Googland |
- [G] Celebrating curators: "As seen on" comes to the video page
- [G] Enjoy some quiet time with Do Not Disturb
- [G] Universal search features in Google Suggest for mobile
- [G] New in Labs: Nested Labels and Message Sneak Peek
- [G] Custom variables webinar available for your viewing pleasure
- [G] Google Apps and the cloud: Faster access to innovation
- [G] The National Broadband Plan and Small Business
- [G] YouTube team to respond to your questions about...partnerships
- [G] Go Mobile! Series: Understand your click-to-call options
- [G] Site maintenance on Saturday, April 10
- [G] Google Earth helps discover rare hominid ancestor in South Africa
- [G] Google Earth helps discover rare hominid ancestor in South Africa
- [G] Project: Report Takes Over the Screening Room, Enters Final Round
- [G] Captioning advocate Marlee Matlin visits Google
- [G] The Dirty Dancing Viewing Party
- [G] Google Earth for Android now available on DROID
- [G] Google Code Jam 2010 registration now open
- [G] Mission Blue: filling in the blanks...
- [G] Mission Blue: filling in the blanks...
- [G] Bridging the gap: Flighted campaigns
- [G] Google Maps 4.0 for BlackBerry adds Search by Voice, Google Buzz, Starring, Labs, and More
- [G] It takes one to show one: Getting a business off the ground with AdWords
- [G] It takes one to show one: Getting a business off the ground with AdWords
| [G] Celebrating curators: "As seen on" comes to the video page Posted: 08 Apr 2010 07:19 PM PDT YouTube Blog: Celebrating curators: "As seen on" comes to the video page"As seen on" surfaces videos popular elsewhere on the Web, and now it also lives on the video page. In other words, if a blog or site is responsible for driving a significant amount of a video's views, that site will be credited on the page, as so: What this means is that you can get recognition for sourcing videos that your readers love and helping those clips become popular on YouTube. It's another way all that hard work you put into building your readership can pay off and generate even more traffic for your blog or site. You might even get your site in front of a whole new audience via people who encounter it for the first time on YouTube. We're currently experimenting with this functionality on a range of popular videos and plan on making it a permanent feature soon. Dylan Trotter, Software Engineer, recently watched "Cycles," and Adam Winkler, Software Engineer, recently watched "Chatroulette Endmost Piano Ode.m4v."    URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/fELGqq875AY/celebrating-curators-as-seen-on-comes.html      |
| [G] Enjoy some quiet time with Do Not Disturb Posted: 08 Apr 2010 07:19 PM PDT Google Voice Blog: Enjoy some quiet time with Do Not DisturbGoogle Voice makes it easier for people to reach you by only having to call one number that rings all your phones. But sometimes you don't want to be reached -- like if you're in a meeting or watching a movie. To help you in these situations, you can enable the Do Not Disturb setting to send all callers straight to voicemail. This setting can be toggled on or off from the Settings menu or by calling your Google Voice number. And starting this week, you can set a timer so that it only remains remains active for a set period of time. We're excited to continue to give you more control over your communications. As always, if you have suggestions for future improvements, please tell us! Posted by Anthony Jawad, Software Engineer  URL: http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/enjoy-some-quiet-time-with-do-not.html   |
| [G] Universal search features in Google Suggest for mobile Posted: 08 Apr 2010 07:19 PM PDT Official Google Mobile Blog: Universal search features in Google Suggest for mobile Last December on the Official Google Blog, we announced how universal search features in Google Suggest could show useful information while the user is composing a query from the Google home page. Today, we are bringing this same functionality to mobile phones so that getting answers while on the go is even faster and easier. For example, let's say you're flying to London and want to know: Is my flight on time? Or what is the exchange rate of the pound? As you type the flight "Ba 284" or "Usd in pounds", the answers are provided right below the search box, without having to wait for the results page. Other searches that show answers include weather (e.g., "weather london"), stock quotes (e.g., "intc"), current time (e.g., "time london"), calculator (e.g. "29*37") and unit conversion (e.g., "220 miles in km"). To try this yourself, go to google.com on your phone's browser and type your own query to see these special results under the search box. Note that if you don't see these results at first, try refreshing the page in your browser. The functionality is currently supported on Android-powered devices, iPhones/iPods and Palm WebOS devices in the US.Posted by Toshi Tajima, Google Mobile Engineering Team  URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/04/universal-search-features-in-google.html   |
| [G] New in Labs: Nested Labels and Message Sneak Peek Posted: 08 Apr 2010 07:19 PM PDT Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Nested Labels and Message Sneak PeekPosted by Manu Cornet, Software EngineerLabels are more flexible than folders because a given email can have several labels but can't be in several folders at the same time. A highly requested feature for labels, though, comes from the world of folders: the ability to organize labels hierarchically.  