fast, versatile short-range wireless technology that can be embedded in all kinds of everyday objects like movie posters, stickers and t-shirts.

Gingerbread is the fastest version of Android yet, and it delivers a number of improvements, such as user interface refinements, NFC support, a new keyboard and text selection tool, Internet (VoIP/SIP) calling, improved copy/paste functionality and gyroscope sensor support.

Here’s a glimpse of the “magic” of Google on Nexus S:

You can find more Nexus S videos and information at google.com/nexus or follow @GoogleNexus on Twitter for the latest updates. After December 16, Nexus S can be purchased (unlocked or with a T-Mobile service plan) online and in-store from all Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores in the U.S. and after December 20 at Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy retailers in the U.K.

We’ll be open-sourcing Gingerbread in the coming weeks and look forward to new contributions from the Android ecosystem in the months ahead.

Posted by Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering

Discover more than 3 million Google eBooks from your choice of booksellers and devices

effie — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:01:00 +0000

Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog

Today is the first page in a new chapter of our mission to improve access to the cultural and educational treasures we know as books. Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore. You can browse and search through the largest ebooks collection in the world with more than three million titles including hundreds of thousands for sale. Find the latest bestsellers like James Patterson’s Cross Fire and Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, dig into popular reads like Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken and catch up on the classics like Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and Gulliver’s Travels.

We designed Google eBooks to be open. Many devices are compatible with Google eBooks—everything from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers. With the new Google eBooks Web Reader, you can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud. That means you can access your ebooks like you would messages in Gmail or photos in Picasa—using a free, password-protected Google account with unlimited ebooks storage.

In addition to a full-featured web reader, free apps for Android and Apple devices will make it possible to shop and read on the go. For many books you can select which font, font size, day/night reading mode and line spacing suits you—and pick up on the page where you left off when switching devices.

You can discover and buy new ebooks from the Google eBookstore or get them from one of our independent bookseller partners: Powell’s, Alibris and participating members of the American Booksellers Association. You can choose where to buy your ebooks like you choose where to buy your print books, and keep them all on the same bookshelf regardless of where you got them.

When Google Books first launched in 2004, we set out to make the information stored in the world’s books accessible and useful online. Since then, we’ve digitized more than 15 million books from more than 35,000 publishers, more than 40 libraries, and more than 100 countries in more than 400 languages. This deep repository of knowledge and culture will continue to be searchable through Google Books search in the research section alongside the ebookstore.

Launching Google eBooks is an initial step toward giving you greater access to the vast variety of information and entertainment found in books. Our journey has just begun. We welcome your feedback as we read on to the next chapter.

Posted by Abraham Murray, Product Manager, Google Books

Google Sky Map- now with time travel

effie — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:12:00 +0000

Man ... can go up against gravitation in a balloon, and why should he not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension, or even turn about and travel the other way.

H.G. WELLS, The Time Machine - Google Books book link

Have you ever wondered how the sky was back in 1900? How the sky looked when the Apollo 11 moon landing happened? Or what the sky will look like next Thursday night for your planned star-gazing trip?

Today, the new version of Google Sky Map lets you time travel to see the sky at a specific date, past or future. After smooth travel to the desired year, you can fast forward or rewind in various speeds and watch how the sky changes.

While viewing another time period, you can still search for your favorite objects.

Google Sky Map is available for Android-powered devices running Android 1.6 and above. Download this new version by going to Android Market on your phone, or by scanning the QR code below. We'd love to hear from you, both the good and the bad, so leave us comments here or in the Help Forum.

Posted by Hector Ouilhet, Lunatic Designer

Google Shopper 1.3 adds search filters and featured lists

effie — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:16:00 +0000

When we launched Google Shopper in February, I never expected that my 20% project would quickly become one of Google’s most popular Android applications. With over 2.5 million downloads in just 9 months, many Android users are using Shopper to help them shop on the go.

Today, we’re excited to announce the next version of Shopper. In addition to existing, popular features like local availability, fast barcode scanning and voice search, version 1.3 includes new search filters like “price” and “brand” to help users refine their searches to find the perfect product.

For example, if you’re looking for a new Blu-Ray player and you want to match it to your existing Denon receiver, you can filter by price and brand:

In addition, version 1.3 includes new “featured lists” - lists of products to help you shop during the holidays. When you have a spare moment, you can browse through suggested gifts and then click through to find the best place to buy them.

To get Shopper, Android users can go to Android Market for the free download. If you’re an iPhone user, you can use Mobile Product Search (m.google.com/products from an iPhone or Android device) to get many of the same great features.

Posted by Daniel Switkin, Senior Software Engineer, Google Shopper

Car Home for Android Gets Personal

effie — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:21:00 +0000

Car Home for Android turns your Android phone into a better driving companion by providing you with quick access to key applications on the go: GPS navigation, voice-activated commands, contacts, and more. Today, we’re releasing a new version of Car Home for Android (Update: currently for Nexus One and Motorola Droid, only) which makes it easier to customize Car Home to get the information you need faster.

Now, you can also quickly customize the shortcuts to personalize Car Home with one-touch access to apps and information on your phone. Just select one of the icons marked “Add shortcut” to start creating your own shortcuts. You can also drag-and-drop or remove shortcuts by long pressing any of them.

You can launch Car Home by opening the app directly from your phone or docking your phone in a car dock, and now you can automatically switch to Car Home when your phone pairs with any Bluetooth™ device. Simply select “Settings” from the Car Home screen and select which of your paired Bluetooth™ devices you want to automatically trigger Car Home.

Want to customize Car Home even more? You can now set your own wallpaper for Car Home. Just select “Settings” in Car Home and choose a wallpaper that fits your tastes. You can also customize the color of the shortcut icons to really make the Car Home experience your own.

We’ve also made it simpler for Android developers to modify their existing applications to be compatible with Car Mode. Apps which support Car Mode will show up in a “Car applications” category so they can easily be identified by you and added as a shortcut.

The new version of Car Home for Android is available for Android 2.2. You can get the update from Android Market by searching for “Car Home” in Android Market or tap here on your Android device.

Don’t forget, while your Android-powered companion can assist you while you drive, please keep your eyes on the road and drive safely at all times!

Update 10/1/10 10:28 PST: The new Car Home is available for Nexus One and Motorola Droid. Visit our Help Center to learn more or send us your feedback and questions in our Help Forum.

Posted by Markus Mühlbauer, Manager Engineering & Product, Google Automotive

Introducing the Google Phone Gallery

effie — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 03:19:00 +0000

Here at Google, we’re thrilled with the global adoption of Android and with the high quality of devices that are coming to market around the world. Since there are so many great phones, we wanted to make the selection process a little easier for people who are in the market for a new one. Today we’re rolling out the Google Phone Gallery -- a showcase of Android-powered devices that deliver the best Google experience today. Check it out at http://www.google.com/phone.

All the phones in the gallery include Android Market, Google Search, and other Google Mobile services such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube. There are tools that make it easy to compare phones side by side: you can filter phones by country, manufacturer, and carrier; view and compare technical specifications and features; and find where each phone is available for sale.

We’ll continue adding phones and countries over time, both to round out the gallery and as new phones come to market.

Posted by Ben Serridge, Product Manager, Android

Instantly zap links, maps and phone numbers to your Android phone with Chrome to Phone!

effie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:25:00 +0000

(Cross-posted from the Google Chrome blog.)

