Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] A polyglot Google Chrome beta, with new privacy features

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 10:01 PM PST

Google Chrome Blog: A polyglot Google Chrome beta, with new privacy features

Whether you're catching up on your favorite Arabic gameshow, getting up to speed on the latest Korean mobile gadgetry, or researching the local perspective for a dream trip to Machu Picchu, we're all constantly reminded that the internet is an amazingly multilingual place. The Google Chrome team is excited to introduce a new beta feature to help our users navigate the multilingual web: instant machine translation of webpages, without the need for any browser extensions or plug-ins.

How does it work? When the language of the webpage you're viewing is different from your preferred language setting, Chrome will display a prompt asking if you'd like the page to be translated for you using Google Translate.

Here's a demo of the translation feature by Jay Civelli, one of the engineers who developed it:


For more on how automatic translation in Chrome works, read on in our Help Center article. We hope that the development of online translation tools like this one will help make all the world's information universally accessible in an easy, frictionless way – imagine reading a diversity of foreign language news sources in your mother tongue, or easily conducting online commerce across borders and languages.

With today's beta release, we're also excited to introduce new features that will give you even greater choice and control over your privacy as you browse the web. We realize that many users have questions about privacy in browsers, so we've produced a short video to help users better understand privacy in the browser:


In addition to Chrome's existing incognito mode – a handy way to browse the web without leaving traces of website visits on your computer or downloads in your browser history – you can now manage your privacy settings in the new "Privacy" section of Chrome's Options dialog. From these settings, you can control how browser cookies, images, JavaScript, plug-ins, and pop-ups are handled on a site-by-site basis. For example, you can set up cookie rules to allow cookies specifically only for sites that you trust, and block cookies from untrusted sites.

You can read more about these features, or watch videos explaining how your privacy is handled in Chrome's various features including search and suggestions, browser cookies, Safe Browsing technology, and automatic security updates.

Try out all these new features for yourself in today's beta release. For those of you already on the beta channel, you'll soon be updated automatically. And for those of you on the stable channel, we'll be making Chrome's new translation and privacy features available to you in the coming weeks. Till our next update, auf Wiedersehen!


Posted by Wieland Holfelder, Engineering Director, Google Munich
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2010/03/polyglot-google-chrome-beta-with-new.html

[G] Gorillaz Unveil Premiere and Playlist

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 09:27 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Gorillaz Unveil Premiere and Playlist

Today's world premiere and celebrity playlist is presented by a cartoon created by Blur's Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett. Please welcome Murdoc, the animated bassist for virtual band Gorillaz, as he takes time out of his busy schedule to present the premiere of "Stylo" and also share his favorite videos on YouTube. So what does this fictional musician like to peep on the site? A surprising mix of underwater adventures, Nigerian soul and survivalist tips, along with a few musicians who will also appear on the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach.

Here Murdoc explains his selections:



Gorillaz join the ranks of acts like U2, Tiesto and OK Go who've chosen YouTube to unleash their video premieres. Murdoc's picks also make for a colorful addition to our Celebrity Playlist channel, currently dominated by Hollywood film stars and celebrity chefs. Enjoy!

Michele Flannery, Music Manager, recently watched "July Flame."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/EyET1n7Osrk/gorillaz-unveil-premiere-and-playlist.html

[G] SXSW 2010: Blogger & Google Reader Party in Austin

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 07:40 PM PST

Blogger Buzz: SXSW 2010: Blogger & Google Reader Party in Austin


Blogger and Google Reader are throwing a party at South by South West and you're invited! We'll be debuting a very special feature at the party, so come celebrate with the Blogger and Google Reader teams. Drinks, food, tunes, swag, and good times will be in full effect.

Party Details
Blogger & Google Reader Party
Sunday March 14 @ 8:00PM
Six Lounge, 117 W 4th St @ Colorado

RSVP
Blogger.com users: if you've posted to your Blogger blog before 03/01/10, RSVP here with your blog's URL and you can skip the line. Also remember to bring your SXSW Interactive badge.

See you there!

URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/03/sxsw-2010-blogger-google-reader-party.html

[G] Fast new windows

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 07:40 PM PST

Official Gmail Blog: Fast new windows

Posted by Michael Davidson, Software Engineer

One of the lesser-known features of Gmail is its ability to help with multitasking. Frequently, I find that I need to find an old message while I'm composing an email. When this happens, I click on the "new window" icon to pop my compose area into its own window:


There's only one problem — it's been slow! Today, we're rolling out a change that will fix this (reload your account to make sure you get this change). Now, popping out a window is much, much faster. No more "Loading..." progress bar.

There are a number of places you can pop up new windows in Gmail.
  • In chat, there's the little upward arrow in the title bar:


  • When writing a message, hold the "Shift" key while you click on the Compose Mail, Reply, Reply All or Forward links and you'll get a new window for your new message. (Holding the "Shift" key while typing the keyboard shortcut — in other words typing "C" "R" or "F" — has the same effect.)

  • When you're reading your mail, hold the "Shift" key while you click on a message to open the conversation in a new window. (Same holds true for the "Shift" key and the "o" or "Enter" shortcuts.)

  • If you're reading an email and want to save it for later, you can click the "New window" link in the upper-right hand corner of the conversation view:


Keep in mind that the popped out window does not outlive the closing of the original Gmail window, although we're working on a way to make that better. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make this work in Internet Explorer, so to see the speed-up, you'll need to be using Mozilla Firefox, Apple's Safari, or Google Chrome.
URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/fast-new-windows.html

[G] St. Patrick's Day: Food for Thought

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 03:01 PM PST

Official Google CPG Blog: St. Patrick's Day: Food for Thought

Posted by Katrina Shonbeck, Google CPG Account Planner

We celebrate St. Patrick's Day on March 17th to honor the death of the Patron Saint of Ireland, who, ironically, wasn't even Irish! When he was 16-years-old, Patrick was kidnapped from his home in England and spent over 10 years in Ireland as a shepherd slave. After he escaped Ireland, he joined the priesthood and made it his life's mission to bring Catholicism to the Irish people. Celebrating St. Patrick's Day dates back to the Middle Ages when Irish Catholics would close shop and honor the feast of St. Patrick. This feast represented the one day they could break Lent. Needless to say, the custom really took off!

So what's on the feast menu? (See Source [i])



Irish Recipes:
The week of St. Patrick's Day, American consumers are connecting to this cultural phenomenon by searching for Irish recipes online. While many will be looking for corned beef and cabbage, those wanting a more authentic Irish meal may choose boxty (a traditional potato dish) or perhaps boiled bacon.

Corned beef and Cabbage:
Corned beef and cabbage is actually an Irish-American dish. In the mid-1800s, the Irish were some of the poorest immigrants in America. They could afford meat, but only once per week. So, they would buy brisket, the cheapest cut of meat, and cabbage, the cheapest vegetable, and that was their special meal. Over time, their special meal started to be associated with their special day, St. Patrick's Day. But just because it's been around for over 200 years doesn't mean it's old news. In fact, from 2008 to 2009, we saw a 29% increase in the number of searches on "corned beef and cabbage."[i]

Irish Soda Bread:
What distinguishes soda bread from most other breads is the fact that it uses baking soda rather than yeast as its leavening ingredient. "Soda breads are made using either wholemeal or white flour. In Northern Ireland the wholemeal variety is known as 'wheaten bread' and normally sweetened, while the term 'soda bread' is restricted to the white savoury form normally served fried. The two major shapes are the loaf and the 'griddle cake', or farl in Northern Ireland."[ii] While this dish may be short on yeast it's high on interest, at least during St. Patrick's Day. 15% more searches on "Irish soda bread" occurred in 2009 than the year prior.[i]

How Marketers Can Capitalize On This Trend:
1. Website Content:
Ensure recipe content features Irish cuisine if you offer recipes on your website.
Feature holiday-themed merchandise on your homepage (e.g. paper towels with shamrocks)
2. Google Paid Search:
Recipes: Capture consumer interest in Irish recipes by bidding on keywords related general Irish cooking and the specific recipes you're featuring on your website.
3. Google Content Network:
Recipes: Increase your reach by creating contextually targeted campaigns around Irish recipes.
Merchandise: Drive more awareness of your holiday-themed merchandise by creating a St. Patrick's Day contextually targeted campaign.

