Friday, December 10, 2010

Googland

Googland

[G] YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011: The Shortlist Is In, Let The Voting Begin

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 04:22 AM PST

YouTube Blog: YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011: The Shortlist Is In, Let The Voting Begin

Musicians from Finland to New Zealand and from Austria to Vietnam have done their bit - submitting their audition videos for the chance to be part of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 at Sydney Opera House. Now, with 336 finalists from 46 countries selected, it's your turn to play your part: voting is open for who you think should make up the orchestra.



Your votes at youtube.com/symphony over the next seven days will help decide which of these talented musicians will be packing up their trombones, violas, and timpani and heading to Sydney Opera House from March 14-20, 2011, to perform together for a global audience.







You can vote once per video, per day, until 23:59 EST on December 17 to help YouTube Symphony Orchestra Artistic Advisor Michael Tilson Thomas boil the 300 shortlisted hopefuls down to the final 96. Your votes are also needed to help choose four solo improvisers. "Mothership" composer Mason Bates will be using your input to choose from 36 soloists, including show-stopping performances on instruments like the guzheng, the musical saw and… the udderbot.



Congratulations to those in the running, and to all of those who submitted an audition -- thank you for your hard work. We've been blown away by your talent and determination.



Check out the channel now and vote for your favorites.



Jamie Dolling, Marketing Manager, recently watched "Magic Moments: The Udderbot".


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/QRnsduJ2Cpg/youtube-symphony-orchestra-2011.html

[G] Take Control of Your Site Feed

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 03:48 AM PST

Blogger Buzz: Take Control of Your Site Feed

Posted by Ben Eitzen, Software Engineer

Feeds are a great way to reach a broader audience and keep your loyal readers up-to-date. In fact, it's not uncommon for blogs to have more than a quarter of their traffic come from feed readers.

The challenge with feeds is that it's never been possible to control exactly how much content is delivered. Up until now, the options have been "Short" and "Full". Short produces a feed that contains around the first 400 characters of the post, with HTML and images removed. Full produces a feed that contains everything in the post, including HTML and images. But what about those instances where you want to give your users a taste—an image or two with some introductory text—and then have them visit your blog to see the full post? Well today we've launched a third option that lets you do just that using Jump Breaks.

To enable this feature, simply go to the Settings page for your blog, click on Site Feed, and then next to "Allow Blog Feeds", change the drop-down value to "Until Jump Break".


That's it! Next time you write a post and use a jump break, anyone reading the feed will get all the content, including images and HTML formatting, up until the jump break (if there's no jump break, the feed will contain everything). If readers want to see the full post, they can click the "read more" link and they'll be directed to your blog. This means you have full control over your feed.  For example, want to include an image for your recipe but not the whole recipe? No problem! Put the image and part of the recipe before the jump break, and that's all the feed readers will see.

Enjoy!
URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2010/12/take-control-of-your-site-feed.html

[G] Google Days in the Middle East

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 02:31 AM PST

Google Open Source Blog: Google Days in the Middle East

Chris DiBona, head of the Google Open Source Programs Office, is in the Middle East this week to talk to attendees at G-Egypt and G-Jordan, Google's first ever Google Days hosted in those countries. The G-days will be held in Cairo between December 8th and 10th for G-Egypt, and in Amman between December 12th and 14th for G-Jordan.

Both events are 3-day conferences, with each day catering to a different audience. Day 1 is for Computer Science Students and Professors, Day 2 is for Software Developers, and Day 3 is for tech entrepreneurs, small businesses, and marketers. Chris will be discussing "Work in Open Source" each day, so there are lots of opportunities for attendees to listen to his talk or introduce themselves.

Registration for G-Egypt and G-Jordan is currently full, but you can discover other events coming up near you on our Google Developer Events Calendar.

By Ellen Ko, Open Source Team
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/12/google-days-in-middle-east.html

[G] Trailblazing in Portland

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 02:11 AM PST

Google LatLong: Trailblazing in Portland

[Cross-posted from the Hotpot Community Blog]

When we announced the availability of Hotpot last month, we knew from the beginning we were going to take a different approach to marketing the product and engaging with our users, both businesses and consumers.

To that end, we're excited today to start testing this new approach by launching our first local marketing campaign in Portland, Oregon. Portland is a tech savvy, forward-thinking city with a history of innovation and some of the best coffee houses, microbreweries and parks in the country. Whether you know it as The City of Roses, Stumptown, P-Town, Rip City or just PDX, Portland's thriving local business community and strong heritage of being a trailblazer made it a great choice for us to try something new.

So starting today and over the course of the next few months, we'll be out and about in Portland. Here's a taste of what's in store:

Business Kits and Window Decals


Every day millions of people search on Google.com to find local businesses, and we want to make it seamless for standout businesses to get discovered online. To achieve this, we'll be working directly with some of Portland's top businesses to educate them about Google Places for business and all its benefits. In addition, to help these businesses spread the word, we're providing owners with special Google Places Business Kits. These kits are a multi-flavored sampler of marketing materials that can help businesses get even more exposure, get them rated and reviewed online, and get more customers through their door. We're already distributing these to some of Portland's top businesses, but any business in Portland who has claimed their Place page can request a box.


A central part of the kit is the bright red "Recommended on Google" window sticker. This is not your ordinary sticker. Unlike others, this is an interactive sticker that has Near Field Communications (NFC) technology built right in, allowing people with cutting edge phones like the Nexus S to simply touch their phones to the sticker to find out more information about the business. Suddenly stickers are cool again!