Ever wanted a way to quickly and easily send links and other information from your desktop or laptop to your phone to view on the go? The new Chrome to Phone extension adds a button to your Google Chrome browser that instantly sends the current web page, map, YouTube video, or selected phone number or text to your Android device running Froyo (or Android 2.2).

Suppose you're reading an interesting article on your favorite news website and need to leave for an urgent appointment. Simply click the extension icon in your browser to send the link to your phone and the device's browser will automatically open the link, ready for you to view on the go. Chrome to Phone also works seamlessly with Google Maps. Say you’ve looked up an address or driving directions on your desktop. Clicking the extension icon in your browser will push the information to the Google Maps app on your phone. YouTube videos work the same way with the extension. You can also select a phone number on a web page and send it to the dialer on your phone. Selected text can also be automatically copied from your browser and sent to your Android clipboard for later viewing.

The Chrome to Phone extension is available in English for now, but we hope to expand to other languages soon. Check out the help center if you have further questions. To get Chrome to Phone, install the extension in your Google Chrome browser and the Android application on your phone from Android Market, and you’re ready to go.

Posted by Dave Burke, Engineering Manager

Flipping for Gesture Search

effie — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:31:00 +0000

You may already be familiar with Gesture Search, our Android app from Google Labs that lets you search by writing out characters on the touchscreen of your device. Today we’re happy to announce a new version, Gesture Search 1.2, which includes a new motion gesture. By doing a “double flip”, or flipping your phone away and then back, you can start Gesture Search at any time. This eliminates the need to activate Gesture Search from a home screen shortcut. You can turn the feature on or adjust its sensitivity in Settings. We’ve also fixed some bugs and improved usability by adding accessibility support. Gesture Search is still in its early stages (as with all things in Google Labs) but we’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below. It is available for Android-powered devices running Android 1.6 and above, and can be downloaded in Android Market.

Update 8/11/10: If you're on an Android-powered device, click here to download Gesture Search. If you're on a computer, go here.

Update 8/19/10: An updated version of Gesture Search has been posted to Android Market, which contains some bug fixes. You can learn more about the double flip update here.

Posted by Yang Li, Research Scientist, Gesture Search team

Making AdSense for Mobile Applications Work With More Ad Networks

effie — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:10:00 +0000

We’re always working to help people grow their mobile business with ads. Today we’re making our tools even more flexible by allowing publishers participating in our AdSense for Mobile Applications beta program to use third-party mediators. Mediation lets app developers use multiple ad networks simultaneously - reaching a greater pool of advertisers, and focusing more time on building their apps, and less time managing ad inventory.

AdSense for Mobile Application beta publishers will now be able to manage their ad inventory using third party ad serving mediators, as long as their apps meet these conditions, including:

Using the latest version of the AdSense for Mobile Applications SDK
Abiding by the AdSense for mobile applications terms and program policies
Agreeing to Google’s privacy policy

We think this is great news for our AdSense for Mobile Application publishers because it will allow them to easily optimize and fill their ad inventory. We believe this also shows our commitment to develop the mobile advertising ecosystem by ensuring that the most optimal ad is shown to users, and enabling our AdSense partners to earn more regardless of which networks they use.

To learn more about monetizing for mobile, or to learn more about how to apply for the AdSense for Mobile Applications beta program, please visit www.google.com/mobileads/developer.

Update 6/3/10 10:30 PST: We had previously written that this helps developers avoid implementing individual SDKs from each ad network, but this is not the case.

Posted by Jim Kelm, Product Manager, Google Mobile Ads

Google Buzz for mobile now available on more devices

effie — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:25:00 +0000

Back in February, we launched Google Buzz for mobile, a tool to start interesting conversations when you are out and about. One of the most popular ways to access Google Buzz for mobile is through the web application (by going to buzz.google.com in your phone’s browser). When Buzz launched, it was only available for devices running Android 2.0+ and iPhone. Not any more! Today we’re a releasing an XHTML version of the Buzz website which can be accessed from many other mobile devices, including those running Android pre-2.0, Blackberry, Nokia S60, and Windows Mobile.

Just type buzz.google.com in your browser. Then when you log in using your password, you will be able to view the stream of buzz posts, post publicly or privately, comment or like a post, and more. On the BlackBerry platform, you can also enable location through your browser settings. This will allow you to get to the Nearby view, where you’ll find geo-tagged posts near you. In addition, you can tag your post with your location. Please note that location features might not work on some devices.

Android pre-2.0 devices can now run the same web app as newer versions of Android. You can also switch to the XHTML version if needed, and we will remember your preference.

We have worked hard to make Google Buzz for mobile accessible on more devices in more locations. It is now available in 37 languages through buzz.google.com and we’re excited to bring it to mobile devices with browsers that don’t support the HTML5 capabilities the webapp uses. We hope that you enjoy using Google Buzz on the go!

Update 5/27/2010 11:17: This new webpage is also functional on Palm WebOS phones.

Posted by Alex Kennberg, Software Engineer, Google Mobile

Explore the UK and Ireland with Google Maps Navigation

effie — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:37:00 +0000

Despite recent travel disruption due to Eyjafjallajökull, those of us marooned in the UK and Ireland have enjoyed lovely sunny weather. It’s the perfect excuse to take a road trip, wouldn’t you agree?

With Google Maps Navigation (beta), now available in the UK and Ireland for Android devices 1.6 and higher, traveling by car couldn’t be easier. Like other satnav devices, Navigation includes 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance, and automatic rerouting. But because Google Maps Navigation is connected to the Internet, it also features powerful functionality you can’t get from other satnav services, including the most up to date map, business, and traffic data, access to satellite and street views, and of course, search.

With Google Maps Navigation, you can search by voice, and in plain English -- just press the voice search button on your Android phone, say “navigate to Sainsbury’s,” and Navigation will open automatically and guide you to the supermarket. Running out of petrol? You can search along your route for nearby petrol stations, cash points, restaurants, and car parks, without exiting the navigation path.

Google Maps Navigation is available in the US, UK, and Ireland. And like other Google Maps features, Navigation is free. To get Google Maps Navigation on your Android phone, search for “Google Maps” on Android Market and download the latest update. Visit the Google Maps Navigation page to learn more and watch a video, or check out the help center if you have questions.

posted by Sara Rowghani, Product Marketing Manager

The Iterative Web App: Redesign of the Compose Page

effie — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:35:00 +0000

On April 7th 2009, we announced a new version of Gmail for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Among the improvements was a complete redesign of the web application's underlying code which allows us to more rapidly develop and release new features that users have been asking for, as explained in our first post. We'd like to introduce The Iterative Webapp, a series where we will continue to release features for Gmail for mobile. Today: Compose view redesign

You're on the subway and you get the brilliant idea to host a TV viewing party for your friends for the premier of Conan O'Brien's new show. You pull out your phone (or your iPad) and start typing names into the compose page at gmail.com. (Yes, it works on the subway.) You've added Naveed, Suzy and 7 others before you remember that Naveed made you eat grass at the last BBQ. You want to remove him from the list but his email address has scrolled way out of view. Argh! After some intense scrolling and lots of backspaces, you finally manage to get rid of Naveed's email address.

Enter our redesigned Compose page. It has new address fields that automatically expand to fit all the email addresses that you're entering, so you'll never have to worry about this type of problem again.

As always, when you start typing an name into the new compose view, you'll see possible contact choices in the autocomplete dropdown. When you select a contact from the autocomplete dropdown, only the person's name is entered into the address field. This saves screen space and won't leave you thinking "man, who is hikingfan@gmail.com?" when you're reviewing an email before sending.

