Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] See your location history dashboard and more with Google Maps 5.3 for Android

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 09:52 PM PDT

Google LatLong: See your location history dashboard and more with Google Maps 5.3 for Android

[Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog]

Today, we're happy to announce Google Maps 5.3 for Android, which lets you see your Google Location History dashboard, check in at "home," and add your own aspects for places when rating them.

Location History dashboard
If you've enabled Location History for Google Latitude, you've been able to visualize interesting trends in your location history with a personal dashboard at google.com/latitude on your computer. Now, you can also see your dashboard on your phone by tapping View location history from your Latitude profile. You'll be able to see right on your phone how far you've travelled as well as an estimate of how much time you've spent at home, at work, or out.

If you haven't yet, you can enable Location History from your computer or from Latitude's Settings menu on your phone. Location History is 100% opt-in and is private to you and nobody else. You can always delete any of your location history from the Manage History tab or correct the estimated work and home locations from the dashboard on your computer.

View your location history dashboard from your Latitude profile on your phone and see estimates of where you've spent your time.

Check in at home
Now that you can see how much time you spend at "home", you might want to let friends know when you're there. Checking in at places using Latitude is another way to keep a history of places you've been and also lets you share when you're there. I love letting friends and family know when I'm at a cafe or park, but sometimes I want them to know that I'm relaxing at home or made it back safely from a road trip. So now, I can start checking in at "home" in Latitude:
  1. Check in from Latitude and tap "Home - Tap to set your location" at the bottom of the nearby places list if you don't have one yet.
  2. Use the estimated current address or enter in your home address yourself.
  3. Once you've checked in at home once, "Home" will appear at the top of the list when you're checking in near there.
Like Latitude and other check-ins, checking in at home is entirely opt-in. Your set "home" location is not searchable and only you can check in there. Just like any other check-in, you can choose with whom to share your home check-ins (along with your name and address info).

Add your own aspects for places
When you're rating places on the go in Maps using Google Places with Hotpot, you could always quickly leave feedback on a specific aspect or characteristic of a place, such as the food or ambiance. Before, we'd automatically include aspects about places that were commonly mentioned in reviews. Now, you can add your own aspects for each place. So if you think a place has a beautiful view or great music, you can add it yourself and quickly share it with the world.

When rating places, you can add your own aspects like "music" for places and leave quick feedback.

To get started, update Google Maps from Android Market on devices with Android OS 1.6+ anywhere Google Maps and Latitude are already available.

Posted by Kenneth Leftin, Software Engineer, Google Maps for mobile team
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/04/see-your-location-history-dashboard-and.html

[G] Pausing the Real-World Sightings experiment

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 09:52 PM PDT

Google LatLong: Pausing the Real-World Sightings experiment

[Cross-posted from the Google SketchUp Blog]

On Friday we prematurely launched a feature called "Real-World Sightings," showcasing fantastical creatures our users have spotted around the world. We've rolled back the test, but wanted to share an explanation in case you came across any surprising images in Google Earth and Google Maps.

We're always working to provide an up-to-date, accurate reflection of the real world through our products. On Friday we learned of many additional sightings through reports submitted by our users, and we have decided to pause the beta until we can provide more comprehensive coverage of these mystical creatures.

For those of you who are curious about this brief experiment, check out the slideshow below to see all of the images and the locations included in the test.


We'd also like to take a moment to thank the Google SketchUp users who helped us create the 3D models for this experiment: Aerilius, Athinaios,  Bdhy, BerylDrue, Fingerz, Jan Wesbuer, KangaroOz, NESUA, and Zoungy.

Posted by Scott Shawcroft, Software Engineer
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/04/pausing-real-world-sightings-experiment.html

[G] Understanding the Average Position metric

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 08:44 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: Understanding the Average Position metric

For today's Inside AdWords post, we have a note from our Chief Economist at Google, Hal Varian. Hal and his team spend most of their time studying the AdWords auction and finding ways to make it more efficient. Today he'd like to share some insights on the average position metric:

Many advertisers are concerned about the average position of their ads. Though this metric can be useful, it's easy to misinterpret. This blog post is intended to help advertisers better understand the average position metric, its uses, and its limitations.

To begin with, it's important to understand that there are two interpretations of the phrase "ad position." The "page position" refers to the location on the page, such as "top ad 2" or "right-hand side ad 1." The "auction position" is the rank of the ad in the auction that determines the order of the ads on the page. The critical point is that the reported average position metric is based on auction position, not page position.

Example showing page with top and right-hand side ads

Example showing page with only right-hand side ads

This means that an ad in auction position 1 will always be the first ad shown on the page, but it can occur in two possible page positions: as the first ad above the search results or as the first ad on the right-hand side when there are no ads above the search results. This distinction is important, since, on average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the right-hand side. The difference between page and auction position can lead to some seemingly paradoxical outcomes.