If you think this might be useful to you, go to the Gmail Labs tab under Settings, look for "Nested Labels," enable it and click "Save." You'll then need to name your label with slashes (/) to make it the child of another. For example, let's say you wanted to create a simple hierarchy with a "Home" label, and inside it a "Family" and a "Vacation" label. Just create three labels with the following names: Home Home/Family Home/Vacation You can then create "Home/Family/Kids," "Home/Pets," etc., to get something like the screenshot on the left. If you had the parent label "Home" before you don't have to create it from scratch. You can create complex hierarchies of labels if that's the way you like to organize your mail, and you can expand/collapse labels to save space. You'll always be able to tell whether a given label contains unread messages in its collapsed child labels by looking at whether it's bold or not. Please note that this lab doesn't play nicely with the "Hide Read Labels" lab. You might not get exactly what you expect if you have both labs enabled; for example, the collapse/expand icons won't always appear when they should. Another highly requested feature is the ability to preview messages to get a glimpse on what they contain and maybe take immediate action without opening them.  This is exactly what "Message Sneak Peek" does. After you turn it on, right-clicking on a line in your inbox shows a preview pane with the message in it.You can also use keyboard shortcuts for a faster sneak-peeking flow (enable keyboard shortcuts in Settings first if you haven't done so): hit 'h' to open a sneak peek card, then navigate with 'j' and 'k,' and dismiss the current card by pressing "Escape." Messages you peak at will stay unread (or it wouldn't really be a sneak peek, would it?). Happy nesting and peeking!  URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-in-labs-nested-labels-and-message.html   |
| [G] Custom variables webinar available for your viewing pleasure Posted: 08 Apr 2010 07:19 PM PDT Google Analytics Blog: Custom variables webinar available for your viewing pleasureCustom variables is one of the most powerful features in Google Analytics. With them you can segment traffic by almost any attribute. We recently hosted a webinar on how to make the most effective use of custom variables. If you missed it, you can now watch this highly informative webinar on the Google Analytics YouTube channel. If you're interested in learning how to use this powerful feature in Google Analytics, sit yourself down with some popcorn this Friday night and get analyzing. Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Google Analytics Team  URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/04/custom-variables-webinar-available-for.html   |
| [G] Google Apps and the cloud: Faster access to innovation Posted: 08 Apr 2010 04:19 PM PDT Official Google Enterprise Blog: Google Apps and the cloud: Faster access to innovationEditor's Note: This post is the first in a three-part series on the benefits of Google Apps' cloud-computing architecture."Cloud computing" has become a trendy buzzword, and some traditional technology vendors are even using the term though their solutions are still rooted in legacy architectures. In this three-part series, I'll share how Google's multi-tenant, Internet-scale architecture and browser-based applications produce three key advantages: the fastest innovation, improved reliability and security, and maximum economies of scale. Today I'll focus on how Google's innovation exceeds what's possible with on-premises technology, single-tenant hosted applications, and "software plus services". Faster access to innovation for higher productivity The web is the epicenter of innovation, and Google's multi-tenant infrastructure is designed so we can push improvements to our entire customer base on short iteration cycles. We can deliver new functionality on a weekly basis, or faster, because our systems are able to distribute updates so efficiently. In 2009 alone, we launched over 100 improvements, and customers didn't need to manage any upgrades or patches. In contrast, businesses tend to update traditional server software every five to seven years due to long release cycles from vendors and the cost and complexity businesses face implementing upgrades, especially when more powerful servers are required, like 64-bit hardware. Browser-based applications are another key ingredient in our recipe for rapid innovation. When we launch new features to our web applications, users automatically get these improvements just by refreshing their browsers. Our mobile browser applications also get new features without software updates. With traditional technology and "software plus services", client software is an innovation bottleneck. Even after back-end systems can support new features, users don't get new functionality in those environments until the software on their computers and mobile phones have been upgraded, which can be an expensive and labor-intensive project. Feedback and anonymous usage statistics from hundreds of millions of users in the real world also help us bring stress-tested innovation to business customers at an unprecedented pace. From our consumer user base, we quickly learn which new features would be useful in the business context, refine those features, and make them available to Google Apps customers with minimal delay. Continuous innovation powered by the cloud has another advantage over traditional technology cycles: employees adapt to a continuous stream of manageable improvements better than they tolerate large, disruptive batches of change. Gradual iterations in bite-sized chunks substantially reduce change-management challenges. Conversely, employees are subjected to a painful re-learning cycle each time companies upgrade traditional software. Dramatically faster innovation helps employees be more productive, but that's not all Google's cloud has to offer. In part two of this series, next week I'll focus on how Google Apps can offer better security and higher reliability than on-premises technology, single-tenant hosted applications and "software plus services". If you're interested in going a level deeper, we invite you to geek out with us on Thursday, April 22nd, when we'll be holding a webcast to explore the advantages of Google's cloud. Hope you can join us! Geek Out on the Cloud-Based Infrastructure of Google Apps Thursday, April 22, 2010 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT / 6:00 PM GMT  Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager  URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-apps-and-cloud-faster-access-to.html   |