Once you select a contact from the autocomplete menu, you'll also notice that the contact becomes an object that you can tap on. Tapping on a contact opens a detailed view that let's you double-check the person's email address or remove them from the email. Yes, this means you can remove an email address in two taps!

Some other nifty new features which will help you compose your emails faster:

Remove the contact you just added by tapping Backspace.
Press the '+' button to see your top contacts, or hide them by pressing the '–' button.
If for some reason autocomplete fails you and the person you are trying to reach is a Gmail user, just type their Gmail username and a comma, and we'll take care of the pesky @ sign and the rest (so [hikingfan] becomes [hikingfan@gmail.com].)
The page now fills the entire screen, giving you more space to see what you're writing.

This update is available for Android, iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices. We always love to hear what you'd like to see next, so be sure to leave your feedback in our Help Forum or the Mobile Product Ideas page!

Happy composing!

Posted by Andra Adams, Software Engineer Intern, Google Mobile

Search your Android phone with written gestures

effie — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:15:00 +0000

As mobile phones become increasingly powerful and can store more data, we've introduced new methods of search to get you to your content faster, such as search suggestions or search by voice. But sometimes, typing to get to the right search suggestion takes too long, and you may be in a quiet environment where speaking a query is inappropriate. Today we're pleased to announce Gesture Search, a new Google Labs application for Android-powered devices running Android 2.0 or above in the US. Gesture Search lets you quickly find a contact, an installed application, a bookmark or a music track from hundreds or thousands of items, by simply drawing alphabet gestures on the touch screen.

Say you want to call your friend Anne. Just open Gesture Search and draw letter “A”, and Gesture Search returns a list of items that have words starting with “A”. If your handwriting isn't all that neat, that's okay. If the "A" you draw looks a bit like an "H", as seen in the bottom left corner of the screenshot, "H" results will be brought up as well. If needed, you can also erase a query by crossing it horizontally: left to right erases the entire query, and right to left removes the last letter or space in the query. Now you can either scroll down the list to find Anne or write more letters to refine the search.

Additionally, Gesture Search improves search quality by learning from your search history, so Anne's contact info will jump to the top of the list the next time you write "A".

To download Gesture Search, search for it in Android Market. You can get more information on our Google Labs page. And as this is a Labs launch, we are particularly eager to get your thoughts and feedback in the comments below!

Update 2:19pm Pacific Time 3/4/2010: Gesture Search only supports English letters, but is now available for download in all countries.

Update 10:19am Pacific Time 3/17/2010: Gesture Search is now available for Android 1.6.

Posted by Yang Li, Research Scientist

Barcelona: Mobile First

effie — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:07:00 +0000

Last week at Mobile World Congress, where more than 55,000 people gathered in Barcelona to see what the coming year holds for mobile phones and computers, Eric Schmidt had the unique opportunity to reflect on achievements in the mobile space, and to discuss what lies ahead - both for the industry and for Google. With the continued growth of smartphone usage -- increasing by more than 30% year over year, with mobile web adoption proceeding at a rate that is eight times faster than the equivalent point ten years ago for the desktop, with more than half of the new Internet connections coming from mobile devices -- it's clear that we're experiencing a fundamental shift in how we access information.

So how did we get here and what's in store?

Back in December, I pointed to the convergence of three trends: computing, connectivity, and cloud computing. Eric described these in more detail last week. Basically, devices are getting smaller, faster, cheaper, and more powerful; the same is true of processors. Today, roughly 700 million public servers are connected by the Internet, and this pervasive connectivity is being driven further into our daily lives, as evidenced by individuals, companies, and even the US Embassy in Beijing increasingly relying on services like Twitter to constantly share information. Finally, cloud computing not only is essential for storage of sophisticated amounts of data, which can be accessed by multiple devices, but also is paving the way for a new generation of applications and powerful, interlinked systems. These three waves are not new, nor is their intersection. What is new, however, is that the point of intersection is now a phone - a phone that's blazingly fast, is connected to the Internet, and leverages the power of the cloud. Comparing today's possibilities with what was possible 25 years ago, and then thinking ahead 25 years from now, it's incredibly exciting to imagine what we might be able to do.

Clearly, the mobile phone is the iconic device of the moment, and we're encouraging a new rule: Mobile First. When we announce new services for desktop computers, such as real-time search, we will debut an equally powerful mobile version. We will take advantage of this new class of smartphone, which is more sensory, acts as an extension of you, is aware of location, and can hear you, speak to you, take pictures and return information in a matter of seconds. We opened the year with a new model for purchasing a mobile phone, and since then, we've also made it possible to see a list of nearby businesses from google.com, developed a web app for Google Voice, made ads more useful by including a clickable local phone number, let you attach location to your Buzz posts, and we're just getting started. You can look forward to seeing support for more languages in Google Search by voice - German is coming soon. We're working to make it possible to take a picture of text and translate it to any of the 52 languages supported in Google Translate, and we have lots of other ideas up our sleeves.

We're proud to be part of this shift and excited to broaden expectations for what's possible on a mobile device.

Update, 5:16PM 3/1/10 - This video has been updated to include an introductory video that played before Eric's speech.

Posted by Vic Gundotra, Vice President of Engineering, Mobile

Google Earth now available for Android

effie — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:36:00 +0000

(Cross-posted from Google LatLong)
As we hinted at last month, we knew Nexus One was going to be a great platform to showcase the rich (and technically demanding!) features of Google Earth. With a 1GHz processor, advanced 3D graphics, and Android 2.1, Nexus One packs a lot of performance in a thin package. Ever since we got our hands on one, we have been putting it through its paces, drawing complex scenes of 3D imagery, terrain, roads, and other layers, and Nexus One never misses a beat. Now that we have put the final touches on the app, we are happy to announce that the latest member of our family is ready for the world -- Google Earth for Android. This is our fastest mobile version of Google Earth yet, with a smooth framerate and a beautiful 800 x 480 screen.

With the release of Google Earth for Android, we are also introducing the Roads layer, a very popular feature of the desktop version of Google Earth. Now you can get a better sense of where you are with road labels drawn on top of the satellite imagery.

In addition, we have taken advantage of the integrated voice recognition capabilities of the Android platform to provide the best Google Earth experience yet -- a pocket globe that responds to your every command. Try speaking "Eiffel tower" or "best burrito Mission district of San Francisco." Maybe you're trying to find some nice lodging for an upcoming getaway to Lake Tahoe. Just say "romantic getaway Lake Tahoe." With Google Earth for Android, we have brought together the convenience of Google Search by voice with the power of Google Local Search to make it easier than ever to navigate the globe and find whatever you are looking for.

As with other versions of Google Earth, you can also browse photos, places, and local businesses, whether it is in your local community or on the far side of the globe. Click on an icon to see photos, videos, and read about prominent places in the world. You can easily customize your version of Google Earth to display the layers that most interest you.

In addition to Nexus One, Google Earth will be available in Android Market on most devices that have Android 2.1 or later versions. So as devices such as Droid get updated to Android 2.1, others will also be able to fly to the far reaches of the globe with a swipe of their finger.

Download Google Earth for Nexus One today by searching for Google Earth in the Android Market.

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager

Let the games begin!

effie — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:27:00 +0000

The festivities begin this Friday in Vancouver, and we're all holding our breath to see who brings home the gold. Perhaps you're rooting for Lindsey Vonn or Shaun White or Sven Kramer. No matter who your favorite athlete is, you can keep up with the latest news on your phone.

