Googland |
- [G] Protect yourself from scams by knowing who really emailed you
- [G] Protect yourself from scams by knowing who really emailed you
- [G] Evolving the Google design and experience
- [G] Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web
- [G] Celebrating Pride 2011
- [G] Introducing Solar Permit AppEngine Examples
- [G] Music Tuesday: Mystery bands, Buddy Holly and more
- [G] Examining the impact of clean energy innovation
- [G] The J. Paul Getty Museum collection comes alive with Google Goggles
- [G] Webbing the gap between science and the public
- [G] Discover Your World in 3D, again
- [G] City names in Google Earth, now in your preferred language
| [G] Protect yourself from scams by knowing who really emailed you Posted: 29 Jun 2011 04:57 AM PDT The Google Apps Blog: Protect yourself from scams by knowing who really emailed youPosted by Ela Iwaszkiewicz, Software EngineerI recently received an email from what looked like my bank saying I should update my account, but it looked a little weird. I clicked on the "show details" link and quickly learned it wasn't from my bank after all; instead of being sent from First National Bank's real email address, this message originated from a random South African domain. If I hadn't viewed these details, I could have been tricked — it wasn't entirely obvious that this email was a fake.  Phishing messages are a form of spam that attempt to deceive recipients in order to gain access to their personal information. Starting today, Gmail will automatically display more information about the origin of certain messages you receive so you can be better informed and protect yourself from getting tricked. If someone fakes a message from a sender that you trust, like your bank, you can more easily see that the message is not really from where it says it's from. Whenever you receive a message from someone who isn't already in your Gmail contacts, the header will now show the sender's email address like this:  Websites sometimes send emails on behalf of someone, like when your friend Mike sends you an article from abc.com using one of the site's "Share this story" links. Gmail will now show this information more prominently:  Gmail will also automatically detect suspicious messages and display a warning when it looks like someone may have spoofed a Gmail address (we do this by evaluating the message's authentication data).  If you determine that an email is a phishing attempt, please let us know by reporting it (you can always do this by clicking the down arrow next to "Reply" at the top-right of the message and selecting "Report phishing"). To learn more about how to avoid phishing scams, check out these previous posts: How to steer clear of money scams How to avoid getting hooked Ensuring your information is safe online Fighting phishing with eBay and PayPal New in Labs: The super-trustworthy, anti-phishing key   URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/qVS5czEwWy8/protect-yourself-from-scams-by-knowing.html       |
| [G] Protect yourself from scams by knowing who really emailed you Posted: 28 Jun 2011 09:54 PM PDT Official Gmail Blog: Protect yourself from scams by knowing who really emailed youPosted by Ela Iwaszkiewicz, Software EngineerI recently received an email from what looked like my bank saying I should update my account, but it looked a little weird. I clicked on the "show details" link and quickly learned it wasn't from my bank after all; instead of being sent from First National Bank's real email address, this message originated from a random South African domain. If I hadn't viewed these details, I could have been tricked — it wasn't entirely obvious that this email was a fake. Phishing messages are a form of spam that attempt to deceive recipients in order to gain access to their personal information. Starting today, Gmail will automatically display more information about the origin of certain messages you receive so you can be better informed and protect yourself from getting tricked. If someone fakes a message from a sender that you trust, like your bank, you can more easily see that the message is not really from where it says it's from. Whenever you receive a message from someone who isn't already in your Gmail contacts, the header will now show the sender's email address like this: Websites sometimes send emails on behalf of someone, like when your friend Mike sends you an article from abc.com using one of the site's "Share this story" links. Gmail will now show this information more prominently: Gmail will also automatically detect suspicious messages and display a warning when it looks like someone may have spoofed a Gmail address (we do this by evaluating the message's authentication data). If you determine that an email is a phishing attempt, please let us know by reporting it (you can always do this by clicking the down arrow next to "Reply" at the top-right of the message and selecting "Report phishing"). To learn more about how to avoid phishing scams, check out these previous posts: How to steer clear of money scams How to avoid getting hooked Ensuring your information is safe online Fighting phishing with eBay and PayPal New in Labs: The super-trustworthy, anti-phishing key URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/protect-yourself-from-scams-by-knowing.html   |
| [G] Evolving the Google design and experience Posted: 28 Jun 2011 02:28 PM PDT Official Google Blog: Evolving the Google design and experienceStarting today, you might begin noticing that things look a little different across Google products. We're working on a project to bring you a new and improved Google experience, and over the next few months, you'll continue to see more updates to our look and feel. Even our classic homepage is getting a bit of a makeover: New Google homepage with a smaller logo and links moved to the top and bottom edges of the browser for a cleaner look The way people use and experience the web is evolving, and our goal is to give you a more seamless and consistent online experience—one that works no matter which Google product you're using or what device you're using it on. The new Google experience that we've begun working toward is founded on three key design principles: focus, elasticity and effortlessness.