| [G] The National Broadband Plan and Small Business Posted: 08 Apr 2010 04:19 PM PDT Google Public Policy Blog: The National Broadband Plan and Small BusinessPosted by Harry Wingo, Policy CounselYesterday, I spoke at a panel with other tech companies about how small businesses can leverage the Internet to grow their business. The event was put on by the SBA and FCC through a program called SCORE, which, among other things, is seeking to accelerate small business growth through access to broadband. SCORE will create a comprehensive package of applications, training, and support to small businesses in the country's neediest areas. One of the small business owners I met at the event, Emily McHugh of Casauri, spoke about how the Internet helped start and grow her business. Emily and her sister started their business in 1999 because they thought there weren't enough good bags out there for tech gear. And they were right! With Emily's business degree and her sister Helen's design degree, Casauri took off. They've helped scale their business by leveraging the Internet. All of Casauri's accounting, sales, and data storage is done online. This cloud computing approach makes their business more efficient and saves them money. But Emily cautioned, "the Internet doesn't mean anything to small business without access...dial-up doesn't count... it's all about speed!" Emily and her sister are not alone. Lots of small businesses are tapping the Internet to grow their businesses and we believe SCORE will help boost digital literacy, online commerce capabilities, and usage of low-cost, cloud-based tools for small businesses across the country. If you're interested in learning about how to start a business or make it more efficient using low-cost or free online tools, you may want to take a look at our series of blog posts on entrepreneurship, which started yesterday on the Official Google Blog. And, now, I'm going back to browsing all of Casuri's great laptop bags.  URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/04/national-broadband-plan-and-small.html   |
| [G] YouTube team to respond to your questions about...partnerships Posted: 08 Apr 2010 01:19 PM PDT YouTube Blog: YouTube team to respond to your questions about...partnershipsWe're launching a new video series on the YouTube channel that brings you closer to the people and processes behind YouTube. It's part of a larger effort to lift the veil, so you can ensure your voice is heard by the staff here and come to know the friendly faces that are as devoted to YouTube as you are.This is how it works: each month, we'll announce a topic of general interest, such as partnerships, ads, the future of YouTube, international, and engineering/innovation. (Feel free to suggest other ideas in the comments below.) We'll open up a Google Moderator page, where you can submit questions related to the subject at hand and vote on questions asked by others. We'll give you about a week to submit your questions; then we'll put one or more employees who can best address them on camera, to respond to you in a video which we'll then post to the YouTube channel. First up, we wanted to focus on the YouTube Partnership Program, because we've heard from you that there's some mystique around how it all works. This could include questions about Individual Video Partnership. Please submit your questions about partnerships here and vote on others' until Tuesday, April 13, at 5 p.m. PT. Then, subscribe to the YouTube channel (if you're not already) to be sure to see the response video uploaded about a week later. We'll also post it to this blog and send it out on Twitter and Facebook. Sound good? Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, recently watched "Pink Terror."   URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/4tXG9KO4NzU/youtube-team-to-respond-to-your.html   |
| [G] Go Mobile! Series: Understand your click-to-call options Posted: 08 Apr 2010 01:19 PM PDT Inside AdWords: Go Mobile! Series: Understand your click-to-call optionsOur mobile phones are with us for a large part of the day. When you're on the go and there's no time to turn on a laptop or computer, it's natural to reach for your phone when you need to conduct a search, especially now that many phones have the capability to access the Internet. According to the Kelsey Group, there are currently 54.5 million mobile Internet users in the United States, representing 25% of online users. Since mobile is such a great way to connect with these potential customers, we'd like to ensure you have the tools you need to make your mobile campaigns relevant and useful to someone on-the-go.One of the main features distinguishing a phone from a laptop or computer is its ability to make calls. With mobile click-to-call, Google allows customers to connect with businesses directly from their ads. It's easy to include click-to-call phone numbers in your ads, regardless of which type of phone the customer is using. We've discussed enabling click-to-call for devices with full Internet browses in this post about using a national phone number and this post about location extensions, but want to be sure you don't miss out on this feature when targeting users with WAP devices as well. Click-to-call on WAP devices The majority of mobile phones currently have WAP browsers. Originally, targeting these types of phones meant creating a mobile-specific webpage. But, if you include a click-to-call phone number in your ad, you don't need a website at all to advertise on these phones. With WAP devices, a click-to-call phone number will appear as a 'call' link at the end of your ad text. Simply include this feature in your ad if you'd like to enable customers to connect with your business by phone. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up click-to-call phone numbers in mobile ads that appear on WAP devices. Whether you're trying to reach people using devices with full Internet browsers or those on WAP phones, click-to-call offers an additional way for you to connect with all types of potential customers. Posted by Katrina Kurnit, Inside AdWords crew  URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/04/go-mobile-series-understand-your-click.html   |
