Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] OK Go, BBQ and Musicians Wanted at SXSW

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 10:13 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: OK Go, BBQ and Musicians Wanted at SXSW

Right up there with our love of award-winning Texas BBQ is our love of independent music and the people who create it. That's why the indie-centric SXSW Music Conference in Austin is the perfect place to launch the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) for musicians, aka Musicians Wanted. It's just the latest step in the YPP's continual expansion.

This time, we're inviting thousands of artists who made the trek to Texas -- and the rest of you accomplished musicians at home -- to apply today. If accepted, you'll join stars like ukulele songstress Julia Nunes, singer-songwriter David Choi and many others who, as partners, are able to make some money from their YouTube videos. Here's multi-instrumentalist and YouTube musician extraordinaire Jack Conte and songstress Nataly Dawn (aka Pomplamoose) to tell you more:



We've also got a few words from our most recent YPP Music partner. You may have heard of them – they're a little band with a viral hit or two and recently made headlines by starting their own indie label. As OK Go's Damian Kulash puts it "YouTube has always been a great match for OK Go - creativity flourishes and we can connect directly with our fans. So when we heard about Musicians Wanted, it was a no-brainer: it sounds great for us. We're honored and excited to be the first applicants. We can't wait to get new videos up on our channel."

So whether you make hip-hop, folk, noise-rock, jazz or a genre of your own invention, we are looking for all types of original music video content. One thing to keep in mind is that right now this program only supports video content by U.S.-based artists, though there are plans to roll out the program more widely in the future.

We'll leave you with a final call to apply now to join our Musicians Wanted campaign and perhaps you, too, will find yourself autographing CDs, reporting from the road and collaborating with other amazing musicians on the site.

Michele Flannery, Music Manager, recently watched "Bulldozer."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/X6StrNQxPPM/ok-go-bbq-and-musicians-wanted-at-sxsw.html

[G] Your interview with Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 08:38 PM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: Your interview with Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Posted by Jacob Glick, Canada Policy Counsel

It's not every day that you get to ask your country's leader questions about issues you care about. But that's exactly what Canadians did this afternoon when Prime Minister Stephen Harper sat down with YouTube.

Roughly 170,000 votes were cast through Google Moderator for nearly 1,800 questions -- giving voice to thousands of Canadians. And don't think that these were softball questions. Canadians asked their Prime Minister questions on a wide variety of important topics: from the deficit to Canada's role in Afgahistan, from child care to protecting pensions. We tried to select questions that represented the most popular topics and would solicit conversation. (We also minimized duplicate questions so we could cover a range of issues.) Neither the Prime Minister nor his office knew in advance which questions he'd be asked.

You can see the Prime Minister respond to your questions in this video:



Prime Minister Harper is the second world leader to answer your questions in a YouTube Interview. It's your appetite for political discussion on YouTube that creates these opportunities to access public leaders in this format, and we look forward to conducting more YouTube Interviews soon.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/03/your-interview-with-prime-minister.html

[G] You and the FCC Chairman discuss the Future of the Internet

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 07:32 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: You and the FCC Chairman discuss the Future of the Internet

Earlier today, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Julius Genachowski sat down for an exclusive YouTube Interview, right on the heels of the FCC's announcement of a National Broadband Plan -- the agency's strategy to deliver high-speed Internet to more Americans across the country. You might be surprised to learn that -- even though the Interent was invented in the U.S. -- broadband penetration in the states is considerably lower than many other developed nations. Chairman Genachowski's YouTube Interview is part of a series of conversations we're having with public figures in which citizens submit and vote on their favorite video and text questions on CitizenTube. Earlier this year we spoke with President Obama in the White House, and engaged with leaders of Congress after the bipartisan health care summit.



You can see the entire interview posted below. Chairman Genachowski answered Brooklyn-ite Elizabeth Stark's question on cost by saying the FCC needs to eliminate all barriers to competition so more Interent providers can compete and drive down prices. When Evslin in Vermont asked about rural broadband access, the Chairman said the FCC will take funding currently allotted for rural phone lines and instead use it to provide broadband to rural communities. And when Michael Tapp asked if broadband should be considered government infrastructure or a commercial service, the Chairman shied away from calling the Internet a fundmental right -- but he did say that all Americans "need to have access to this critical infrastructure."