Just do a search for the name of your favorite sport, and you can see the latest info about game results, schedules, medal count, and more right above the search results. On Android and iPhone devices, our Real Time Search feature will also reveal the latest updates related to the games within the same search results. (We're offering the same info and more for people searching on computers.) Looking for something more in-depth? Follow along using Google News for mobile. You can find quick links by going to google.com/games10/m on your phone.

Posted by Nitsan Oz and Igor Tsvetkov, software engineers

A new look for Google Search for mobile

effie — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:51:00 +0000

We're always looking for ways to improve your user experience with our products. If you use Google Search with a web browser on your Android-powered device or iPhone, you'll see some changes to the look of the buttons and toolbars to a style you may now be familiar with on Mobile Gmail, Latitude, Calendar and Tasks. As with these Google apps, the color contrast of the style now adds more focus to the search results of the page, and the header controls are bigger to make them easier to touch.

The Google logo has been moved up to the top of the search results page, allowing us to increase the width and height of the search box. You can now more easily touch the larger box to enter a new search, the new big bold font makes it easier to see what you have entered, and the wider box helps you see more characters at once.

We have also given our homepage some love. While this got the bigger search box last month, we have created a new search button beside the search box rather than below, so when search suggestions appear, they no longer hide the button.

Just go to www.google.com on your phone to try it out, and let us know what you think.

Posted by Nick Fey, User Experience Designer, Google Mobile

The AdSense for Mobile Apps Team goes to Barcelona

effie — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:39:00 +0000

This month is the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the mobile industry gathers to present its latest innovations and the coolest new gadgets. As you may know, our CEO Eric Schmidt will be one of the keynote speakers this year, and we recently announced a special Android Developer Lab, as part of App Planet. In addition, I'm excited to let you know that the AdSense for Mobile Applications team will also be on the ground and answering questions. So if you're going too, keep an eye out for us!

AdSense for Mobile Applications, which launched in beta last summer, allows you to place targeted text and image ads on your apps. The developer toolkit makes it easy to integrate the ads, and you can also filter out ads that you don't want to appear. We'll be hosting two informal sessions - February 16 at 9am and February 17 at 5:30pm - where you'll be able to talk to us face-to-face and ask any questions you may have. Space is limited to 25 people per session, so sign up soon if you'd like to attend.

See you in Barcelona!

posted by: Mike Schipper, AdSense for Mobile Apps team

Introducing Nexus One

effie — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:29:00 +0000

We're very excited about today's launch of Nexus One, the newest Android-powered phone running the latest Android 2.1 software. Nexus One comes with all your favorite Google Mobile apps pre-installed: find the classics like Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube and Google Talk, with additional goodies like Maps Navigation and Google Voice. With its 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ chipset, these apps are speedier than ever before.

Additionally, Nexus One has a few cool new features like a voice-enabled keyboard for any text field; this way, you can speak to your phone and it does the text messaging, email writing, or search querying for you. Try adding the new YouTube widget to one of the five customizable home screen panels to quickly access the videos you want with just a few clicks. Explore your Picasa Web Albums with the 3D interface of the new Cooliris Gallery application. With Nexus One's 3.7" AMOLED display, your videos, apps, and photos are larger, clearer, and sharper.

To learn more about Nexus One, visit google.com/phone.

Posted by Amit Sood, Senior Marketing Manager, Google

Ho Ho Ho! Follow Santa’s journey around the world on your phone

effie — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:44:00 +0000

Like most kids, all I wanted to do on Christmas Eve was stay up and wait for Santa to arrive. One year, I went downstairs in the middle of the night and sat down in front of the Christmas tree to wait for Santa. Unfortunately, I soon fell asleep. When I awoke on Christmas morning the presents were under the tree and the milk and cookies I left out for Santa had been eaten. I had missed him. But next to the plate of crumbs, there was a note... from Santa himself! He thanked me for trying to wait up for him. I was so excited that I got a note from Santa that I forgot all about having fallen asleep and missing him. Every year after that I made sure to go to bed extra early to make sure that Santa stopped by.

This year, no one needs to go to bed early to make sure Santa comes over. Since NORAD is tracking Santa's journey around the world, you can find his current location on the 24th. If you see he's getting close by, just hop into bed. And if he's already passed by your house but you don't yet see presents (or coal!) under the tree, rest assured he'll be looping back once you're asleep. Read more about how NORAD tracks Santa on our Official Google Blog.

To make following Santa's journey even easier, you can find him on your phone too. Make sure you have Google Maps for mobile (available for most phones). Then just search! Just as you'd put in a query for "pizza" to find pizza places, or "San Antonio" to find it on a map, you can search for "Santa" to find where he is at the time. This way, you can stay up to date whether you're lounging by the fire at a ski lodge, stuck in traffic en route to Grandma's (get your kids to look it up for you!), or at the dinner table. To get started, go to m.noradsanta.org on your mobile phone, or just search for "Santa" in Google Maps for mobile on December 24th.

Posted by Matt Aldridge, Mobile Elf

Tis the Season to be Merry and Mobile

effie — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:47:00 +0000

Holiday season is in full swing (again). And we want to help you take advantage of everything your mobile device can offer to help deck the halls or hit the malls. If you're like us, you'll probably use your phone to research products and check out reviews, locate stores, purchase gifts, or capture holiday memories with a photo or video. In fact, a recent study estimates that 19% of consumers will use their phone for holiday shopping research, coupons, or purchases (a number that's likely much higher for our mobile-savvy blog readers). So we've posted a 'Holiday Help' section in our Mobile Help Center to share tips and tricks for using Google's mobile products during the holidays. Take a peek if you want to learn some new tips and tricks to help you get through the season. Happy holidays!

Posted by Robin Norvell, Consumer Operations elf

New Google News for mobile

effie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:50:00 +0000

At Google, we are committed to giving you a consistent user experience across products and devices, and we really value the feedback you've given us about Google News for mobile. Today we're excited to announce a completely new Google News offering for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre users. (We already offer a mobile-optimized version of Google News for other phones, such as Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and S60, and more improvements will be coming to those in the near future)

This new version provides the same richness and personalization on your phone as Google News provides on desktop. Our new homepage displays more stories, sources, and images while keeping a familiar look and feel. Also, you can now reach your favorite sections, discover new ones, find articles and play videos in fewer clicks. If you are an existing Google News reader on desktop, you will find that all of your personalizations are honored in this mobile version too.

Google News for mobile is now available in 29 languages and 70 editions.

So pick up your mobile phone and point your browser to http://news.google.com to catch up on news anytime and anywhere. Feel free to check out more information or leave feedback in our Help Center.

Posted by Ankit "Chunky" Gupta and Alok Goel, Mobile News Team

An update to Google Earth for the iPhone

effie — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:18:00 +0000

Cross-posted from the Google Lat Long blog

Just over one year ago, we unveiled Google Earth for the iPhone and iPod touch. Google Earth quickly became one of the most popular applications in the App Store, and after only six months, was the second most-downloaded free application overall. A big thank-you to the over 220,000 users have taken the time to write a review!

Today, we're proud to announce version 2.0 of Google Earth for iPhone. We've added some exciting new features, including the ability to view maps that you create on your desktop computer right from your iPhone, explore the app in new languages, and improved icon selection and performance.