Community Events


Sure, Hotpot's about sharing recommendations with friends online. But we thought it'd be fun to take things offline. To kick things off, we're partnering with Portland's beloved Voodoo Doughnut. Because we at Google are such big fans of their tasty treats, we wanted to spread the love — so if you like doughnuts and coffee, be sure to stop by both locations starting this Saturday at 10am for a special treat.

Hotpot Jackpot


We're also launching our second Hotpot Jackpot competition to encourage Portlanders to start rating the places they know and share them with friends and family. Everyone over the age of 18 who lives within a 50-mile radius of Portland can participate, and the top five raters at the end of the competition will win dinner for 10 at any restaurant in Portland, courtesy of Google. To kick things off, all of the fans at tonight's Trail Blazers vs. Magic game will receive t-shirts announcing the competition and supporting the Blazers.

This is just the beginning and we'll be doing a lot more in the upcoming months. For the latest and greatest of what we're up to in Portland (and elsewhere), keep an eye out by staying up to date via the Hotpot Blog, and by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.

Posted by Bernardo Hernandez, Director of Emerging Marketing
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/12/trailblazing-in-portland.html

[G] Now available with Google Apps: Google Website Optimizer

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 02:00 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Now available with Google Apps: Google Website Optimizer



Editor's note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what's new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to Google Website Optimizer
Making changes to your website can be a challenge. Websites are often built with little data available in the design phase but once the site launches, tracking tools such as Google Analytics can provide tons of information about visitor behavior, and can highlight areas that aren't performing as expected. But how will you know what kind of revisions will better achieve your goals? How can you be confident that changes won't actually result in worse performance? How can you reconcile the different ideas that stakeholders throughout your company contribute about what the site should look like? Now, Google Apps users can address these questions using Google Website Optimizer for free with their Google Apps accounts.

Google Website Optimizer is a tool that lets you eliminate guesswork from website design by testing variations of your webpages. When you identify a page that might need a change, you can create alternate versions of that page and use Google Website Optimizer to send a fraction of the users visiting your website to each alternate version. Website Optimizer then runs an analysis to tell you how visitors to each version of the webpage behave. With this data, you can make much more informed decisions about website updates.



The key advantages of running website tests using Google Website Optimizer are:
  • Base website design decisions on data, not intuition. You probably hear a different opinion about what's best for your website from each person you ask. Controlled tests provide objective data that can be used to support or disprove different hypotheses.

  • Try multiple ideas at the same time, instead of just one. Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket, Google Website Optimizer lets you test many ideas at once and pick the winner as it emerges.

  • Experiment, with a safety net. If the new page you are testing performs well, you can keep that page and maintain the conversion gains. If the new page doesn't perform well, you can easily stop the test. Google Website Optimizer even monitors page performance and can be set up to automatically disable website variations that begin to perform worse than your original page.

Take, for example, our landing page for a Google Maps Driving Directions widget. The team wanted more visitors to add the widget, but wasn't sure what design elements would work best. Using Google Website Optimizer, the team ran an experiment to compare the original page to three alternate designs. You can see the four versions below (including the original in the top left):


The result? The Google Maps team found that the lower right-hand design outperformed the original with a 75% conversion rate increase, meaning more users added the widget. Google Website Optimizer made it easy to select the best version of the webpage.

Learn more and get started
Google Website Optimizer can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn't using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

You can learn more about using Website Optimizer from the team's Help Center, and more technical users should also read the Techie Guide to Website Optimizer (PDF). You can also follow the latest news about Google Website Optimizer on our team blog.

Share your story
Have you already started using Google Website Optimizer at your organization, or plan to now that it's available? Please share your story and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!


Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Google Website Optimizer team

Note: Google Website Optimizer may not be available in all areas.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/12/now-available-with-google-apps-google_09.html

[G] Test your text and display ads with AdWords Campaign Experiments

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:31 AM PST

Inside AdWords: Test your text and display ads with AdWords Campaign Experiments

A few months ago, we launched AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), a free tool that makes it easier to test and precisely measure the impact of changes to your keywords, bids, ad groups, placements - and now ads themselves! ACE allows you to run experimental changes on a percentage of your AdWords traffic. You can compare statistics for experiment versus control traffic and receive statistically significant results, which tell you with confidence whether your experimental changes improved your performance.

What can I test?

You can run ad experiments on both text and display ads. Here are some of the components you can test with each:

        Text Ads
        Display Ads
  1. Ad text
  2. Headlines
  3. Display URLs
  4. Calls to action
  1. Images
  2. Display URLs
  3. Calls to action 

You can test text ads against other text ads and display ads against other display ads, but ACE allows you to do more. If your ads are opted into the Google Display Network, you can also compare the performance of your text ads to that of your display ads on Display Network sites. If you don't already have display ads in your account, they're easy to create with the display ad builder located within AdWords.

What about ad rotation?

In the past, you may have used ad rotation to test ad variations within an ad group. The main difference between ACE and ad rotation is that ACE allows you to decide the percentage of traffic on which you want your experiment to run - giving you more control over which ads show when. Within each split, ACE will respect the "optimize" or "rotate" ad rotation settings you've set in your campaign settings tab.

To learn how to set up ad experiments, watch the video below. You can also view our other how-to-videos and additional FAQs to learn more.

Happy experimenting!



Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/12/test-your-text-and-display-ads-with.html

[G] Discover new features in the Opportunities tab

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:31 AM PST

Inside AdWords: Discover new features in the Opportunities tab

Today we're announcing four new features in the Opportunities tab that we hope will improve the way that you optimize your AdWords account.

First page CPC ideas
First page CPC ideas help you adjust your bids so that your ads have a better chance of appearing on the first page of search results. If you have first page CPC ideas in your account, these will appear in your Opportunities tab above your keyword, bid, and budget ideas.