| [G] Site maintenance on Saturday, April 10 Posted: 08 Apr 2010 12:13 PM PDT Inside AdSense: Site maintenance on Saturday, April 10This 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: London - 5pm Saturday Lagos - 6pm Saturday Bangalore - 10:30pm Saturday Manila - 1am Sunday Adelaide - 2:30am 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/2010/04/site-maintenance-on-saturday-april-10.html   |
| [G] Google Earth helps discover rare hominid ancestor in South Africa Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:25 AM PDT Google LatLong: Google Earth helps discover rare hominid ancestor in South Africa[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]Today, scientists announced a new hominid fossil discovery in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. The discovery is one of the most significant palaeoanthropological discoveries in recent times, revealing at least two partial hominid skeletons in remarkable condition, dating to between 1.78 and 1.95 million years. We are especially excited because Google Earth played a role in its discovery.  So how did this come about? Back in March 2008, Professor Lee Berger from Witswatersrand University in Johannesburg started to use Google Earth to map various known caves and fossil deposits identified by him and his colleagues over the past several decades, as it seemed the ideal platform by which to share information with other scientists. In addition, he also used Google Earth to locate new fossil deposits by learning to identify what cave sites looked like in satellite images.  At the beginning of this project, there were approximately 130 known cave sites in the region and around 20 fossil deposits. With the help of the navigation facility and high-resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth, Professor Berger went on to find almost 500 previously unidentified caves and fossil sites, even though the area is one of the most explored in Africa. One of these fossil sites yielded the remarkable discovery of a new species, Australopithecus sediba. This species was an upright walker that shared many physical traits with the earliest known species of the genus homo—and its introduction into the fossil record might answer some key questions about our earliest ancestry in Africa. We're absolutely thrilled about this announcement, and delighted that our free mapping tools such as Google Earth and Google Maps continue to enable both individuals and distinguished scientists to explore and learn about their world. With these tools, places both foreign and familiar can be explored with the click of a mouse, allowing for new understandings of geography, topology, urbanism, development, architecture and the environment. Our efforts to organize the world's geographic information are ongoing — but at the end of the day, seeing the way these tools are put to use is what most inspires us. Posted by Michael Jones, Chief Technology Advocate  URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-earth-helps-discover-rare.html   |
| [G] Google Earth helps discover rare hominid ancestor in South Africa Posted: 08 Apr 2010 10:25 AM PDT Official Google Blog: Google Earth helps discover rare hominid ancestor in South AfricaToday, scientists announced a new hominid fossil discovery in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. The discovery is one of the most significant palaeoanthropological discoveries in recent times, revealing at least two partial hominid skeletons in remarkable condition, dating to between 1.78 and 1.95 million years. We are especially excited because Google Earth played a role in its discovery. So how did this come about? Back in March 2008, Professor Lee Berger from Witswatersrand University in Johannesburg started to use Google Earth to map various known caves and fossil deposits identified by him and his colleagues over the past several decades, as it seemed the ideal platform by which to share information with other scientists. In addition, he also used Google Earth to locate new fossil deposits by learning to identify what cave sites looked like in satellite images.  At the beginning of this project, there were approximately 130 known cave sites in the region and around 20 fossil deposits. With the help of the navigation facility and high-resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth, Professor Berger went on to find almost 500 previously unidentified caves and fossil sites, even though the area is one of the most explored in Africa. One of these fossil sites yielded the remarkable discovery of a new species, Australopithecus sediba. This species was an upright walker that shared many physical traits with the earliest known species of the genus homo — and its introduction into the fossil record might answer some key questions about our earliest ancestry in Africa. We're absolutely thrilled about this announcement, and delighted that our free mapping tools such as Google Earth and Google Maps continue to enable both individuals and distinguished scientists to explore and learn about their world. With these tools, places both foreign and familiar can be explored with the click of a mouse, allowing for new understandings of geography, topology, urbanism, development, architecture and the environment. Our efforts to organize the world's geographic information are ongoing — but at the end of the day, seeing the way these tools are put to use is what most inspires us. Posted by Michael Jones, Chief Technology Advocate  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-earth-helps-discover-rare.html   |
| [G] Project: Report Takes Over the Screening Room, Enters Final Round Posted: 07 Apr 2010 05:13 PM PDT YouTube Blog: Project: Report Takes Over the Screening Room, Enters Final RoundProject: Report is an annual contest that celebrates some of the best work being done by aspiring journalists on YouTube. Journalism, like documentary filmmaking, is about telling the world's untold stories, which is why the Screening Room will be hosting a series of short docs offering a voice to those who might not otherwise be heard, starting with a new film from last year's Project: Report winner, Arturo Perez, Jr.
