Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Introducing Google Tasks Porter

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Data Liberation: Introducing Google Tasks Porter

We're happy to announce a new open source application that allows you to import and export your Google Tasks, called Google Tasks Porter.

Google Tasks Porter is designed with other applications that contain task lists in mind. It supports import and export via the iCalendar format which is used by a variety of applications, including iCalendar itself. It also supports import and export to Microsoft Outlook via a CSV format. Additionally, Google Tasks Porter supports export from Remember the Milk using its iCalendar export, and import to Remember the Milk via email. You can also download a list of all your tasks in an HTML format which is designed to be portable and parseable.

Google Tasks Porter allows you to create a set of "snapshots" of your data, each representing a list of all your tasks at a particular point in time. You can then save or delete these snapshots, and you can export a snapshot at any time to another application using any of the available formats. You can also upload an ics or csv file in order to import the tasks contained therein into Google Tasks.

The application is available on the web at http://google-tasks-porter.appspot.com. The source code is also available on Google Code at http://google-tasks-porter.googlecode.com using the Apache License, Version 2.0. Please try the application out and let us know what you think. You can provide feedback via the mailing list at google-tasks-porter@googlegroups.com.

By Dwight Guth, The Data Liberation Front

URL: http://dataliberation.blogspot.com/2011/08/introducing-google-tasks-porter.html

[G] Latest updates, August 1st

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Blogger Buzz: Latest updates, August 1st

Posted by Brett Wiltshire, Product Operations

Hello Bloggers!

Over the last few days we've rolled out a handful of updates, all of which are available to everyone right now. Here's the rundown:

Favicon graduates from Draft
As we announced on the Blogger in Draft blog earlier this month, we now offer an easy tool for creating custom favicons on your Blogger blog. We're happy to announce today that this feature is now available to all Blogger users.




Since the initial release to Draft, we've added support for all image types (JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc) and will now automatically resize the image to the correct favicon specifications. You can add a custom favicon to your blog right now on the Design | Page Elements tab, via the new favicon element shown below:





Swipe navigation for Mobile views

Adding to the featureset of our new mobile templates, you can now navigate through your mobile view with swipe navigation. This new navigation option lets you swipe through individual blog posts in a way that should feel very familiar for mobile and tablet users.

If you are viewing this post from a mobile device, you can give this a try right now!


Support for +1 on Pages
A few weeks ago we announced the +1 button on Blogger, and now we're happy to expand coverage to individual pages as well as blog posts. The +1 button will now appear on Pages as an option on the sharing widget just as it has appeared for individual blog posts.


That's it for now, more to come soon! Happy Blogging.
URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/08/latest-updates-august-1st.html

[G] This week in Docs: Copying drawings and better right-to-left table support

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Docs Blog: This week in Docs: Copying drawings and better right-to-left table support

This week in Docs, we have a couple of new features that we hope make your life easier (and more visual). Read on.

Copying and pasting drawings across docs
Starting today, we're adding support for the web clipboard to the embedded drawing editor so that you can work with drawings within documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. This means that you can now copy shapes from one document and paste them into existing drawings in another doc. You can also use the web clipboard to move a drawing from a document into the standalone drawing editor.


To try this out, open a new document and go to Insert > Drawing to create a drawing in the embedded drawing editor. Click the web clipboard icon and Copy shapes to web clipboard.


Open another doc that you want to paste the drawing into. Click the web clipboard icon and hover to preview the available items -- then, click to paste when you've located the drawing you'd like to use.

Better support for right-to-left tables
We've also made an improvement to tables that will be useful for Hebrew and Arabic users. If you've enabled right-to-left controls from your docs list settings, you'll now have an option to create tables that are visually right-to-left. This means that the first cell in the table will be in the upper right and that tabbing through the table will move you to the left and down. You can modify a table's directionality from the table properties dialog.


We hope you enjoy these new features. As always, let us know what you think in the forums and stay tuned for more updates in the next This week in Docs blog post.

Posted by: Aharon Lanin, Software Engineer
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-week-in-docs-copying-drawings-and.html

[G] Introducing Google Tasks Porter

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Introducing Google Tasks Porter

The Data Liberation Front is a team within Google dedicated to making sure users can get their information in and out of Google products. As part of that effort, we are happy to announce a new open source product called Google Tasks Porter. Google Tasks Porter is an application that allows you to import and export your Google Tasks.

Google Tasks Porter is designed with other applications that contain task lists in mind. It supports import and export via the iCalendar format which is used by a variety of applications, including iCalendar itself. It also supports import and export to Microsoft Outlook via a CSV format. Additionally, Google Tasks Porter supports export from Remember the Milk using its iCalendar export, and import to Remember the Milk via email. You can also download a list of all your tasks in an HTML format which is designed to be portable and parseable.

Google Tasks Porter allows you to create a set of "snapshots" of your data, each representing a list of all your tasks at a particular point in time. You can then save or delete these snapshots, and you can export a snapshot at any time to another application using any of the available formats. You can also upload an ics or csv file in order to import the tasks contained therein into Google Tasks.

