Thursday, July 22, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] AdWords Myths – separating the truth from the fiction

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 03:59 AM PDT

Inside AdWords: AdWords Myths – separating the truth from the fiction

There's lots of misinformation floating around the web about the way AdWords works, and our AdWords support teams get to hear most of it. Since many of the same issues seem to keep popping up again and again, we thought we'd run a blog series to help you separate the myths from the facts. We've tried to capture the most persistent of them here, but remember, if you ever have any AdWords questions, you can always pop over to the AdWords Help Center or AdWords Help Forum for an answer.

Myth # 1: Spending money on Google AdWords will influence my website's ranking in Google's free search results.

Fact: Google AdWords and Google's free search results are entirely independent of one another. Spending money on AdWords won't impact your ranking in Google's free search results. Similarly, cancelling your AdWords account won't lead to your website being banned from Google's search results. If you'd like to learn more about what does go into ranking your website in Google search results, check out Google Webmaster Central.

Myth # 2: Google AdWords has declined my credit card.

Fact: Google itself doesn't actually decline credit cards. The decline usually takes place at your bank, your card-issuing institution, or its payment processor.

If your credit card gets declined, your first step should be to check and make sure you've filled out the Billing Preferences page correctly. Some common mistakes include:
  • Missing or invalid credit card number or security code
  • Missing or invalid expiration date
  • Missing or invalid billing address and/or telephone number
Once you've gotten that squared away, make sure that there aren't any problems with your card itself. Be on the lookout for issues with your:
  • Credit limit
  • Maximum amount per debit
  • Number of possible debits within a certain period
If any of these are too low for your AdWords account, contact your bank or card-issuing institution. You should also be sure that your card allows for online debits and automatic debits.

Next week we'll be discussing AdWords clicks and keywords myths, so stay tuned!

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/adwords-myths-separating-truth-from.html

[G] To the Canadian Arctic… and Beyond!

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:20 PM PDT

Google LatLong: To the Canadian Arctic… and Beyond!


For all those interested in outer space (come on, who isn't at least a tad bit curious?), we want to let you know about an exciting project just getting underway. As part of Google's ongoing relationship with NASA, Googler Tiffany Montague is on her way to the high arctic to participate as a crew member in some remote NASA field tests.

Haughton Crater, located in the Canadian arctic, is an extreme environment that simulates Martian conditions – otherwise known as a planetary analog. Tiffany just happens to have both extreme expedition and near-space suit experience, so she'll be spending a week at a remote research station operated by the Mars Institute and sponsored by SETI and NASA.

Among the cool things she'll be doing while in the field are landscape documentation, prototype space suit testing, simulating pressurized rover traverse missions, surveying new aircraft landing sites, and characterizing the geology of the Moon, Mars and NEO-like terrain. Many of these activities are even being planned using Google Earth!

Tiffany will be blogging about her adventures as Internet connectivity in the station permits. Check out her first post and follow her blog, Voices from Space, to keep up to date, and we'll also ask her to share a full report complete with favorite stories and photos when she returns.

Posted by Deanna Yick, Lat Long Blog Team
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/07/to-canadian-arctic-and-beyond.html

[G] Try Google Tags for free: Tag, you’re it, local business owners!

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:20 PM PDT

Google LatLong: Try Google Tags for free: Tag, you're it, local business owners!


Last month we announced the U.S. launch of Google Tags, a new advertising product that allows local business owners to add a yellow tag and additional information to their listing for an affordable flat monthly fee. Thousands of businesses are already using Tags - ranging from New York City to Rancho Cucamunga, from dentists to limo drivers.

Some folks are offering coupons to incentivize sales and provide better value, while others are using videos to engage with audiences and give their business listing more personality. The positive feedback has led to overwhelming excitement about helping even more business owners connect with local customers. So to spread the word about Google Tags, we're offering every business across the country the chance to try Google Tags free for 30 days!


We've designed Google Tags for busy local business owners who want an easy and low-maintenance way to advertise online. It allows you to highlight qualities that differentiate your business from the crowd, and helps customers make easier, more informed decisions about the places they want to call or visit. Signing up is simple and fast, and there's no additional work or ongoing management after that. Please keep in mind that the tag will not affect your listing's ranking on a Google.com or Google Maps results page.

Your free trial comes with no strings attached. You can cancel before your trial is over and never pay a dime. If you run a local business, you can appeal to customers with a coupon, customized message, video, photos, menu, reservations or website. Once you've verified your business on Google Places, you might also watch a series of videos we created to walk you through the process of learning more about Google Tags, how to sign up, choosing the best tag type for your business and activating your tag.

