Thursday, February 24, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Congratulations to Ken Thompson

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 01:49 AM PST

Official Google Research Blog: Congratulations to Ken Thompson

Posted by Bill Coughran, Senior Vice President of Engineering

I'm happy to share that Ken Thompson has been chosen as the recipient of the prestigious Japan Prize. The Japan Prize is bestowed for achievements in science and technology that promote the peace and prosperity of mankind.

Ken was awarded the prize along with Dennis Ritchie for their development of the UNIX operating system in 1969 while at Bell Labs. UNIX changed the direction of computing as a whole and paved the way for the development of the personal computers and the server systems that power the Internet.

It's an enormous source of pride for us to have such amazing talent working here and Ken continues to serve as an inspiration to the rest of us. We're excited to see what Ken will come up with next.

You can read the full press release here.
URL: http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2011/02/congratulations-to-ken-thompson.html

[G] Anhanguera Educational has gone Google

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 02:05 PM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Anhanguera Educational has gone Google


Cloud computing is very much a global phenomenon, and today we'd like to share a story from Latin America. Anhanguera Educational (Anhanguera Educacional Participações S.A), the largest private educational network in Latin America, has chosen Google Apps for Business to make communication and collaboration more dynamic for its 310,000 students, administrators and staff. Among other benefits, the move to Apps will help students prepare to use 100% web tools like Gmail and Google Docs in a business context when they graduate.

Here's what the administrators of Anhanguera have to say. According to Ana Maria Costa, vice president of Academics, "With Google, we want to introduce new concepts into the educational process and break away from a few well-worn paradigms. One of the most relevant goals is to transform the role of the teacher, who ceases to be the primary actor and adopts the role of one who stimulates and guides, while the student, instead of being only a passive receiver, becomes an active participant in his own learning. Google Apps will help us stimulate self-directed and interactive learning, collaboration and mobility while making relationships between students and professors less hierarchical."

Antonio Carbonari Netto, founder and president of Anhanguera's Administrative Council said, "We want to offer young professionals who are studying at our institutions the opportunity to access the most advanced technological solutions in the market -- those that will contribute to their academic and professional development."

The beat of cloud computing is increasing, insistent and irresistible, and it's transforming the way we learn and do business around the world. You can find out more about why our customers agree on the Google Apps for Business website.

Posted by Antonio Luiz Schuch, Director of Google Enterprise, Latin America
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/02/anhanguera-educational-has-gone-google.html

[G] Google Apps Certification Program launches

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 02:05 PM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Google Apps Certification Program launches

Adoption of Google Apps is accelerating around the world with over 3 million businesses that have gone Google. Google Apps Authorized Resellers play a critical role in helping businesses get started. As our partner community has more than doubled in the last year to over 2,500 partners in over 70 countries, partners have been seeking opportunities to demonstrate their expertise and competence to a growing customer base.

We are therefore happy to announce the Google Apps Certification Program, which recognizes IT professionals for demonstrated abilities to sell, deploy, develop, and support Google Apps. Available today globally, is the first of these certifications, the Google Apps Certified Deployment Specialist, which certifies IT professionals who have demonstrated the fundamental knowledge and skills required to migrate to, configure, and deploy Google Apps.

"As we continue to build out our global Google Apps practice, it is essential for us to differentiate ourselves and to gain recognition for the great depth of Apps expertise we have developed with so many customers. The Google Apps Certification Program will help generate new client interest by highlighting our commitment to offering the highest-value consulting services to the market," explains Jon Hallett, CEO of Cloud Sherpas, a Google Apps Authorized Reseller.

Like Google Apps, this certification is 100% web – any IT professional with a browser and an Internet connection can register to take the online proctored exam. It is available in English now, and will soon be available in additional languages. To learn more, go to certification.googleapps.com.

Posted by Stephen Cho, Director, Google Apps Channels
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-apps-certification-program.html

[G] Printed treasures from the Golden City

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 10:30 AM PST

Inside Google Books: Printed treasures from the Golden City

Posted by Annabella Weisl, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google Books

If "God is in one of the letters of one of the pages of one of the four hundred thousand books of Clementinum," as a librarian claims in a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, who was also the director of the Argentine National Library, we will never know. But the nature of the divine is one prevailing subject in some of the most magnificent books curated in the historical collection of the Czech National Library. This includes works of the Czech reformer Jan Hus and the theologists Johann Amos Comenius, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther.

With a history dating back to the 11th century, the Clementinum hosting the Czech National Library until today used to be one of the world's major Jesuit colleges and was established as an observatory, library and university by the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in the late 18th century. The Czech National Library has many unique collections such as the Mozartiana, Comeniana, a large number of Bohemica and one of the most comprehensive collections of Slavonic literature in the world. The works collected in the Clementinum are written in a multitude of languages: besides Czech for instance Russian, Polish, South-Slavic languages, German, Latin, Italian, French and Greek. The digitization of these books will offer valuable sources for scholars and interested readers all over the world.

Today we are announcing the agreement with the Czech National Library to digitize up to 200,000 works from the historical collection, managed by the Department of Historical and Musical Archives of the Czech National Library and the Slavic Library. These are all published between the 16th and 18th century.

Through this cooperation important works of literature, philosophy and the natural sciences which could only be accessed by a few will become a common good. Projects like this help to overcome not only geographical but also cultural and social boundaries.

