Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] Learn about remarketing with a live online course

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 03:44 AM PDT

Inside AdWords: Learn about remarketing with a live online course

This Wednesday, July 21st, we'll be hosting a live online course on remarketing. This interactive presentation will be delivered by a Display Network specialist and will take place from 15:00 to 16:00 GMT, including time for Q&A.

During this session we'll take you through the benefits of using remarketing, who it's best for and how to set it up in your account. If you advertise with AdWords and get a large number of visitors to your website, then we encourage you to attend.

If you're interested, be sure to sign up now.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/learn-about-remarketing-with-live.html

[G] On July 24, It's Time to Make Film History

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 10:14 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: On July 24, It's Time to Make Film History

This Saturday, don't forget to charge those batteries, polish those lenses, and get your cameras ready to capture a glimpse of your life for "Life in a Day."

Two weeks ago, we announced this historic cinematic experiment to create the world's largest user-generated documentary, made possible by LG, produced and directed by renowned filmmakers Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald, and filmed by you. In the words of Ridley, it's now time to "just do it."



If your video is selected for inclusion in the final film, you'll be credited as a co-director and may be one of 20 contributors selected to attend the world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Visit the Life in a Day channel for more information.

Nate Weinstein, Entertainment Marketing, just watched How You Can Build the Soundtrack to Life In A Day


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/xd6Z-7NhiWM/on-july-24-its-time-to-make-film.html

[G] Google Finance adds oodles of options

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 10:13 PM PDT

Google Finance Blog: Google Finance adds oodles of options

Posted by Philip Brittan, Director of Product Management

Buy! Sell! Hold! That's stock trading 101. But sometimes investing isn't as simple as just buying or selling shares of a stock or mutual funds. More sophisticated stock watchers also want to have the choice, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a security before a certain time and for a specific amount of money. Yes, it's nice to have options...

In fact, according to the feedback we've collected in our Help Center, options data is among the most requested features users ask for each month. So we're making options information available to all Google Finance users globally. To find options data on a specific company, search for the company's name on http://www.google.com/finance. You'll see a new link to the Option chain in the left navigation bar, which will display the complete option chain for the closest expiration month from today. You can change the expiration date by choosing from the 'View options by expiration' dropdown. Here's a sample option chain for Cisco Systems with an expiration of July 17, 2010:

If you'd prefer to see just the Calls or Puts for the company selected, click on the '+' or '-' beside the table. You can also view the tables straddled side by side. For more information on understanding option chain data, visit our Help Center

We hope you find option chain data helpful as you use Google Finance. If you've got feedback on this or other topics, please share it on our survey or visit Product Ideas where you can share and vote on ideas.

For more tips and tricks on Google Finance follow us on Twitter.
URL: http://googlefinanceblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/google-finance-adds-oodles-of-options.html

[G] Improving the quality of borders in Google Earth and Maps

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 09:30 PM PDT

Google LatLong: Improving the quality of borders in Google Earth and Maps

At Google, we are constantly making improvements to all of our products, from Search to Gmail, Blogger to Chrome. When it comes to products like Google Earth and Google Maps, we work hard to improve our cartography and depict geopolitical features as accurately as possible. Last year, we discussed the ways we strive towards that accuracy, and today we are happy to announce some significant improvements to our borders for over 60 countries and regions (the updates are live in Maps and are coming to Google Earth shortly). To provide some background on this update, we thought we would take the opportunity to talk a bit more about our approach to mapping geopolitical features like borders.

Making Google's mapping tools as accurate as possible is a complex process, especially when a map's accuracy has both quantitative and qualitative aspects. We receive spatial data of all kinds - imagery, boundaries, place names, etc. - from a variety of sources worldwide, and we review them carefully before integrating them into the best representation of a given location in Google Earth and Maps.

In the case of geopolitical features on our maps, the depiction of borders is something upon which local authorities, governments and internationally recognized bodies often disagree. Our goal is to provide the most legible and accurate maps we can given the information available in these oft-changing areas of geopolitical disagreement. Like most maps, ours include symbology that makes borders and other geopolitical features clearer to users. For example, we employ various boundary styles in Google Earth and Maps to clarify the current status of boundary lines, viewable here in the Help Center.

Similar to satellite imagery, boundary data is available in varying levels of resolution; the higher the resolution, the better the boundaries will follow specific geographic features, such as rivers. While we always strive to display the on-the-ground reality of a boundary's position, in practice some boundary lines are not as accurate as we would like them to be due to the available resolution of our boundary data.

