Monday, May 31, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] This week in search 5/30/10

Posted: 30 May 2010 11:05 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: This week in search 5/30/10

This is one of a regular series of posts on search experience updates. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

Safety, security and privacy are important parts of the search equation for us at Google, particularly as we continue to bring you the best possible search experience on the web. Security in particular can be an important part to your interaction with the Google search box, so we're always looking for ways to make changes and enhancements to that interaction secure. Especially as we all spend more time online, the importance of security has taken center stage. So in addition to this week's secure search enhancement, you can read our latest news and insights at our Online Security Blog.

More secure searches
Years ago we added Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption to products ranging from Gmail to Google Docs, as part of our effort to advance the safety and security of our products for you. Now you have a new choice to search more securely using https://www.google.com. When you use this https address, an encrypted session is established between your browser and Google that uses an SSL connection. Just like on an online banking page, the "https" confirms that you are using a more secure connection that will help protect your search terms and your search results from being intercepted by a third party. For more information on this security enhancement, read our announcement.

Example of encrypted search: [flowers]

Whether you're planning a trip by train or scouring the real-time web, this week's roundup also includes two search enhancements that should greatly improve the richness of yor search results -- no matter what you're looking for.

Images in real-time search updates
Ten blue links on a search results page can provide you with a lot of really helpful information, but sometimes you're searching for content that is richer than a textual web page. For instance, what are people saying about Lady Gaga's latest garb? Until now, it's been hard to get this kind of rich visual detail that's really fresh. So this week we began rolling out a feature for images in real-time search. When searching for the latest content across the real-time web, you'll be able to quickly see the images people are talking about right now (based on URLs of those images in their public updates.) To view this new feature, click on "Updates" in the lefthand panel when you complete a search. Then click on "Updates with images."

Example search: [pac-man doodle]

Transit search enhanced
Often when we search, it's to get from point A to point B, such as when the best route is by train. Then it's important to know the specific details of the train station near you, like which lines it serves. Now you can easily get this information in the lefthand panel on Google Maps by searching for the transit station. The lines are colored and grouped by transit type to make it easier to find the line you're looking for. For rail trains, you can see the departure time directly. For other types of transit like subways, buses and commuter trains, you can click on the line name to get the next departure time of each direction—all without having to leave the current page.

Example search: [Broadway-Lafayette St Station]

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next week for more search news. Search on!

Posted by Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management, Search
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/this-week-in-search-53010.html
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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] School’s out, but the learning never stops

Posted: 28 May 2010 05:59 PM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: School's out, but the learning never stops

Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer Seminars for Success are a great way to get in-depth, hands-on training on two products that can help you maximize your marketing and website ROI. Seminars are available coast-to-coast all summer long. Starting in June, we have three sets of seminars being held in New York, Phoenix, and Chicago.

Here's a look at what you'll learn by attending a seminar with one of our Google Analytics Certified Partners (GACP).

Google Analytics – Introduction & User Training
Whether you're just getting started or have been involved with Google Analytics for a while, if you're looking for a thorough training in all of the reports Google Analytics provides, this is the course for you. First, you'll get a detailed background in the web analytics industry. Then you'll go through a detailed examination of all of the reports Google Analytics has to offer, with real-world examples of how they can help you. You'll also learn how to segment your site's users, spot key trends, and of course, how to take your web analytics data and use it to your advantage.

Google Analytics – Advanced Analysis Techniques
If you're already familiar with the basics of Google Analytics and are looking to become more sophisticated in your analysis, this course will show you how to do just that. Whether your business goals are user engagement, lead generation, or e-commerce, you'll benefit from learning how to use the most advanced analysis features of Google Analytics, like Intelligence and Advanced Segmentation.

Google Analytics – Implementation & Advanced Topics
For those who are comfortable with Google Analytics but want to dive deeper into the technical side of GA, this advanced technical implementation course is for you. This training is tailored a bit more toward the tech-savvy, but is extremely valuable to anyone who wants to learn what Google Analytics can do when taken beyond the "plain vanilla" implementation. You'll go "under the hood" of Google Analytics and learn about filter configuration and setup, opportunities for advanced, custom implementations, as well as the newest beta features that are rolling out.