View your maps wherever you go
Have you ever wanted to view a custom map with Google Earth on your iPhone? Well, now you can. By logging in directly to your Google Maps account, you can view the same maps that you or others have created, using the My Maps interface. Maybe you're on a trip and want to see where Tony Wheeler, the co-founder of Lonely Planet, most likes to travel. Or perhaps you're walking around looking for a restaurant and you want to see where world-famous chef Ferran Adrià likes to eat. All you have to do is click "Save to My Maps", open Earth on the iPhone, log in with the same account information, and voilà, you have your same collection of My Maps right in your pocket.

It's fun to create and view your own maps as well. Here's an example of a map that I created that shows the two attempts my friends and I made to summit Mount Ritter in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. As you can see, we didn't quite make it (the red line is the intended route, and the blue and green lines are our 2008 and 2009 attempts, respectively). Next year we'll get it for sure! I created this map by using the desktop version of Google Earth to read the tracks directly out of my GPS device, saving the resulting tracks as a KML file, and then importing into My Maps in Google Maps. You can learn more about My Maps here.

Browse businesses, photos, and places more easily

Browsing the world from the palm of your hand can be a thrilling experience, and viewing photos, Wikipedia articles, and place information is a great way to discover new parts of the globe. With the latest version of Google Earth for iPhone, we've made this even easier. Now, when you touch an icon, a small glow appears under your finger to let you know which icon you have picked. If your finger touches more than one icon, you'll be taken to a list of all icons, so you can select the one you are interested in.

New languages

We've also included new languages in this release, bringing the total to 31 languages from the original 18. The complete list of languages is: English (U.S), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, and Croatian.

We hope you enjoy our latest release. Please note that the app will be rolling out around the world over the next twenty-four hours - if you don't see it immediately, be sure to check back soon. You can download Google Earth for iPhone here.

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth

Escape to Paradise on Your Phone

effie — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Today we're excited to announce the launch of new imagery in Street View. Now when you're daydreaming about exotic vacations (or even planning them!), you can pull up Street View in Google Maps for mobile and explore new locations in Hawaii and Mexico. Hawaii marks the inclusion of all 50 states in the US for Street View coverage. You can check to see where there's parking by Sunset Beach, find benches as you're walking on Waikiki Beach for a peaceful end to your day, or explore Playa del Carmen without a passport. To learn more about this update, and about how to vote for the next location our Street View trike will visit, check out the blog post on Google LatLong. The latest Street View imagery shows automatically in all clients, but to get the latest version of Google Maps for mobile visit m.google.com/maps from your phone. For help with Street View on Google Maps for mobile, check out the Help Center.

Posted by Effie Seiberg, Google Mobile Marketing

Make your web pages and applications Go Mobile too

effie — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:23:00 +0000

We wouldn't be Google if we had a whole week of tips and tricks about all things mobile without giving a nod to the technical crowd. To conclude our week, we're asking you to "Go Mobile!" by making the mobile web faster. Read our article for a collection of best practices, tips, and resources for mobile web developers, part of our initiative at code.google.com/speed.

Posted by Jeremy Weinstein, Google Webmaster

Want to reach customers? Go Mobile!

effie — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:48:00 +0000

As we continue our week of all things mobile, we wanted to offer some tips and tricks to any marketers, advertisers, agencies, or businesses who want to use mobile as a platform to reach their customers. For ideas on how to work mobile into marketing campaigns, check out our post on the Agency blog.

Posted by Lauren Usui, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

You Ask, We Answer. Go Mobile!

effie — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:19:00 +0000

This week, as part of our celebration of all things mobile, we posed you this question - what do you want to know? And you told us! After two days, 519 people submitted 133 questions and cast 4,607 votes. We saw some common themes in your questions, so we grouped several together to address some of the most popular topics.

Google Voice
We received an overwhelming number of Google Voice questions - 3 out of the top 5 questions were about Google Voice - and we're happy you're so enthusiastic about and interested in this new product! As far as making Voice available to more users, we began giving current users the ability to invite friends and family on Tuesday. We will continue sending out invitations to people who have requested them on our website, and we plan to make additional friends and family invitations available in the future. For those of you outside the US, we plan to make Google Voice available internationally; however, we don't have specifics to share at this time. As for new features, we're certainly evaluating which highly requested features we can add to improve Google Voice, such as number portability, though we don't have anything to announce quite yet. Keep up on the latest with Google Voice by following their blog at http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/.

Googlers' favorite phones
You asked us which phones are the most favored here on the Google mobile team. The answer's not particularly juicy, but it's honest: every phone! You'll see Googlers walking around campus carrying just about every phone under the stars, including multiple Android-powered devices, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Nokia, etc. And the Mobile team takes it up a notch. It's quite common for us to carry multiple phones at any given time, and as we sit down in a meeting, we often see someone unload five different phones from their pockets onto the table. Don't have the right one handy? We just head to our "Sky Lab" and grab one of the over 800 phones available. By using lots of different devices, we can make sure we're designing products that work well for you, no matter which device YOU are using. We understand that the phone someone chooses to use everyday varies with personal preference, but we generally prefer phones with great browsers and fast performance. Of course, it never hurts to have the newest toy on the block.

Google Wave for mobile
We're still early in Wave's preview, but you can currently access Google Wave on both Android-powered devices and the iPhone by pointing the phone's browser to wave.google.com. Please note that we're still in preview phase, and as we've mentioned before, you may experience occasional downtime or run into some bugs with Wave on your mobile phone, similar to when you access Google Wave from your computer.

Web vs. App
We're often asked why certain products, such as Google Reader, are available as a web application, accessible through the browser, and not a native, downloadable application. At Google, we believe in the power of the web to give us the flexibility to build one app that can run in the browser on multiple phones, rather than developing a different app for every platform. With more capable mobile browsers and technologies like HTML5 and Gears, web apps deliver a great experience because they closely mirror the desktop web in overall look, feel and functionality. They also let us iterate fast and add lots of cool features quickly without having to build from scratch each feature for various devices and platforms. Of course in some cases, investing in native applications for multiple platforms make sense. For example, with Google Maps for mobile, the native app lets us get your location or quickly process lots of data, such as map tiles. That said, new browsers and faster phones are allowing for more powerful web apps - such as Google Maps on Palm Pre or Google Latitude on iPhone - that can also get your location and that are almost as fast as native apps. In the end, there are a lot of users out there on a lot of phones, and we develop our products to put the best experience possible in your hands and your pockets.

In some cases, such as Gmail for certain phones, we offer both a native and web app because we want users to have choice in deciding how they access their information. We believe that both methods - web apps and native apps - offer a rich mobile experience, and we are committed to providing the best possible experience to users, regardless of the underlying development technology.

Mobile Product Roadmap
You also asked lots of great questions around product and feature development and availability. As we mentioned on the original Q & A page, we aren't able to provide forward-looking information on features or products, but we love your enthusiasm for ideas around how we can make existing Google Mobile products more useful or just make more Google Mobile products period. We're always working to improve all of our mobile products and will continue to do so with our eyes and ears open for your ideas and feedback. So keep it coming in the Google Mobile Blog, the Help Forum, and especially the Product Ideas page!

Go Mobile!

Posted by Chris Nguyen, Mobile Consumer Operations

Update – Go Mobile!

effie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:13:00 +0000

We've published some tips, tricks, and stories on various blogs about our mobile products, including Search, YouTube, Maps, and Gmail. We've also started tweeting - check out the YouTube and Google Maps Twitter accounts for tips about those mobile products. And as a reminder, you have until 11:59pm Pacific time today to submit and vote on questions for the Google Mobile team. We'll be answering some of the top questions on this blog tomorrow.