With these improvements, many borders will now more closely follow natural boundaries such as mountains and rivers. The pictures below show a portion of the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which follows the Pamir Mountain Range, near the Zervashan River. As you'll see, the new data follows the mountain ridgeline quite closely, even when zoomed in, which is a great improvement in positional accuracy.

before:

after:



In some areas we have improved our qualitative accuracy by changing the symbology of the boundary lines to reflect the updated status of a treaty or agreement based on political changes, new agreements or negotiations. This portion of the border between Ethiopia and Somalia changed from solid (yellow in Google Earth) - meaning "international" - to dashed (red in Google Earth) - meaning "disputed" - to reflect the ground-based reality that the two countries maintain an ongoing dispute in the Ogaden region.

before:
after:




In other cases our previous boundaries lacked key details and the new data provides more information. For example, we now show a disputed island near the borders of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina:

before:



after:



There are many other examples of both quantitative and qualitative changes we've made to improve our maps and we invite you to explore them. We will certainly continue to update and improve upon the borders and other geopolitical features in Google Earth and Maps, keeping in mind that the dynamic nature of such areas presents a significant cartographic challenge. Mapping is a field where there is never total agreement, but we try to do our best and will continue to develop new ways to meet these challenges. As always, we are happy to hear from our users with any questions and concerns about our approach to these complex issues.


Posted by Charlie Hale, Geo Policy Analyst
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/07/improving-quality-of-borders-in-google.html

[G] Seville in 3D with Google Earth

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 09:30 PM PDT

Google LatLong: Seville in 3D with Google Earth


[Cross-posted from the SketchUp blog]

We're pleased to announce that you can now explore the city of Seville in 3D with Google Earth. Take a virtual tour of the most symbolic buildings of the Spanish city, that range from the Roman Empire, through the Calatrava bridges to the best examples of contemporary architecture.



This is a unique opportunity to visit the Andalusian capital avoiding the summer heat. We encourage you to walk to the Torre del Oro, Plaza de España or La Real Maestranza - just using your computer mouse.

Posted by Isabel Salazar, Spain Product Marketing Team
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/07/seville-in-3d-with-google-earth.html

[G] Customer Perspectives on Evaluating the Security of Going Google

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 07:37 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Customer Perspectives on Evaluating the Security of Going Google

Editor's Note: Please join us for a webcast on Thursday where two Google Apps customers will share their approach to evaluating the security of Google's cloud computing solutions. MeadWestvaco (MWV), a $6.6 billion packaging company recently consolidated 10 email systems to Google Apps and Boise State University deployed Google Apps to 23,000 students, faculty, and staff.

Chet Loveland, Global Information Security and Privacy Officer at MWV, holds 23 years of experience in the Information Technology industry and was formerly an Information Security Manager for Federal Reserve Information Technology. Brian Bolt, Lead Systems Engineer for Boise State's Office of Information Technology, holds 15 years of experience in the Information Technology industry, with an MBA from Boise State, where he has worked to emphasize the alignment of IT infrastructure and services to support the business needs of the university.

Chet and Brian will be joined on the webcast by Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security for Google Apps. Eran defines and implements security strategy for Google's suite of solutions for enterprises. Prior to joining Google in 2007, Eran was the US Chief Information Security Officer for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Learn what security and compliance questions to ask of a cloud computer provider and how Google addresses them on a live webcast on Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 p.m. GMT. Register today.

Google Apps is one of the fastest growing cloud computing solutions available today. Not surprisingly, many organizations considering solutions like Google Apps have questions about security and compliance. When moving into the cloud, it is important to consider factors such as how the cloud provider fights spam, malware, and phishing, designs identity management systems for hosted web apps, and monitors its network for potential threats. Institutions must consider ways to protect intellectual property, compliance with regulations, and evaluating information about the cloud provider's data center and network infrastructure.

At MWV, the main considerations were reducing IT costs and consolidating ten different email systems into one. At Boise State University, the primary concern was safeguarding student records and information. Despite differing priorities, most organizations today face common underlying security challenges and needs.

Both MWV and Boise State asked themselves:
  • Where is the best place for my applications and data?
  • Why is security so tough? What are some of the issues with the traditional model?
  • Can hosting data in the cloud be as secure or perhaps more secure, than in traditional environments?
  • What are the full costs if security is handled internally? (considering firewalls, server upgrades, maintenance, mail filtering, anti-spam, and more)
  • How can we maximize productivity by enabling people to work anytime, anywhere while minimizing the amount of data that is stored on distributed devices?
  • How will the cloud provider affect costs and the reliability of security systems?
  • How do we educate internal stakeholders and users on security and compliance issues to mitigate risks and help ensure adherence to best practices?
  • And, ultimately, what are Google's practices and technologies that can help us maximize security while reducing costs?
There are always plenty of questions and follow up discussions when considering the people, best practices, and technologies required to minimize security threats. There are also many lessons to learn from two Google Apps customers who have moved into the cloud – with security and compliance at the top of their lists to address. Learn more from experienced Google Apps customers and from Google's security chief for enterprise applications.

