Thursday, July 8, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] 100 Chrome Experiments and counting!

Posted: 08 Jul 2010 02:50 AM PDT

Google Chrome Blog: 100 Chrome Experiments and counting!

Last year we launched Chrome Experiments, a website showcasing innovative web experiments built with open standards like JavaScript and HTML5. Today we're pleased to announce that the site now points to 100 experiments -- each one made, hosted, and submitted by programmers from around the world.


Since the site launched just 18 months ago, browsers have been improving at a rapid pace, and the latest experiments have taken advantage of that. A big step forward has been the widespread adoption and support of HTML5, which is becoming standard in all modern browsers. New functionality like the video and canvas tags have made for some inspiring work. It's hard to pick our favorites, but a few innovative submissions include Destructive Video, SketchPad, and Harmony.

If you haven't checked out Chrome Experiments recently, do take some time to explore the work of these talented artists/programmers in Google Chrome or any modern browser. Of course, if you're a programmer yourself, we'd love to see your work -- just click the Submit button at the top of the site.

Thanks to everyone who has helped spread awareness of what browsers can do. We can't wait to see what the future holds, and we'll see you again at 200.

Posted by Aaron Koblin and Valdean Klump, Google Creative Lab
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2010/07/100-chrome-experiments-and-counting.html

[G] YouTube Mobile Gets a Kick Start

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 06:11 PM PDT

Official Google Mobile Blog: YouTube Mobile Gets a Kick Start

(Cross-posted with the YouTube Blog)

It's well known that the mobile internet is huge and growing fast; what's surprising is exactly how fast. According to a recent report, within 5 years more users will connect to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs. YouTube consumption on mobile devices has also grown considerably -- playbacks were up 160% in 2009 over the previous year. And we're excited to announce that YouTube Mobile now receives more than 100 million video playbacks a day. This is roughly the number of daily playbacks that YouTube.com was streaming when we joined forces with Google in 2006.

We launched YouTube on mobile devices in 2007 with about 1,000 videos available on the mobile site (m.youtube.com). While this suddenly opened up the possibility to access videos on the go, our site, mobile browsers and the hardware had limitations that prevented the mobile experience from keeping up with YouTube on the desktop. Today, more than ever, we know that you want to be able to find and access your favorite videos wherever you are. That's why we've been working hard to roll out an updated version of the mobile site.

Here's what's new about the new mobile site:
  • It's really fast.
  • The new user interface incorporates larger, more touch friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go.
  • It incorporates the features and functionality you've come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists,the ability to designate "favorite," "like," or "unlike" videos directly from your device.
  • As we make improvements to Youtube.com, you'll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.
As the world continues to go mobile, we think this is a great improvement for users who want a more consistent YouTube across many devices, no matter where they are. We're launching in English only today, but will be rolling it out in other languages in the coming months. You can access the latest YouTube mobile site from your iPhone or Android browser. To learn more, visit m.youtube.com to check out the latest improvements and take a minute to watch this demo video:



Posted by Andrey Doronichev, Product Manager recently watched "Insane street football"
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/07/youtube-mobile-gets-kick-start.html

[G] Growing our appetite for geeky girl dinners

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 06:01 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Growing our appetite for geeky girl dinners

(Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog)

We're always looking for opportunities to partner up with organizations that promote diversity and encourage women to excel in technology. Girl Geek Dinners is a world-wide initiative that does exactly that—it helps build communities of women who have a passion and interest in science, technology and other traditionally male-dominated fields by hosting social events around the world.

We recently sponsored the Amsterdam Girl Geek Dinner and I attended the event with my colleague Noha, who, like me, is a software engineer for Google in Zurich. At the dinner, we had the opportunity to meet and mingle with other women in the tech community and talk about what it's like being a woman in the field of computer science. The keynote speaker at the event was renowned mathematician Ionica Smeets and I can't imagine a woman more inspiring.