Whether you're truly Irish, or just Irish in spirit, we hope you enjoy your St. Patrick's Day! Slàinte!

Sources:

[i] Google Insights for Search. Retrieved February 26, 2010.

[ii] Wikipedia.org, "Soda Bread." Retrieved February 16, 2010.



URL: http://google-cpg.blogspot.com/2010/03/st-patricks-day-food-for-thought.html

[G] Google welcomes Picnik

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 01:21 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Google welcomes Picnik

(Cross-posted from the Google Photos Blog)

More than ever before, people are sharing and storing their photos online. But until recently, you had to edit your photos using client software on your computer. Today, we're excited to announce that Google has acquired Picnik, one of the first sites to bring photo editing to the cloud. Using Picnik, you can crop, do touch-ups and add cool effects to your photos, all without leaving your web browser.


We're not announcing any significant changes to Picnik today, though we'll be working hard on integration and new features. As well, we'd like to continue supporting all existing Picnik partners so that users will continue to be able to add their photos from other photo sharing sites, make edits in the cloud and then save and share to all relevant networks.

We're very impressed with the Picnik team and the product they've created, and we're excited to welcome them to Google. We're looking forward to collaborating closely with them to improve the online photo editing experience on the web. In the meantime, we encourage you to head to Picnik, import some of your photos from Picasa Web Albums, Flickr or Facebook and try your hand at photo editing in the cloud!

Posted by Brian Axe, Product Management Director
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-welcomes-picnik.html

[G] Quickly customize shipping settings with the shipping setup tool

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 01:21 PM PST

Official Google Checkout Blog: Quickly customize shipping settings with the shipping setup tool

The shipping setup tool, now available for all Checkout merchants, makes setting up accurate shipping options a snap. In just a few clicks, you can configure and customize the shipping settings that you passed in the Checkout API. The tool will walk you through the various options and steps required to configure the shipping options you make available to your buyers, and then allow you to modify these settings.

You can find the shipping setup tool in the Settings tab of your Checkout Merchant Center.











To learn even more about how to use this feature, check out the brief video tutorial:


Note that if you continue to pass shipping information via the API, it will override any information you have set up here. Try it out, and let us know what you think!

Posted by Igor Ginzburg and Andrew Cunningham, Software Engineers and Satyajeet Salgar, Product Manager

URL: http://googlecheckout.blogspot.com/2010/03/quickly-customize-shipping-settings.html

[G] Join us for two live webinars this week

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 01:21 PM PST

Inside AdSense: Join us for two live webinars this week

This week, we'll be hosting two live webinars to help you discover how you can make the most of your AdSense account with a detailed understanding of DFP Small Business and AdSense for search.

The DFP Small Business (formerly Google Ad Manager) webinar will take place on Tuesday, March 2nd. This webinar will cover how you can:
  • Use DFP Small Business to sell, schedule, deliver, and measure all of your direct-sold and network-based ad inventory (including AdSense)
  • Have AdSense backfill your directly-sold inventory and compete with your other ad networks
  • Optimize your AdSense placements
The AdSense for search webinar will take place on Wednesday, March 3rd. In this webinar, you'll learn how to:
We encourage you to post your questions in advance of each webinar on our Google Moderator pages for DFP Small Business or AdSense for search.

Sign up for these webinars here! We look forward to seeing you soon.

Posted by Caroline Halpin - AdSense Optimisation team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/03/join-us-for-two-live-webinars-this-week.html

[G] Google welcomes Picnik

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 01:21 PM PST

Google Photos Blog: Google welcomes Picnik

Posted by Brian Axe, Product Management Director

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

More than ever before, people are sharing and storing their photos online. But until recently, you had to edit your photos using client software on your computer. Today, we're excited to announce that Google has acquired Picnik, one of the first sites to bring photo editing to the cloud. Using Picnik, you can crop, do touch-ups and add cool effects to your photos, all without leaving your web browser.