All in all, the Chairman took 17 questions, including two lightning rounds of "F-C-Caesar," in which the Chairman gave a thumbs up or thumbs down to more straightforward "yes" or "no" questions posed by users. 






You can submit your feedback to the National Broadband Plan on Broadband.gov, or feel free to leave a comment about the interview on the YouTube video itself.



More and more world leaders are coming to YouTube to speak directly with citizens about important events, so stay tuned for more interviews in the future. We'd love to know you who'd like to hear from next.



Steve Grove, head of News and Politics, recently watched, "Announcing the National Broadband Plan."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/Ostot3elFeo/you-and-fcc-chairman-discuss-future-of.html

[G] Gesture Search now available for Android 1.6

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 06:48 PM PDT

Official Google Mobile Blog: Gesture Search now available for Android 1.6

Since we launched Gesture Search on Android Market two weeks ago, I've seen quite a bit of feedback. For example, some of you have requested Gesture Search for earlier versions of Android, as well as access to it outside the US.

I'm happy to share with you that Gesture Search is now available on devices with Android 1.6 and higher. Additionally, it can be downloaded in all countries where Android Market is available, although it continues to only recognize the English alphabet. The new version also includes some improvements to performance and bug fixes. Please try it out and let me know what you think.

Posted by Yang Li, Research Scientist
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/03/gesture-search-now-available-for.html

[G] Google Code turns five

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 05:38 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Google Code turns five

At age five most kids can hop, skip and tie their shoes without help. Google Code turns five this week, and while we're still working on the shoelaces thing, we've grown from a simple site for hosting a couple of APIs into a destination for developers to prototype their ideas in a Code Playground, host all kinds of open source projects and find out about our growing family of APIs and products like App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and Android.

To learn more about how code.google.com has come alive over the past five years, check out our post on the Google Code Blog.

Posted by Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-code-turns-five.html

[G] Google-certified ad networks now available to all publishers

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 05:38 PM PDT

Inside AdSense: Google-certified ad networks now available to all publishers

Back in August, we announced plans to give publishers the ability to allow multiple Google-certified ad networks to compete for display ad space on your site. While this feature was initially available only to publishers located in North America and Europe, we're happy to announce that all publishers will now have access to these participating ad networks.

Allowing these ad networks to compete for your display ad space means that more ads will be eligible to appear on your pages, leading to potentially higher earnings in the long run. Our system will show the ads that will generate you the most profit, whether they're from these Google-certified ad networks or the AdWords program. As a reminder, all Google-certified ad networks are required to adhere to our standards for user privacy, ad quality, and speed. In addition, you can use the controls in your Ad Review Center to specify which ad networks can appear on your pages.

Finally, some ad networks use tools similar to Google's interest-based advertising to show more relevant ads to users on the sites they visit. We'll allow certified networks who comply with user privacy guidelines to show ads using these tools, but they won't be permitted to collect data from your site for the purpose of subsequent interest-based advertising. You'll be able to opt out of receiving ads based on user interests from these certified networks, and we have changed our requirements for third-party ad serving to reflect this. We're dedicated to providing users with a positive experience, while helping publishers effectively monetize the ads appearing on their sites. We believe you'll find that more competition translates into better ads and increased revenue in the long run.

We're continuing to certify additional ad networks, so please keep in mind that you won't see immediate changes in your earnings or ads. As we continue to add new ad networks, you'll see them appear in your Ad Review Center. To learn more about managing your account settings and Google-certified ad networks, visit our Help Center.

Posted by Atul Bhandari - AdSense Product Manager
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-certified-ad-networks-now.html

[G] Opening up YouTube to new display advertisers

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 12:48 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: Opening up YouTube to new display advertisers

One of our goals is to democratize access to display advertising and make it accessible and open -- like search advertising -- so new advertisers can participate easily. We launched Display Ad Builder in 2008 to help you easily set up and run display ad campaigns.

Display Ad Builder is a self-service tool within AdWords that helps you choose from dozens of professionally designed templates to run ads across the 1 million sites that make up the Google Content Network -- including YouTube -- in a matter of minutes. Over 20,000 advertisers have used Display Ad Builder to create display ads quickly and simply, and over 80% them had never run a display ad campaign before.

Since we launched Display Ad Builder, we've added more templates and fonts to help you design display ads quickly. Today, we're announcing a new feature in Display Ad Builder that lets you use simple templates to create InVideo and companion ads on YouTube.