Starting today, you also have the opportunity to watch the Round 2 submissions from each of the 10 Project: Report semi-finalists and vote on your favorites. Enjoy the films, Nate Weinstein, Entertainment Marketing Associate, just watched "Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop"   URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/xF4u2YPN9pg/project-report-takes-over-screening.html   |
| [G] Captioning advocate Marlee Matlin visits Google Posted: 07 Apr 2010 05:13 PM PDT Google Public Policy Blog: Captioning advocate Marlee Matlin visits GooglePosted by Galen Panger, Global Communications & Public AffairsLast week, actress Marlee Matlin visited the Googleplex to preview her new YouTube reality show, "My Deaf Family," and to talk about some of the challenges facing people who are deaf or hard of hearing. In addition to being an author and Academy Award winning actress, Marlee Matlin also serves as a national spokeswoman for closed captioning access on behalf of the National Association for the Deaf and other organizations. Captioning is an issue that's very important to us, and we're committed to finding ways to make the 24 hours of video uploaded to YouTube each minute more accessible to those who face hearing and language barriers. Last November, we held an event at Google DC with advocates from the accessibility community to announce new features that make it easy to create captions from transcripts on YouTube videos, and we previewed a new feature that uses speech-to-text technology to generate captions automatically. This March, we expanded automatic captioning for all users, and these can even be automatically translated. Software engineer Ken Harrenstien shares the full story of Matlin's visit on our YouTube blog, and you can see video from the talk below. And don't miss Matlin's new reality show on YouTube.  URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/04/captioning-advocate-marlee-matlin.html   |
| [G] The Dirty Dancing Viewing Party Posted: 07 Apr 2010 03:12 PM PDT YouTube Blog: The Dirty Dancing Viewing PartyDid you know that in Dirty Dancing the role of the heartbreaker from the wrong side of the tracks, Johnny Castle, was initially offered to Val Kilmer instead of Patrick Swayze?If you love random movie trivia like this, then you will not want to miss tonight's viewing party. Just go to Lionsgate's YouTube channel link -Mia Quagliarello 4/6/10 9:25 PM at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, hit play, and use the Twitter gadget beneath the video to share your thoughts on Swayze's moves, Jennifer Grey's outfits, and everything else "Dirty Dancing." We'll be watching and Tweeting from the gadget, too, sharing our own tidbits about the movie and reading your comments. See you there! Nate Weinstein, Marketing Associate, recently watched "One of the Last."   URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/oAp4GQ6S6WI/dirty-dancing-viewing-party.html   |
| [G] Google Earth for Android now available on DROID Posted: 07 Apr 2010 03:12 PM PDT Google LatLong: Google Earth for Android now available on DROIDWhen we launched Google Earth for Android about a month ago, we said that availability for DROID by Verizon was coming soon. Well, now that DROID phones are being updated to Android 2.1, we're pleased to report that Google Earth is now available for DROID too.Remember, with Google Earth for Android you can view the same 3D imagery and terrain that's available in the desktop version of Google Earth, all from the palm of your hand. And you can travel around the globe with the swipe of a finger or a simple voice command -- Android's voice recognition together with Google Local Search make it easy for you to search for cities, places, and businesses anywhere in the world. You can also browse layers of geographic information including roads, borders, Panoramio photos, and more. Google Earth for Android will be compatible with most Android devices running 2.1, so as new Android phones that run on Android 2.1 or higher become available, they too will be able to explore the world with Google Earth. (Technically speaking, Google Earth requires hardware floating-point acceleration, so it will run on devices such as DROID and Nexus One, but not on devices such as myTouch 3G and DROID ERIS.) Download Earth for your DROID for free today by visiting m.google.com/earth from your mobile browser or by searching for Google Earth in Android Market. Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager  URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-earth-for-android-now-available.html   |
