Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] 100 years of celebrating women

Posted: 07 Mar 2011 10:27 PM PST

Official Google Blog: 100 years of celebrating women

As today's doodle shows, we're very excited to celebrate the centenary of International Women's Day. Late last month we teamed up with Women for Women International to announce the Join me on the Bridge campaign, a celebration of the achievements of women taking place on bridges around the world. Since then almost 300 bridge events in more than 50 countries have been added to the map. I've found it inspiring to watch all of those little red pins pop up, knowing that each of them represents a group of women and their supporters coming together to let the world know how far we've come.


In addition to the flagship events happening throughout the day on the Brooklyn Bridge (New York), the Millennium Bridge (London) and the Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco), women and men are gathering in places as far-flung as Kabul, Afghanistan, La Paz, Bolivia and Sydney, Australia.

It's not too late to join the celebrations and show your support—simply find an event on the map. Remember to "check in" to the event on the map before the end of the day, and if you have photos or videos of an event, it's easy to share them with the world: just click on the pin for the event you attended (or want to support virtually) and start uploading.

We hope you'll also consider donating to one of the more than 40 incredible women's organizations participating in our celebration. You can learn more and make a donation at google.com/iwd2011.

Plus, when you use Google Maps on March 8, you'll notice that Pegman, Street View's trusted guide, has a new friend. He invited his colleague Pegwoman to join him on the map today to celebrate International Women's Day!

Posted by Claire Hughes Johnson, VP, Global Online Sales, and Chair, Google Women's Professional Community
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/100-years-of-celebrating-women.html

[G] You’ve got better things to do than wait in traffic

Posted: 07 Mar 2011 10:27 PM PST

Official Google Blog: You've got better things to do than wait in traffic

(Cross-posted on the LatLong Blog and Mobile Blog)

Ever been stuck in traffic, only to find out you'd have been better off going a bit out of your way to take a less congested route? If you're like me, you probably hear the traffic report telling you what you already know: traffic is bad on the road you're currently on, and you should have taken another. It doesn't need to be this way, and we want to help. So we're happy to announce that Google Maps Navigation (Beta) will now automatically route you around traffic. With more than 35 million miles driven by Navigation users every day, this should add up to quite a bit of time saved!

On a recent trip to New York, I was running late to meet some friends at the Queens Museum of Art. I had no idea that there was a traffic jam along the route I would normally have taken. Thankfully, Navigation routed me around traffic. I didn't even have to know that there was a traffic jam on I-495, and I got to enjoy a much faster trip on I-278 instead.


Navigation now uses real-time traffic conditions to automatically route you around traffic.


You don't have to do anything to be routed around traffic; just start Navigation like you normally would, either from the Navigation app or from within Google Maps. Before today, Navigation would choose whichever route was fastest, without taking current traffic conditions into account. It would also generate additional alternate directions, such as the shortest route or one that uses highways instead of side roads. Starting today, our routing algorithms will also apply our knowledge of current and historical traffic to select the fastest route from those alternates. That means that Navigation will automatically guide you along the best route given the current traffic conditions.

Not only can you save time and fuel, you're making traffic better for everyone else by avoiding traffic jams. Keep in mind that we can't guarantee that Navigation will be able to find a faster way, but it will always try to get you where you're going as fast as possible.

You can begin routing around traffic with Google Maps Navigation for Android in North America and Europe where both Navigation and real-time traffic data are available.

Enjoy your newly found free time!

Posted by Roy Williams, Software Engineer, Google Maps Team
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/youve-got-better-things-to-do-than-wait.html

[G] Live online tutorial on ‘Ad Extensions - making a good thing even better!’

Posted: 07 Mar 2011 02:49 PM PST

Inside AdWords: Live online tutorial on 'Ad Extensions - making a good thing even better!'

On Wednesday March 9th we'll be holding a live and interactive tutorial all about Ad Extensions in AdWords. Ad Extensions allow you to expand a standard text ad with one or more lines that provide additional information such as an address and phone number, additional page links and product images.

While the standard text ad format can often provide enough information for users to find what they're looking for, including a picture, for example, could make the message more relevant and valuable. Similarly, having a map can help someone find your location more easily. During this live course we'll discuss the benefits and implementation of Sitelinks as well as Location, Product and Mobile Extensions.

This live course will be presented by AdWords Specialists as part of the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) and is appropriate for advertisers who want to make their ads as informative as possible. It will take place on Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 3pm - 4pm (GMT), 7am-8am (PST) so make sure to sign up now!