 Original Google homepage in 1997 Starting today and over the course of the next few months, look for a series of design improvements across all our products, including Google Search, Google Maps and Gmail. Posted by Chris Wiggins, Creative Director, Digital  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/evolving-google-design-and-experience.html   |
| [G] Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web Posted: 28 Jun 2011 02:28 PM PDT Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the webUpdate: For our international readers, this post is also available in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. - Ed.Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, we connect with others every single day. Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it. We'd like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project: +Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter most Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss. The problem is that today's online services turn friendship into fast food—wrapping everyone in "friend" paper—and sharing really suffers:
From close family to foodies, we found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So we did the only thing that made sense: we brought Circles to software. Just make a circle, add your people, and share what's new—just like any other day: +Sparks: strike up a conversation, about pretty much anything Healthy obsessions inspire sharing, and we've all got one (or two, or three...). Maybe it's muscle cars, or comic books, or fashion, but the attraction is always the same: it comes up in conversation, we immediately jump in, and we share back and forth with other fans. Often for hours. The trick is getting things started, and getting over that initial hump. Fortunately, the web is the ultimate icebreaker. The web, of course, is filled with great content—from timely articles to vibrant photos to funny videos. And great content can lead to great conversations. We noticed, however, that it's still too hard to find and share the things we care about—not without lots of work, and lots of noise. So, we built an online sharing engine called Sparks. Thanks to Google's web expertise, Sparks delivers a feed of highly contagious content from across the Internet. On any topic you want, in over 40 languages. Simply add your interests, and you'll always have something to watch, read and share—with just the right circle of friends: +Hangouts: stop by and say hello, face-to-face-to-face Whether it's inside a pub or on a front porch, human beings have always enjoyed hanging out. And why not? It's how we unwind, recharge, and spend unscheduled time with old and new friends alike. Hanging out is deceptively simple though, and the nuance gets lost online. Just think: when you walk into the pub or step onto your front porch, you're in fact signaling to everyone around, "Hey, I've got some time, so feel free to stop by." Further, it's this unspoken understanding that puts people at ease, and encourages conversation. But today's online communication tools (like instant messaging and video-calling) don't understand this subtlety:
+Mobile: share what's around, right now, without any hassle These days a phone is the perfect sharing accessory: it's always with you, it's always online, and it's how we stay close with our closest friends. We didn't want "just" a mobile experience, however, so with Google+ we focused on things (like GPS, cameras, and messaging) to make your pocket computer even more personal. +Location, location, location In life, the places we visit shape conversations in lots of meaningful ways. If we call John from the airport, he'll likely ask about our trip. Or if Jane texts from a nearby restaurant, we might join her for dessert. With Google+ you can add your location to every post. (Or not. It's always up to you.) +Instant Upload Getting photos off your phone is a huge pain, so most of us don't even bother. Of course pictures are meant to be shared, not stranded, so we created Instant Upload to help you never leave a photo behind. While you're snapping pictures, and with your permission, Google+ adds your photos to a private album in the cloud. This way they're always available across your devices—ready to share as you see fit. +Huddle Coordinating with friends and family in real-time is really hard in real life. After all, everyone's on different schedules, in different places, and plans can change at any moment. Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they're not quite right for getting the gang together. So Google+ includes Huddle, a group messaging experience that lets everyone inside the circle know what's going on, right this second. Starting today Google+ is available on Android Market and the mobile web, and it's coming soon to the App Store. +You: putting you first, all across Google That's the Google+ project so far: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and mobile. We're beginning in Field Trial, so you may find some rough edges, and the project is by invitation only. But online sharing needs a serious re-think, so it's time we got started. There's just one more thing—really the only thing: You. You and over a billion others trust Google, and we don't take this lightly. In fact we've focused on the user for over a decade: liberating data, working for an open Internet, and respecting people's freedom to be who they want to be. We realize, however, that Google+ is a different kind of project, requiring a different kind of focus—on you. That's why we're giving you more ways to stay private or go public; more meaningful choices around your friends and your data; and more ways to let us know how we're doing. All across Google. When your invite arrives we hope you'll join the project. But it's entirely up to +You. Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President, Engineering  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html   |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2011 02:28 PM PDT Official Google Blog: Celebrating Pride 2011More than a thousand Googlers participated in Pride celebrations in a dozen cities to support equality and remember the sacrifices of those who have made life better for members of the LGBT* community today. While we celebrated the legalization of marriage equality in New York, the state where the gay rights movement in the United States began more than 40 years ago, our participation was especially global this year: we were at Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia for the first time and supported Pink Dot in Singapore. From San Francisco to Dublin to Tel Aviv to Boston, we stepped out in large numbers for Pride parades around the world in a colorful swirl of Gaygler and Android Pride t-shirts. As in years past, we featured a month-long easter egg in our search results worldwide to celebrate Pride, adding a rainbow next to the search box for a number of Pride-related queries including [lgbt], [marriage equality] and [pride 2011].But it's not just during Pride week that we celebrate and promote equality and diversity. We've partnered with various organizations and earlier this year employees contributed their stories to the It Gets Better project. In addition to our external efforts, we're also working from within. Recently, we extended domestic partner benefits in regions such as China and Hong Kong. Last year, Google adopted a policy promoting benefits equality through a gross-up on imputed taxes for health insurance. We provided the equivalent of the Family and Medical Leave Act for same-sex domestic partners and updated the definition of infertility. Happily, over the last year we've been approached by many organizations looking to do the same. Gayglers around the globe created this video to increase awareness about the LGBT community at Google, and we're happy to share it with you today. Posted by Cynthia Yeung, Strategic Partner Development Team *LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender but, without letting the acronym get too unwieldy, is also intended to include people who identify as queer, asexual or intersex, amongst others.  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/celebrating-pride-2011.html   |
| [G] Introducing Solar Permit AppEngine Examples Posted: 28 Jun 2011 11:44 AM PDT Google Open Source Blog: Introducing Solar Permit AppEngine ExamplesIt was a milestone that took over 50 years, and at last solar panel manufacturers can produce their modules for less than $1/Watt. Now, the renewable energy community is faced with the dilemma that the permitting and interconnection costs, i.e. the paperwork, is a significant fraction of the cost of a rooftop installation. To deploy gigaWatts of solar energy in the United States these costs need to drop. In response, the Department of Energy has made permitting part of its Sun Shot Initiative and SolarTech has launched its Solar Permitting Challenge. And now Google is pleased to announce Solar Permitting Code Examples to make it faster for software developers to be productive using AppEngine. A small team of Googlers (Alex Martelli, Arjun Satyapal, Clay Murphy, Luke Stone, Ross Koningstein and Dave Fork) pooled their 20% time to help out. We tried to make the task of building a web based permitting application easier by providing examples of essential tasks in AppEngine including login, creating new permit requests, uploading files, and gathering statistics. Two different versions, one in Python and one in Java, were created. We were inspired to create this code example by the work that SolarTech has done to promote faster permitting through its Solar Permitting Challenge, and by the Solar ABCs efforts to produce a simple, uniform process for solar permitting. The user login screen for the Python code example appears below.  Navigant consulting estimates that there are 700 gigaWatts of solar power generation resource on rooftops in the United States. Overall, we believe that efforts to streamline the workflow connected with rooftop solar installations could reduce the costs of installations by 50 cents/Watt. Please help us help the industry make this a reality. By Dave Fork, Solar Permitting Team Member     URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleOpenSourceBlog/~3/1mczofzbIwI/introducing-solar-permit-appengine.html   |
| [G] Music Tuesday: Mystery bands, Buddy Holly and more Posted: 28 Jun 2011 08:01 AM PDT YouTube Blog: Music Tuesday: Mystery bands, Buddy Holly and moreThings have been popping on youtube.com/music over the last week. Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti's son Seun just released a new album, and in honor of the potent genre his dad created, we put together a playlist of Afrobeat essentials. We also joined the world in celebrating pride week last weekend with a clutch of gay anthems new and old. And we turned our attention to England, where the Glastonbury music festival raged. We remembered Glastos past and heard from a young band named Viva Brother, who played the festival for the first time and guided us through the experience. Oh yeah, and pop star/actress Selena Gomez debuted her new album (with commentary) on Sunday. On to this week!Mystery bands With the release of Shabazz Palaces's full-length debut Black Up this week (which you can listen to in its entirety here), we found ourselves thinking about disguises, and all the bands over the years who've used them. Shabazz Palaces offers an avant-garde take on hip-hop; the group is helmed by Ishmael Butler of Digable Planets, but he