| [G] Google Code Jam 2010 registration now open Posted: 07 Apr 2010 02:13 PM PDT Official Google Blog: Google Code Jam 2010 registration now openLet's say that you have x different stocks, and the plots of their prices over time. You want to print them in newspaper, printing multiple plots on the same chart to save space. But here's the catch: no two plots on the same chart can overlap, lest the readers be confused. Look at the plots and figure out the smallest number of charts required.Looking for a challenge like the riddle above? And I mean an exciting brain-twisting and turning kind of challenge. I mean competing with fellow coders from around the world for top bragging rights kind of challenge. Since 2003, we've brought you our annual Google Code Jam — a competition in which professional and student programmers from all around the world solve tough algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. Last year's 23,000 contestants vied for the title of Google Code Jam champion. After five rounds and some furious typing, China's Lou Tiancheng (code-named ACRush) was named champion. Sound like the challenge for you? Well registration is now open. And you can try your hand at problems from previous competitions and get up to speed with the rules. We recommend that you practice hard — Code Jam is not for the weak of heart! And, this year we've decided to take the show on the road — for the very first time, the final competition will take place in Google's Dublin office. The qualification round starts on May 7, 2010 and after four rounds of online competition, the top 25 competitors will be flown to Dublin to match wits for the $5,000 first prize — and, of course, the title of Code Jam champion! P.S. Have you solved our "Stock Charts" problem yet? Test your solution on the Code Jam website. Posted by Igor Naverniouk, Code Jam Team  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-code-jam-2010-registration-now.html   |
| [G] Mission Blue: filling in the blanks... Posted: 07 Apr 2010 02:13 PM PDT Official Google Blog: Mission Blue: filling in the blanks...Last year, we launched Ocean in Google Earth, expanding the scope of Earth to include 3D maps of the world's oceans and videos, photos and narrative from the world's leading scientists and media sources to bring them to life. We worked with more than 100 partners to begin to fill in the "blue" part of the planet, adding hundreds of placemarks in more than 20 ocean layers. Since then, we've added hundreds of new posts to the Ocean layer with the help of Sylvia Earle's Mission Blue Foundation and dozens of committed individuals around the world. The posts come from a diverse range of partners including National Geographic, independent videographers and dive enthusiasts, government organizations like the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and international organizations like the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Today, the layer will become part of the default set of annotations seen by all Earth users. Although a humble step given the dearth of information available about these vast expanses of geography, we are happy to take one more step to make the oceans a first-class part of Google Earth and to give them at least a starter portion of the thick soup of photos and places that describe the land part of the planet. One of the greatest things about Earth is that it allows everyone to see and experience the fullness of their planet, from revisiting places they know well to venturing out to formerly unknown mountain peaks, desert vistas, and increasingly, the blue heart of life on Earth. As Sylvia has said of the Ocean on many occasions, "With knowing comes caring, and with caring there's hope." Soon after last year's launch, Sylvia asked attendees at the TED conference to help her realize a wish: to create a series of marine protected areas she calls Hope Spots. Sylvia and a group of influential thinkers are now on a Mission Blue Voyage to the Galapagos Islands to brainstorm how they might best achieve better ocean protection. You can follow them on their journey by visiting the the Mission Blue Foundation website and on Twitter at @MissionBlue. There you can learn more about the launch of their Hope Spots initiative and visit all 18 of these spots using the Google Earth plugin.  We've also created a narrated tour featured in the Ocean Showcase to introduce you to eight of the regions proposed for protection: the Eastern Pacific Seascape including the Galapagos Islands, the Gulf of California, the Mesoamerican Reef in the Caribbean including Belize, the Sargasso Sea in the mid-Atlantic, the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the Coral Triangle, the Ross Sea in the Antarctic and Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic. We'd also like to take a moment to thank the partners who have helped us improve our 3D canvas of the world's oceans in the past year: NOAA (global coverage), MBARI (Monterey Bay Canyon), The California State University at Monterey Bay (California Coast), The Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping - Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire (Arctic) and The Living Oceans Society (British Columbia and Canada). As Earth Day approaches, we hope you'll take a little time to explore the planet, including the blue part. Posted by John Hanke, Vice President of Product Management, Google Geo  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/mission-blue-filling-in-blanks.html   |