More robust statistics for your keyword ideas
Until now, we've provided 'estimated monthly searches' as the primary statistic upon which to evaluate the potential impact of your keyword ideas. Now, in addition to search estimates for each keyword, you'll also see estimates for impressions, cost, and clicks whenever these statistics are available. These new statistics can help you make more informed decisions about which keywords you apply to your account.


Bid ideas for ad groups
Bid ideas can now be found at the ad group level in addition to the keyword level.


Export your ideas
If you have a lot of ideas in your account, exporting these to a .csv file can be a good way for you to review optimizations before you apply them. Exporting your ideas is as easy as clicking the 'Export all ideas to .csv' link. While you can see all the other features in the Opportunities tab now, this last feature is rolling out to all advertiser accounts over the next few weeks.


We hope you find these updates in the Opportunities tab useful. To learn more about the Opportunities tab, watch our webinar in the AdWords Online Classroom or visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/12/discover-new-features-in-opportunities.html

[G] The Keyword Tool - when you talk, we listen

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:31 AM PST

Inside AdWords: The Keyword Tool - when you talk, we listen

We want to thank you for all the feedback you've given us on the Keyword Tool. The first thing you told us is that you want more keywords that are better targeted to your account and searches, and we've made improvements in this area. We've also added features such as better filters, the ability to star keywords, and copy them as text. And we're not done yet! You can help us understand what's important to you by continuing to provide us with feedback. Below is a more detailed look at some of our new features.

There are three new ways to filter and refine your keyword list. With our new updates, you can:
  1. Choose specific terms to include or exclude from your keyword list.
  2. Use the 'More like these' button to search for terms that are similar to the specific keyword ideas you've selected from the table.
  3. Get only results that include the exact words or phrases (and their close synonyms) you've typed in the search box.


Adding stars to keywords
Add stars to keywords that you'd like to save while you're still searching for new keyword ideas. You can review your starred keywords in the "Stars" panel on the left side of the tool.

'View as text' button
View your selected keywords in text form, so that you can easily edit them and paste them in a spreadsheet or AdWords Editor.


Your continued feedback is important, so please keep sending us your comments and we'll post about more improvements here.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/12/keyword-tool-when-you-talk-we-listen.html

[G] Thank you for ten great years

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:31 AM PST

Inside AdWords: Thank you for ten great years

In early November, we invited you to help us celebrate AdWords' 10th birthday by telling the story of your own business. Today we're sharing your stories with the world on a global map we're featuring on the AdWords 10th Birthday website.

click for full size image

We hope you enjoy this collection of voices from your fellow entrepreneurs. And if you didn't submit your own story but feel inspired to do so now, it isn't too late to add your voice. Just visit our website and send us your video or written story.

Thank you for ten great years. We can't wait to see what's to come in the next ten.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/12/thank-you-for-ten-great-years.html

[G] AdWords rules, and so can you!

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:31 AM PST

Inside AdWords: AdWords rules, and so can you!

Do you stay awake at night wondering where your bids are? Do you plan your vacations around fluctuations in click volume? Have you taken AdWords for Mobile as your +1 to a family wedding?

Managing an AdWords account to its full potential takes time - time that you could spend managing other important parts of your business. That's why we've developed automated rules, a new feature available to US advertisers that lets you get the benefit of 24-hour account management while leaving you free to focus on other important things.

With automated rules, you're able to create rules to automate bid, budget, and status changes on a specific part of your account (selected keywords, ad groups, campaigns, and ads) that are triggered at a particular time. For example, automated rules could be created to perform the following tasks:
  • Enable ads promoting a special offer late on a Sunday night when the offer goes live
  • Automatically raise your bid to the first page CPC for all keywords in a campaign that contain the word 'sale'
  • Generate more traffic on your peak shopping days by automatically increasing your daily budget on Mondays and decreasing it on Wednesdays


Let's walk through an example of creating a rule within a campaign to increase keyword bids for all keywords with a position worse than 4 so far today. First, we'll navigate to the Keyword tab of the campaign, click the 'Automate' dropdown, and choose "Change Max. CPC bids when..."

In the window that appears, we'll create our rule to raise bids for all but deleted keywords in the campaign by 10%. We'll set specific parameters to make sure the rule is only applied when certain criteria are met. In this case, we'll add a requirement that the average position must be worse than 4 so far today for any bid changes to be made.

Then, we'll specify that the rule should be performed every day at 12pm using data from the same day. We'll name our rule and choose to keep track of changes by receiving an email each time the rule runs.

As an important last step, we'll click 'Preview results,' to see a list of changes that would be made if the rule were to run at that moment. When we're satisfied that everything is in order, we'll click 'Save.'

To manage the rules you've created and keep track of changes automatically made to the account each day, visit the 'Control panel and library' section of your account and click 'Rules.'

Automated rules will be gradually launched to US advertisers over the coming weeks. If you regularly perform manual tasks in your account, we encourage you to give automated rules a try. Once you've done so, we'd love to hear your feedback for how we can make automated rules even better. So let us know how it goes!

For more information on AdWords automated rules, visit Google Ad Innovations.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/12/adwords-rules-and-so-can-you.html

[G] Going Global with Google

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:31 AM PST

Inside AdWords: Going Global with Google

AdWords started with the idea of connecting you with customers searching for your goods and services - wherever those customers may be. Today, we're announcing the launch of Google Global Market Finder, a free online tool that helps you find new markets overseas, and Google Ads for Global Advertisers, a new website that brings together Global Market Finder, AdWords, Google Translate, and other tools that can help you find, engage with, and support your customers worldwide - whether those customers are consumers or businesses searching for suppliers online.