We're not announcing any significant changes to Picnik today, though we'll be working hard on integration and new features. As well, we'd like to continue supporting all existing Picnik partners so that users will continue to be able to add their photos from other photo sharing sites, make edits in the cloud and then save and share to all relevant networks.

We're very impressed with the Picnik team and the product they've created, and we're excited to welcome them to Google. We're looking forward to collaborating closely with them to improve the online photo editing experience on the web. In the meantime, we encourage you to head to Picnik, import some of your photos from Picasa Web Albums, Flickr or Facebook and try your hand at photo editing in the cloud!
URL: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-welcomes-picnik.html

[G] Announcing the winners of the Street View trike contest

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 12:05 PM PST

Google LatLong: Announcing the winners of the Street View trike contest

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

​The polls have closed, the votes have been tallied and the people have spoken: it's time to announce the winners of our Street View trike suggestions contest. Last October, we gave Street View fans the opportunity to vote for the special attractions around the United States that they most want to see featured on Google Maps. In the first round, we received more than 25,000 suggestions, which we narrowed down to the 24 finalists that were put up to a public vote. All in all, nearly a quarter million votes were cast.

The most popular category among all voters was University Campuses, racking up nearly 70,000 votes. Topping the list was Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, New York). Reminiscing alumni, prospective students or empty-nest parents will be able to tour the university through Street View for a unique look at campus life.

Cyclists also came out in droves to cast their ballots for their favorite riding spots, and the Boulder Creek Path (Boulder, Colorado) rode away with victory in the Parks & Trails category. Our trike riders — and the avid bike riders in Google's Boulder office — are looking forward to the chance to take a ride along this scenic 5½-mile greenway.

History buffs, potential tourists, and online window-shoppers will soon be able to take a virtual stroll through the grounds of Faneuil Hall Marketplace (Boston, Massachusetts), the most popular submission in the Pedestrian Malls category.

In the National Landmarks category, voters elected a location that actually encompasses many of the United States' most famous landmarks, including the Smithsonian Insitution museums, the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. That's right: the National Mall in Washington, D.C. emerged victorious.

The manually-pedaled trike will soon be making its way to the Motor City to ride through the Detroit Zoo, the top vote-getter in the Theme Parks & Zoos category. With this imagery, families and animal lovers will be able visit the kangaroos and wallabies from the Australian Outback Adventure and the polar bears in the Arctic Ring of Life.


We're now working directly with each of the winning organizations to arrange a visit from our trike in the coming months, so don't be surprised if you see this quirky contraption at your favorite destination sometime soon:



​Because so many of you – 238,000, to be exact – expressed a desire to have the trike visit your favorite place, we'll also be working with many of the other finalists, so stay tuned for more exciting special collections from our trike. And if you happen to manage or work at another attraction that you think absolutely needs to be featured in Street View, please let us know!

Posted by Dan Ratner, Senior Mechanical Engineer
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/03/announcing-winners-of-street-view-trike.html

[G] Announcing the winners of the Street View trike contest

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 09:17 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Announcing the winners of the Street View trike contest