We are very happy to be able to open up another European treasure chest to everyone and welcome the Czech National Library as our twelfth European library partner.
URL: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2011/02/printed-treasures-from-golden-city.html

[G] The three laws of display advertising physics

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 10:16 AM PST

Official Google Blog: The three laws of display advertising physics

It's not just the Android team that is exploring the outer reaches of our galaxy. In recent years, advertising technology has had its own "Big Bang": a rapid onset of incredible growth and expansion in the display advertising universe.

Display advertising is one of our big focus areas. Better display advertising helps to fund the websites and content we all use and read, provides useful and engaging commercial information, and helps large and small advertisers to reach new customers, increase sales and grow their businesses.

Just as the laws of physics have helped us make sense of our own expanding universe, we think that there are three "laws of display advertising physics" to help advertisers and agencies thrive. We've laid out these laws and what they mean for advertisers and agencies on our Agency Ad Solutions Blog:
  1. The Theory of Relativity: The distinction between different advertising technologies (like ad networks and demand side platforms) is blurring. Each of these technologies provides similar ways to achieve your marketing goals, depending on how you want to manage your campaign.

  2. Fusion Theory: There's a few different ways to deliver ads to people. Each on their own is powerful, but combining these different ways unlocks the best results.

  3. The Law of Perpetual Motion: New technology is driving rapid change in display advertising—which is constantly improving marketers' creative palettes and the way that ads are bought and sold. Embracing new media and technology provides a key way for marketers to differentiate and grow their businesses in a new universe.
The expansion in the advertising industry is leading towards a future with a better advertising universe for everyone—where people see more relevant, useful ads, publishers get better returns to fund their content and marketers can run more effective campaigns.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/three-laws-of-display-advertising.html

[G] Investing in news innovation in Europe

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 10:16 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Investing in news innovation in Europe

(Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog)

Journalism is changing fast. And as news businesses experiment with new ways of creating and delivering journalism in the digital age, Google is keen to play its part on the technology side. Over the last year, we've been partnering with publishers around the world to develop technological solutions—including, most recently, One Pass—to find new and engaging ways of presenting stories online and to generate greater revenues.

As well as our focus on technological experimentation, we're also investing at the grassroots level. Last October we announced that we would be giving $5 million in grants to non-profit organisations working on developing new approaches to journalism. At that time, we allocated around 40% of the total fund to the Knight Foundation in the U.S.

Today, we awarded a $2.7 million grant to the International Press Institute, based in Vienna, which will be used to sponsor the IPI News Innovation Contest. The contest seeks to find and fund breakthrough ideas that will have a lasting impact on the future of digital news in communities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Grants will be awarded to both non-profit and for-profit organisations working on digital journalism initiatives, including open-source and mobile technology projects created by or for journalists and distributed in the public interest. From today until June 1, the IPI will invite proposals from around the region for projects devoted to online innovation in journalism, new economic models for news and training in digital reporting.

The IPI has a long tradition of working on innovation in journalism, freedom of expression and other important issues. We're sure they'll be able to find and advance some great digital journalism projects over the next couple of years—and we encourage anyone with innovative ideas, large or small, to apply for a grant from the IPI. In the meantime, we'll continue to work with the news industry to help develop new projects, products and experiments that make it possible for journalism to thrive online.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director of External Relations, Google EMEA
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/investing-in-news-innovation-in-europe.html

[G] This week in Docs: Now you see them, now you don’t - hidden gridlines in Google spreadsheets

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 09:41 AM PST

Docs Blog: This week in Docs: Now you see them, now you don't - hidden gridlines in Google spreadsheets

Today we're excited to announce a highly requested feature to hide the default gridlines. Under the View menu, you can Hide gridlines for each sheet, leaving only the borders that have been put there.




Now you can make your printouts a little bit neater or polish your sheets to a shine before sharing them. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Posted by: Matthew Ziegelbaum, Software Engineer
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-week-in-docs-now-you-see-them-now.html

[G] Speaker Boehner takes your questions on YouTube as U.S. budget stand-off continues

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 08:15 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Speaker Boehner takes your questions on YouTube as U.S. budget stand-off continues

With many U.S. states facing budget crises, and the President's recent budget proposal being met with skepticism by Republicans, the financial health of the U.S. is capturing interest around the world.



As the budget debate heats up on Capitol Hill, we invite you to submit your questions for one of the most vocal opponents to President Obama's proposed budget plan - Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH).



Speaker Boehner will sit down for a special YouTube interview next week, in which he'll answer your top-voted text and video questions about the budget and spending, as well as other hot topics like the economy, jobs, health care and foreign policy.



Visit www.youtube.com/speakerboehner and use the Google Moderator gadget to submit your question and vote on others. Or you can tweet in your question using the hashtag #askthespeaker and it will automatically be eligible for voting in the queue.



A few things to note when asking your question:

  1. Video questions are highly preferred (though we also accept text). Videos should be about 20 seconds long and be sure to ask the question directly.

  2. Speak clearly and try to film in a place with minimal background noise. Keep the camera as still as possible.

  3. Feel free to be creative (use props, charts, etc.) to help your question stand out. If you have time, find an interesting backdrop that may help reinforce your message.

  4. Submit your question early. The final deadline to submit is Sunday, February 27 at midnight ET.



We'll post the final interview next Friday so stay tuned to see if the Speaker answers your question.



Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics Manager, recently watched "Movements.org"



URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/RJorUf9itGk/speaker-boehner-takes-your-questions-on.html
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