Global Market Finder helps you answer the question: who are my potential customers overseas?



To use the tool, enter keywords that describe your product or service and select a market or region you'd like to explore. You can choose from regions such as the European Union, the "G20" economies, or the Americas.

Global Market Finder automatically translates your keyword into languages used in each of your selected markets. It then ranks each location by market opportunity by combining search volume, suggested bid price, and competition for each translated keyword. With this tool, businesses can answer questions like "how competitive is this market?", "how does demand in one location compare to demand elsewhere in the world?", and "how much would it cost to start advertising in this new market?" Since automatic translation is not perfect, be sure to confirm that the translated terms are appropriate for your business.

The second resource we're launching today is Google Ads for Global Advertisers, a website where you can learn more about Google tools that can help expand your business overseas. Google Ads for Global Advertisers contains step-by-step guides and tools that take you from local to global: from finding the right markets to expand your business, to localizing your website and campaigns into another language, to running ads in a foreign market, and finally, to monitoring your global ad spend.



This website pulls together resources for you to:
On the website, you will also find examples of businesses like yours that have gone global using AdWords - examples such as a mosaic company in Lebanon, a bespoke shoe retailer in Sydney, a tech support company in India, and a bed and breakfast in Poland. We hope our new website and tools will help you reach overseas markets, whether you're a small business testing exports for the first time, or a mid-sized company looking to grow your multinational business.

Both Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers will be available in 43 languages. There are more than 1.9 billion people online. Wouldn't you like to add some of them as customers?

Posted by Michael Galvez and Srinidhi Viswanatha, Global Advertisers team
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/12/going-global-with-google.html

[G] AdWords Train & Gain - And the winner is...

Posted: 10 Dec 2010 01:31 AM PST

Inside AdWords: AdWords Train & Gain - And the winner is...

You may remember back in September we announced the launch of the first AdWords Train & Gain challenge. Today we're announcing our 15 finalists from around the world and the overall grand prize winner.


Train & Gain was a four week program full of tips and advice to help you get the most from AdWords. Thousands of you took up the challenge and impressed us with the fantastic results you achieved in such a short time.

We've just finished judging all of your entries and are delighted to share our overall winner with you...

Dan Hulse and Elliot Trotter from Terra Organics in Washington, USA, have won a trip to Sydney, Australia to meet with AdWords experts in our Sydney office and attend the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in March 2011. Congratulations Dan and Elliot. We can't wait to see you in Sydney!

In addition to taking the required steps each week during the competition, Terra Organics demonstrated through their case study submission (and video!) how the Train & Gain challenge impacted their AdWords account and overall business:

"We started using Google AdWords for our small Organic Produce Home Delivery Service about a year ago. While we saw some great gains, we knew we weren't using it to its full potential and weren't sure how best to budget our ads for the most efficiency. Google's Train & Gain helped us to refine our AdWords knowledge and get more out of our dollar. We learned how to maximize our Cost Per Click, use better (and negative) keywords and track our progress using Google Analytics.

Since starting the Train & Gain program, we've already seen dramatic improvements in the consistency of performance with our advertisements. We're able to work within our budget to get better results and turn more people on to our local farm CSA (community supported agriculture) and produce boxes.
In order to track just how much Google's Train & Gain impacted us, we videotaped our progress week by week and put together a YouTube video so you could gain a better understanding of who we are and how Train and Gain helped us."

Check out the video Dan and Elliot created as part of their submission:



Congratulations also go to the other 14 finalists from around the world who each win an Android phone. You can see the breakdown of winners by region below:

Winners from Americas:
Adrian Rodriguez, Fright Night Scream Park, California, USA
Elliot Trotter, Terra Organics, Washington, USA (overall winner)
Ivan Hsieh, EMlab P&K, California, USA
Judy Weiss, Valstar Printers, Minnesota, USA
Shane Dorney, Dorney Security, Texas, USA

Winners from Europe, Middle East & Africa:
David Morgan, Easy Read, Oxford, UK
Debby Appleby, SCL Water, Devon, UK
Emily Allan, Peppermint Pix, KZN, South Africa
Pierre Hun, Utility Exchange Online, Derby, UK
Ross Berntsen, Fire Personnel, Kent, UK

Winners from Japan and Asia-Pacific:
Biplab Kumar, NK Realtors, Kolkata, India
Jason Xa, Benjamin's Crafts, Inglewood, Australia
Rattana Areerob, Phuket Villa Rentals, Phuket, Thailand
Raymond Mellick, Temporary Tattoos Guru, Collingwood, Australia
Tapas Ranjan Behera, The Navadoya Club, Orissa, India

If you didn't take part in Train & Gain this time around and would like to find out more about improving your AdWords account check out the AdWords Small Business Center today.

Congratulations again to all of our winners and thanks to everyone who took part in Train & Gain.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords team
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/12/adwords-train-gain-and-winner-is.html

[G] Meet the international AdSense team

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 09:36 PM PST

Inside AdSense: Meet the international AdSense team

AdSense is an international product. We're available in more than 200 countries and more than 36 different languages. Working with publishers and Googlers from around the globe is one or our favorite things about being on the AdSense team, and we're proud to welcome readers from all over the world.

After we posted the Behind the Scenes videos in the U.S., many of our international publishers wrote to us saying they would also like to meet their local AdSense teams. So, after countless hours in the production studio, here they are!

Meet the people who help publishers earn more revenue in Australia, Poland, Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Japan, China, France, South Africa, and the Spanish-speaking world here, or watch the videos below.


