Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Safety Mode: Giving You More Control on YouTube

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 05:11 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Safety Mode: Giving You More Control on YouTube

Diversity of content is one of the great things about YouTube. But we know that some of you want a more controlled experience. That's why we're announcing Safety Mode, an opt-in setting that helps screen out potentially objectionable content that you may prefer not to see or don't want others in your family to stumble across while enjoying YouTube. An example of this type of content might be a newsworthy video that contains graphic violence such as a political protest or war coverage. While no filter is 100% perfect, Safety Mode is another step in our ongoing desire to give you greater control over the content you see on the site.

It's easy to opt in to Safety Mode: Just click on the link at the bottom of any video page. You can even lock your choice on that browser with your YouTube password. To learn more, check out the video below.

And remember, ALL content must still comply with our Community Guidelines. Safety Mode isn't fool proof, but it provides a greater degree of control over your YouTube experience. Safety Mode is rolling out to all users through out the day; watch for the new link at the bottom of any YouTube page.



Jamie Davidson, Associate Product Manager, recently watched "Alice in Wonderland -- Super Bowl TV Spot."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/iWG1iVm0MaA/safety-mode-giving-you-more-control-on.html

[G] The 33rd America's Cup Live on YouTube

Posted: 10 Feb 2010 01:20 AM PST

YouTube Blog: The 33rd America's Cup Live on YouTube

Today the 33rd staging of the America's Cup Regatta – the oldest active trophy in international sport – gets underway in waters off Valencia, with the holders, the Société Nautique de Genève, taking on the Golden Gate Yacht Club. For the first time ever the entire event will be shown live online and you can access the stream via the America's Cup channel here on YouTube.

Both 90-foot boats are something to behold: the Alinghi 5 catamaran boasting a mast as tall as a 17-story building; the trimaran BMW Oracle USA 17 sporting a rigid wing sail based on aerospace technology. To date, the competition has been overwhelmed by legal issues, the teams apparently having spent more time in closed courtrooms than on the open water, but now the talking is over and the racing can commence.

The America's Cup is decided over three races, the first and third being 40 nautical miles and the second 39. Once the wind starts to blow, the sight of both contenders under full sail should be stunning, so stay tuned YouTube to catch the action in real time.

Jamie Dolling, Community Manager, YouTube UK, recently watched "Inside the Wing."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/6jegFJi4bEA/33rd-americas-cup-live-on-youtube.html

[G] Introducing Google Buzz for mobile: See buzz around you and tag posts with your location

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 07:23 PM PST

Google LatLong: Introducing Google Buzz for mobile: See buzz around you and tag posts with your location

[Cross-posted with the Google Mobile Blog]

Today we announced Google Buzz, a new product that integrates with your Gmail inbox and makes it easy to start rich conversations about the things you find interesting. Google Buzz lets you share web links, photos, videos, and more with those who are important to you. Rather than simply creating a mobile version of Buzz, we decided to take advantage of the unique features of a mobile device - in particular, location. We go through many experiences when we're on the go, and while there are lots of ways to share these experiences with your friends or even the world, there isn't always an easy way to let your audience know where you are when you post. Your location brings valuable context to the information you share. For example, does "Delicious dinner!" mean you're at a great restaurant, or that you had a wonderful home-cooked meal? Your mobile phone, which is with you almost all the time, can help answer these questions.

Google Buzz for mobile allows you to post buzz and keep up with your friends when you're away from your computer. It also uses your location to identify places around you. You can select one of these places and attach it as location tag to your posts, or read what others have posted about the place.

There are several ways to use Google Buzz on your mobile phone:
* Buzz.google.com: This web app provides access to Buzz from your iPhone or Android phone's browser, allowing you to view and create buzz messages. It has two different views: 'Following' view shows buzz from the people you follow, just like Google Buzz in your Gmail; 'Nearby' view shows public buzz that has been tagged with a location near you, and might be from people you don't follow. From Nearby view, you can also select a specific place from the list of nearby places and view posts attached to that place.

* Buzz on Google Maps for mobile: The new Buzz layer allows you to see buzz near you or anywhere on the map. You can post public buzz directly from the layer, and even attach a photo from your phone. Also, try visiting a mobile Place Page to read recent comments or to post buzz about that place. You can access Place Pages from the web app as well, by tapping on the place name in any location-tagged post.

* Buzz Shortcut from Google.com: You will see the buzz icon in the top right corner of the google.com homepage. Just tap on the icon to trigger the posting box.