Posted by Effie Seiberg, Google Mobile marketing

Captain’s Log

effie — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:11:00 +0000

This week marks the anniversary of Star Trek's original pilot episode "The Cage", and with it, the first appearance of the iconic Communicator. As one of the inspirations for today's mobile devices, the Communicator did more than just long-range voice calls; in fact, many of its locator and universal translation services still outpace today's state of the art. What's more, the Communicator was so critical to the daily workings of Starfleet that cadets' 4-year curriculum included mandatory courses in communications engineering.

Today's brand of mobile user doesn't need four years to figure out their phone. But this week, and with a tip of the hat to the USS Enterprise for the Communicator's anniversary, we did want to celebrate all things mobile by sharing some of Google's favorite mobile tips and tricks. All week long, we're going to be tweeting and blogging our top tips for using Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and more on your phone. We want to help every cadet go mobile, and get more out of their existing phone. Cadets with questions can ask them here until 11:59 PM Pacific Time, Tuesday night. Keep an eye on the Google Mobile Blog for answers to some of your questions on Wednesday, and tips for advertisers and developers later in the week. Everyone can boldly go... mobile!

Posted by Marc Vanlerberghe, Director of Mobile Marketing

Google Fast Flip for Android and iPhone

effie — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 05:21:00 +0000

Browsing print and online articles on a phone can often be a slow task. There are many different sites to visit, and media-rich pages can take a long time to load. Of course, mobile devices make this more difficult with small screens, slower Internet connections, and less comfortable keyboards.

To help solve this problem, today we announced a new product from Google Labs: Google Fast Flip for computers, iPhone, and Android-powered devices. Google Fast Flip combines some of the best features of reading articles in print and on the web.

With this webapp you can literally flip through stories with the swipe of your finger. To get more information or view the entire article, simply tap on the screen. You can browse headlines and popular articles, and view trending topics. Searching for a specific topic lets you make your own "magazine." Fast Flip makes sharing articles easy as well. To send an article to someone, simply tap on the "Email" link in the upper right.

To try it out, point your mobile browser to fastflip.googlelabs.com. For easy access, we recommend creating a home screen link or bookmark. Fast Flip works on all iPhone, iPod Touch and Android-powered devices. For more information on Google Fast Flip, check out our post on the Official Google Blog.

Posted by Steve Kanefsky, Software Engineer, Google Mobile

YouTube Mobile App Expands to Five New Languages

effie — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:28:00 +0000

We're happy to announce that the YouTube Mobile Application for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 devices is now available in five new languages. We now support users with localized content in Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Swedish, and Czech. This brings the total number of languages the app supports to 12.

YouTube's Mobile Application makes it easy to quickly load and watch high-quality YouTube videos on your mobile phone, even in weak coverage areas. To get the update or to try the app for the first time, simply visit m.youtube.com/app in your phone's browser.

We'd love to get your feedback, so visit our forum if you have questions or want to chat about YouTube mobile.

Posted by Robin Norvell, Mobile Consumer Operations

We’re Listening

effie — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:01:00 +0000

Here at Google, user feedback helps us improve our products. While we love to hear praise on what's working well, the honest direct feedback on what's not working is just as valuable and motivating. We'd like to share a couple of stories about recent product changes that were shaped greatly based on the feedback you have provided in the Google Mobile Help Forum. Hopefully, you'll continue to raise your voice and help us build better and more useful products.

iGoogle for Android and iPhone

In January, the high-end version of iGoogle for Android was discontinued because we felt it was too slow, and users were, instead, redirected to the standard Mobile iGoogle site. At the time, we thought you'd welcome the improvements to speed and stability. We humbly found out that we were wrong. One thread in the user forum received over 350 replies and almost 18,000 page views! Here's what some folks had to say:

"Its not just that the standard mobile verision of iGoogle is weak, its vastly inferior to the optimized version for iPhone..." - mccarrabba

"The mobile version is not good enough. Why should I have to suffer because other mobile devices offer crappy browsers? This is a horribly short-sighted decision." - tewha

Well, we heard you loud and clear. Our team read each of the forum posts, and listened to why the standard version did not meet your needs. Last month, we brought back iGoogle for Android and iPhone and made it better than ever. The new version is faster and easier to use, and there's support for tabs and more of your favorite gadgets. We also now support the in-line display of articles for feed-based gadgets, so you can read article summaries without leaving the page.

We're glad that so many of you voiced your ideas. iGoogle is back and better, and it seems like folks are pretty stoked:

"Personally, I could have cried. And I mean that in a good way. OMG-about time!! I'm leaving on vacation and was for sure I was going to have to take my laptop. Tabs actually work! My gadgets work! Its back! Hip Hip Hooray!" - ktigger2

Google Maps for mobile
Soon after we launched Google Maps for mobile 3.0 and Google Latitude on four platforms (Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian S60), we received some helpful feedback on where improvements could be made and problems fixed.

Keeping in mind the input of many faithful Help Forum posters, we released two updated versions for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 users in April (version 3.0.1) and July (version 3.2). These versions added new features, like Layers, and included some fixes and new ways to use Maps for mobile that were among the most requested by you. For example, the My Maps feature request received over 2,000 votes on our Mobile Product Ideas page. We also used specific Help Forum conversations to tweak behavior, such as the backlight timeout on Symbian phones, and to fix issues, like copy and paste for Windows Mobile phones.

In June, we also updated Maps in Android Market to Maps 3.1, introducing popular feature requests like Transit directions and Google Search by voice. We've received lots of positive feedback about pushing out these features:

"Not only is this an awesome update, but what an awesome way to distribute!" - matt

In addition to the iGoogle and Maps for mobile updates, your feedback also led to the development of other exciting new features -- for example, labels for Gmail and direct YouTube uploads on Android. Your ideas and requests help us to drive and prioritize new products and features, so please post your thoughts on the Help Forum. As you continue to show us what you care about, we'll continue to listen as we work on our mobile products.

Posted by Chris Nguyen & Gabe Garcia, Google Mobile Consumer Operations

Layers of fun in Google Maps for mobile 3.2

effie — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:03:00 +0000

Just as the world itself can be viewed through many lenses, the latest version of Google Maps for mobile allows you to view many layers of information on your map at the same time. Layers make it easier and more useful to find and interact with geographic content, like public transit, traffic (with incidents!), local search results, Latitude friend locations, Wikipedia and more. You can also see your own My Maps content as a layer on Google Maps for mobile. And finally, multiple layers can be combined at the same time to give you a content-rich view of what's around you.

Layers on the Map: Latitude locations + My Map

Since my wife and I love participating in cycle touring events on our tandem bike, we thought our challenge for this year -- 1500 KM of riding in Audax UK's Super Randonneur Series -- would make for a great environment to test the Layers functionality while on the go.

The first thing we wanted to try was My Maps. This feature on Google Maps on desktop becomes even more useful with the ability to access them from my phone. We're not alone in wanting this -- it's the fifth most requested feature on the Google Mobile Product Ideas page. It was great to trace bike routes and add places to stop on the computer, add the My Maps layer in Maps for mobile with a few clicks, and see them up on my Nokia S60 handset from our bike.

Next was discovering new places. When frequently (and literally) rolling into new villages and towns, it was really handy to be able to turn on the Wikipedia layer and quickly learn about interesting stuff in the area. We could click on any of the 'W' icons on the map to read more.