If you're a publisher from any of these markets, feel free to comment and say hi. Your local AdSense team will be excited to hear from you!

Posted by Gus Smidt - Inside AdSense team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/12/meet-international-adsense-team.html

[G] Food for thought this holiday season

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 06:59 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Food for thought this holiday season

The holiday season is in full swing, and with it thoughts of delicious mealtimes and festive feasts - but not every child around the world has a full tummy at this time of the year. Every five seconds a child dies from hunger-related causes, and one in four kids in the U.S. are food insecure.

Google and YouTube is working with Sesame Street and Chef Art Smith to raise awareness about how families can eat healthy food on a budget. Elmo also sat down with Art to answer questions picked by the community using Google Moderator on their YouTube channel. Elmo and Art tackled tough topics like how to get kids to eat more veggies and offered tips for cooking good meals in a hurry.



And to top if off, Art Smith shared a few of his favorite, healthy recipes:

Turkey Shepards Pie
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
2 scallions chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
3 medium carrots, large dice
2 medium celery stalks, medium diced
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
5 Tablespoons of all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups of chicken broth
2 pounds of cooked turkey meat, cut into pieces
1 cup of frozen vegetables
5 cups of mashed potatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375
In a skillet add butter heat to medium add scallions, garlic, thyme and cook till soft.
Add carrots, cook till tender.
Add flour cook with veggies 5 minutes
Add turkey broth and stir till no lumps
Add veggies and turkey pieces. Season with salt and pepper.
Pour into casserole, 13 by 9.
Top with mash potatoes, and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Bake 30 minutes till brown and bubbly

Ginny Hunt, Public Sector Program Manager, recently watched "Leftovers Recipe: Turkey Pot Pie".


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/L9PxO6wjH1Y/food-for-thought-this-holiday-season.html

[G] Annotations Updates - Now It’s Easier to Get Interactive

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 02:19 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Annotations Updates - Now It's Easier to Get Interactive

We launched YouTube annotations in June 2008 to allow people get even more creative with their videos and add layers of interactivity, information and, well, good old fun. What followed was a tidal wave of innovation. From guitar lessons to interactive pianos, inspirational videos, ads, quizzes and games, not to mention everyone's favorite, choose your own adventure videos, YouTube creators big and small really took to annotations and put them to use in incredible ways, including creating entire websites. Nonprofit organizations found annotations an effective way to direct viewers to their site and raise money for their causes.

To put this in numbers, we currently have close to 100 million individual annotations in the system and the rate of publishing is growing. One in five YouTube video views shows annotations and many of these are clickable. Annotations have been an effective mechanism for content discovery and cross promotion with some creators getting as much as 20% of their views from annotation links placed in videos.

Today, we're happy to announce some important improvements to annotations:
  • A brand new annotation editor - based on user feedback, we overhauled the annotation editor and moved most of the functionality to a new side panel to streamline annotation creation, editing and deletion while leaving the player less cluttered.
  • New annotation type - "Title" - Title annotations enable overlaying headlines, videos titles, credits and other "big text" on top of your video, just like you would with professional video editing tools.
  • New Font size options - you can now select from a combined set of six font sizes.
  • New color options - annotations are now available in 16 background colors and 14 font colors.

Annotations can be a very powerful creative tool and make videos that are engaging, informative and interactive; however it's important to realize that overlay text and hotspots can also interrupt and distract viewers. Not every use of annotation is necessarily a good use - there is an art to it. This is why we published Tips and Suggestions on how to get more from your annotations while respecting viewers' wishes and maintaining a small footprint.

Finally we're discontinuing the Collaborative Annotations feature to make room for even more new features coming soon.

To start annotating your videos, go to My Videos and choose "Annotations" from the drop down menu next to the video you wish to annotate. For inspiration check out this playlist and see some of our favorite annotated videos. Happy annotating.

Itamar Gilad, Product Manager, recently watched "The YouTube Radio! (Interactive)" and Aaron Bingham, Annotations Engineering Lead, recently watched "Felix's Machines."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/0P10XkAwibc/annotations-updates-now-its-easier-to.html

[G] Tips & Tricks: More options for mobile editing on the the iPad

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 02:05 PM PST

Official Google Docs Blog: Tips & Tricks: More options for mobile editing on the the iPad

A couple weeks ago, we made is possible to edit your documents on many popular mobile phones and on the iPad.

The new mobile editor is fast and lightweight, but sometimes you want to make more style edits like changing a font, or center aligning a paragraph. If you're on an iPad, you can do that by visiting the Desktop version of the document editor.


If you want to insert formulas in a Google spreadsheet from your iPad, you can use the same trick. Just click Go to spreadsheet view at the top of the mobile view to try out the full version of Google spreadsheets. You can now insert formulas in from the editable formula bar.


Of course, mobile and even tablet browsers are still not as powerful as their desktop counterparts, which is why we recently launched the mobile-optimized version of the Google documents editor for the iPad.

But we figured for one-off times when you need to make an advanced change, that Desktop link might be just what you're looking for.

Posted by: Peter Solderitsch, Software Engineer
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/12/tips-tricks-more-options-for-mobile.html

[G] Celebrating the second Computer Science Education Week

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 01:57 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Celebrating the second Computer Science Education Week

This week we celebrate and recognize the second annual Computer Science Education Week (December 5-11). We're proud to continue our support for CSEd Week and our commitment to Computer Science education.