* Voice Shortcut: The voice shortcut, which is available in the quick search widget on Android and in Google Mobile App on iPhone, allows you to post buzz without typing anything. Just say 'post buzz,' followed by whatever you'd like to post.



When adding location to buzz posts, we focused on places, not just a lat/long location or an address. We wanted to make location information more useful both to your followers and to help others discover information about nearby places. If you don't want to include your location when you post buzz, it's easy to exclude your location and post without it. You also control whether your buzz posts will be public or private - by default or for individual posts. While anyone can access your public posts, private posts are viewable only by the people you choose to share them with.

With Buzz for mobile, we hope you can start interesting conversations about places and be more spontaneous when you are out and about. How many times have you missed a fun event, even though it was nearby? Or a better choice of dessert, just because you didn't know about it? How often have you wondered "Where are you?" when reading a text message from a friend? Now, you can use Buzz to learn that there is going to be a movie night at your favorite park, share with the world that there is an awesome ice cream place right around the corner, or tell your friends about that delicious homemade lasagna.

To start using Buzz for mobile, go to buzz.google.com from your phone's browser. It is currently available for Android and iPhone, but we're working to bring it to other platforms. The Buzz layer on Google Maps for mobile is available on Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and iPhone (as web maps). Learn more in our Help Center.


Posted by Punit Singh Soni, Product Manager, Google Mobile
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/02/introducing-google-buzz-for-mobile-see.html

[G] A Front Row Seat to Vancouver

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 06:11 PM PST

Google Photos Blog: A Front Row Seat to Vancouver

Posted by Ping Chen, Software Engineer

While thousands of lucky fans get to experience the excitement of the Games live and in person, most of us will only be able to watch from afar. This year, we've created a special Picasa Web Albums gallery so people around the world can get a front row seat to all the action. Whether you're at home or in Vancouver, you can peruse the best user-submitted photos of the Games from Picasa and recent photos from Google News. Click any user-submitted photo to see the full screen version or check out other photos from the album.

Wherever you are in the world, we'd love for you to submit your photos celebrating the Games. Simply upload your pictures to Picasa Web Albums, tag them with "wintergames2010", and make them public. You can even add a location geotag so people can see exactly where your photos were taken. If you're uploading photos from your mobile phone, you can use "wintergames2010" as the email subject and we'll recognize those as well. We'll select the best photos and feature them for the world to see at picasa.google.com/explorethegames.


While you're at it, check out some of the other great stuff Google is doing for sports fans. See it all at www.google.com/games10, including slope-level Street View imagery featuring snowmobile-captured ski runs on Whistler Mountain, an iGoogle gadget with real-time medal counts, news, event results, and schedules, plus much more.
URL: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2010/02/front-row-seat-to-vancouver.html

[G] Who's @ Google I/O: spotlight on Social Web (including Buzz!)

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 06:11 PM PST

Social Web Blog: Who's @ Google I/O: spotlight on Social Web (including Buzz!)

(Cross-posted with the Google Code Blog)

Following on the heels of today's announcement on Buzz, we're excited to bring you the latest on all things social at Google I/O, starting with a session on Buzz APIs and a new panel session!

What's the hubbub about Google Buzz APIs?
Google Buzz is a new way to share updates, photos, videos and more, and start conversations about the things you find interesting. In this session, we'll take a deep dive into building with the Buzz APIs and the open standards it uses, such as ActivityStrea.ms, PubSubHubbub, OAuth, Salmon and WebFinger.

Where is the social web going next?
With the advent of social protocols like OAuth, OpenID and ActivityStrea.ms, it's clear that the web has gone social and is becoming more open. Adam Nash (LinkedIn), Daniel Raffel (Yahoo), John Panzer (Google), Lili Cheng (Microsoft), Monica Keller (MySpace), and Ryan Sarver (Twitter) will discuss the importance of such emerging technologies, how they've adopted them in their products and debate what's next.

Here are additional sessions that'll give you a deep dive into the emerging technologies and standards that will help you create a more engaging user experience for your web applications and sites, and enable a people-centric web.

You'll also have the opportunity to meet developers from the following companies in the Social Web pod of the Developer Sandbox: Atlassian, eBay, IBM, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Playfish, Yahoo!, and Voxeo. They'll be demoing their social apps, talking in-depth about integrating with various Google technologies, answering questions, and chatting with attendees.

To learn more about and register for Google I/O, visit code.google.com/io. We add new sessions and content to the I/O website each week, so follow @googleio on Twitter to keep up with changes!

Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Developer Team
URL: http://googlesocialweb.blogspot.com/2010/02/whos-google-io-spotlight-on-social-web.html

[G] Go Mobile! Series: Optimize for mobile with Google Analytics

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 04:59 PM PST

Inside AdWords: Go Mobile! Series: Optimize for mobile with Google Analytics

Understanding who visits your website is important when developing your AdWords campaigns. In this post, we'll show you how you can use Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic and optimize your AdWords campaigns.

Who's coming to your site?
More and more users are accessing regular websites through mobile phones with full internet browsers. These users may be looking for different information or want to take a specific action more quickly than those who visit from a desktop computer. Do you know how many are visiting your site from mobile devices?

You can easily find out with Google Analytics by looking at the Mobile Devices report in the Visitors reporting section. If most of your traffic is coming from the iPhone and Android operating systems, ensure your AdWords campaigns are reaching that same audience by checking that your AdWords campaign settings are enabled to show on iPhones and similar devices.

What are they looking for?
Google Analytics helps you see which search keywords drove the most traffic to your website from mobile devices. Simply select "Keyword" as the secondary dimension on your Mobile Device report to see what they're looking for. You can then take advantage of these keywords by setting up a separate mobile campaign and including mobile-targeted ad copy.
Where do they go?
Customers on-the-go may be looking for different information on your website than customers who are at a desktop computer. Within Google Analytics, you can see exactly what mobile customers are doing differently on your website. Simply create an Advanced Segment for mobile devices and apply it to the Content reports. You can then optimize your AdWords campaigns by setting up mobile-specific campaigns with a different landing page URL. For example, if the top visited page for mobile users is the Store Locator page of your website, you may want to choose that URL as your landing page.

Get Started
We hope these tips are useful to help you Go Mobile! To get started with Google Analytics, visit www.google.com/analytics.

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/02/go-mobile-series-optimize-for-mobile.html

[G] Trend to Watch: Consumers Start Early, End Late (1 of 4) Repost

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 03:37 PM PST

Google Affiliate Network: Trend to Watch: Consumers Start Early, End Late (1 of 4)
Repost

Trend to Watch: Consumers Start Early, End Late (1 of 4)
Repost from the Google Retail Blog

The online holiday shopping season was a season of historic highs: $29 billion in online sales, the first $900M day in e-commerce history, 20% growth in Black Friday searches, and an even more impressive 60% growth in Cyber Monday searches. How did this historic online growth translate at the consumer level? Throughout the holiday season we tracked consumer research and purchase behavior and the results revealed a trend to watch in 2010: Consumers start early and end late.

Read the full post on the Google Retail Blog
URL: http://googleaffiliatenetwork-blog.blogspot.com/2010/02/trend-to-watch-consumers-start-early.html

[G] Photos in Google Buzz

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 12:37 PM PST

Google Photos Blog: Photos in Google Buzz

Posted by Justin Zaren, Software Engineer

For many of us, the best part about taking photos is sharing them with others. Today, with the launch of Google Buzz, we're giving you a new way to share and view photos online, and start conversations about the things you find interesting.

Google Buzz is built right into Gmail and is fully integrated with Picasa Web Albums. Any photos you upload to and share from Buzz are automatically stored in a new unlisted album in your Picasa Web Albums account, so you can view them from either site. It's easy to upload multiple photos at once from Buzz - just click "Insert: Photo" from a new post, select "upload files," and click "Add photos to post" once they're fully uploaded. Since photos are meant to be viewed fast and full-screen, clicking a photo in Buzz opens an embedded viewer designed to give you an optimal viewing experience.


Getting started with Google Buzz is easy. Just head over to Gmail and click the "Buzz" link below "Inbox" -- Buzz will be linked to your Picasa account by default. Any public photos you upload to Picasa Web Albums will automatically create a new Buzz post populated with the photos. You can also email photos from your Gmail account to buzz@gmail.com, which will automatically upload them to Picasa Web Albums and create a new Buzz post.

Check out the video below for a run-down of some of the stuff you can do with Google Buzz:


Visit buzz.google.com for more information, or head to the Picasa help center to find out more about how Buzz and Picasa Web Albums work together.

P.S. Keep in mind that Google Buzz is rolling out gradually, it might be a few days before you get it for your account.
URL: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2010/02/photos-in-google-buzz.html

[G] Introducing Google Buzz for mobile: See buzz around you and tag posts with your location.

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Official Google Mobile Blog: Introducing Google Buzz for mobile: See buzz around you and tag posts with your location.