Google shares a similar goal to Girl Geeks—we want to make it possible for everyone to pursue careers in technology, regardless of gender. And, in our presentation at the event, we outlined our numerous initiatives to promote and support diversity in technology. We have various scholarship programs to help students to pursue their interests, excel in their studies and become leaders. And to encourage more female computer scientists to attend and participate in research conferences around the world, we also offer travel and conference grants in the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. You can learn more about our diversity programs, here.

Posted by Alexandra Alecu, Software Engineer
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/growing-our-appetite-for-geeky-girl.html

[G] Because Time is Money: Leveraging Google Apps Open Standards and Google Calendar

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 05:52 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Because Time is Money: Leveraging Google Apps Open Standards and Google Calendar

Editor's note: Continuing our "Going Google Everywhere" series, we've invited Stijn Van Vreckem, Founder and Managing Director of XAOP, a small Belgium-based software development company specializing in content integration, to talk about a quick and easy way his company has utilized APIs with Google Apps Premier Edition. XAOP builds software solutions, information integration products and related services for the life sciences industry.

Learn more about other organizations that have gone Google on our community map.

Filling in timesheets is a task that needs to be performed monthly or weekly in most service-oriented organizations. For years, I used to write everything down in my notebook to keep track of things.

Because the XAOP team has grown to seven people in the last year – who are usually working in small teams of two or three developers – it became more and more difficult to manage the billing for different projects. It was time to look for a better, more transparent solution to keep track of everyone's time.

After some internal discussions, we introduced a timesheet process based on Google Calendar. We created a calendar in our Google Apps Premier environment for each billable project we want to track. These calendars are shared with the team members working on the project.

Each team member registers his or her activities by simply putting them on the correct project calendar. As a result, everybody on the team can see who is working on which task in the project. At the end of the month, all invoices are created based on the activities of the project calendar.


Users track their time using project calendars in Google Apps.

Now, generating timesheet reports and invoices for clients is easy. Here's how it works:
  • A background Ruby application connects each Google Calendar with the Google Data API to collect the activities.
  • The Ruby application then generates a monthly PDF report of the project calendars.
  • These reports provide a detailed overview of the activities for each person in the project.
The main disadvantage is that we need a lot of calendars, so cleanup is sometimes necessary. We also wish we could see who created which event so we could more easily manage larger projects. For example, you can see who created an event via the tooltip when you rollover it with the mouse, but this becomes difficult to read easily when more than 3 users fill in the timeslot on the same calendar. Therefore we implemented a convention on some projects to start the title with a person's initials.

But there are many advantages. We now have a lightweight timesheet application that lets everyone fill in their calendars when they have the time. The Google Calendar user interface is very simple and accessible for everybody. Freelancers or other external people working on XAOP projects can be added to the calendar of the project without complexity. This is a web-based solution that can be used via a PC or a mobile phone.

Today, XAOP team members don't need to keep track of the projects. They only need to keep their calendars up to date. Invoices are now generated automatically and we can provide transparent reporting on each hour of work.

XAOP recently invested in new mobile phones and our time management solution worked without any changes. Because these HTC devices (Hero and Magic) integrate seamlessly with Google Apps, we can fill in our timesheets from anywhere.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, the Google Apps team

Do you have an informative and fun Google Apps story to share? Please submit it here.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/07/because-time-is-money-leveraging-google.html

[G] Google D.C. Talk July 14 - Chef José Andrés: What does light taste like?

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:28 PM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: Google D.C. Talk July 14 - Chef José Andrés: What does light taste like?

Posted by Mistique Cano, public policy communications

Liquid nitrogen. Deconstruction. Physics. Three terms not typically associated with cooking. Unless, of course, you're talking about Chef José Andrés, of Jaleo, Oyamel, Zaytinya, Café Atlantico and Minibar fame.

Our next D.C. Talk is this coming Wednesday, July 14th, and we promise it will be memorable. Google's Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf will join Chef Andrés to ask you to re-imagine innovation and how it can transform the way we eat.

Driven by science and the desire to embody elements like air or light, food critic Ruth Reichl describes Chef Andrés' culinary approach - known as molecular gastronomy - as "a kind of magic, it's like a circus of the mouth."