To start your free 30 day trial today, please visit our signup page or check out the help center for more details.

Posted by Shalini Agarwal, Product Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/07/try-google-tags-for-free-tag-youre-it.html

[G] He said, she said: a sibling search story

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 06:04 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: He said, she said: a sibling search story

This is part of our summer series of new Search Stories. Look for the label Search Stories and subscribe to the series. -Ed.

My sister is my best friend in the world. But that wasn't always the case. When we were young, my sister and I always had our sibling rivalries. Quarrels over who got more (or fewer) birthday presents, ongoing debates around whose week it was to walk the dog and your average diary lock-picking weren't uncommon. But now that we've grown older, it's become clear that those moments have brought us closer together, and today my sister is my best friend.

Our search story this week really struck a chord with me, and I'm excited to help introduce our latest video, "Brother and Sister." It's a fun, playful snapshot of an evolving sibling friendship. I hope you enjoy this week's video as much as I did.




Posted by Bernardo Hernandez, Head of Consumer Marketing
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/he-said-she-said-sibling-search-story.html

[G] Inside WebM Technology: VP8 Intra and Inter Prediction

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 05:47 PM PDT

The WebM Open Media Project Blog: Inside WebM Technology: VP8 Intra and Inter Prediction

Continuing our series on WebM technology, I will discuss the use of prediction methods in the VP8 video codec, with special attention to the TM_PRED and SPLITMV modes, which are unique to VP8.

First, some background. To encode a video frame, block-based codecs such as VP8 first divide the frame into smaller segments called macroblocks. Within each macroblock, the encoder can predict redundant motion and color information based on previously processed blocks. The redundant data can be subtracted from the block, resulting in more efficient compression.

Image by Fido Factor, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

A VP8 encoder uses two classes of prediction:
  • Intra prediction uses data within a single video frame
  • Inter prediction uses data from previously encoded frames
The residual signal data is then encoded using other techniques, such as transform coding.

VP8 Intra Prediction Modes
VP8 intra prediction modes are used with three types of macroblocks:
  • 4x4 luma
  • 16x16 luma
  • 8x8 chroma
Four common intra prediction modes are shared by these macroblocks:
  • H_PRED (horizontal prediction). Fills each column of the block with a copy of the left column, L.
  • V_PRED (vertical prediction). Fills each row of the block with a copy of the above row, A.
  • DC_PRED (DC prediction). Fills the block with a single value using the average of the pixels in the row above A and the column to the left of L.
  • TM_PRED (TrueMotion prediction). A mode that gets its name from a compression technique developed by On2 Technologies. In addition to the row A and column L, TM_PRED uses the pixel P above and to the left of the block. Horizontal differences between pixels in A (starting from P) are propagated using the pixels from L to start each row.
For 4x4 luma blocks, there are six additional intra modes similar to V_PRED and H_PRED, but correspond to predicting pixels in different directions. These modes are outside the scope of this post, but if you want to learn more see the VP8 Bitstream Guide.

As mentioned above, the TM_PRED mode is unique to VP8. The following figure uses an example 4x4 block of pixels to illustrate how the TM_PRED mode works:
Where C, As and Ls represent reconstructed pixel values from previously coded blocks, and X00 through X33 represent predicted values for the current block. TM_PRED uses the following equation to calculate Xij:

Xij = Li + Aj - C (i, j=0, 1, 2, 3)

Although the above example uses a 4x4 block, the TM_PRED mode for 8x8 and 16x16 blocks works in the same fashion.
TM_PRED is one of the more frequently used intra prediction modes in VP8, and for common video sequences it is typically used by 20% to 45% of all blocks that are intra coded. Overall, together with other intra prediction modes, TM_PRED helps VP8 to achieve very good compression efficiency, especially for key frames, which can only use intra modes (key frames by their very nature cannot refer to previously encoded frames).

VP8 Inter Prediction Modes

In VP8, inter prediction modes are used only on inter frames (non-key frames). For any VP8 inter frame, there are typically three previously coded reference frames that can be used for prediction. A typical inter prediction block is constructed using a motion vector to copy a block from one of the three frames. The motion vector points to the location of a pixel block to be copied. In most video compression schemes, a good portion of the bits are spent on encoding motion vectors; the portion can be especially large for video encoded at lower datarates.

Like previous VPx codecs, VP8 encodes motion vectors very efficiently by reusing vectors from neighboring macroblocks (a macroblock includes one 16x16 luma block and two 8x8 chroma blocks). VP8 uses a similar strategy in the overall design of inter prediction modes. For example, the prediction modes "NEAREST" and "NEAR" make use of last and second-to-last, non-zero motion vectors from neighboring macroblocks. These inter prediction modes can be used in combination with any of the three different reference frames.