Today we announced Google Buzz, a new product that integrates with your Gmail inbox and makes it easy to start rich conversations about the things you find interesting. Google Buzz lets you share web links, photos, videos, and more with those who are important to you. Rather than simply creating a mobile version of Buzz, we decided to take advantage of the unique features of a mobile device - in particular, location. We go through many experiences when we're on the go, and while there are lots of ways to share these experiences with your friends or even the world, there isn't always an easy way to let your audience know where you are when you post. Your location brings valuable context to the information you share. For example, does "Delicious dinner!" mean you're at a great restaurant, or that you had a wonderful home-cooked meal? Your mobile phone, which is with you almost all the time, can help answer these questions.

Google Buzz for mobile allows you to post buzz and keep up with your friends when you're away from your computer. It also uses your location to identify places around you. You can select one of these places and attach it as location tag to your posts, or read what others have posted about the place.

There are several ways to use Google Buzz on your mobile phone:
* Buzz.google.com: This web app provides access to Buzz from your iPhone or Android phone's browser, allowing you to view and create buzz messages. It has two different views: 'Following' view shows buzz from the people you follow, just like Google Buzz in your Gmail; 'Nearby' view shows public buzz that has been tagged with a location near you, and might be from people you don't follow. From Nearby view, you can also select a specific place from the list of nearby places and view posts attached to that place.

* Buzz on Google Maps for mobile: The new Buzz layer allows you to see buzz near you or anywhere on the map. You can post public buzz directly from the layer, and even attach a photo from your phone. Also, try visiting a mobile Place Page to read recent comments or to post buzz about that place. You can access Place Pages from the web app as well, by tapping on the place name in any location-tagged post.

* Buzz Shortcut from Google.com: You will see the buzz icon in the top right corner of the google.com homepage. Just tap on the icon to trigger the posting box.

* Voice Shortcut: The voice shortcut, which is available in the quick search widget on Android and in Google Mobile App on iPhone, allows you to post buzz without typing anything. Just say 'post buzz,' followed by whatever you'd like to post.



When adding location to buzz posts, we focused on places, not just a lat/long location or an address. We wanted to make location information more useful both to your followers and to help others discover information about nearby places. If you don't want to include your location when you post buzz, it's easy to exclude your location and post without it. You also control whether your buzz posts will be public or private - by default or for individual posts. While anyone can access your public posts, private posts are viewable only by the people you choose to share them with.

With Buzz for mobile, we hope you can start interesting conversations about places and be more spontaneous when you are out and about. How many times have you missed a fun event, even though it was nearby? Or a better choice of dessert, just because you didn't know about it? How often have you wondered "Where are you?" when reading a text message from a friend? Now, you can use Buzz to learn that there is going to be a movie night at your favorite park, share with the world that there is an awesome ice cream place right around the corner, or tell your friends about that delicious homemade lasagna.

To start using Buzz for mobile, go to buzz.google.com from your phone's browser. It is currently available for Android and iPhone, but we're working to bring it to other platforms. The Buzz layer on Google Maps for mobile is available on Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and iPhone (as web maps). Learn more in our Help Center.


Posted by Punit Singh Soni, Product Manager, Google Mobile
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/02/introducing-google-buzz-for-mobile-see.html

[G] Introducing Google Buzz

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Buzz

We've blogged before about our thoughts on the social web, steps we've taken to add social features to our products, and efforts like OpenSocial that propose common tools for building social apps. With more and more communication happening online, the social web has exploded as the primary way to share interesting stuff, tell the world what you're up to in real-time and stay more connected to more people. In today's world of status messages, tweets and update streams, it's increasingly tough to sort through it all, much less engage in meaningful conversations.

Our belief is that organizing the social information on the web — finding relevance in the noise — has become a large-scale challenge, one that Google's experience in organizing information can help solve. We've recently launched innovations like real-time search and Social Search, and today we're taking another big step with the introduction of a new product, Google Buzz.

Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you're sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.



We're rolling out Buzz to all Gmail accounts over the next few days, so if you don't see it in your account yet, check back soon. We also plan to make Google Buzz available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features for sharing within organizations.

On your phone, Google Buzz is much more than just a small screen version of the desktop experience. Mobile devices add an important component to sharing: location. Posts tagged with geographical information have an extra dimension of context — the answer to the question "where were you when you shared this?" can communicate so much. And when viewed in aggregate, the posts about a particular location can paint an extremely rich picture of that place. Check out the Mobile Blog for more info about all of the ways to use Buzz on your phone, from a new mobile web app to a Buzz layer in Google Maps for mobile.