And search is improved too! Maps now displays a lot more search results -- shown as small red dots -- making it easy to find the nearest refreshment stop or plan way ahead.

Not only are search results more useful but it's now easier to search in the new version as well. Under Search, you'll find a link to browse popular categories, which helped us avoid the pain of typing on a mobile whilst out on the road (only available in the US and China for the time being).

Completing an Audax ride within time is no use if you don't get to the start on time. Traffic has been available on Google Maps for mobile for some time, but this new release includes traffic incident information for certain cities, giving more insight into the nature of the delay. Around London (and other cities where supported) we might use public transport, so having a map of transit lines with departure times is great. Now I just wish more transit services carried tandems!

To get started with Layers on Google Maps for mobile 3.2, hit the "2" key or select Layers in the menu. You can toggle various layers on and off, and you can mash up combinations like friends' Latitude locations against a planned route. Google Maps for mobile Layers is available now on Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile phones, and will come soon to other platforms. The upgrade is available for all countries where Google Maps for mobile is currently available. To get it on your phone, go to m.google.com/maps. You can read more about this over in the Help Center or check out the release notes for this version.

Posted by by Jonathan Dixon, Mobile Software Engineer and Randonneur

Browse a collection of experts’ favorite places using your phone

effie — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:54:00 +0000

For years my favorite thing to do with my phone has been looking up local business information. I can't tell you how many times I've used Google Maps for mobile to search for nearby businesses and then get directions. Being able to find businesses from my phone is liberating -- no longer do I need to plan ahead when I go out.

I've discovered many of my favorite places using my mobile phone, and today a number of local experts have shared their favorite places with us all. Their favorite places are all over the world, in cities such as New York City, San Francisco, Tokyo, London, Paris, Madrid, Moscow, and Prague.

For example, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a big fan of Nathan's Famous hot dogs. Can't say I blame him.

And if I ever meet virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma, I know exactly how I'll break the ice. We can talk about a mutual favorite place -- Yank Sing in San Francisco, which serves amazing dim sum.

You can explore our collection of experts' favorite places using most smartphone operating systems: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Symbian S60, and Windows Mobile.

Just visit m.google.com/fav using your phone's browser. You'll need to install Google Maps for mobile for the website to work correctly.

If you'd rather use your computer for now, visit the desktop website to explore our collection of experts' favorite places. You can send the collection of favorite places to your phone with the "Go Mobile" link on the top right.

Posted by Ryan Pollock, Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile

Google Voice rolling out new invites

effie — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:51:00 +0000

In March of this year we announced the launch of Google Voice for existing GrandCentral users. Google Voice helps you manage your phones and voicemail by unifying all your telephones - including mobile, home, and work phones - with a single phone number and letting you access voicemail via phone, email, or the Web. Today we're pleased to announce that invitations for Google Voice are starting to roll out to everyone who requested an invite. Check out more details on the Official Google Blog.

Posted by Deng-Kai Chen, Associate Product Marketing Manager

YouTube Mobile Application in more languages

effie — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:49:00 +0000

A few months ago, we launched the YouTube Mobile Application for Windows Mobile and Symbian Series60 phones in US English. Today we're excited to release the app in French, UK English, Italian, Spanish, German, and Dutch. YouTube users who speak these languages can now enjoy features such as faster app start-up and search, faster video streaming, and easier viewing. So now when you watch your favourite videos like Charlie bit my finger, you'll know the interface around them will be spelled properly!

Posted by David Stewart, YouTube marketing manager

Introducing the orkut Mobile App

effie — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:31:00 +0000

About a year ago, we introduced the orkut mobile site to help everyone on orkut stay in touch on the go with scraps, status updates, and photo viewing. Shortly after that, we optimized the orkut mobile experience for S60 phones, allowing photo uploads and click-to-call features. Now, we're excited to introduce the first downloadable orkut mobile app, with even more features to keep you connected to your orkut friends and phone contacts.

The orkut Mobile App, available for most Java-enabled devices, offers some fun new ways to interact:

- Take a photo on your phone and upload it right to your orkut album.
- Share photos with orkut friends or SMS the photos to phone contacts not yet on orkut.
- Call or SMS any of your orkut friends or phone contacts without leaving the app.
- View scraps, updates from friends, and photo albums in offline mode.

Of course, you'll still have all the features of orkut mobile at your fingertips, including writing/reading scraps, updating your status, searching for users, viewing/accepting friend requests, and more!

To install the beta version of the app, visit m.google.com/orkut on your phone. While the app is free to download and use, your mobile provider's regular data charges will apply. Check out more details in our help center, and feel free to leave feedback about your orkut mobile experience in the orkut Help Forum.

Hope to see you in orkut soon, and don't forget to keep your orkut profile updated with your mobile number!

Posted by Robin Norvell, Google Mobile Consumer Operations

Sky Map for Android – A Mobile Planetarium

effie — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:34:00 +0000

I originally heard about Android on my first day at Google. A colleague and I were excited about all of the features that would be present in the platform, such as the GPS, compass, and motion sensors. As astronomy buffs, we talked about how cool it would be to use these features in a mobile application that would correctly display the sky based on your location and the direction you're facing.

Fast forward 12 months. We produced a "prototype" of the mapping application consisting of a phone, a compass, a level, and a map, and then convinced several others to join the project. Now that there was some excitement around the project, the real development could begin.

We were able to play around with a T-Mobile G1 test device in the office and were intrigued by all of the sensors that were available. The GPS and clock allowed us to generate maps for the exact time and location, but the compass and accelerometer were what made Sky Map truly interesting. Using these two sensors, the app can determine the exact direction that your phone is facing and display the stars that are visible. If you want to identify that bright star in the west, all you have to do is point the device in that direction and you'll see "Venus" appear on your screen.

Because we do work for Google, it was perfectly natural for us to add a search feature. We decided to use the location features in the Android platform to implement search in an easy-to-use way. You enter the name of an object of interest, like Saturn, and the phone displays an arrow pointing to the object. As you get closer, the color of the arrow goes from blue to red and the app circles the object when you find it. Voila!

This month is a great opportunity to do some planetary observing -- spot the elusive Mercury in the evening, see Jupiter and Neptune in same binocular field, or view Venus shining in the morning skies. Sky Map was designed to help you navigate the night sky, making months like this particularly exciting! Since 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, there will be plenty of opportunity to show off the application to your friends.

Download Sky Map from the Android Market, and let us know what you think. We'd love to hear from you, both the good and the bad. You can leave comments here or in the Help Forum.

Update: We have updated the version of Sky Map for Android in Android Market. We realize that some users were experiencing crashes or slow start-up times. This new version fixes these issues, so Sky Map should now work fine on all Android-powered phones. (May 13, 2009 10:10 pm PDT)

Posted by Kevin Serafini, Orbiting Software Engineer

YouTube uploads and more now available on Android

effie — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:02:00 +0000

If there is one thing I've always wanted, that is to be able to record and share special moments in my life, anytime, anywhere. Needless to say, I am quite excited that I can now pick up my Android-powered phone, start recording videos left and right- and then even upload them to Youtube!

Video uploads is just one of several new Google mobile features and improvements in the new Android 1.5 release:

YouTube: record and easily upload videos to YouTube.
Picasa Web Albums: upload photos directly to your Picasa Web Albums.
Gmail: multiple-thread selection to easily archive, delete, label or mute several threads at once.
Search by voice: improved speech recognition.