We believe that all students should have the opportunity to become active creators of tomorrow's technology. With that in mind, our goal is to use Google's strengths and infrastructure to increase access to high-quality open educational content and technology in order to invest in the next generation of computer scientists and engineers. Here are a few programs we worked on in 2010 to expand the reach and quality of computing in education:

Implementing new education technologies and tools that scale
  • In July, we introduced App Inventor in Google Labs, a web-based environment that allows students with no computer programming knowledge to build apps for their Android phone. Rather than writing syntax, students design the app and then piece together puzzle-like blocks to set the app's behavior. Educators around the world have found App Inventor to be a powerful platform for introducing students to the high-level concepts of computer programming and the world of technology.
Increasing access to and the quality of computing curriculum
  • In October, we released a set of classroom-ready lessons and examples—created by teachers in collaboration with Google engineers—showing how educators can incorporate computational thinking into K-12 curriculum for math and science. Computational thinking is a set of skills that software engineers use to write the programs that underlay all of the computer applications we use every day. On our site, you can find resources like curriculum templates and forums for educators to share and support ideas around computational thinking.
  • In mid-2010, we revamped Google Code University, a collection of university-level computer science tutorials, labs and lectures, to make it easier for people to find and use materials they need. All Google Code University content is Creative Commons-licensed so college professors can use the materials directly in their classrooms.
  • We provided grants to 35 universities throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Asia for Computer Science for High School (CS4HS), a workshop to promote computer science in high school curriculum. With funding from Google, colleges develop a two-day program for local high school CS teachers that incorporates informational talks by industry leaders and discussions on new and emerging CS curricula at the high school level.
Influencing positive changes in education through advocacy and community engagement
  • We continued to partner with many organizations to advocate the importance of computer science in the classroom, such as Computing in the Core, a non-partisan advocacy coalition of associations, corporations, scientific societies and other non-profits that strive to elevate computer science education to a core academic subject in K-12 education.
We're excited to be involved in initiatives that highlight the importance of computer science, and look forward to increasing our involvement with Computer Science Education Week in the coming years. Technology and CS are increasingly important to all of us, and we hope others will pay more attention to this critical field. As for Google, we'll continue to be an advocate for computing and help elevate computer science education at all levels.

Posted by Maggie Johnson, Director of Education and University Relations
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/celebrating-second-computer-science.html

[G] Introducing Google Message Continuity, powered by Postini

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 01:57 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Message Continuity, powered by Postini

When we acquired Postini in 2007, we incorporated additional cloud-based spam and virus filtering, email archiving and encryption services into our Enterprise products. We had a vision that the power of the cloud could deliver not only increased productivity and collaboration but also security and corporate compliance tools for organizations of all sizes. Today, a new Google Postini service takes this vision of the cloud and extends it to on-premises email environments.

Google Message Continuity is a cloud-based email continuity solution—a service that helps ensure that you always have access to your email. Organizations running on-premises email systems, such as Microsoft® Exchange, can run the risk of losing email access—or even worse, their email data—during a server outage, which can impact employee productivity, revenue and even company credibility. Research suggests that a 500-person company could lose nearly $90,000 annually due to email outages*, which a continuity solution could help prevent.

Google Message Continuity works by replicating email accounts hosted on Microsoft® Exchange Servers in the cloud, using Gmail, Calendar and Contacts. If the Microsoft® Exchange Server fails, or requires scheduled maintenance or downtime, all you have to do is log into Gmail and continue regular, up-to-date email communication through Google. Since Gmail and Microsoft® Exchange are constantly synchronized with each other, you can seamlessly switch from one email environment to the other. Additionally, features such as synchronous replication that are built into Google's architecture help ensure that your data won't be lost at any point while being delivered to you with maximum efficiency.

Google Message Continuity can also help organizations transition to Google Apps down the road. Since Microsoft® Exchange and Gmail are always in sync with one another, there's no need to migrate email data when eventually deploying Google Apps. With Gmail, Calendar and Contacts available, users can get familiar with these cloud services without having to abruptly stop using their regular email system.

Google Message Continuity takes Gmail's availability and extends it to Microsoft® Exchange users, delivering on the cloud's promise of greater reliability and security for organizations of all sizes. And with research suggesting that on-premises email solutions often face regular email downtime, this extension just seems to make sense.

For more information on Google Message Continuity, stop by the Google Enterprise Blog or visit www.google.com/postini.

*Osterman Research, 2009. "Key Issues in Selecting an Email Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Solution"

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Group Product Manager, Google Apps
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/introducing-google-message-continuity.html

[G] Zeitgeist 2010: How the world searched

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 01:57 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Zeitgeist 2010: How the world searched

In the search team we talk a lot about that people are always looking for new things with Google. In fact, about 20% of our queries are new each day. As it gets to be the end of the year, it's a great time to look at what searches we all have in common. In the 2010 Google Zeitgeist, we've gathered the most popular and fastest rising queries from the year to capture the joys, sorrows and curiosity that many of us felt—capturing the spirit of 2010.

For this year's Zeitgeist, we've added interactive HTML5 data visualizations for the top queries and events from around the world. You can easily compare the popularity of the Olympics vs. the World Cup, see the world's reaction to Haitian earthquake or the Gulf Oil Spill through the eyes of search trends. With these new visualizations, you can interact with, explore and obsess over search data just the way we do.

So who made the lists this year? Whether you call it soccer, futbol, 足球 or सॉकर, we all rushed to TV screens and keyboards and created a whole new search category: World Cup-related queries. In the U.S., Paul the Octopus, those incessant vuvuzelas and Ghana's team all made the top 10 list. 2010 was also a big year for the tech-obsessed, with the iPad capturing the attention of gadget junkies, reaching the top 10 fastest rising list in no fewer than 13 countries as well as the global fastest rising list.