We've relied on other services' openness in order to build Buzz (you can connect Flickr and Twitter from Buzz in Gmail), and Buzz itself is not designed to be a closed system. Our goal is to make Buzz a fully open and distributed platform for conversations. We're building on a suite of open protocols to create a complete read/write developer API, and we invite developers to join us on Google Code to see what is available today and to learn more about how to participate.

We really hope you enjoy the experiences we've built within Gmail and for mobile phones. If you want to learn more, visit buzz.google.com. We look forward to continuing to evolve and improve Google Buzz based on your feedback.

Posted by Todd Jackson, Product Manager, Gmail and Google Buzz
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/introducing-google-buzz.html

[G] Readers: Get your Buzz on

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Official Google Reader Blog: Readers: Get your Buzz on

We know that many people like Reader because it makes it so easy to share interesting stuff with a wide group of friends. That's why, over the past year, we've added a number of features to help you share the content you find most interesting: comments, following, people search, liking, and "send to."

However, even with all these great features, sharing has been mostly limited to the subset of your friends who use Google Reader. While many people use Reader, we know that even more use Gmail. That's why today, we're thrilled to announce that with the launch of Google Buzz, the awesome items you share in Reader can also be shared with all your friends who use Gmail with Google Buzz.






A shared item in Reader (background) and Buzz (foreground)



Getting started with Google Buzz is easy. Just head over to Gmail and you'll be able to link up your Google Reader account with just a few clicks. Then, anything you share in Reader will automatically be posted to Buzz. Comments are even shared between both products, so you can view and participate in the conversation wherever you'd prefer.



And don't worry, you don't have another list of friends or followers to manage. The people you follow in Reader are the same people you follow in Buzz – those you've already chosen to follow in Reader, plus the people you email and chat with the most in Gmail.



Check out the video below, explaining everything you can do with Google Buzz!





Head to our help center for more details about the Buzz integration in Reader, or leave us feedback in our forum, on Twitter or even using Buzz itself.



P.S. Keep in mind that Google Buzz is rolling out gradually, it might be a few days before you get it for your account.

URL: http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2010/02/readers-get-your-buzz-on.html

[G] Google Buzz in Gmail

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Official Gmail Blog: Google Buzz in Gmail

Posted by Edward Ho, Tech Lead, Google Buzz

Five years ago, Gmail was just email. Later we added chat and then video chat, both built right in, so people had choices about how to communicate from a single browser window. Today, communication on the web has evolved beyond email and chat — people are sharing photos with friends and family, commenting on news happening around them, and telling the world what they're up to in real-time. This new social sharing is valuable, but it means there's a lot more stuff to sort through, and it's harder to get past status updates and engage in meaningful discussions.

Today, we're launching Google Buzz, a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz is built right into Gmail, so there's nothing to set up — you're automatically following the people you email and chat with the most.



We focused on making the sharing experience really rich by integrating photos, videos, and links. No more fuzzy little pictures: Buzz makes it easy to quickly flip through photos and experience them the way they were meant to be seen: big and full-resolution. And videos play inline so you can watch them without opening a new window.

You can choose to share publicly with the world or privately to a small group of friends each time you post. And you can connect other sites you use, today there's Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, and Twitter, so your friends can keep up with what you're doing around the web — all in one place.

To make sure you don't miss out on the best part of sharing, Buzz sends responses to your posts straight to your inbox. Unlike static email messages, buzz messages in your inbox are live conversations where comments appear in real time.

You can follow the specific people whose posts you want to see, but Buzz also recommends posts from people you're not directly following, often ones where your friends are having a lively conversation in the comments. If you're not interested in a particular recommendation, just click the "Not interested" link and your feedback will help improve the recommendations system. Buzz also weeds out uninteresting posts from the people you follow — collapsing inactive posts and short status messages like "brb." These early versions of ranking and recommendations are just a start; we're working on improvements that will help you automatically sort through all the social data being produced to find the most relevant conversations that matter to you.

For all those times when you want to share something but aren't in front of your computer, Buzz is also available on your phone. When you're out in the real world, a lot of the information you want to share often has to do with where you are: for example, you may want to talk about a new restaurant you discovered or the score of the game you're watching. So rather than simply a small screen version of the desktop experience, Buzz for mobile brings location to the forefront and makes it easy to have conversations about places. In addition to checking out buzz from people you're following, you can also see nearby buzz from the people around you.


