Friday, January 8, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Look who's modeling!

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 04:25 PM PST

Google LatLong: Look who's modeling!

[Cross-posted from the Google SketchUp Blog]

The Google Model Your Town Competition is running full-steam ahead with over 400 pins in the world map representing teams from six continents. From places like Cauquenes, Chile to Cape Town, South Africa to Suva City, Fiji to Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh, India to Aberdeen, Scotland to Tallin, Estonia and Burlington, Iowa people have taken on the challenge of representing their communities.

Folks in Iowa, Colorado, and British Columbia are motivating community members by building their own websites, garnering local press, tweeting, and soliciting help in online forums. Some are offering training on how to model to anyone interested. Iowa is asking middle and high school educators to form and advise teams of students.

There are still many people looking for team members. Visit the official group to meet folks in your area, or to post your own questions, ideas, or comments about the competition. The deadline for entering is March 1st of this year. Start the entry process by adding a pin to the map on our Get Started page and follow us on Twitter @modelyourtown.

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, Model Your Town Competition Team
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/01/cross-posted-from-google-sketchup-blog.html

[G] Finding places "Near me now" is easier and faster than ever on Google.com

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 04:25 PM PST

Official Google Mobile Blog: Finding places "Near me now" is easier and faster than ever on Google.com

Last month, Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering, demonstrated at the Computer History Museum the ability to search by using your location as the query. Starting today, you can try this yourself by going to Google.com in your iPhone or Android browser and clicking on "Near me now" once your location has been provided by your phone.

"Near me now" was designed to address two user problems. First, we wanted to make it fast and easy to find out more about a place in your immediate vicinity, whether you're standing right in front of a business or if it's just a short walk away. For example, you may want to know what other customers think about a restaurant before you go inside (see quick video below) or what they have been raving about on the menu before you order. By selecting the "Explore right here" option, you can find out more about a place "right here" with just a few clicks.



Second, we wanted to make searching for popular categories of nearby places really simple. Imagine that you emerge from the subway station and you want to grab a coffee, but you don't see a coffee shop around you. You can simply search for all nearby coffee shops by using "Near me now". To search other categories of places not shown, "Browse more categories" provides access to our local search product with more category choices.

"Near me now" is currently available in the US for iPhone (OS 3.x) or Android-powered devices with version 2.0.1 or later. You must first enable location in order for "Near me now" to appear, and "Explore right here" works only if the phone provides location accuracy within approximately a city block.



Posted by John Eric Hoffman and Jussi Myllymaki, Google Mobile Engineering
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/01/finding-places-near-me-now-is-easier.html

[G] FCC seeks short extension to complete National Broadband Plan

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 02:28 PM PST

Google Public Policy Blog: FCC seeks short extension to complete National Broadband Plan

Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel

Today the FCC asked Congress for a one-month extension to deliver its National Broadband Plan, explaining that it needs more time to review the public record and to brief key officials. The deadline originally had been set for February 17th.

For years Google has been a vocal proponent of a national broadband strategy, and we're eager to see this plan delivered to Congress as soon as possible. That said, given the immense challenges faced by FCC staff in putting together such a comprehensive and far-reaching document, asking for an additional four weeks is not at all unreasonable. A broadband plan for our country may be too many years overdue, but with so much at stake, it's important to get this done right.

We continue to believe that the FCC should set both shorter-term "ubiquity" goals of bringing high-speed Internet access to every single American, and longer-term "stretch" goals of driving the adoption of truly high capacity broadband pipes. We hope the Commission shares this dual vision, and we look forward to seeing their final product.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/01/fcc-seeks-short-extension-to-complete.html

[G] Shaking things up

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 01:01 PM PST

Google LatLong: Shaking things up


At around 10:00am in Mountain View, our building shook. Really shook. Coming from the Midwest, earthquakes have always intrigued me (I wondered things like: Does it really feel like you're standing next to a freight train? Answer: Yes). So being the earthquake-phile (or earthquake-noob) I am, I immediately jumped into Google Earth to check out what had happened. Thanks to the real-time USGS Earth feed, I was able to quickly find out the details. Opening up the 'Gallery' folder and clicking on 'Earthquakes' I was able to see that it was a magnitude 4.1 earthquake, with an epicenter just accross the bay -- yikes!


The USGS also maintains their own KML file, which contains links to even more details. Here's that file embedded in the browser-based Google Earth plug-in:



Armed with this information in real-time, I was able to share the details in real time with my jealous (and some not-so-jealous) friends still in the Midwest.

Posted by Pete Giencke, GIS Data Engineer
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/01/shaking-things-up.html

[G] Site maintenance on Saturday, January 9

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 01:01 PM PST

Inside AdSense: Site maintenance on Saturday, January 9

This Saturday, our engineers will be performing routine site maintenance from 10am to 2pm PDT. You'll be unable to log in to your AdSense and Ad Manager accounts during this time, but we'll continue serving ads to your pages and tracking your clicks, impressions, and earnings as usual. In addition, your ad targeting won't be affected.

We've converted the maintenance start time for a few cities around the world:

Istanbul - 8pm Saturday
Sao Paolo - 4pm Saturday
Oslo - 7pm Saturday
Nairobi - 9pm Saturday
Auckland - 7am Sunday

If you'd like to learn more about what goes on during these maintenance periods, check out this Inside AdSense post.

Posted by Dia Muthana - Inside AdSense Team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/01/site-maintenance-on-saturday-january-9.html

[G] Welcome to our "Go Mobile!" Series

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 11:45 AM PST

Inside AdWords: Welcome to our "Go Mobile!" Series

This is an exciting time for mobile. Over the past year, consumers have increasingly turned to their mobile devices to access the internet. They're performing searches, browsing content, watching videos, and interacting with mobile applications. Looking ahead, analysts expect internet usage on mobile devices to continue to ramp up even faster than it did on desktop computers.