Website Optimizer
Once you've nailed down your Google Analytics implementation, you're ready to start taking action on your data by testing your website. This interactive training in Google Website Optimizer teaches you how to test your site to improve your users' experience and your business's bottom line. Attendees will receive a strong background in landing page testing and testing best practices, many real-world case studies, and an optional, hands-on lab experience in starting both A/B and Multivariate tests.

New York, NY: Register Here
June 8: Google Analytics Introduction & User Training
June 9: Google Analytics Advanced Analysis Techniques
June 10: Google Analytics Implementation & Advanced Topics

Phoenix, AZ: Register Here
June 9: Google Analytics Introduction & User Training
June 10: Google Analytics Implementation & Advanced Topics
June 11: Google Website Optimizer

Chicago, IL: Register Here
June 23: Google Analytics Introduction & User Training
June 24: Google Analytics Implementation & Advanced Topics
June 25: Google Website Optimizer

If these dates don't work for you, see the complete Seminars for Success schedule.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Google Analytics Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/05/schools-out-but-learning-never-stops.html

[G] Sharing the stories of America’s small businesses

Posted: 28 May 2010 12:25 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Sharing the stories of America's small businesses

Editor's note: This is our fifth and final post in a series celebrating National Small Business Week. Previous posts highlighted small businesses (Revenue Spark, Smart Furniture, and Free Range Studios) that have adopted Google Apps, and tips for using Gmail at work. Today, we'll hear the story of one more entrepreneur and discuss how you can share your own.

Among many things, Vinny Lingham is an entrepreneur, CEO, search engine marketer, and recipient of numerous business related awards including the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader (2009), the Top ICT Young Entrepreneur in Africa (2006), and the Endeavor High Impact Entrepreneur (2006). Currently, Vinny is serving as the CEO of Yola.com – a San Francisco based startup company that offers easy-to-use, browser based website creation software for over 3 million users worldwide.

Yola became a Google Apps customer as soon as it was formed more than 3 years ago. Today, with a distributed workforce of over 60 people globally, Yola is using Google Apps for everything from email to document collaboration resulting in tremendous savings and increased productivity.

According to Vinny, "The founders of Yola knew the company's potential and wanted a scalable and cost effective solution that could grow with their business. Google Apps made it easy to be up and running within minutes and was a fast and low-maintenance solution that fit the needs of a growing company."

Vinny and his team at Yola are among millions of entrepreneurs and small businesses that are having a positive impact on our economy; this week we celebrated their contributions. In addition to Vinny, we selected a few other organizations, shared their stories, and showcased ways that they take advantage of Google Apps. Now it's your turn.

Learn how to share your story by visiting the AdWords Blog where you can find tools that teams at Google created to help small businesses succeed. Included are steps on how to create a "Search Story" that walks through your journey as a small business, then share it with us and the world. We're looking forward to seeing what you create!

Posted by Michelle Lisowski, the Google Apps team
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/05/sharing-stories-of-americas-small.html

[G] Code for My Tracks is now yours

Posted: 28 May 2010 12:25 PM PDT

Google LatLong: Code for My Tracks is now yours


A year ago, we released My Tracks, an Android app that lets you track activities like hikes, bike rides and trail runs using your mobile device. Now we're announcing the release of the My Tracks source code into the wild.

What this means to users: My Tracks will become even better. The collective intelligence of the development community will create a more powerful, more intuitive, more useful, and more robust My Tracks. In addition, complementary apps will be written (For details on third party app development, see the wiki documentation). Applications for fitness activities, geocaching—heck, even dog tracking—are not hard to imagine.

Open-sourcing My Tracks also means that bug tracking is now public. Go to the "Issues" section of the My Tracks Code site to see what is being actively developed and to file your own feature requests/bugs.

What this means to developers: You can now contribute code directly to My Tracks to improve it, fix a bug, or add a feature. We don't promise that all changes will become part of the My Tracks codebase, but cleanly coded, useful contributions have a darn good chance. If you're feeling adventurous (and slightly masochistic), file and fix bugs for unreleased--and probably buggy--versions of My Tracks, to improve overall quality and stability. Note that for all contributions, we have a code review process—see the wiki for more information.