Please join us for a lively discussion of the security and compliance considerations for moving into the cloud.

Boise State and MWV on Evaluating the Security of Going Google
Thursday, July 22, 2010
2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 p.m. GMT





Posted by Serena Satyasai, the Google Apps team

For more information on the security of Google Apps, please visit www.google.com/apps/trust
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/07/customer-perspectives-on-evaluating.html

[G] Introducing user policy management for Google Apps

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 07:37 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Introducing user policy management for Google Apps

In the past six months, we've released a series of new features giving administrators more controls to manage Google Apps within their organizations. Recent additions include multi-domain support, new data migration tools, SSL enforcement capabilities, more mobile device security controls, and the ability to tailor Google Apps with more than a hundred applications from the new Google Apps Marketplace. Today, we're excited to announce one of the most highly requested features from administrators: user policy management.

Now administrators can segment their users into organizational units and control which applications are enabled or disabled for each group. For example, a manufacturing firm might want to give their office workers access to Google Talk, but not their production line employees. Mayooran Rajan, CTO of Revevol Consulting, noted, "We work with businesses with 100 to 20,000 employees moving from on-premise solutions to Google Apps. The new user policy management feature helps us tailor Google Apps and provide businesses with granular control for each department within their company."

Organizations can also use this functionality to test applications with pilot users before making them more widely available. Sheri Stahler, Associate Vice President for Computer Services at Temple University said, "Using the new user policy management feature in Google Apps, we're able to test out new applications like Google Wave with a subset of users to decide how we should roll out new functionality more broadly."

The ability to toggle services on or off for groups of users can also help customers transition to Google Apps from on-premise environments. For example, a business can enable just the collaboration tools like Google Docs and Google sites for users who haven't yet moved off old on-premise messaging solutions.


Administrators can manage these settings on the 'Organizations & users' tab in the 'Next generation' control panel. Alternatively, organizations can mirror their existing LDAP organizational schema using Google Apps Directory Sync or programmatically assign users to organizational units using the Google Apps Provisioning API.

This feature is starting to roll out to Premier and Education edition users at no additional charge. To learn more about user policy management on Google Apps, please visit our Help Center documentation.

Posted by Adam Dawes, Google Apps Product Manager
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/07/introducing-user-policy-management-for.html

[G] Rebooting Responsible Disclosure: a focus on protecting end users

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 07:12 PM PDT

Google Online Security Blog: Rebooting Responsible Disclosure: a focus on protecting end users

Posted by Chris Evans, Eric Grosse, Neel Mehta, Matt Moore, Tavis Ormandy, Julien Tinnes, Michal Zalewski; Google Security Team

Vulnerability disclosure policies have become a hot topic in recent years. Security researchers generally practice "responsible disclosure", which involves privately notifying affected software vendors of vulnerabilities. The vendors then typically address the vulnerability at some later date, and the researcher reveals full details publicly at or after this time.

A competing philosophy, "full disclosure", involves the researcher making full details of a vulnerability available to everybody simultaneously, giving no preferential treatment to any single party.

The argument for responsible disclosure goes briefly thus: by giving the vendor the chance to patch the vulnerability before details are public, end users of the affected software are not put at undue risk, and are safer. Conversely, the argument for full disclosure proceeds: because a given bug may be under active exploitation, full disclosure enables immediate preventative action, and pressures vendors for fast fixes. Speedy fixes, in turn, make users safer by reducing the number of vulnerabilities available to attackers at any given time.

Note that there's no particular consensus on which disclosure policy is safer for users. Although responsible disclosure is more common, we recommend this 2001 post by Bruce Schneier as background reading on some of the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.

So, is the current take on responsible disclosure working to best protect end users in 2010? Not in all cases, no. The emotionally loaded name suggests that it is the most responsible way to conduct vulnerability research - but if we define being responsible as doing whatever it best takes to make end users safer, we will find a disconnect. We've seen an increase in vendors invoking the principles of "responsible" disclosure to delay fixing vulnerabilities indefinitely, sometimes for years; in that timeframe, these flaws are often rediscovered and used by rogue parties using the same tools and methodologies used by ethical researchers. The important implication of referring to this process as "responsible" is that researchers who do not comply are seen as behaving improperly. However, the inverse situation is often true: it can be irresponsible to permit a flaw to remain live for such an extended period of time.