Even more exciting, is our new approach to buying a mobile phone. The Nexus One is a convergence point for mobile technology, apps, and the Internet. It's a great example of how users are able to access information wherever they are, and whenever they need it -- all from a device that fits in your pocket.

For the next few months, we'll be devoting a weekly post to mobile advertising. The series will highlight insights, new features, best practices, and tips for how to optimize your mobile ad campaigns.

As you begin to think about how mobile advertising fits into your plans, we hope the Go Mobile! series will be a helpful resource to stay informed and be inspired.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/01/welcome-to-our-go-mobile-series.html

[G] Chat on Translator Toolkit

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 11:28 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Chat on Translator Toolkit

Collaboration is an important part of translation. Whether you work with editors to translate documents, customers to clarify terms or project managers to meet deadlines, working with other translators is key to making high-quality translations. Today, we're making it easier to collaborate on translations with the release of chat in Translator Toolkit.


Just like chat in Gmail, you can send instant messages to colleagues, friends, family and groups directly from within Translator Toolkit. All the features and settings of chat are the same as what you're used to, including going on the record to save your translation chats in Gmail. If you don't want to be interrupted as you work on a translation, you can simply go invisible or turn off chat through the Translator Toolkit settings.

In addition to chat, we've made a few other updates that should make your translation work speedier. You can now change your display language and set the toolkit tabs to open or close by default. And we've expanded our entries in the dictionary tab, including useful information like parts of speech and alternate definitions. For example, if you're translating the word cancer into Chinese, you will find alternate translations for cancer as a disease and cancer as a quickly-spreading danger so you can find just the right word for your translation:


Check out these improvements now in Translator Toolkit. We'd love to hear what you think.

Posted by Kartik Singh, Software Engineer, Translator Toolkit
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/chat-on-translator-toolkit.html

[G] Ones to Watch (CES Edition): Gadget Reviewers

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 11:28 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Ones to Watch (CES Edition): Gadget Reviewers

The Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) is in full swing right now in Las Vegas, and that means that gear
enthusiasts are getting their fill of the hottest devices coming to the
market. In anticipation of all this electronics buzz, the folks at
phonedog created a tutorial video
last month sharing everything you need to know about being a successful
gadget reviewer on YouTube. They then asked all you budding tech
reviewers out there to try your hand at making gadget review videos, with the promise that a few of you would be featured on our homepage.



Well, we've arrived at that moment: phonedog's selected the three new reviewers -- samkeem, modview and kbradnam
-- who grace our homepage today, talking about products dear to them.
(OK, kbradnam's is a spoof, but he definitely captures the passion and
attention to detail required to be a tech reviewer.) Honorable mentions
go to AlexMarckReviews, vizbug, gadgetexperts, tehkseven, techHazardVideos, akatsukigaraa, elSerg3000 and BeforeandAfterTV for submitting insightful, thorough videos
reviewing phones, cameras and even an app. Of the entries, Noah from phonedog says:
"I was impressed with so many of them, and it was hard to choose. The
winners combined product know-how with eye-appealing visuals and even
humor, making for videos that kept me watching. Thanks so much for
participating and keep it up! You provide an important service by
telling people about products they may want to buy."



Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, recently favorited "Julian Smith - Techno Jeep (Original)."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/HMcBzEV4ZEk/ones-to-watch-ces-edition-gadget.html

[G] AdWords system maintenance on January 9th

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 11:28 AM PST

Inside AdWords: AdWords system maintenance on January 9th

On Saturday, January 9th, 2010 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10AM to 2PM PST, for maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.

AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month from 10AM to 2PM.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the January 9th date and of our scheduled maintenance further down the road.

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/01/adwords-system-maintenance-on-january.html

[G] Web Analytics TV with Avinash and Nick

Posted: 07 Jan 2010 08:16 AM PST

Google Analytics Blog: Web Analytics TV with Avinash and Nick

This is the fourth video in our recent Rapid Fire series which we are now calling Web Analytics TV. In this series you share your most burning questions via the Google Analytics Google Moderator site and we answer them.

Here's the list of last week's questions. We enjoy hearing from you, so please keep the questions coming. Like the hosts Click and Clack from a long-standing radio show called CarTalk, who will answer any car question that exists, we'd love to do the same for web analytics. Call us Data and Point? Hm. Click and Clack is catchier. If you can think of a name let us know. But please, ask any question related to web analytics. Tools. HiPPO's. Reporting tips. Challenges. All are fair game, so ask away.

In this episode we discuss:
  • Tracking social media referrals in Google Analytics
  • Why do I see clicks with 0 visits in Google Analytics keyword reports
  • Does sharing data with Google Analytics have an impact on Organic Search rankings?
  • How to track Google custom site search engines in Google Analytics
  • In keyword reports how to change '+' characters into whitespaces
  • How advanced profile filters work
  • Best practices for reporting user "engagement"
  • What insights can you gain from the content drilldown report
  • How can one change the cookie duration of visits
  • How does one become excellent at web analytics



Here are links to resources we discussed in the video:
We'd love to hear your comments or questions in the comments section below, and let us know if you find this helpful.

Also, if you have a question you would like us to answer, please submit a question or vote for your favorite question in our public Google Moderator site. Avinash and I will answer your latest questions in a couple of weeks with yet another entertaining video. Thanks!


Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/01/web-analytics-tv-with-avinash-and-nick.html
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