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/03/live-online-tutorial-on-ad-extensions.html

[G] Supercharging the “Next” Phase in YouTube Partner Development

Posted: 07 Mar 2011 02:40 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Supercharging the "Next" Phase in YouTube Partner Development

2010 was a big year for content creators on YouTube. Our Partner Program grew to over 15,000 partners worldwide; presidential parodies and clever online-only ads became viral sensations; "annoying" but lovable fruits and unassuming Alabamans transformed uncomfortable situations into triumphant social memes. What became clearer than ever was the YouTube community's ability to constantly bring new entertainment and experiences into the mainstream. And, many of our partners were making enough money doing what they love to buy a new house, or even make a career out of their videos. In fact, the number of partners making over $1,000 a month is up 300% since the beginning of 2010 and we now have hundreds of partners making six figures a year. But frankly, "hundreds" making a living on YouTube isn't enough and in 2011 we know we can and should do more to help our partners grow.

Today, we are happy to announce a significant increase in our commitment to our aspiring and successful creators on YouTube.
  • YouTube Next. YouTube Next is a new team tasked with supercharging creator development and accelerating partner growth and success. The team will also spearhead a series of YouTube Next-branded programs and services that will build off past partner development initiatives such as the Partner Grants Program that advanced partners funds based on future YouTube revenue share and the recent $1,000 credits at B&H Photo given to partners to purchase new camera equipment. The YouTube Next team and programs will expand our partner meet-ups and community events, increase investment in partner education and training and launch new capabilities in audience development.
  • Next New Networks. We are extremely excited to announce the acquisition of Next New Networks. Since launching in March 2007, the Next New Networks team has built a highly effective platform for developing, packaging and building audiences around original web video programming, attracting over 2 billion views and 6 million subscribers across their partner networks of channels and shows. Within YouTube, Next New Networks will be a laboratory for experimentation and innovation with the team working in a hands on way with a wide variety of content partners and emerging talent to help them succeed on YouTube. We are thrilled with the new capability the team brings and the positive impact it will have making our YouTube partners more successful.
At YouTube, we're focused on building a great technology platform for creators, and so we leave the actual creation of great videos to the people who do it best: our partners. This new group and the addition of the Next New Networks team doesn't change that. But being a great platform for creators also means helping our partners get the tools and guidance they need to develop higher quality videos and drive bigger audiences to their work.

2011 promises to be an exciting year for the online video industry. We look forward to announcing more YouTube Next initiatives throughout the year, chronicling the impact on partners and highlighting the results on this blog for everyone to enjoy.

Tom Pickett, Director of Global Content Operations and YouTube Next, recently watched "GoPro HD: Human Flight - World Base Race 2010 with Neil Amonson"


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/z6WW2hKDmys/supercharging-next-phase-in-youtube.html

[G] Improving Revevol’s Productivity with Google Apps Script

Posted: 07 Mar 2011 10:26 AM PST

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Improving Revevol's Productivity with Google Apps Script

Editor's Note: Guest authors Lynn Jaber and Romain Vialard work at Revevol, the first international service provider dedicated to Google Apps. Each day, they imagine new ways to improve their business processes with Google technology!


At Revevol, we train clients' employees who have just migrated to Google Apps, to help them get the most out of their new system. The more Revevol grows, the more customer trainings we have to handle, so we need to quickly find available trainers depending on parameters like the training date, language, location of trainers and trainer skills.

Google Apps Script, a cloud scripting language based on JavaScript, is wired into almost every Google product, so it's a perfect solution for checking calendars and spreadsheets, and solving our scheduling problems. In the early days, we were using a simple Google Form. It was really easy to put together and simple to use, but one thing was missing: the form just collected data -- there was no way it could automatically take action based on information submitted. Someone had to manually process the information.

This is where Apps Script came to the rescue -- with a little JavaScript code we could build an interactive form that we so badly needed. In a single day, Apps Script let us build a shiny new graphical user interface for our tool, which lets let us dynamically search for available trainers across all skill levels and categories.

How did we do it? We recreated our form using Ui Services in Apps Script. We added a panel next to the form, to show the search results of trainers that match our queries. By using Spreadsheet Services in Apps Script, we could search and fetch data from a spreadsheet that serves as our database of trainers. We also added the ability to sort the search results of trainers by skill level and distance from the training location.




Thanks to integration with Google Maps Services in Apps Script, we're even able to display a map to help our project managers find the closest trainer. Project managers can select more than one trainer from search results and each selected trainer will receive a calendar invitation. The first to respond "Yes" gets the training assignment. It was incredibly easy to build and deploy this application. In one click, we published it so anyone at Revevol can access the tool in their browsers. Apps Script helped us automate this tedious business process!




Posted by Romain Vialard and Lynn Jaber, Revevol
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/03/improving-revevols-productivity-with.html
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)