Skilled attackers are using 0-day vulnerabilities in the wild, and there are increasing instances of:
  • 0-day attacks that rely on vulnerabilities known to the vendor for a long while.
  • Situations where it became clear that a vulnerability was being actively exploited in the wild, subsequent to the bug being fixed or disclosed.
Accordingly, we believe that responsible disclosure is a two-way street. Vendors, as well as researchers, must act responsibly. Serious bugs should be fixed within a reasonable timescale. Whilst every bug is unique, we would suggest that 60 days is a reasonable upper bound for a genuinely critical issue in widely deployed software. This time scale is only meant to apply to critical issues. Some bugs are mischaracterized as "critical", but we look to established guidelines to help make these important distinctions — e.g. Chromium severity guidelines and Mozilla severity ratings.

As software engineers, we understand the pain of trying to fix, test and release a product rapidly; this especially applies to widely-deployed and complicated client software. Recognizing this, we put a lot of effort into keeping our release processes agile so that security fixes can be pushed out to users as quickly as possible.

A lot of talented security researchers work at Google. These researchers discover many vulnerabilities in products from vendors across the board, and they share a detailed analysis of their findings with vendors to help them get started on patch development. We will be supportive of the following practices by our researchers:
  • Placing a disclosure deadline on any serious vulnerability they report, consistent with complexity of the fix. (For example, a design error needs more time to address than a simple memory corruption bug).
  • Responding to a missed disclosure deadline or refusal to address the problem by publishing an analysis of the vulnerability, along with any suggested workarounds.
  • Setting an aggressive disclosure deadline where there exists evidence that blackhats already have knowledge of a given bug.
We of course expect to be held to the same standards ourselves. We recognize that we've handled bug reports in the past where we've been unable to meet reasonable publication deadlines -- due to unexpected dependencies, code complexity, or even simple mix-ups. In other instances, we've simply disagreed with a researcher on the scope or severity of a bug. In all these above cases, we've been happy for publication to proceed, and grateful for the heads-up.

We would invite other researchers to join us in using the proposed disclosure deadlines to drive faster security response efforts. Creating pressure towards more reasonably-timed fixes will result in smaller windows of opportunity for blackhats to abuse vulnerabilities. In our opinion, this small tweak to the rules of engagement will result in greater overall safety for users of the Internet.
URL: http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2010/07/rebooting-responsible-disclosure-focus.html

[G] Watch our latest webinar recordings!

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 03:11 PM PDT

Inside AdSense: Watch our latest webinar recordings!

Over the last few months, we held a number of webinars to help you further optimize your site:
  • Optimization Best Practices
  • AdSense for Search
  • AdSense Top Tech Tips
If you haven't seen one yet, you can view the recordings of these events whenever it's convenient for you!

Posted by Caroline Halpin - AdSense Optimization Team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/07/watch-our-latest-webinar-recordings.html

[G] Business problems need business solutions

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 12:06 PM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: Business problems need business solutions

Posted by Pablo Chavez, Director of Public Policy

Today we submitted comments with the Federal Trade Commission in reaction to the Staff Discussion Draft about the future of journalism in the age of the Internet.

We agree that the Internet has posed challenges as well as opportunities for publishers. Google works closely with publishers to find business solutions so journalism can thrive online, and we're optimistic about the news industry's future. But we strongly disagree with a number of policy recommendations set forth in the Staff Discussion Draft, such as the suggestion that Congress enact a federal hot news doctrine -- something that would not only hurt free expression, but also the very profession of journalism that the proponents of hot news say they support.

We appreciate the FTC's involvement in this matter and its effort to shed light on how news publishers can move forward in the digital era, and we're hopeful that our comments will help encourage policy makers to promote innovation and creativity rather than protectionist barriers.

Comments to FTC 20 July 2010
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/07/business-problems-need-business.html

[G] Ooh! Ahh! Google Images presents a nicer way to surf the visual web

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 11:08 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Ooh! Ahh! Google Images presents a nicer way to surf the visual web

When you think about "information," what probably comes to mind are streams of words and numbers. Google's pretty good at organizing these types of information, but consider all the things you can't express with words: what does it look like in the middle of a sandstorm? What are some great examples of Art Nouveau architecture? Should I consider wedding cupcakes instead of a traditional cake?

This is why we built Google Images in 2001. We realized that for many searches, the best answer wasn't text—it was an image or a set of images. The service has grown quite a bit since then. In 2001, we indexed around 250 million images. By 2005, we had indexed over 1 billion. And today, we have an index of over 10 billion images.

