Saturday, May 15, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Six ways to find the right Chrome Extension for you

Posted: 14 May 2010 06:51 PM PDT

Google Chrome Blog: Six ways to find the right Chrome Extension for you

With so many Chrome extensions to choose from, exploring the extensions gallery has been like a treasure hunt for me. Over the last few months, I've spent hours checking out new extensions and discovering cool ways to keep up with the latest news or find better deals online. I'd like to share with you some useful extensions that I came across in six easy-to-use pages for web development, blogging, shopping, sports, fun and Google applications.




I always love finding a bargain online. For all of you who also like to shop smart, these extensions can make online online shopping faster and easier. You can track an item's price history with the Camelizer extension or complement your bargain hunting with extensions from Amazon, Woot! and eBay.

We also have extensions dedicated to fans of sports from around the world. You can track live scores and commentary on cricket, rugby and Formula 1 with extensions from ESPN. If you want an edge in your fantasy sports leagues, the Pickemfirst extension brings you news, game statistics and commentary of pro sports players currently displayed in your browser.

Besides sports and shopping, these blogging extensions can help you write better blog posts and share web content more efficiently. You can quickly post to your blogs at TypePad or Blogger. You can also get contextual suggestions of related articles, images, links and tags with Zemanta. After the Deadline offers an extension that automatically checks your spelling and grammer (while optionally checking for cliches and double negatives!)

In addition, we made it easier to find the extensions for Google applications you frequently use. These include extensions to preview Google Docs or to check your Google Calendar directly from your Google Chrome browser.

For those of you who want to complement Google Chrome's developer tools to create a customized development environment in Chrome, there are web development extensions such as viewing PHP documentation, creating random dummy text or testing your page at various resolutions.

Finally, if you want to play a prank on your co-workers or take a 5-minute break with a game, there are quite a few fun extensions to brighten up your day.

I hope you enjoy these pages. There are more than 4,000 extensions waiting to be discovered in the gallery. Happy hunting!

Posted by Koh Kim, Associate Product Marketing Manager
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2010/05/six-ways-to-find-right-chrome-extension.html

[G] This week in search 5/14/10

Posted: 14 May 2010 05:45 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: This week in search 5/14/10

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.

This week, we announced a number of new search enhancements.

Google Translate learns and speaks new languages
This week, we launched 5 new "alpha" languages on Google Translate — Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Georgian and Urdu. We also extended our support for spoken translations to 29 more languages. With these launches, you can now translate text, webpages and documents between 57 languages, and hear translations spoken in 36 languages. For many search queries where you want to translate a word or a phrase, we offer a translation powered by Google Translate directly in our search results. We also recently added romanization to this feature — when translating to or from a foreign language, you can now see the translation written phonetically in roman characters.

Example searches: [translate how are you? to chinese] or [translate обезьяна]

Twenty more languages in Google search get virtual keyboard
Recently, we announced that we've integrated virtual keyboards into Google Search homepages in 35 languages. Virtual keyboard lets you type directly in your local language script in an easy and consistent manner, no matter where you are or what computer you're using. Feedback is always important to us, and we were excited to get more than three thousand votes for other languages you felt the keyboard should be launched in. Today, we're happy to announce that we are adding Virtual Keyboard to another 20 languages — making it now available in 55 languages.

For those of you who speak a language we don't yet support, we're hard at work adding the virtual keyboard into more languages listed in Google Language Tools page. You can also vote for the languages you'd like us to add next. We always appreciate your feedback as we continue our efforts to help you input text in your desired languages as easily as possible.

Example languages we added this week:
Finding short answers
This week, we introduced a new feature that brings the technology of Google Squared right to your search results. Squared makes it easier to highlight answers for fact-based queries, so you can get more accurate answers, faster. Now, you'll see these answers right at the top of your search results, brought to you from across the web. And, we've also made sure this feature works great on mobile browsers.