If you have burning questions for Chef Andrés, submit them and vote for other good questions via Google Moderator.

Google D.C. Talks presents
Chef José Andrés:
What does light taste like?
Wednesday, July 14th
5:30 PM - 7 PM ET
Google Washington Office
Washington, D.C. 20005
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/07/google-dc-talk-july-14-chef-jose-andres.html

[G] YouTube Leanback offers effortless viewing

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 04:08 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTube Leanback offers effortless viewing

A click here, a search there, a browse on this page -- sometimes it can take more than a few flicks of the wrist and finger taps to get your daily dose of video. Luckily, YouTube Leanback wants you to conserve your energy for actually watching more videos. Mmm...more videos...

Just as its name implies, YouTube Leanback is all about letting you sit back, relax and be entertained. Videos tailored to your interests play as soon as you visit the site and they play in full screen and high definition, continuously. There's no need to click, search, or browse, unless you want to, of course. Watching YouTube becomes as easy as watching TV.

To see what we mean, go to youtube.com/leanback, and you'll note that a selection of videos -- your "feed" -- plays immediately. This feed is based on your YouTube settings and preferences, including content from your subscriptions and videos your friends are sharing on Facebook (assuming you've connected your YouTube account to your Facebook account). You can also watch the most popular comedy, entertainment, news, or more. And if you don't care for the video that's playing, use the right arrow key on your keyboard to skip ahead to the next video, or try the up/down arrows to search, access player controls, and browse channels and videos. You won't need your mouse for this experience.

Here's more about how YouTube Leanback works (we'll also show you how to hook up your Facebook account):









YouTube Leanback is currently in beta, but we'd love for you to try it out at youtube.com/leanback and let us know what it's like to kick back and revel in the endless stream of YouTube entertainment!

Kuan Yong, Senior Product Manager, recently watched "Life in a day."



URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/F3J5RzCiQ1w/youtube-leanback-offers-effortless.html

[G] YouTube Mobile gets a kick start

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 01:16 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTube Mobile gets a kick start

It's well known that the mobile Internet is huge and growing fast; what's surprising is exactly how fast. According to a recent report, within five years more users will connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs. YouTube consumption on mobile devices has also grown considerably: playbacks were up 160% in 2009 over the previous year. And we're excited to announce that YouTube Mobile now receives more than 100 million video playbacks a day. This is roughly the number of daily playbacks that YouTube.com was streaming when we joined forces with Google in 2006.



We launched YouTube on mobile devices in 2007 with about 1,000 videos available on the mobile site (m.youtube.com). While this suddenly opened up the possibility to access videos on the go, our site, mobile browsers and the hardware had limitations that prevented the mobile experience from keeping up with YouTube on the desktop. Today, more than ever, we know that you want to be able to find and access your favorite videos wherever you are. That's why we're rolling out an updated version of the mobile site. Here's what's new about it:


  • It's really fast. 

  • The user interface incorporates larger, more touch-friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go. 

  • It incorporates the features and functionality you've come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists, the ability to designate "favorite," "like" or "unlike" videos directly from your device.

  • As we make improvements to Youtube.com, you'll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.


As the world continues to go mobile, we think this is a great improvement for users who want a more consistent YouTube across many devices, no matter where they are. We're launching in English only today, but will be rolling it out in other languages in the coming months. You can access the latest YouTube mobile site from your iPhone or Android browser. To learn more, visit m.youtube.com to check out the latest improvements and take a minute to watch this demo video:
















Andrey Doronichev, Product Manager, recently watched "Insane street football."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/Iuwk4P7nIKk/youtube-mobile-gets-kick-start.html

[G] Opera 10.60 Released with WebM Support

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 08:41 AM PDT

The WebM Open Media Project Blog: Opera 10.60 Released with WebM Support

Congratulations to everyone at Opera Software for releasing version 10.60 of their browser, which supports WebM video playback. Downloads for Windows, Mac OS and Linux are available on the Opera download page.
URL: http://webmproject.blogspot.com/2010/07/opera-1060-released-with-webm-support.html
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