In addition, VP8 has a very sophisticated, flexible inter prediction mode called SPLITMV. This mode was designed to enable flexible partitioning of a macroblock into sub-blocks to achieve better inter prediction. SPLITMV is very useful when objects within a macroblock have different motion characteristics. Within a macroblock coded using SPLITMV mode, each sub-block can have its own motion vector. Similar to the strategy of reusing motion vectors at the macroblock level, a sub-block can also use motion vectors from neighboring sub-blocks above or left to the current block. This strategy is very flexible and can effectively encode any shape of sub-macroblock partitioning, and does so efficiently. Here is an example of a macroblock with 16x16 luma pixels that is partitioned to 16 4x4 blocks:


where New represents a 4x4 bock coded with a new motion vector, and Left and Above represent a 4x4 block coded using the motion vector from the left and above, respectively. This example effectively partitions the 16x16 macroblock into 3 different segments with 3 different motion vectors (represented below by 1, 2 and 3):


Through effective use of intra and inter prediction modes, WebM encoder implementations can achieve great compression quality on a wide range of source material. If you want to delve further into VP8 prediction modes, read the VP8 Bitstream Guide or examine the reconintra.c and rdopt.c files in the VP8 source tree.

Yaowu Xu, Ph.D. is a codec engineer at Google.

URL: http://webmproject.blogspot.com/2010/07/inside-webm-technology-vp8-intra-and.html

[G] Live Waving at OSCON 2010

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 02:01 PM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Live Waving at OSCON 2010

With OSCON underway, we're excited about the opportunities that many of us have to present at the conference and we've taken some time to prepare resources for OSCON attendees to use Google Wave to "live wave" during the event.

If you're not familiar with live waving, it's a way of capturing what is occurring at a live event in real time on a wave. It's similar to live blogging, but provides a smoother experience for the publishers and viewers. For example, you can take a look at the live wave that was used to capture the keynote address at this year's Google I/O conference.

We've put together the following resources for OSCON:


If you'll be attending OSCON, we would like to ask for your help in getting the word out about the live waves. You can let your fellow attendees know about the waves by tweeting, waving, or emailing the following link to folks: http://bit.ly/OSCON2010Waves. Everyone can contribute and we encourage you to join in on the live waves -- or start your own for one of the hundreds of sessions.

We think that live waves will serve as a great resource for attendees to share information and to connect in real time. If you want to learn more about Wave, please join us for Joe Gregorio and Dan Peterson's talk, "Open Source Google Wave: Building Your Own Wave Provider" at 5:20 PM on Thursday or for the "Wave - Open Source and Open Protocols" Birds of a Feather (BoF) session at 8 PM on Thursday.

By Andrés Ferraté, Developer Advocate Team
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/07/live-waving-at-oscon-2010.html

[G] Winamp Media Player Released with WebM Support

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 10:04 AM PDT

[G] YouTube Summer School, Session 2: Art

Posted: 21 Jul 2010 09:46 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTube Summer School, Session 2: Art

Alright, alright...settle down, class. It's time for another session of YouTube Summer School.

You'll remember that the semester started last week with a deep-dive into physics; now we're on to a loftier subject -- art! Our educational platform, YouTube EDU, brings world-class art lessons from esteemed professors right to your desktop. So whether you're simply curious about drawing techniques and portraits, or looking to learn more about new forms of art, take a look at this playlist for a sampling of art videos on the site. Topics range from making comics to surveying Roman architecture:









We can't promise you'll be the next Bob Ross after watching these, but we can guarantee videos like this will be available anytime you're in an artsy mood, and will continue to grow as our university partners add new content.

And just to review what was covered last time, take this pop quiz on some of the material covered in videos in our physics module. Please list your responses in the comments below (please note comments are moderated due to spam). At the end of the semester, we'll crown some of our "Grade A" students.

1. According to Professor Walter H.G. Lewin at MIT, are you taller standing up or laying down?
2. What is the name of University of Minnesota's wide receiver that got hit with 10.78 Gs of force when he scored a touchdown against UC Berkeley?
3. A vacuum uses the power of 8-10 horses. A plane taking off uses the power of 100,000 horses. On a typical day, the world uses how many "horses"?

OK, class dismissed!

Mandy Albanese, Communications Associate, recent watched "Ceramics Inspired by Marine Life."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/HusvhhcJDfk/youtube-summer-school-session-2-art.html
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