Example searches: [timezone in nevada] or [when was jean-jacques rousseau born]

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

Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/this-week-in-search-51410.html

[G] Upcoming webinar: Video Targeting

Posted: 14 May 2010 05:45 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: Upcoming webinar: Video Targeting

We previously highlighted a campaign that American Apparel ran on YouTube in which they targeted pet videos -- including one of the most famous videos on the site. Part of the secret of American Apparel's success was their use of Video Targeting, a tool that helps advertisers find and target relevant partner videos on YouTube. As with other products we've recently launched, the Video Targeting Tool is integrated with Google AdWords and makes it easier than ever for you to run integrated, targeted, and measurable campaigns across the Web. Here's how it works:



With so many of you now using the Video Targeting Tool, we rolled out some big improvements, including localized versions in 25 countries around the world. There are also a lot of new features to explore, so we decided to host a webinar that will give you an overview of the tool's functionality, as well as best practices and case studies.

The webinar is scheduled for 10 am PDT on May 19th, 2010. To register for the event, please fill out the registration form here.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/05/upcoming-webinar-video-targeting.html

[G] WiFi data collection: an update

Posted: 14 May 2010 03:58 PM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: WiFi data collection: an update

Posted by Alan Eustace, Senior VP, Engineering & Research

(cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Nine days ago the data protection authority (DPA) in Hamburg, Germany asked to audit the WiFi data that our Street View cars collect for use in location-based products like Google Maps for mobile, which enables people to find local restaurants or get directions. His request prompted us to re-examine everything we have been collecting, and during our review we discovered that a statement made in a blog post on April 27 was incorrect.

In that blog post, and in a technical note sent to data protection authorities the same day, we said that while Google did collect publicly broadcast SSID information (the WiFi network name) and MAC addresses (the unique number given to a device like a WiFi router) using Street View cars, we did not collect payload data (information sent over the network). But it's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.

However, we will typically have collected only fragments of payload data because: our cars are on the move; someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by; and our in-car WiFi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second. In addition, we did not collect information traveling over secure, password-protected WiFi networks.

So how did this happen? Quite simply, it was a mistake. In 2006 an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data. A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google's Street View cars, they included that code in their software—although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data.

As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible. We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it.

Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short. So we will be:
  • Asking a third party to review the software at issue, how it worked and what data it gathered, as well as to confirm that we deleted the data appropriately; and
  • Internally reviewing our procedures to ensure that our controls are sufficiently robust to address these kinds of problems in the future.
In addition, given the concerns raised, we have decided that it's best to stop our Street View cars collecting WiFi network data entirely.

This incident highlights just how publicly accessible open, non-password-protected WiFi networks are today. Earlier this year, we encrypted Gmail for all our users, and next week we will start offering an encrypted version of Google Search. For other services users can check that pages are encrypted by looking to see whether the URL begins with "https", rather than just "http"; browsers will generally show a lock icon when the connection is secure. For more information about how to password-protect your network, read this.

The engineering team at Google works hard to earn your trust—and we are acutely aware that we failed badly here. We are profoundly sorry for this error and are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/05/wifi-data-collection-update.html

[G] WiFi data collection: An update

Posted: 14 May 2010 03:58 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: WiFi data collection: An update

Nine days ago the data protection authority (DPA) in Hamburg, Germany asked to audit the WiFi data that our Street View cars collect for use in location-based products like Google Maps for mobile, which enables people to find local restaurants or get directions. His request prompted us to re-examine everything we have been collecting, and during our review we discovered that a statement made in a blog post on April 27 was incorrect.

In that blog post, and in a technical note sent to data protection authorities the same day, we said that while Google did collect publicly broadcast SSID information (the WiFi network name) and MAC addresses (the unique number given to a device like a WiFi router) using Street View cars, we did not collect payload data (information sent over the network). But it's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.

However, we will typically have collected only fragments of payload data because: our cars are on the move; someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by; and our in-car WiFi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second. In addition, we did not collect information traveling over secure, password-protected WiFi networks.

So how did this happen? Quite simply, it was a mistake. In 2006 an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data. A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google's Street View cars, they included that code in their software—although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data.

As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible. We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it.

Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short. So we will be:
  • Asking a third party to review the software at issue, how it worked and what data it gathered, as well as to confirm that we deleted the data appropriately; and
  • Internally reviewing our procedures to ensure that our controls are sufficiently robust to address these kinds of problems in the future.
In addition, given the concerns raised, we have decided that it's best to stop our Street View cars collecting WiFi network data entirely.

This incident highlights just how publicly accessible open, non-password-protected WiFi networks are today. Earlier this year, we encrypted Gmail for all our users, and next week we will start offering an encrypted version of Google Search. For other services users can check that pages are encrypted by looking to see whether the URL begins with "https", rather than just "http"; browsers will generally show a lock icon when the connection is secure. For more information about how to password-protect your network, read this.