We'll be rolling out Google Buzz to everyone over the next few days; you'll see a new "Buzz" link under "Inbox" when it's on for your account. We're still working on some features to make Buzz work well for businesses and schools, so it isn't yet available in Google Apps, but stay tuned. If you want to learn more in the meantime, visit buzz.google.com.
URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-in-gmail.html

[G] Google Buzz coming soon for businesses and schools

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Google Buzz coming soon for businesses and schools

Today the Gmail team introduced Google Buzz, a new feature that lets individuals share links, photos, and other updates with their network of contacts – or with the whole world – right within Gmail. Google Buzz helps people kick off conversations around information that people find mutually interesting.

Within a few months, we also plan to make Google Buzz available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features for sharing within your organization. Stay tuned, and for more information about using Google Buzz with your personal Gmail account, head over to the Gmail blog or visit buzz.google.com.

Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Google Enterprise Product Management Director

Get timely updates on new features in Google Apps by subscribing to our RSS feed or email alerts.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-coming-soon-for-businesses.html

[G] Google Buzz and the Social Web

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Social Web Blog: Google Buzz and the Social Web

Today we launched Google Buzz, a new way to share updates, photos, videos and more, and start conversations about the things you find interesting. On the Google Code blog we outlined our hopes for Google Buzz and the developer community, and we'd like to share more about those plans here.


We believe that the social web works best when it works like the rest of the web — many sites linked together by simple open standards. Rather than launching with a one-off API, we see Buzz as a tremendous opportunity to work with the community to create and support open protocols for the next generation of social web apps and websites. To kick things off, Buzz is launching with support for public activity feeds and offers users the option to connect their favorite sites to their Buzz activity feed using open protocols.  In the near future we plan to greatly expand the scope of these developer services, and we'd like you to be a part of that process.

We invite you to join us over the next several months as we continue to evolve the Google Buzz APIs around protocols such as Atom, AtomPub, Activity Streams, PubSubHubbub, OAuth, MediaRSS, Salmon, the Social Graph API, PortableContacts, WebFinger, and much, much more. If those names aren't all familiar to you today, that's okay — please visit the Buzz API site on Google Code to learn more. And please join us on the Google Buzz API discussion group, where we will share what we've learned so far, and work with everyone here on where we are going next.

By DeWitt Clinton, Google Developer Team
URL: http://googlesocialweb.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-buzz-and-social-web.html

[G] Update to Pharmacy Policy in U.S. and Canada

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Inside AdWords: Update to Pharmacy Policy in U.S. and Canada

We understand how important it is for users to be able to purchase pharmaceuticals online for themselves or for loved ones, and we've decided to update our Google AdWords online pharmacy policy to ensure that the experience purchasing these products through our ads is a positive one. The change will go into effect towards the end of this month.

There are two main aspects to this change:

Only VIPPS and CIPA certified pharmacies will be allowed to advertise
We've made the decision to further restrict the ads we accept for online pharmacy sites in the U.S. and Canada. Starting at the end of this month, Google AdWords will only accept ads from online pharmacies in the U.S. that are accredited by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy VIPPS program, and from online pharmacies in Canada that are accredited by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association (CIPA.)

Pharmacies can only target ads within their country
These pharmacies may only target ads to users in the country in which they are accredited. This policy change does not affect our online pharmacy policy for countries outside the U.S. and Canada.

Accordingly, we'll no longer be using any 3rd party verifier of online pharmacies other than VIPPS and CIPA. AdWords advertisers who aren't accredited by VIPPS or CIPA will no longer see their online pharmacy ads displayed once this policy change comes into effect

We'll post to this blog again once the changes go into effect towards the end of this month. For more information on our pharmacy policy, please see this link: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7463.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/02/update-to-pharmacy-policy-in-us-and.html

[G] Vancouver forecast: light winds, unlimited visibility

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Vancouver forecast: light winds, unlimited visibility

The view from Whistler Mountain is something everyone should see: a range of rugged mountains, trails of snow, fir trees and placid lakes below. It's changed since I lived there some years back — there are many more houses, and far better chairlifts — but what remains is the rare feeling of being free, in nature, about to tear into peak snow.