I seem to always forget my video camera when there's a funny moment that I wish I could record (like my facial expression after tasting a durian for the first time). Now I don't have to worry about that! I can record and play back videos whenever I have my phone with me, and I can easily share them or upload them to YouTube directly from my phone. It's easy- just tap 'share' and select YouTube.

What's more, YouTube gives me full control of my privacy, so I can decide if I want to make my videos available to the entire Web or just a subset of invited friends.

This Android update also enables easier Picasa uploading by reducing the number of clicks needed to share your pictures with others. Just like YouTube- after taking a picture tap 'share' when viewing a photo and select Picasa.

As someone who uses Gmail on the desktop, I appreciate the new 'batch edit' functionality on Android. Instead of selecting and archiving dozens of emails on my phone, one email at a time, I can now select multiple Gmail conversations and act on all of them as a group, saving time for the more important stuff.

And last but certainly not least, we've made it even easier to search with your voice by improving speech recognition. I've personally been surprised and entertained by the cute pictures that appear in my search results when speaking "pictures of Pygmy Marmosets" - give it a try!

Posted by Jonathan Matus, Product Marketing Manager, Android Team

Introducing Google Brain Search for mobile

effie — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:34:00 +0000

Ever had a word on the tip of your tongue but just couldn't remember it? Or perhaps blanked on a person's name in a socially awkward situation? Or even suffered memory deterioration due to ordinary aging or questionable life choices? If so, Brain Search for mobile may be for you. Using our new CADIE technology, we can now index the content of your brain to make it searchable, thus bringing you aided retrieval of memories. Check out this video to see how it works:

Your phone already has an antenna, which can pick up wireless signals. CADIE technology modifies the input wavelengths so it can read brain waves. Go to the Brain Search App (here on a computer or here on a phone.) If you bring your phone to your forehead, your phone can index your brain, making it searchable.

Since your phone is now modified to read brainwaves, you don't even have to type your search. Put your phone to your forehead and think your query, then click on "Search me". This is helpful in situations where you don't want onlookers to know what you're searching for, so you can feel comfortable asking personal things such as "What did I eat that's making me so gassy?" or "Did I ever go out with that girl? She looks vaguely familiar." And, since CADIE's artificial neural networks run faster than those of a human being, it is faster for her to search through your thoughts and memories than for you to do it yourself.

Brain Search is available for the US, UK, France, Germany, and Italy, and on a number of different devices.

On Android and iPhone devices, Brain Search runs in the browser, taking advantage of HTML5 and Gears technologies.
On Windows Mobile devices, make sure you download and install the latest version of Google Mobile App. Click the Panda icon (CADIE's choice, don't ask us) to get to Brain Search.
On Blackberry devices (US and UK only), make sure you download and install the latest version of Google Mobile App. Type "Brain Search" in the search box. You'll get a link to Brain Search in the search suggestions below.

To get started on any of these, go to google.com on your mobile device, and click the Brain Search link.

Don't forget. Brain Search.

Posted by Effie Seiberg, CADIE team

Here comes Google Voice

effie — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:51:00 +0000

We've got good news for GrandCentral users -- now you can begin previewing Google Voice, an application that helps you centralize all your telephony needs. Some features of Google Voice include voicemail transcription, the ability to search and store SMS messages and low-priced international dialing. The original functionality of GrandCentral, such as a centralized number and web accessible voicemail inbox, live on within Google Voice. You can read more about this release on the Official Google Blog.

Posted by Deng-Kai Chen, Mobile Team

Happy Holidays from the Google Mobile Team!

effie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:12:00 +0000

We hope you have a safe and happy (and mobile!) holiday season. To wrap things up, here are some final holiday Mobile Tricks.

Ted Smolsen shows how he does last-minute shopping using Google Docs and Google Maps for mobile...

George shows how he keeps in touch with far-off relatives with a cameraphone, Picasa Webalbums, and a WiFi-enabled picture frame

and after your holiday meal, try ChangChangYall's Full-O-lator to understand what your relatives are saying.

From the Google Mobile team, search for recipes on your phone, use mobile YouTube to keep antsy kids at the dinner table, and remember to search for local times to wish your far-off friends a happy new year.

Posted by Effie Seiberg, Google Mobile Trickster

The gift of Mobile Tricks

effie — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:22:00 +0000

'Tis the season of giving... and we've got Mobile Tricks to help you navigate your way through it.

Terrence Diggle checks out new watch styles....

momola90404 shows off a whole new twist on a mobile headset...

and pizzazzery finds a friend in the mall.

And from the Google Mobile team, check out tips on seeing stores before you get there, and checking store stock. Remember to send us your video tips and tricks through the Mobile Tricks YouTube channel! We'll continue posting our favorites to this blog.

Posted by Effie Seiberg, Mobile Trickster

Mobile Tricks… Holiday Edition!

effie — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:49:00 +0000

You've seen our useful Mobile Tips for the holiday season... now how about some fun Tricks? Mobile Tricks, our YouTube channel celebrating all things cellular, has dressed up for the holidays with some new themed videos. How do you use your phone to get through the season? Show us in a video, and submit it on our channel. We'll post some of our favorites in this blog each week. Here are a few videos to start spreading the holiday cheer. It appears Santa is pretty handy with his phone!

And as before, we got together to give some tricks of our own, from looking up store hours without needing to type, to tracking packages. We're sure you do even more interesting, fun things though, so show us!

Posted by Effie Seiberg, Mobile Trickster

On Mobile and Elections

effie — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:05:00 +0000

It's election day! Once you've found where to vote and made your voice count, you'll probably want to see how the rest of the nation's vote is shaping up. Now, on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or T-Mobile G1, Google News for Mobile has a summary of the popular and electoral votes, updated every few minutes. For all phones, the Elections section on Google News for Mobile (just go to http://www.google.com/m/news?topic=el on your mobile phone) can keep you updated on today's stories on the go.

It's very exciting to see the role of mobile in an election. The Obama campaign famously unveiled the Democratic VP nomination via SMS. Nonpartisan groups such as Rock the Vote are sending SMS election updates to their subscribers. News organizations are more aware than ever that they need a mobile site so their stories are directly available to their readers on all platforms. Mobile phones have been making an impact internationally as well. In Senegal, for example, the increasing prevalence of mobile devices has reduced the opportunity for election fraud. Locals were able to spread district voting results before they bubbled up for the final national count because of mobile connectivity. Officials at the highest levels were thus unable to manipulate the national figures. So tell us... how are you using your phone this election day?

Posted by Effie Seiberg, Mobile Citizen

Voting tools for volunteers on the go

effie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:14:00 +0000

With the U.S. elections less than a week away, voting drives are ramping up. Political parties and non-partisan groups alike are sending out volunteers to encourage citizens to vote on November 4. To make sure these volunteers have the same voter info tools available to them on their phone as on their computer, we've now launched a mobile voting locator tool on m.google.com/elections. (Click here to send this to your phone.)

Now, volunteers can type in the home address of any registered voter and find his or her voting location, whether they're in an office making phone calls, are working from a booth set up outdoors, or are going door to door. While on the go, they use Google Maps for mobile to find their next address or display directions to voting locations.

Of course, between talking to potential voters, volunteers can check out the Elections section in Google News for mobile for the latest updates (go here on your phone), or just search for a nearby coffee shop to stay warm.

Posted by Steve Kanefsky and Jerry Morrison, Google Mobile engineering