The engineering team at Google works hard to earn your trust—and we are acutely aware that we failed badly here. We are profoundly sorry for this error and are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake.

Posted by Alan Eustace, Senior VP, Engineering & Research
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/wifi-data-collection-update.html

[G] Transforming a Print Shop with FreshBooks and Google Apps

Posted: 14 May 2010 11:35 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Transforming a Print Shop with FreshBooks and Google Apps


Editor's Note: Sunir Shah is Chief Handshaker with FreshBooks, the leader in online billing and bookkeeping. Available through the Google Apps Marketplace, FreshBooks is an essential tool to help small- to medium-sized companies manage their day-to-day business needs entirely online, providing invoicing, estimates, time tracking, reporting and other key bookkeeping functions.


Roy Potterill is the one of the lead creative wizards at Inner City Ink, a Johannesburg-based print shop producing high-quality screen printing and merchandise, including T-shirts, caps, stickers, posters, buttons, flyers, hoodies and just about anything else you can print on. Inner City Ink take pride in being able to print pretty much anything their clients want on whatever they want, supplying creatives, retail clothing labels, the music industry, event companies and more.


Sunir Shah: Running a business is hard enough; people shouldn't have to deal with complex systems to do their billing and bookkeeping. That's why we built FreshBooks – to help small businesses and teams everywhere get paid, painlessly, so they can focus on what they love to do.

Right from the start, FreshBooks has always been a cloud-based app and we're big believers in the value of the cloud for small businesses. Having all your business data available online, from anywhere, is a huge thing for small teams.


The Google Apps Marketplace is a great step forward in our view – it helps millions of businesses find new online tools, and provides a simple way to connect all these tools together. We're really happy to have been part of the Google Apps Marketplace from the beginning and we've already heard from customers like Inner City Ink about how it's making a real difference in their business.


Roy Potteril: We've got a reputation at Inner City Ink for innovation and doing things differently that extends beyond the originality of our design and printing work all the to how way we work with clients.

We've been in growth mode for a while, but with the World Cup coming up this summer, and word getting out about our work, our business just exploded. Suddenly, we've got t-shirt and custom printing orders coming out our ears. Before we found Freshbooks, we were always scrambling under pressure and bound to one PC at the office, with stacks of paperwork lying everywhere. With the sudden increase in work it was bedlam.


We were taking orders and handling all the print jobs we could during the day, then plowing through quotes and invoices every night, or whenever we could get to the office. As an on-the-go group, living on our cellphones, being tied to the one PC in the office we used to write up quotes and bills was killing us. Freshbooks was our ticket out of the madness.


I've been pushing for ways to scale our business and help us work better for a while. Web technology is the key to transforming a business like this. I was already a Google Apps convert – doing everything I could through Gmail, Google Talk and their other web apps. The access anywhere model just makes sense with the way my life works. When I found out about FreshBooks through the Google Apps Marketplace, it seemed like a no-brainer.


Now the whole team can quickly get into any info we need, wherever we are, and we're not worrying about seeing the most up-to-date version of a quote. Better still, we don't have piles of paperwork all lying around everywhere and we look way more professional when we can produce that all-important first quote in next to no time.


With everything in the cloud, we're doing 100% more quotes a day. In the first two months of using Freshbooks we had an increase in turnover of over 30% per month. We're now able to cut out 50% of the workload because of the speed at which we can do quotes and invoices.


At the same time, we're able to finish our work a lot quicker, and spend more time on follow-ups and marketing. We're always on the same page and connected, so we have more time to spend on the important things – talking to clients and selling, not spending the day stuck behind the computer.


One of our biggest corporate clients was so impressed with this whole setup, their financial manager called in his associates to come and check out the way we're working. That makes us look great. You might not think web technology could have such a big impact on an old-school business like screen-printing, but we're only just scratching the surface here - this is going to be huge.


One of my partners, Natasha Taljaard, had this dream of being able to enjoy a glass of wine on the stoep of a farm on the West Coast, while still being plugged into what's going on back in Johannesburg. I think she's still a bit stunned that she can do exactly that now that I've set her up with FreshBooks and Google Apps.