In time for the Games in Vancouver and Whistler, we're thrilled to be bringing this view to the world through Street View on Google Maps. How were we able to gather imagery at 7,000 feet (2,000 meters)? The Street View team's constant experimenting yielded a snowmobile decked out with cameras to capture slope-level imagery of several runs on Whistler Blackcomb Mountains. The view from the top of 7th Heaven chairlift on Blackcomb and from the peak of Whistler are among my favourites, as are the top of the Dave Murray downhill, where the men's alpine skiing events will start, and the Peak 2 Peak gondola. (That's Whistler's new feat of engineering which takes skiers and riders from Whistler to Blackcomb.) With the Street View trike, we've also covered Whistler Village and Whistler Creekside at the mountains' bases. There's more about the snowmobile's journey and this imagery on the Google Lat Long Blog.



This imagery and many other tools are now ready to ride on our new website with information about the Games, available in 40 languages. We've combined up-to-date medal counts, news, event results and event schedules with rich visuals: 3D models and Street View imagery of the competition venues, plus new aerial imagery of the Vancouver-Whistler area. It's all in an iGoogle gadget, too. The site also connects you with real-time search results for the Games, local experts' Favourite Places and a special Picasa Web Albums gallery of featured photos from Vancouver — some submitted by users and others from Google News. Whether you're celebrating at home or in Vancouver, simply add a "wintergames2010" tag to your own photos in Picasa Web Albums, or use "wintergames2010" as the email subject if you're uploading from your mobile phone, and we'll feature the best ones.

As an extra treat for enthusiasts, check out the Google homepage from February 12 to 28 for a special doodle each day celebrating the Games. You can also get the most up-to-date medal counts, event results and schedules by doing a simple Google search. I'll be following [men's hockey] myself, and rooting for Team Canada.

Posted by Jonathan Lister, Managing Director and Head of Google Canada
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/vancouver-forecast-light-winds.html

[G] Street View hits the slopes at Whistler

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 11:44 AM PST

Google LatLong: Street View hits the slopes at Whistler


In just a few days, the events in Vancouver and Whistler will be kicking off. The world's best skiers and snowboarders will be taking to the slopes at Whistler Mountain, tearing down the mountain at world record speeds or gracefully navigating a slalom course. You can view the terrain in stunning 3D detail in Google Earth, and we recently added 3D models for all 9 competition venues, but I couldn't help myself from wondering if there was a way to help you get even closer to the action. If our Street View cars can help you experience the Champs-Élysées and the Street View trike can transport you to Stonehenge, why can't we take you up 7,000 feet to the Whistler ski runs? I started brainstorming with a few of my teammates just a couple of months ago, and we came up with the perfect solution:

Yes, you are indeed looking at a snowmobile equipped with our full Street View camera system. In typcal scrappy Google fashion, we were able to put this together over the course of a few weekends using extra pieces for our Street View cars, some 2x4s, some duct tape, and a lot of extra hard drives (keeping them running properly in the freezing conditions was one of our major concerns). We got in touch with the folks at Whistler Blackcomb Mountains and Whistler Resort Municipality to discuss our slightly crazy idea, and fortunately they were just as enthusiastic. In fact, they even suggested we also photograph the roads and paths of Whistler Village and Whistler Creekside, so we piled the snowmobile and a trike into a trailer and made our way up to Whistler:

As of today, the imagery from this special collection is available in Google Maps, letting anyone around the world see the same view down the mountain as a world-class skier about to push off on their quest for gold:

You'll find images from the along the Dave Murray Downhill (site of the men's alpine skiing event), from the top of the 7th Heaven Chairlift on Blackcomb, and from the peak of Whistler. We also have imagery of Whistler Village, gathered with our trike:


Along the way, we also filmed ourselves a bit, so you can take a look at this video to see how this whole project came together and get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of our snowmobile up at Whistler:



Elsewhere around the world, today we've also added Street View imagery of Norway and Finland - two countries that you'll be seeing represented well on the slopes - and we've expanded our coverage all across Canada, this year's host country.

To learn more about other ways to explore the games with Google, visit the Official Google Blog and our website at www.google.com/games10.


Posted by Dan Ratner, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Street View
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/02/street-view-hits-slopes-at-whistler.html

[G] Google Apps Script and Google Sites

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 08:39 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Google Apps Script and Google Sites

Today we're announcing a new enhancement to Google Apps Script: the ability to create and access Google Sites.

Using the new SitesApp Service, your scripts now have full control over your sites including adding attachments, changing the text within a web page, and even adding new collaborators to your sites so you can share and edit them with your friends. For more details, see the Apps Script Sites documentation.

A good example came to our attention recently as a colleague set about improving the organization of his soccer league. He had to create home pages for each of the teams, with information on each of the players in the league. Before long, he was overwhelmed with the task of managing all of the information on these sites.