An InVideo ad is an animated flash overlay that appears at the bottom part of a video that a user is watching. It's been one of the most effective ad formats on YouTube. With people watching over 1 billion videos a day on the site, overlays are an easy way to get your ad directly in front of a huge audience.

Building overlays has always been difficult for small advertisers, who often don't have access to the resources needed to create these animated ads. That's where Display Ad Builder in AdWords comes in.


Now, any advertiser can use Display Ad Builder to turn their image ads into overlays and run a campaign on YouTube in minutes. Depending on the type of campaign an advertiser wants to run, overlays can be bought on a CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) basis, and can be matched to YouTube videos based on numerous criteria, or even on a video by video level.

With this new format, Display Ad Builder will enable more advertisers to run display advertising campaigns on YouTube. For example, if you're a small business that sells beauty products, you can quickly use a template in Display Ad Builder in AdWords to create an overlay ad and then run it on popular fashion and beauty videos.

If you're interested in creating your own InVideo ad, or any other type of display ad, click here to get started.

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/03/opening-up-youtube-to-new-display.html

[G] "Search" for us at SES New York!

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 12:48 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: "Search" for us at SES New York!

If your company runs a website, you already know the importance of search engine marketing and optimization. But are you confident that your website is providing the very best user experience possible? If you haven't added or improved your search function yet, you could be missing out on conversions, sales, and repeat visits.

Next week, we're hitting the road to help spread the message about Google Commerce Search and Google Site Search. Visit us at Search Engine Strategies New York, held March 22 to 26th at the Hilton New York. Stop by the Google booth (#1007) to ask questions and learn how to bring visitors to your site, optimize their experience, and convert them into loyal customers.

On Thursday, don't miss our lunch session on Increasing Conversions with Google Site Search Solutions. Nitin Mangtani, Senior Product Manager on Google Enterprise, will explain how improving your site's search engine – whether you run an e-commerce or any other type of site – is key to stretching your SEM dollars and converting each and every visitor.

We'll have a few fun Google schwag giveaways too, so we hope that you'll join us. All conference registrants are welcome and no additional sign-up is needed.

Hope to see you next week in the Big Apple!

Posted by Anna Bishop, Google Enterprise Search team
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/03/search-for-us-at-ses-new-york.html

[G] Easier chat controls

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 09:59 AM PDT

Google Talkabout: Easier chat controls

When Google Chat first launched, it only supported text chat. Now, it supports voice, video and group chat. Lately, we've been hard at work making video chat work even better, and the reception has been so good that we're giving voice, video and group chat a new and improved home at the top of the chat window in iGoogle and orkut. While this isn't a major change, we hope it makes using all of our features easier.

If you've never used voice or video chat in iGoogle or orkut, it's easy to get started. You'll just need a webcam and a microphone. If you already have a webcam and a microphone, you'll just need to download a small plugin for video chat, available for free at www.google.com/chat/video.

With the plugin installed and your camera enabled, your friends will see a small green camera icon like this  next to your name in their chat lists. Then, to start a voice or video chat, simply click either the voice or video icon in the toolbar and talk away to your heart's content - all for free.

If you primarily use chat in Gmail, don't worry, we haven't forgotten you!  It'll be coming soon to Gmail as well.

Posted by Bruce Leban
Software Engineer
URL: http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2010/03/easier-chat-controls.html

[G] Integration With Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 09:24 AM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: Integration With Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework

One of the core principles of Google Analytics has been to democratize the utility of the web analytics tool, and to open up the platform with an API. This enables developers to innovate new uses of Google Analytics to help analysts, marketers, and executives make better data-driven decisions. Since we launched Google Analytics, developers have extended the product to track Flash/Flex and recently Android and iPhone Devices.

To that end, we'd like to share that Google Analytics is now integrated into the Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework.

The framework is opensource and enables non-technical designers to quickly track how users interact with their Silverlight content. Using the Google Analytics component, designers can simply drag and drop icons to track the number of interactions on a design element. Then within Google Analytics, they can segment and compare the difference in behavior between users who interacted and those who didn't.

Each of our various tracking solutions have various levels of feature support. Currently the Google Anlaytics integration with this framework supports event tracking, pageview tracking and custom variables. You can read more about the supported features in the Google Analytics specific documentation and find out more on the project homepage.

Posted by Nick Mihailovski, The Google Analytics API Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/03/integration-with-microsoft-silverlight.html
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