Posted by Chris Kelly, Google Apps Marketplace team

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/05/transforming-print-shop-with-freshbooks.html

[G] Announcing the Google Model Your Town Competition winner

Posted: 14 May 2010 11:35 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Announcing the Google Model Your Town Competition winner

Back in December 2009, we announced the Google Model Your Town Competition and invited towns to submit 3D models of their community. The public reviewed 3D models, explored the buildings in Google Earth and watched videos from five finalist towns around the world. We've tallied the votes and we'd like to congratulate our 2010 winning town: Barranco - Lima, Peru!



Jorge De Albertis Bettocchi, a 38 year-old corporate business attorney, modeled the Barranco District of Lima. He entered the competition to generate pride among his fellow citizens and created his 3D models to serve as a tool for tourism, promotion, investment and preservation of Barranco's historic architecture.

We'll be awarding the local school district with US$10,000 and the SketchUp team is planning a visit to Barranco later this summer. Visit the Google Earth Gallery to download a 3D tour of Barranco, Peru.

Thanks to all those who voted to help us find the winning town. And thanks to all the modelers out there who submitted entries — we hope you'll continue to add 3D buildings to Google Earth!

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, Google SketchUp Team
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-model-your-town.html

[G] The National Live! Tune in Saturday @ 8 p.m. (ET)

Posted: 14 May 2010 11:35 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: The National Live! Tune in Saturday @ 8 p.m. (ET)

Acclaimed indie rockers The National, whose new CD High Violet has already been lauded as "potential album of the year" and is currently topping digital sales charts, will be performing this Saturday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of a VEVO event on YouTube. This benefit show was sold-out weeks ago, but you can still attend by joining the live webcast.

Get more details from the band's Dylan-esque announcement below, directed by the same filmmaker (D.A. Pennebaker) who was at the helm of Don't Look Back, the documentary about Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England, and who will also direct the National's YouTube webcast with his wife, Chris Hegedus (The War Room). In fact, that's Pennebaker leaning against the wall in this video:



Proceeds from the concert, which is presented by ZYNC from American Express, will also benefit the AIDS-fighting organization Red Hot. Here, band members explain their connection to and passion for this important cause:



If you want to be sure to enjoy this concert with others, you can join the live Twitter chat during the show on www.youtube.com/thenationalvevo, The band's label, 4AD, is also posting listening party locations around the country.

However you decide to experience this special event, tune in here at 8 p.m. (ET) for the global broadcast and donate here to support Red Hot.

Michele Flannery, Music Manager, recently watched "A Skin, A Night"


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/pqrYwiwmgWQ/national-live-tune-in-saturday-8-pm-et.html

[G] Nexus One changes in availability

Posted: 14 May 2010 11:35 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Nexus One changes in availability

We launched Nexus One in January with two goals in mind: to introduce a beacon of innovation among Android handsets, and to make it quick and easy for people to buy an Android phone. We're very happy with the adoption of Android in general, and the innovation delivered through Nexus One. Already, a lot of the innovation that went into creating Nexus One has found its way into numerous Android handsets, like the HTC Evo 4G from Sprint and the Verizon Droid Incredible by HTC.

But, as with every innovation, some parts worked better than others. While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It's remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it's clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.

So today we're announcing the following changes:

More retail availability. As we make Nexus One available in more countries we'll follow the same model we've adopted in Europe, where we're working with partners to offer Nexus One to consumers through existing retail channels. We'll shift to a similar model globally.

From retail to viewing. Once we have increased the availability of Nexus One devices in stores, we'll stop selling handsets via the web store, and will instead use it as an online store window to showcase a variety of Android phones available globally.

Innovation requires constant iteration. We believe that the changes we're announcing today will help get more phones to more people quicker, which is good for the entire Android ecosystem: users, partners and also Google.

Posted by Andy Rubin, VP, Engineering
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/nexus-one-changes-in-availability.html

[G] Announcing the Google Model Your Town Competition winner

Posted: 14 May 2010 10:07 AM PDT

Google LatLong: Announcing the Google Model Your Town Competition winner

[Cross-posted with the SketchUp Blog]

On April 1st, we announced the five finalist towns for the Google Model Your Town Competition and asked the public to help pick the winning town. For the past month, participants reviewed the 3D models, explored the buildings in Google Earth and watched videos of the 3D towns.