The application is available on the web at http://google-tasks-porter.appspot.com. The source code is also available on Google Code at http://google-tasks-porter.googlecode.com using the Apache License, Version 2.0. Please try the application out and let us know what you think. You can provide feedback via the mailing list at google-tasks-porter@googlegroups.com.

By Dwight Guth of The Data Liberation Front



URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleOpenSourceBlog/~3/ELZkZdOBKzw/introducing-google-tasks-porter.html

[G] Putting big data on the map: helping customers see location-based information

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Putting big data on the map: helping customers see location-based information

Rahul Sood, Enterprise Director of Partnerships

Today, all types of businesses rely on geographic information to make better decisions about their customers, products and processes. As part of our ongoing effort to make geographic information accessible and useful, we offer the Google Maps API Premier to businesses that want to integrate Google Maps directly into their own applications and websites. Interactive maps have become critical to many basic business functions from asset tracking in the logistics industry to inventory planning in retail.

Earlier this week, we announced a new collaboration with SAP aimed at helping enterprise customers use Google's mapping services with SAP's business analytics software. As this demo from SAP shows, the Google Maps API lets companies visualize geographic data more easily, leading to better business decisions. Access to SAP and Google tools on tablets and other mobile devices means that employees can review their business data whenever and wherever the need arises.

Google is committed to helping businesses and software vendors build, run and support innovative applications that involve huge data sets. These "big data" sets require massive storage and processing power, a task Google's cloud infrastructure is uniquely well suited to handle. Today, in addition to the Google Maps API, Google also provides the Google Prediction API and Google Storage for Developers to support businesses working with their important big data. Like the Google Maps API, businesses and developers can use these services to process data or build applications.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/07/putting-big-data-on-map-helping.html

[G] Three Questions, Updated

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Data Liberation: Three Questions, Updated

When we started the Data Liberation Front in 2007, we encouraged everyone to ask three questions about the products they were using:
  1. Can I get my data out at all?
  2. How much is it going to cost to get my data out?
  3. How much of my time is it going to take to get my data out?
But we forgot an important detail: the ability to do something useful with the data once you take it out. With that in mind, we've modified our first question to emphasize the importance of being able to download your data in an open, interoperable, portable format:
  1. Can I get my data out in an open, interoperable, portable format?
  2. How much is it going to cost to get my data out?
  3. How much of my time is it going to take to get my data out?
What we mean by open, interoperable and portable is that your data should be exported in a format that is:
  • Publicly documented and non-proprietary (i.e. it does not require a commercial license to use)
  • Easy for engineers to write a program that can import the data into another system
Your data isn't really liberated unless you can put it to use somewhere else. Making sure you can do that when you liberate from Google products is now officially part of our mission.

Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, The Data Liberation Front
URL: http://dataliberation.blogspot.com/2011/07/when-we-started-data-liberation-front.html

[G] Chromebook security: browsing more securely

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Google Chrome Blog: Chromebook security: browsing more securely

In the past, we've written a good deal about the Chrome sandbox and other security features that we built into the Chrome browser. These features demonstrate the Chrome team's overall focus on providing usable security even as we continue our rapid development work on the project.

Chromebooks take Chrome and its core values (simplicity, speed and security) and apply them to our own operating system infrastructure. The result is a multi-layered set of defenses which boosts the security of Chromebooks against malicious software that could compromise and linger on the system. While no software is perfect or completely secure, we believe we're taking an important step forward.

Let's take a quick look at some of the Chromebook security features that, when paired with good web hygiene, make it easier to browse the web safely. (We're already handling updates and malware resistance on the Chromebook automatically!)

Baked in, seriously

Our security model is rooted in two pieces of hardware that ship with every Chromebook: a custom firmware chip and a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). The custom firmware chip consists of two parts: a read-only firmware and a read-write firmware that can be updated. When you press the power button, our read-only firmware starts a process we call Verified Boot. It uses an embedded 8192-bit RSA public key to verify the cryptographic signature on the read-write firmware.

After the read-only firmware verifies and runs the read-write firmware, the latter performs a similar verification operation on the operating system kernel before running it. The operating system kernel will then continue the verification process as it loads all of the system software, like Chrome.

The goal of Verified Boot is to provide cryptographic assurances that the system code hasn't been modified by an attacker on the Chromebook. Additionally, we use lockable, non-volatile memory (NVRAM) in the TPM to ensure that outdated signatures won't be accepted. To put this into perspective, the system does all this in about 8 seconds.

If you don't want to boot Google-verified software — let's say you built your own version of Chromium OS — no problem. You can flip the developer switch on your device and use the Chromebook however you'd like. It's yours, after all!

Up-to-date, automatically

Since no software offers perfect security (and we all want new features too), Chromebooks include an automated update system that is modeled on Chrome's popular auto-updater. The updater checks with the server securely and downloads updates when they become available. It keeps the system updated against emerging threats and allows for new features to be rolled out seamlessly. Since every Chromebook keeps two copies of the operating system, it's easy to update and then switch to the new version without interrupting your normal flow. In addition, it allows for the Chromebook to revert to the known working version if there are any problems during the update.