It's also fun to look at this and see where my own interests match up with those of other searchers. For instance, I've found myself to be quite a fan of Lady Gaga, and have spent time looking for fun Halloween costumes for my children. Another thing that struck me on a personal level was the rising health search for Asperger's. Having small children, I know this is a topic of interest for a lot of parents.

The devastating earthquakes in China, Chile and Haiti as well as the floods in Pakistan and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico led to a huge spike in all things charitable. Through our search lens, we saw worldwide outreach to help those in need and the use of technology to expedite aid with the spread of text-to-donate.

Finally, for the first time, we've created a Zeitgeist Year in Review Video to capture the phenomena that shaped 2010.



We hope you enjoy this look back before we embark on 2011 and learn what the world will search for next.

Update 7:14 AM: We've removed the video to make a correction. It will be back soon.
Update 9:11 AM: The video is back—enjoy!

Posted by Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management, Search
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/zeitgeist-2010-how-world-searched.html

[G] Gmail for Android: better Priority Inbox support and improved compose

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 01:51 PM PST

Official Gmail Blog: Gmail for Android: better Priority Inbox support and improved compose

Posted by Paul Westbrook, Gmail for Android team

(Cross posted from the Mobile blog)

When we first released Gmail in Android Market back in September, we said that you'd be getting new stuff faster, and we meant it. After getting thousands of comments on that release, we made a bunch of updates based on your feedback and today we're launching Gmail for Android 2.3.2.

Priority Inbox

First of all, you told us that you love Priority Inbox and expect much better support for it on your phone. Now you can see important messages in a new Priority Inbox view.

This view includes all important messages in your inbox, regardless of whether you've read them or not. You can archive and delete conversations or mark them unimportant from there. You'll notice the importance markers you're used to seeing in the desktop version of Gmail, and you can also change a conversation's importance using the menu. To switch between inboxes or labels, try tapping on the current label.

Ever wanted to know that you got an important message without taking your phone out of your pocket? Now you can set up your phone to notify, vibrate, or ring on just your new important mail (check out Menu > Settings > Priority Inbox).

While Priority Inbox on your Android phone doesn't have all the features offered in the desktop version of Gmail, we think this is a good start and plan to add even more functionality moving forward.

Improved Compose

Since our last Market update, we adopted a few features related to composing messages from the desktop version of Gmail. Many of you asked for a better way to switch between replying to the sender to replying to all. Now, you can easily switch between reply, reply all, and forward while composing your response.


If you moved to Gmail from another webmail provider and want to continue to send email from that address, now you can send from any address you've configured in the desktop version of Gmail.



In addition, you can now respond to messages in-line.



You won't need to wait for Gingerbread to get these updates. This version of the Gmail app works for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and newer releases in most countries. (Not sure if your device is running the right version? Check here.) Get the update from Android Market (just scan the QR code below, or click here if you're on a phone) and check out the new Gmail. And don't forget to send us your feedback from within the new version of the app (from your Inbox: Menu > More > About > Feedback).
URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/gmail-for-android-better-priority-inbox.html

[G] Bringing Gmail’s reliability to Microsoft® Exchange

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:32 PM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Bringing Gmail's reliability to Microsoft® Exchange

Our customers expect Google Apps to be available all the time, from anywhere, and we're passionately committed to proving them right. We measure the success of every server request, every moment of every day, and the numbers support our belief that the cloud can be more reliable than on-premises software. We've seen in the past that Gmail can offer ten times greater reliability than a typical on-premises Microsoft® Exchange installation, and this got us to thinking...could we bring Gmail's reliability to companies currently using Microsoft® Exchange? Today, we're excited to introduce a new Postini service which accomplishes just that.

If you run Microsoft® Exchange 2003 or 2007, Google Message Continuity is a new email continuity service that can help you ensure that your users never lose access to email during a Microsoft® Exchange outage, whether planned or unplanned. By synchronizing your on-premises accounts with Google's cloud, Google Message Continuity gives you access to your up-to-date email inboxes (through the Gmail interface) no matter what happens to your on-premises servers. And once your servers come back up after an outage, messages sent and received, plus message state changes (like deletions and folder assignments) that are recorded by Google Message Continuity during the outage, are then synchronized with your servers, allowing users to seamlessly transition from Microsoft® Exchange to Gmail, then back to Microsoft® Exchange.



At $25 per user per year for new customers or an additional $13 per user per year for current Postini customers, Google Message Continuity advances our commitment to providing rapidly deployed, cost-effective email management solutions for organizations of all sizes. Additionally, for organizations interested in eventually moving to Google Apps, Google Message Continuity can provide a smooth bridge to the cloud. You can experience Gmail, Contacts, and Calendar without disrupting your current email system. If you decide to deploy Google Apps, you won't need to migrate any email data since Google Message Continuity will have already done so via synchronization.

To find out more about Google Message Continuity, please join our live webinar on December 15th where Michael Osterman, a leading technology analyst, will share current industry research and IT trends in the continuity market and explain the value of a cloud-based email continuity solution.

Google Message Continuity: A Cloud-Based Continuity Solution
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010
11 a.m. PDT / 2 p.m. EDT / 7 p.m. GMT
Register here

For more information on Google Postini's complete suite of email security, archiving, and continuity services, please visit www.google.com/postini.