Luckily, the players were already listed in Gmail Contacts, and training times and matches were already entered on Google Calendar. It proved a simple task to write a script that created a new Google Site for each team, pulling in player details from Gmail Contacts, and copying training and match details from Google Calendar.

This automation saved him a lot of repetitive button pressing, and it made adding future team sites a snap.

A tutorial detailing the creation of a site in script can be found here. You can take it a step further by using one of the many site templates that are freely available. Start by creating a site customized from your chosen template, and then update it with team specific content using Apps Script.

We think this is a great example of taking useful information from semi-private, hard-to-access sources, and sharing it with a wider audience – be it your soccer league, your enterprise, or the entire world.

Posted by Henry Lau, Google Apps Script Engineer
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-apps-script-and-google-sites.html

[G] Our approach to maximizing advertising revenue for online publishers

Posted: 09 Feb 2010 06:36 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Our approach to maximizing advertising revenue for online publishers

All website owners need to pay for the costs of creating content and making it available online. Whether delivering entertainment, products, news, services, social networking or opinions, they need to pay their way by selling advertising or charging their users.

Website owners, or "online publishers," span the range from individual bloggers to multinational companies. If they sell advertising, they can do this directly themselves, via their own sales force. Alternatively, they can use an ad network to place ads on the pages of their website. Many publishers use a combination of these methods if they can't sell all their ad space themselves (for example, a publisher may have an unpredicted surge in traffic — and therefore ad space — resulting from a popular post, or from a major website linking to them).

We have a long history of helping online publishers make money from their websites. We wanted to update you on our continuing work in this area, and how Google's newer products can provide real and significant results for clients.

We currently have three main products that work together to help online publishers of all sizes and types maximize their revenue.

AdSense
AdSense, launched in 2003, places highly relevant ads on our partners' websites, who share in the ad revenue. In 2009, our AdSense partners, comprising over a million large and small publishers, earned over $5.2 billion through AdSense.

AdSense is designed to help online publishers get the most revenue possible for their ad space, without having to directly manage advertiser relationships. When a publisher enables AdSense on their site, Google automatically maximizes the publisher's revenues every time a page loads. It does this in real time, by selecting the most valuable ad from AdWords advertisers and a large pool of other competing ad networks and buyers.

Ad serving
Larger publishers with their own ad sales teams use our ad serving products (like DoubleClick's DFP or Google Ad Manager) to serve the most valuable ad that they've sold directly to advertisers or ad agencies. DFP is the industry's leading ad serving platform that powers the advertising businesses of the largest online publishers, while Google Ad Manager is designed to meet the needs of growing online publishers.

Our ad serving products are a key focus for us and we're continuing to make significant investments in this area. You can read about some of our DFP customers here and some of our Google Ad Manager customers here.

DoubleClick Ad Exchange
DoubleClick Ad Exchange is a real-time auction marketplace for display ad space — it includes ad networks on one side, and major online publishers on the other. Publishers are in complete control of which networks they allow to bid, what ads can appear on their sites and which ad space they make available.

Maximizing revenue across various ad networks is sometimes called "yield management." For major online publishers, the Ad Exchange offers an easy-to-use yield management solution — it selects the highest paying ad from across multiple, competing ad networks, in real time. However, the Ad Exchange goes further than simple "yield management" to provide a more complete revenue maximization solution.

Through a unique process called "dynamic allocation," it also compares — again, in real time — the value of the highest-paying ad in the Ad Exchange with any ads that the publisher has entered into their ad server (such as ad network deals) and chooses the highest paying one. By definition, the Ad Exchange only serves ads when it can offer a higher price for ad space. In fact, analysis shows that the average price a publisher receives for ad space sold through the Ad Exchange is over 130% higher than the average price of ad space sold directly to ad networks and other third parties. (Of course, while similar, the ad space being compared is not identical.)

A continuing effort
Today's online publishers, large and small, operate in a complicated and fragmented advertising environment. We're focused on developing a full suite of technology products — such as AdSense, ad serving products and DoubleClick Ad Exchange — that can maximize all publishers' advertising revenues. We're also working to bring new advertisers to online advertising and make the process easier for them, to grow the advertising pie for everyone.

By doing this, we hope to help all publishers fund their websites, which enables them to create a wide variety of online content for all Internet users.

If you're interested in the ins-and-outs of our approach to maximizing revenue for publishers, you can read more in this document.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/our-approach-to-maximizing-advertising.html
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