| [G] Mission Blue: filling in the blanks... Posted: 07 Apr 2010 02:13 PM PDT Google LatLong: Mission Blue: filling in the blanks...(cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)Last year, we launched Ocean in Google Earth, expanding the scope of Earth to include 3D maps of the world's oceans and videos, photos and narrative from the world's leading scientists and media sources to bring them to life. We worked with more than 100 partners to begin to fill in the "blue" part of the planet, adding hundreds of placemarks in more than 20 ocean layers. Since then, we've added hundreds of new posts to the Ocean layer with the help of Sylvia Earle's Mission Blue Foundation and dozens of committed individuals around the world. The posts come from a diverse range of partners including National Geographic, independent videographers and dive enthusiasts, government organizations like the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and international organizations like the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Today, the layer will become part of the default set of annotations seen by all Earth users. Although a humble step given the dearth of information available about these vast expanses of geography, we are happy to take one more step to make the oceans a first-class part of Google Earth and to give them at least a starter portion of the thick soup of photos and places that describe the land part of the planet. One of the greatest things about Earth is that it allows everyone to see and experience the fullness of their planet, from revisiting places they know well to venturing out to formerly unknown mountain peaks, desert vistas, and increasingly, the blue heart of life on Earth. As Sylvia has said of the Ocean on many occasions, "With knowing comes caring, and with caring there's hope." Soon after last year's launch, Sylvia asked attendees at the TED conference to help her realize a wish: to create a series of marine protected areas she calls Hope Spots. Sylvia and a group of influential thinkers are now on a Mission Blue Voyage to the Galapagos Islands to brainstorm how they might best achieve better ocean protection. You can follow them on their journey by visiting the the Mission Blue Foundation website and on Twitter at @MissionBlue. There you can learn more about the launch of their Hope Spots initiative and visit all 18 of these spots using the Google Earth plugin. We've also created a narrated tour featured in the Ocean Showcase to introduce you to eight of the regions proposed for protection: the Eastern Pacific Seascape including the Galapagos Islands, the Gulf of California, the Mesoamerican Reef in the Caribbean including Belize, the Sargasso Sea in the mid-Atlantic, the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, the Coral Triangle, the Ross Sea in the Antarctic and Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic. We'd also like to take a moment to thank the partners who have helped us improve our 3D canvas of the world's oceans in the past year: NOAA (global coverage), MBARI (Monterey Bay Canyon), The California State University at Monterey Bay (California Coast), The Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping - Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire (Arctic) and The Living Oceans Society (British Columbia and Canada). As Earth Day approaches, we hope you'll take a little time to explore the planet, including the blue part. Posted by John Hanke, Vice President of Product Management, Google Geo  URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/04/mission-blue-filling-in-blanks.html   |
| [G] Bridging the gap: Flighted campaigns Posted: 07 Apr 2010 02:13 PM PDT Inside AdSense: Bridging the gap: Flighted campaigns Fluctuations in AdSense revenue can happen for a number of reasons, and today, I'd like to explain one possible cause: flighted campaigns. Flighted campaigns are advertising campaigns that run for short, specific periods of time. If you're curious about these types of campaigns, why advertisers use them, and how they will affect you as a publisher, read on! Advertisers use flighted campaigns to reach both branding and direct response goals. Advertisers with branding goals usually run cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) flighted campaigns to launch something new, or remind people about their brand during strategic periods of time. In addition, flighted campaigns help advertisers get the most out of their budget. For example, instead of taking a $12,000 yearly budget and spending $1,000 per month, an advertiser might spend $3,000 per month during strategic periods, and not advertise at all (or as much) during the rest of the year. Instead of spreading budget evenly using 'always on' campaigns, these advertisers can make a greater impact by using high budgets in short bursts to get more impressions and frequency than they could otherwise achieve. Flighted campaigns with direct response (DR) goals usually use CPC bidding and promote an event, like a sale or a concert. Instead of focusing on engagement and building recognition, DR campaigns strive to elicit a specific response from their target audience (e.g. purchase a concert ticket, go to a holiday sale). Now that I've talked about why advertisers run flighted campaigns, let's return to how this affects your business as a publisher. Even though revenue from flighted campaigns is not continuous, these campaigns can be very valuable. Since flighted campaigns need to garner impressions/responses in a short period of time, advertisers usually bid high in order to guarantee placement of their ads. This can mean that during these short-term campaigns, your eCPM may increase. Flighted campaigns can be unpredictable, but there are steps you can take to ensure that you reap the benefits when they're running on your sites.
 URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/04/bridging-gap-flighted-campaigns.html   |
| [G] Google Maps 4.0 for BlackBerry adds Search by Voice, Google Buzz, Starring, Labs, and More Posted: 07 Apr 2010 02:13 PM PDT Official Google Mobile Blog: Google Maps 4.0 for BlackBerry adds Search by Voice, Google Buzz, Starring, Labs, and MoreSearch by voice For starters, we've added Search by voice to all BlackBerry devices to save your overworked thumbs. Simply press and hold the green "call" button, speak your search, and see your results quickly appear without typing a single letter. Try it now for any search, like the name of my favorite hometown pizza place, "Punch Pizza in Minneapolis." You can also search by voice for addresses like "802 Washington Avenue Southeast" or search for other another pizza place to try by speaking, "pizza restaurants." Currently supported languages include multiple English accents and Mandarin Chinese.  Google Buzz Google Buzz for mobile also makes its debut on BlackBerry phones in Google Maps 4.0 (see availability). Use the Google Buzz layer to see what's going on around you or to post to the layer yourself. Check out the many ways to explore the Buzz layer in Google Maps for mobile, including sharing pictures, news, and more. From the Maps main menu, select Layers > Buzz to enable the layer; open the menu and select "Post Buzz" to add your own public post from a location or place.  Take your searches and starred places to go. Just like in Google Maps on Android, the BlackBerry version now provides personalized search suggestions from your maps.google.com search history. If I previously searched for "Punch Pizza" at home, I can simply type "pun" into Maps on my phone to see "Punch Pizza" at the top of the suggested search terms. Make sure you've signed in to your Google Account (Menu > Sign In) and have Web History enabled for your account. Signing in to your Google Account also synchronizes starred items between maps.google.com on your computer (My Maps > Starred items) and phone (Menu > Starred Items). I'll do my heavy pizza research at home, star several pizzerias I want to try, and browse the list in Google Maps on my phone when I'm ready to eat. Wait, there's more! Also check out other new features added with 4.0:
Visit our Help Center to learn more or tell us your feedback and questions in our Help Forum. Give us suggestions and vote on other people's on the Mobile Product Ideas page! Posted by Ole CaveLie, Software Engineer, Google Mobile Team  URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-maps-40-for-blackberry-adds.html   |
| [G] It takes one to show one: Getting a business off the ground with AdWords Posted: 07 Apr 2010 02:13 PM PDT Inside AdWords: It takes one to show one: Getting a business off the ground with AdWordsCross-posted from the Official Google Blog: Many new businesses face similar challenges, but the power of technology can help business owners find the customers they need. Whether you're a fledgling entrepreneur trying to turn your passion into a profit or an established enterprise trying to get to the next level, internet tools like Google AdWords are the key to being there when customers come looking for you online. To show what's possible, we invited 53-year-old Jay Berkowitz to share his experience creating a business and using AdWords to help it flourish. Here's what Jay has to say: Like most first-time parents, my life completely changed when my daughter Hillary was born in 1993. My wife Janet and I decided that one of us should stay at home to care for her while the other continued working full time. Janet kept her engineering job, and I ended up quitting my job as a Wall Street bond analyst to become Mr. Mom. What's really great is that even though my business has expanded over the past seven years, it's still a small family company. Two people work for me at the warehouse, but I work from home. Janet takes pictures of the products and works on the website on the weekends. I've had the freedom to be a hands-on parent to Hillary and the privilege of helping other parents connect with their kids through my store. Certain celebrity parents have found me through my AdWords ads and bought items for their kids.  Jay, Hillary and Janet  URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/04/cross-posted-from-official-google-blog.html   |
| [G] It takes one to show one: Getting a business off the ground with AdWords Posted: 07 Apr 2010 02:13 PM PDT Official Google Blog: It takes one to show one: Getting a business off the ground with AdWordsThis is the first in a series of posts about entrepreneurship and the resources that can help small businesses succeed. In the coming weeks, we'll share the inspirational stories of real people — just like you — who've used various Google tools to start up, maintain and grow their businesses. To kick off the series, we're starting with a post about a small business owner's experience with Google AdWords — the program that helped level the marketing field for companies of all sizes. -Ed.Small businesses are especially close to my heart. When he retired from teaching, my father ran a small art company in Maine, and I saw firsthand how fulfilling — and how difficult — it was for him to realize his dream of running his own business. Unfortunately, his business closed its doors after just a few years. His key challenge: attracting qualified customers. Many new businesses face similar challenges, but the power of technology can help business owners find the customers they need. Whether you're a fledgling entrepreneur trying to turn your passion into a profit or an established enterprise trying to get to the next level, Internet tools like Google AdWords are the key to being there when customers come looking for you online. To show what's possible, we invited 53-year-old Jay Berkowitz to share his experience creating a business and using AdWords to help it flourish. Here's what Jay has to say: Like most first-time parents, my life completely changed when my daughter Hillary was born in 1993. My wife Janet and I decided that one of us should stay at home to care for her while the other continued working full time. Janet kept her engineering job, and I ended up quitting my job as a Wall Street bond analyst to become Mr. Mom. Jay, Hillary and Janet  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/it-takes-one-to-show-one-getting.html   |
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