hid behind the moniker Palaceer Lazaro for several years and still refuses to name his collaborators. Butler isn't the first to cloak his musical experiments in a veil of mystery. This week, we present some artists who have used anonymity to fuel their boundary-pushing work, starting with San Francisco provocateurs The Residents and moving through the leftfield R&B of The Weeknd (who seem to be linked with Drake), the pop culture pastiche act Nike7UP, British oddities Hype Williams and more. Buddy Holly raves on Buddy Holly forever altered the course of rock'n'roll with his astonishing 25 hit songs—all of which he penned and recorded before he died in a plane crash at the age of 22. Don McLean famously sang that the day the plane crashed was "the day the music died," and it was hard not to agree with him. But nothing proves Holly's music lives on like Rave On Buddy Holly, a tribute album that features everybody from CeeLo Green to Patti Smith covering his songs. We check out a few tracks from the album as well as other tributes to the rock'n'roll pioneer. Breakbot "Fantasy Jacques Renault Remix" With "Fantasy," the French producer Breakbot turned out a song that could have come off of Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" circa 1979. But really it's the video that had us at hello: a mash-up of roller-skating videos from the 1970s and '80s that practically screams "summer." Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched "Bon Iver - Bon Iver ALBUM REVIEW."     URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/A-dwsvPn6W8/music-tuesday-mystery-bands-buddy-holly.html   |
| [G] Examining the impact of clean energy innovation Posted: 28 Jun 2011 07:38 AM PDT Official Google Blog: Examining the impact of clean energy innovationAt Google, we're committed to using technology to solve one of the greatest challenges we face as a country: building a clean energy future. That's why we've worked hard to be carbon neutral as a company, launched our renewable energy cheaper than coal initiative and have invested in several clean energy companies and projects around the world.But what if we knew the value of innovation in clean energy technologies? How much could new technologies contribute to our economic growth, enhance our energy security or reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? Robust data can help us understand these important questions, and the role innovation in clean energy could play in addressing our future economic, security and climate challenges. Through Google.org, our energy team set out to answer some of these questions. Using McKinsey's Low Carbon Economics Tool (LCET), we assessed the long-term economic impacts for the U.S. assuming breakthroughs were made in several different clean energy technologies, like wind, geothermal and electric vehicles. McKinsey's LCET is a neutral, analytic set of interlinked models that estimates the potential economic and technology implications of various policy and technology assumptions. The analysis is based on a model and includes assumptions and conclusions that Google.org developed, so it isn't a prediction of the future. We've decided to make the analysis and associated data available everywhere because we believe it could provide a new perspective on the economic value of public and private investment in energy innovation. Here are just some of the most compelling findings:
Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar, and Charles Baron, Google.org, Clean Energy Team  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/examining-impact-of-clean-energy.html   |
| [G] The J. Paul Getty Museum collection comes alive with Google Goggles Posted: 28 Jun 2011 07:38 AM PDT Official Google Blog: The J. Paul Getty Museum collection comes alive with Google GogglesThe Google Goggles team has worked with The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to "Goggles-enable" their permanent collection of paintings. Now you can use the Google Goggles app on your phone to take a photo of any of the paintings in the Getty's permanent collection and instantly access information about the work from both the Getty's mobile-optimized webpage about the painting and from around the web. Instead of being limited to the amount of information that fits on the wall next to a painting, Getty museum staff can now share a fuller story that all visitors can enjoy online.From your phone you can read and hear commentary from artists, curators, conservators or the works of art themselves, such as the anthropomorphic voice of the pig in the Adoration of the Magi. Snap a quick shot of the artwork and have an interactive experience with what is on the wall in front of you—all in in the palm of your hand (just remember to respect museum photography rules and to turn off your flash).   Google Goggles results and the Getty webpage for Portrait of the Sisters Bonaparte If you want to take your art history lesson home with you, you can store a record of the art you captured by enabling Search History on your Android phone. In fact, anytime you stumble across a piece of art, whether it be a reproduction on a poster or a print in a book, you can take a photo with your phone and Goggles will recognize it and supply you with rich info. Download Google Goggles for your Android or iOS device as part of the Google Search app, and give it a try if you stop by the Getty. You can also view the J. Paul Getty Museum collection online at http://www.getty.edu/art. For more information about the Getty-Goggles project, visit mobile.getty.edu/gettygoggles or scan the QR code below.  Posted by Shailesh Nalawadi, Product Manager  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/j-paul-getty-museum-collection-comes.html   |