How non-coders can contribute: Translate My Tracks! If you'd like to translate My Tracks to your language, or fix a translation that is incorrect, please let us know at mytracks-dev@googlegroups.com and we'll explain how to do it. We'll soon post documents explaining the process, on the My Tracks wiki.

All development-related discussions will occur on the mytracks-dev@googlegroups.com list (but please don't post coding-related questions there).

This is an exciting new track for My Tracks. Jump in!

Posted by Sandor Dornbush and Rodrigo Damazio, Software Engineers for My Tracks
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/05/code-for-my-tracks-is-now-yours.html

[G] Happy 1st birthday, Google Wave!

Posted: 28 May 2010 12:25 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Happy 1st birthday, Google Wave!

Last week, we opened sign-ups for Google Wave to everyone as part of Google Labs and made it available for all Google Apps domains. Here is the quick (seven minute) update on the state of the product from this year's Google IO conference:



Today, it's been a full year since the Wave team first got on stage at the Moscone Center and demoed a new vision for communication and collaboration to a crowd of developers. In a guest article on the Huffington Post last week, Lars described innovation and working on Google Wave as a rollercoaster—and this year has certainly been a fascinating ride. For the past year, I've had the pleasure and the challenge of explaining why this new technology is useful. Unlike some other products that I have also been lucky enough to work on, Wave is not a more advanced approach to a known application like webmail or the browser. It's actually a new category, which can be kind of hard to wrap your head around.

I work in Wave every day, and we have identified a number of clear use cases for getting things done in groups at businesses and at schools. But people also ask me how I use Wave outside of work to understand how they should start using it themselves. As it turns out, the ways I use Wave aren't revolutionary or groundbreaking—I communicate about everyday things, but it is these incredibly ordinary and important communications that are transformed in unexpected ways when you use Wave.

I wave with my family—with my mom, who is across the country, and with my sister who is a graduate student. We're all on different schedules and very rarely all online at the same time. In one wave, we decided what to wear for a friend's wedding—adding suggestions for each other with links and pictures, updating the wave as we had side conversations and made decisions. My mom and I chatted about my dress choice when we were both online, and then my sister was easily able to catch up later, adding her ideas. It kept all three of us up to speed in one place, rather than having several phone conversations, emails and chats. Sharing these small personal projects in a wave removes the little bits of friction to make the discussions more dynamic and productive.


From talking to other people who use Google Wave, I know I'm not alone. I've been struck by the really personal nature of communicating and working together in Wave, and the emotional response people have to their first uniquely wavey experience, what we call the "Wave a-ha moment." For many people it's the live typing that does it; for others it's the first time they create an in-line reply, embed a YouTube video or edit someone else's text.

You really do have to try it to believe it, though—so if you checked out Google Wave six months ago and found yourself at a bit of a loss, take another look. The product is much faster and more stable and we have templates and tutorials to help you get started. Next time you find yourself taking notes while you are on the phone, do it in a wave and add your colleagues, or pull a couple friends or family members onto a wave for a small project... like going to the movies.

So head to wave.google.com and sign in. You can get more updates on our blog and even share your stories (ordinary or otherwise) with wave.stories@googlewave.com.

Wave on!

Posted by Anna-Christina Douglas, Product Marketing, Google Wave
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/happy-1st-birthday-google-wave.html

[G] Formula highlighting in spreadsheets

Posted: 28 May 2010 09:28 AM PDT

Official Google Docs Blog: Formula highlighting in spreadsheets

In the new version of Google Spreadsheets, cell references and the corresponding cells are now highlighted to make it easier to keep track of your formulas.


Please note that this new feature is available in Chrome 4.0+, Safari 3.0+, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+. We plan to add support for Mozilla Firefox 3.7+ soon.

Let us know if you have more feedback and ideas for improvements.

Posted by: Ben McCann, Software Engineer
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/05/formula-highlighting-in-spreadsheets.html
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