It's not just about quantity, though. Over the past decade we've been baking deep computer science into Google Images to make it even faster and easier for you to find precisely the right images. We not only finds images for pretty much anything you type in; we can also instantly pull out images of clip art, line drawings, faces and even colors.

There's even more sophisticated computer vision technology powering our "Similar images" tool. For example, did you know there are nine subspecies of leopards, each with a distinct pattern of spots? Google Images can recognize the difference, returning just leopards of a particular subspecies. It can tell you the name of the subspecies in a particular image—even if that image isn't labeled—because other similar leopard images on the web are labeled with that subspecies's name.

And our "Similar colors" refinement doesn't just return images based on the overall color of an image. If it did, lots of images would simply be classified as "white." If you're looking for [tulips] and you refine results to "white," you really want images in which the tulips themselves are white—not the surrounding image. It takes some heavy-duty algorithmic wizardry and processing power for a search engine to understand what the items of interest are in all the images out there.

Those are just a few of the technologies we've built to make Google Images more useful. Meanwhile, the quantity and variety of images on the web has ballooned since 2001, and images have become one of the most popular types of content people search for. So over the next few days we're rolling out an update to Google Images to match the scope and beauty of this fast-growing visual web, and to bring to the surface some of the powerful technology behind Images.

Here's what's new in this refreshed design of Google Images:
  • Dense tiled layout designed to make it easy to look at lots of images at once. We want to get the app out of the way so you can find what you're really looking for.
  • Instant scrolling between pages, without letting you get lost in the images. You can now get up to 1,000 images, all in one scrolling page. And we'll show small, unobtrusive page numbers so you don't lose track of where you are.
  • Larger thumbnail previews on the results page, designed for modern browsers and high-res screens.
  • A hover pane that appears when you mouse over a given thumbnail image, giving you a larger preview, more info about the image and other image-specific features such as "Similar images."
  • Once you click on an image, you're taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it's hosted on visible right behind it. Click anywhere outside the image, and you're right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context.
  • Optimized keyboard navigation for faster scrolling through many pages, taking advantage of standard web keyboard shortcuts such as Page Up / Page Down. It's all about getting you to the info you need quickly, so you can get on with actually building that treehouse or buying those flowers.

And for our advertisers, we're launching a new ad format called Image Search Ads. These ads appear only on Google Images, and they let you include a thumbnail image alongside your lines of text. Check out our Help Center for more info on how try them out; we hope they're a useful way to reach folks who are specifically looking for images.

These upgrades are rolling out in most of our local interfaces worldwide over the next few days. We hope they not only make it easier to search for images, but also contribute to a better aesthetic experience. We see images as a major source of inspiration, a way of connecting the world—and their growth is showing no signs of slowing down. We'll work to make sure Google Images continues to evolve to keep up.

Posted by Nate Smith, Product Manager, Google Images
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/ooh-ahh-google-images-presents-nicer.html

[G] Reducing our carbon footprint with the direct purchase of renewable energy

Posted: 20 Jul 2010 11:08 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Reducing our carbon footprint with the direct purchase of renewable energy

When we decided in 2007 to voluntarily become carbon neutral, our intent was to take responsibility for our carbon emissions and promote sustainable environmental solutions. We approach this goal in three ways. First, we minimize our energy consumption; in fact, we've built some of the world's most energy efficient data centers. Second, we seek to power our facilities with renewable energy, like we did in Mountain View, CA with one of the largest corporate solar installations. Finally, we purchase carbon offsets for the emissions we cannot directly eliminate.

We just completed a substantial 20-year green Power Purchase Agreement that allows us to take responsibility for our footprint and foster true growth in the renewable energy sector. On July 30 we will begin purchasing the clean energy from 114 megawatts of wind generation at the NextEra Energy Resources Story County II facility in Iowa at a predetermined rate for 20 years. Incorporating such a large amount of wind power into our portfolio is tricky (read more about how the deal is structured), but this power is enough to supply several data centers.

The wind farm, which began operation in December 2009, consists of 100 GE 1.5MW XLE turbines.

By contracting to purchase so much energy for so long, we're giving the developer of the wind farm financial certainty to build additional clean energy projects. The inability of renewable energy developers to obtain financing has been a significant inhibitor to the expansion of renewable energy. We've been excited about this deal because taking 114 megawatts of wind power off the market for so long means producers have the incentive and means to build more renewable energy capacity for other customers.

We depend upon large quantities of electricity to power Google services and want to make large actions to support renewable energy. As we continue operating with the most energy efficient data centers and working to be carbon neutral, we're happy to also be directly purchasing energy from renewable resources.

Posted by Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Operations
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/reducing-our-carbon-footprint-with.html
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