| [G] Webbing the gap between science and the public Posted: 28 Jun 2011 07:38 AM PDT Official Google Blog: Webbing the gap between science and the publicWe recently held an Innovation Workshop for the 2011 Google Science Communication Fellows, a group of early to mid-career PhD scientists chosen for their leadership in climate change research and communication. The Fellows spent three days together alongside Googlers and external experts at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. exploring the potential of information technology and social media to spur public engagement.All 21 of the 2011 Fellows are experienced science communicators, trained in using traditional media to bridge the gap between complex science and the general public. This workshop was an opportunity for them to explore new media communications optimized for the age of the web; or, as as I like to say, learning how to "web" the gap between the science community and the larger world in the digital age. We organized the workshop around three themes:
Armed with new knowledge on "webbing the gap," the Fellows are now developing project proposals to put what they learned into practice. Proposal selections will be made later this summer. You can learn more about tools for science communication in the digital age and the innovation workshop at our site here. Stay tuned for future opportunities for participating in this program. Posted by Dr. Amy Luers, Google.org  URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/webbing-gap-between-science-and-public.html   |
| [G] Discover Your World in 3D, again Posted: 28 Jun 2011 07:09 AM PDT Google LatLong: Discover Your World in 3D, again[Cross-posted from the SketchUp blog]Today, we're unveiling a totally redesigned Your World in 3D website. If you're new to geo-modeling -- the term given to creating 3D buildings for Google Earth and Google Maps -- the Your World in 3D website has all the tools and info you'll need to get up and running quickly. The new website showcases several examples of what fellow modelers are building and will help connect with other geo-modelers around the world. So that's the what, here's the why. Five years ago, Google acquired a Boulder-based startup called @Last Software, which was making waves in the architectural world with their 3D modeling software, SketchUp. Google had an ambitious idea to add a 3D model of every building on the planet to Google Earth, and SketchUp was a tool up to the task. Not only that, by opening SketchUp to a wider audience, users would have the opportunity to help build a virtual mirror of their world.  Today, the 3D virtual world is in full bloom: hundreds upon hundreds of villages, towns, and cities have been added to the 3D map representing hundreds of thousands of 3D buildings from every corner of the globe -- truly, a testament to the power of open collaboration. In the intervening half decade, we've introduced several new ways of adding buildings to the 3D map, including Google Building Maker and the Cities in 3D program. And you may have noticed 3D buildings surfacing on Google Maps and Google Maps for mobile as well. With so many different ways of creating and viewing 3D models, we realized we needed a destination that would demystify the process of geo-modeling, Enter: the new Your World in 3D website. We call the website Your World in 3D because it is you, the user, who is helping build this virtual world, and perhaps more importantly, it is you who is finding innovative and surprising ways of using this data.  Why geo-model? When asked, most geo-modelers say they do it because geo-modeling is just plain fun, but building your town in 3D can also be a great way to show civic pride and encourage tourism for your town. It can also provide an interactive way to promote your business or contextualize the urban planning. 3D modeling has also been used in crisis response situations as we saw in the grassroots modeling effort that happened after the earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy. We hope you'll join us on this mission (and adventure) of building the most comprehensive 3D virtual mirror of planet Earth. Happy modeling! Posted by Nicole Drobeck, Geo Community Program Manager  URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/06/discover-your-world-in-3d-again.html   |
| [G] City names in Google Earth, now in your preferred language Posted: 28 Jun 2011 07:09 AM PDT Google LatLong: City names in Google Earth, now in your preferred languageWe love to give you options on how to view information in Google Earth, but we also want to make sure we're organizing that information in a way that is useful and easy to read. We realize that a city may be referenced in different ways, in different languages. Presenting all of these names on the map in a single view can sometimes make the map harder to read, not to mention, may even detract users from other, useful information. In the interest of providing the smoothest browsing experience possible, we've updated Google Earth so that each city has just one label in a user's default language. These settings are flexible. If you would like to change the way in which cities are displayed, just follow these instructions to change your default language. If you prefer to see cities in two languages, turn on the 'Local Place Names' layer under the 'More' folder. This way, if you fly to the capital of Japan, for example, you'll see both "Tokyo" and "東京".  Click on "Local Place Names" to turn on a second, local name for each city. We hope this makes it even easier and quicker to find information. Keep exploring! Posted by Kailen Wright, Geo Data Specialist  URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/06/city-names-in-google-earth-now-in-your.html   |
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