Posted by Matthew O'Connor, Product Manager, Google Enterprise
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/12/bringing-gmails-reliability-to.html

[G] Google Instant for mobile now available globally

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:10 PM PST

Official Google Mobile Blog: Google Instant for mobile now available globally

When we launched Google Instant for mobile in beta back in November, we announced that we would be supporting additional countries and languages, beyond just the U.S. in English. Today we're happy to let you know that Google Instant for mobile is now available in 28 languages and 40 countries worldwide. If you have an Android 2.2+ or iOS4 device, just go to google.com in your mobile browser and you will be redirected to your local domain. Then, tap the Google Instant link beneath the search box to enable it.


Posted by Steve Kanefsky, Software Engineer
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/12/google-instant-for-mobile-now-available.html

[G] Your feedback makes a difference: Product Ideas

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 12:05 PM PST

Official Google Docs Blog: Your feedback makes a difference: Product Ideas

Many of you have visited our Product Ideas page to let us know what features you'd like to see in Google Docs or what you think we're missing. Your participation was astounding: we received over 165,000 votes on over 5,000 ideas from thousands of people around the world over the course of a year. Here are just a few of the things we launched in the last year that accomplish many of the things you've been asking for:
We're starting a new process with the Product Ideas page to make sure we keep it fresh and avoid favoring older posts. We've temporarily closed the page to new posts to gather a comprehensive look at your ideas thus far and to restructure our Product Ideas sessions.

In order to get the most precise feedback possible, the new Product Ideas sessions will be targeted at a specific feature, product or idea. These sessions will happen every three months or so for a few weeks at a time. As we receive new ideas on the Product Ideas page, we'll keep working hard to implement the top requests and ideas that are posted. We'll let you all know when the ideas page is open and post ongoing updates here on the blog and in the help forum.

Posted by: Julia Harter, Consumer Operations Associate
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/12/your-feedback-makes-difference-product.html

[G] GA As Networking Tool

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 09:27 AM PST

Google Analytics Blog: GA As Networking Tool

Talk about organic...Read about incredible organic growth below, and how Analytics helped enable it. We love to share these types of stories because they show practical usage cases of finding success with analytics. Enjoy.

Turning a hobby into a full-time job isn't always an easy feat. Zach Weiner started drawing comics in high school and he never expected he'd make a career of his clever anecdotes. When his talent agency coworker asked him why he didn't do his comics full-time, Weiner was inspired. He quit the agency a few months later to launch Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC). The daily webcomic now has over 150,000 daily visits.

Weiner uses Google Analytics to better understand those 150,000+ daily visitors. After founding SMBC in 2005, Weiner installed Google Analytics in 2008. "At that time, my traffic was starting to take off, and my old trackers couldn't keep up," says Weiner. "And the other trackers we used couldn't keep up with the quantity of visitors and began reporting absurd numbers. I had heard good things about Analytics so I decided to switch over."

Since making the switch to Google Analytics, Weiner has used the information to track the referral path to his site. By analyzing referrals to his site, he ensures he is not missing out on business opportunities. Because the livelihood of the comic is completely dependent on visitation, it's crucial for Weiner to open as many doors as possible.

"I have enough traffic now that I might miss the fact that a large blog linked me," says Weiner. "With Analytics, I can find those sorts of links and make contact with the Blogger." In this way, Weiner is able to build relationships with key Bloggers. As an example, Weiner noticed that Reddit.com was routing a significant amount of traffic to SMBC and he gave Reddit a shout out on his blog. Soon after, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian contacted Weiner and is now his publisher. Who knew Analytics could also be a networking tool?


Weiner also uses the Analytics data to build out new entry points. "I can find out which aggregators people use and try to make these aggregators more accessible. For example, I recently added a simple Facebook button under each comic after noticing how much of my traffic arrives from Facebook." To collect this information, Weiner checks the last year of referrals day over day to see what sources are spiking or dwindling.

Weiner's attention to his Analytics data has also allowed him to make changes to his AdWords targeting. "I recently found that, for reasons unclear to me, Anime blogs tend to produce high quality traffic to SMBC," says Weiner. "I recently ran ads on an Anime site that, according to Analytics, sent about 35 page views per visitor!"

The author of SMBC is now a self-admitted Analytics addict -- he has to give himself a limit on the amount of time he spends in Analytics each day. By monitoring Analytics for crucial information about referral sites, Weiner has been able to open several new doors to his site and he's built new relationships with other members of the online comic world. Make sure you get your daily dose of cereal!

Posted by Maren Bean, Google Analytics Team
URL: http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/12/ga-as-networking-tool.html

[G] Up, Up and Away - Long videos for more users

Posted: 09 Dec 2010 09:22 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Up, Up and Away - Long videos for more users

Your creativity isn't bound by a time limit, so why should your video uploads be? Back in July we raised the upload limit to 15 minutes for all users. Starting today, we'll begin allowing selected users with a history of complying with the YouTube Community Guidelines and our copyright rules to upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes.

So go find that movie you wrote and filmed last year and share it with the world! Or upload your son's championship high school basketball game or the insightful lecture you just gave on the emerging economics of green tech. As long as it's your original content, it's fair game regardless of length.

This launch has been made possible in part by the continued advances in our state-of-the-art Content ID system, as well as our other powerful tools for copyright owners. Over 1000 global partners use Content ID to manage their content on YouTube, including every major U.S. movie studio and music label. We remain as dedicated as ever to building and improving the most sophisticated technology in the world to help copyright owners protect their rights.

Just click the "Upload" button at the top of the site to see if your account qualifies. And remember, if you're uploading a video that was previously rejected for being too long, go into "My Videos" and delete the old video before uploading it again.

Joshua Siegel, Product Manager, and Doug Mayle, Software Engineer, Upload, recently watched "The Muppets: Beaker's Ballad".


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/fU_4P5y_G3s/up-up-and-away-long-videos-for-more.html
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