Well, we've tallied the votes and we'd like to congratulate our 2010 winning town: Barranco - Lima, Peru!

Jorge De Albertis Bettocchi, a 38 year-old corporate business attorney, modeled the Barranco District of Lima. He entered the competition to generate pride among his fellow citizens and created his 3D models to serve as a tool for tourism, promotion, investment and preservation of Barranco's historic architecture. Jorge also created a blog, Barranco 3D Project, that includes descriptions of his models, his modeling process, community involvement and press videos.



Jorge is also a musician who plays the keyboard, has a small recording studio, and has participated in the production of concerts in Peru. "I started creating SketchUp models in 2007 when I was asked to design a stage for a rock concert, and a concert-production partner recommended using SketchUp. Since then I have not stopped using it and it is the only 3D design program I have ever used."

Jorge, you have impressed people all over the world with your SketchUp models. Congratulations to the Barranco community!

We'll be awarding the local school district with US$10,000 and the SketchUp team is planning a visit to Barranco later this summer to recognize their efforts. Visit the Google Earth Gallery to download a 3D tour of Barranco, Peru and visit our winners page for more details.

Thanks to all those who voted to help us find the winning town. And thanks to all the modelers out there who submitted entries — we hope you'll continue to add 3D buildings to Google Earth!

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp Team
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-model-your-town.html

[G] Google Apps at America’s Small Business Summit

Posted: 14 May 2010 09:38 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Google Apps at America's Small Business Summit

As we announced in February, next week we'll be traveling to Washington D.C. to participate in America's Small Business Summit, hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. On Tuesday, May 18, Google is hosting a breakout session where we'll continue the discussion we kicked off this week on the ChamberPost blog. We'll also talk about the technology trends that are impacting today's small business.

Joining us will be a panel of Google Apps customers, including one Google Apps Authorized Reseller, who will share their experiences about how they've put the power of the web to work for their business. You'll hear directly from:
The full Summit agenda is packed with valuable perspectives and interesting discussion topics to help support your business. We hope you'll join us – and if you do, please stop by our booth and say hello.

P.S. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is offering a special one-day rate to attend the event. Check it out.

Posted by Shaluinn Fullove, Google Apps team

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-apps-at-americas-small-business.html

[G] Google Voice invites for students

Posted: 14 May 2010 09:37 AM PDT

Google Voice Blog: Google Voice invites for students

We've found that Google Voice can be useful in many different ways to many different people. But one group of people that it's especially well-suited for is students. We've heard college students in particular really appreciate getting their voicemail sent to their email, sending free text messages and reading voicemail transcriptions rather than listening to messages (especially handy while in class).

But since Google Voice is currently only available by invite, a lot of students are still listening to voicemail and sending text messages the old-fashioned way. As a recent college graduate, I can't think of anything more painful! So starting today, we'll be giving priority Google Voice invites to students. To get an invite, just visit google.com/voice/students and enter an email address that that ends in .edu.

So if you're a student, submit your email address and a Google Voice invite will arrive in your inbox within 24 hours. Keep in mind that only one invite will be be sent per email address and Google Voice is currently only available in the U.S. And if you're new to Google Voice, check out our introductory videos at youtube.com/googlevoice.

Posted by Jason Toff, Google Voice Team
URL: http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-voice-invites-for-students.html

[G] Google Voice invites for students

Posted: 14 May 2010 09:37 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Google Voice invites for students

(Cross-posted from the Google Voice Blog)

We've found that Google Voice can be useful in many different ways to many different people. But one group of people that it's especially well-suited for is students. We've heard college students in particular really appreciate getting their voicemail sent to their email, sending free text messages and reading voicemail transcriptions rather than listening to messages (especially handy while in class).

But since Google Voice is currently only available by invite, a lot of students are still listening to voicemail and sending text messages the old-fashioned way. As a recent college graduate, I can't think of anything more painful! So starting today, we'll be giving priority Google Voice invites to students. To get an invite, just visit google.com/voice/students and enter an email address that that ends in .edu.


So if you're a student, submit your email address and a Google Voice invite will arrive in your inbox within 24 hours. Keep in mind that only one invite will be be sent per email address and Google Voice is currently only available in the U.S. And if you're new to Google Voice, check out our introductory videos at youtube.com/googlevoice.

Posted by Jason Toff, Google Voice Team
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-voice-invites-for-students.html
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