An ad with a larger average position may perform better than an ad with a smaller average position

If you bid on a keyword that many other advertisers are bidding on, you may end up in a relatively low position on the page due to the competition from other bidders. However, the very fact that many people are bidding on that keyword suggests that it will perform well, even when your ad is placed lower on the page. On the other hand, if you bid on a keyword that no one else is bidding on, you may end up in position 1 by default but end up with few clicks. What matters is how the keyword performs in terms of clicks and cost, not where it ends up on the page.

Increasing a bid may improve page position but not auction position

Suppose your ad always appears in position 1 on the right-hand side, and there are no "top ads" above the search results. You now increase your bid. If your ad quality is high enough, the bid increase can move it to a page position above the search results. This improved page position will typically produce more clicks, but there will be no change in the average position metric, since the ad's auction position hasn't changed: it's 1 in each case.

A bid increase may move your average position lower on the page

When you increase your bid, your ad will generally show up on the first page in more auctions, particularly when using broad match. Since you weren't bidding enough to appear in those auctions originally, your ad will tend to come in at the bottom of the first page in those new auctions.

For example, think of a situation where you're bidding on vegan dog food (broad match), and your ad consistently appears at auction position 1 when the user enters vegan dog food, but your bid is too low for the ad to show (on the first page) when the user enters dog food. Now you increase your bid and start showing up in auction position 7 for dog food queries. If there are the same number of queries for dog food and vegan dog food, your average position will be (1+7)/2 = 4. So by increasing your bid, you've moved your average position metric from 1 to 4—even though your ad never appeared in position 4!

An average is not always the best way to summarize a distribution of positions

The seemingly paradoxical effect described in the last example can even appear with exact match, since differences in bids and budgets among advertisers lead to considerable variation in auction participation. You should think about "position" as being a distribution of outcomes—sometimes you're in one position, sometimes another. The "average position" is one way to summarize this distribution, but it isn't necessarily the best way.

It's important to keep in mind that average position measures your position in the auction, not your position on the page.

Examining bids, clicks, and costs

One very helpful tool for examining the relationship among these metrics is Bid Simulator. The Bid Simulator shows you an estimate of the "click-cost curve"—a simulation based on historical data of how much you would have had to bid, and how much it could have cost, to acquire some target number of clicks in the previous week. If you combine the click-cost curve with your value of clicks, you can find a bid that maximizes your overall profit. It also shows you an estimate of the number of top and RHS impressions an ad could have received, a metric that tends to be more meaningful for measuring ad exposure than average position.

Some advertisers have asked how clicks from different positions tend to convert. In general, we've found that conversion rates don't vary much with the position of the ad on the page. An ad in a more prominent position on the page will tend to get both more clicks and more conversions than an ad in a lower position, but the conversion rate (conversions/clicks) will tend to be about the same for the two positions.

In summary, average position is a popular metric, but don't rely on it alone as a measure of performance. The metrics that really matter are clicks, costs, and conversions.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/04/understanding-average-position-metric.html

[G] Our Gone Google Story: Oakwood Junior School uses Google Apps to help students collaborate...and manage their biscuits!

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 06:59 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Our Gone Google Story: Oakwood Junior School uses Google Apps to help students collaborate...and manage their biscuits!

Editor's Note: Recently we announced the winners of our global Gone Google ad contest. Today's featured winners are the pupils and staff of Oakwood Junior School in Southampton, U.K.

Oakwood Junior School is a junior school for boys and girls, situated in Lordswood, Southampton. The school has 240 pupils from the age of 7 to 11. We have over 300 Google Apps users and after just twelve months we rely heavily on Google Apps for the day-to-day running of the school.



We're using Google Apps for Education for all of our pupils and members of staff. Within the school, pupils as young as 7 are able to vote for their House Captains with Google forms. They also use shared folders in Google Docs to share and store information to help them manage their micro-businesses selling biscuits. In addition, our teachers and administrative staff can arrange appointments and events with Google Calendar and staff bulletins are posted and stored using Google Sites. We've been able to survey our Year 6 pupils with Google forms which provided instant feedback to their teachers.



We also use Google Apps to communicate and collaborate outside the school - we share meeting agendas and minutes with our school Governors with Google Docs and this year, nearly 50% of parents booked parent-teacher meetings online using Google forms.

Our school's strength in information technology has been externally recognised by OFSTED, the schools' inspectorate. We have recommended Google Apps to local schools, and four other primaries in Southampton are now using Google Apps - and others are joining too!

Posted by Ian Taylor, Headteacher, Oakwood Junior School
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/04/our-gone-google-story-oakwood-junior.html

[G] Patents and innovation

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 09:14 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Patents and innovation

The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation. Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival's new technology. The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It's for these reasons that Google has long argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole.

But as things stand today, one of a company's best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories.

So after a lot of thought, we've decided to bid for Nortel's patent portfolio in the company's bankruptcy auction. Today, Nortel selected our bid as the "stalking-horse bid," which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community—which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome—continue to innovate. In the absence of meaningful reform, we believe it's the best long-term solution for Google, our users and our partners.

Posted by Kent Walker, Senior Vice President & General Counsel
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/patents-and-innovation.html
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