The polls have closed, the votes have been tallied and the people have spoken: it's time to announce the winners of our Street View trike suggestions contest. Last October, we gave Street View fans the opportunity to vote for the special attractions around the United States that they most want to see featured on Google Maps. In the first round, we received more than 25,000 suggestions, which we narrowed down to the 24 finalists that were put up to a public vote. All in all, nearly a quarter million votes were cast.
  • The most popular category among all voters was University Campuses, racking up nearly 70,000 votes. Topping the list was Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, New York). Reminiscing alumni, prospective students or empty-nest parents will be able to tour the university through Street View for a unique look at campus life.
  • Cyclists also came out in droves to cast their ballots for their favorite riding spots, and the Boulder Creek Path (Boulder, Colorado) rode away with victory in the Parks & Trails category. Our trike riders — and the avid bike riders in Google's Boulder office — are looking forward to the chance to take a ride along this scenic 5½-mile greenway.
  • History buffs, potential tourists and online window-shoppers will soon be able to take a virtual stroll through the grounds of Faneuil Hall Marketplace (Boston, Massachusetts), the most popular submission in the Pedestrian Malls category.
  • In the National Landmarks category, voters elected a location that actually encompasses many of the United States' most famous landmarks, including the Smithsonian Insitution museums, the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. That's right: the National Mall in Washington, D.C. emerged victorious.
  • The manually-pedaled trike will soon be making its way to the Motor City to ride through the Detroit Zoo, the top vote-getter in the Theme Parks & Zoos category. With this imagery, families and animal lovers will be able visit the kangaroos and wallabies from the Australian Outback Adventure and the polar bears in the Arctic Ring of Life.
We're now working directly with each of the winning organizations to arrange a visit from our trike in the coming months, so don't be surprised if you see this quirky contraption at your favorite destination sometime soon:



​Because so many of you – 238,000, to be exact – expressed a desire to have the trike visit your favorite place, also be working with many of the other finalists, so stay tuned for more exciting special collections from our trike. And if you happen to manage or work at another attraction that you think absolutely needs to be featured in Street View, please let us know!

Posted by Dan Ratner, Senior Mechanical Engineer
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/announcing-winners-of-street-view-trike.html

[G] Update from the Google Health Team

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 08:05 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Update from the Google Health Team

As we exhibit at the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) trade show this year in Atlanta, we want to share with you some of our latest thinking. Google Health has been on the market for a little over two years, and in that time we have seen a growing understanding of the value of consumers being able to own, use, manage and share their medical data online with whomever they choose. While companies like ours work to build technologies like Google Health to make this a reality, we've also seen growing support from the U.S. Government. President Obama has included incentives for doctors to adopt electronic health records (EHRs) in the the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act of 2009 (AARA), and in recent months there have also been a series of Health IT provisions around "Meaningful Use" and EHR Certification all of which should help empower consumers with access to their own information. (Read our recent op-ed for more info about this topic.)

At Google, we understand that changes in the health care industry take time and persistence, including health IT. We have been steadily analyzing feedback from our user surveys and field studies to help make Google Health more useful and relevant to a broad set of consumers on a daily basis. People have been telling us they want more tools to personalize, customize and track their own medical information. These are directions we're certainly exploring, and if you stop by our booth this week at HIMSS you can see a demo of what we're working on.

While we work to refine the Google Health product, we also continue to pursue integration agreements with providers to make it even easier for people to access their own medical information. We've learned over these past two years that getting a current and past medication history assembled and ready in case of emergencies is one of the strongest value propositions for using an online Personal Health Record (PHR). So today at HIMSS, we're announcing an integration with Surescripts, the leading electronic prescribing network in the United States, to help accelerate the availability of prescription drug history to our users. The Surescripts network connects doctors who prescribe medication to all of the nation's major pharmacy chains, leading health insurance plans and pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), as well as more than 10,000 independent pharmacies nationwide. Surescripts provides access to prescription benefit and history information on behalf of health insurance plans representing 65 percent of patients in the U.S.

Recognizing that hospital and ambulatory data is critical to our consumers, we're also announcing a future integration with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) that will give patients the ability to add health information to an EHR maintained by doctors using their own Google Health PHR. UPMC is working on this integration with Google Health, Carnegie Mellon University and their technology partner dbMotion. Finally, we're announcing the launch of three more integration partners: Citizen Memorial Healthcare (CMH), a rural healthcare network providing care to residents in southwest Missouri, Iatric Systems, an integration consultant, which can facilitate Google Health integrations for hospitals and healthcare systems, and the Withings WiFi Body Scale, which allows Google Health users to seamlessly update their weight and other data to their online profiles.

We hope to see you this week at HIMSS. Come by our booth, see our demo and say hello.

Posted by Alfred Spector, Vice President of Research & Special Projects
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/update-from-google-health-team.html
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