Signing in, with confidence

Signing in to the Chromebook is as simple as using your Google Account. The first user of a Chromebook can determine who else is allowed to sign in or choose to keep her machine open for anyone to sign in. In addition, every user has a private, encrypted store which means that, if you share your Chromebook, other users won't be given access to your data. The encrypted store is implemented using the Linux kernel's eCryptfs with keys that are protected by the TPM.

Or don't sign in at all

Chromebooks also offer the ability to browse without signing in. We call this function Guest Mode. When Guest Mode is used, Chrome runs with the usual privacy measures of incognito mode, but none of the browsing data, including downloads, will stick around. When you exit Guest Mode or reboot your Chromebook, the browsing data is deleted.

A helping hand, even when things go wrong

While we're dedicated to pushing the envelope with Chromebook security, we want to also be prepared in case something unexpected happens. That's why the read-only firmware included in every Chromebook also provides a recovery mode. Recovery mode lets you install a fresh, up-to-date version of the operating system from a recovery device plugged into the USB port. That means that if an attacker manages to install malicious software, you can use recovery mode to help remove it and return your Chromebook back to the way it was.

Getting better over time

Experiencing the web securely, on any platform and with any browser, is a combined matter of the underlying infrastructure, browser design, and user action. How is data stored? Who and what can access that data? How does the user participate in these decisions?

With Chromebooks and Chrome, we've made advances in the security infrastructure of the operating system and the browser that should allow you to browse the web more comfortably. Beyond what we've discussed here so far, we continue to improve features like our Safe Browsing API and our extensions model that help protect users from malicious web content.

As a savvy web user, you'll still want to think carefully before you enter your username and password into a suspicious website, or before you grant broad data access to an unfamiliar extension. Remember, it never hurts to follow these tips for staying safe on the web.

Security is an ongoing effort, and we aren't stopping here! Keep your eyes open for more usability and security advances from Chrome and Chromebooks.

Posted by Will Drewry and Sumit Gwalani, Chromebook Security Team
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2011/07/chromebook-security-browsing-more.html

[G] Save your friends from outdated email—help them switch to Gmail

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

The Google Apps Blog: Save your friends from outdated email—help them switch to Gmail

Posted by Peter Harbison, Product Marketing Manager

I switched to Gmail the first month it came out, mere seconds after receiving an invitation from a friend and two years before joining Google. Since then, I've invited hundreds of people, most of whom have happily made the switch to Gmail and never looked back.

But I have one friend, Andy, who's the straggler in the group. A couple months ago, I sent out an email about a barbecue I was having. On the "To:" line, there were 15 Gmail addresses and then Andy. He stuck out like a sore thumb. Shortly thereafter, Andy was complaining to us about how much spam he got. That was the last straw.

My friends and I sat Andy down and talked him through how to import his contacts. We answered his questions, guilt-tripped him a little, and a few painless minutes later we were done. Andy had Gmail.

We all have a story like this. On the Gmail team, we affectionately refer to them as "email interventions." We hear about them all the time: the cousin who finally switched from an embarassing address like hottie6elliot1977 to a more professional elliot.d.smith@gmail.com, a co-worker who helped his dentist switch after he heard her grumble about having to pay for IMAP access, etc.

It's for these folks we created emailintervention.com, a site that makes it easier than ever to help your friends and family make the switch.



Staging an intervention is simple:
  1. Visit emailintervention.com
  2. Sign in and automatically identify who from your contacts has yet to make the switch, or just enter a friend's email address manually
  3. Choose from one of three intervention message templates ("straightforward", "concerned" or " embarrassed"), and add your own intervention video if you'd like
  4. Send a customized email and follow up as needed


Your loved ones are counting on you. Even if they don't know it yet.
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/_nSJoT91fc4/save-your-friends-from-outdated.html

[G] Your initial feedback on Gmail’s new look

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

The Google Apps Blog: Your initial feedback on Gmail's new look

Posted by Mark Striebeck, Engineering Manager

A few weeks ago, we released a preview of Gmail's new look via two new themes. We asked you to try them out and send us your feedback. So far, less than 5% of Gmail usage is happening through these themes, but we're getting some good feedback on what's working and useful advice about what to improve from you early adopters.

What you like
  • The clean and minimalist look of the new design
  • Seeing a consistent "look" across Google products
"The new Preview theme is wonderful! It's clean and crisp, easy to read and really focused on the one thing that matters most in Gmail — the mail! Thanks!"
What you want to change
  • Too much whitespace and not enough information (though interestingly, many people reported that they appreciated to lower information density after a while)
  • Not enough contrast
  • Darker theme options
"Even with the 'dense' version, I still have listings of about 30% fewer messages. The lack of visual differentiation between content and UI chrome is also harder to process (e.g., where does the conversation list end and the toolbar begin)."
We're working on improvements for the final release, but it is very encouraging that a visual update like this was generally greeted with such a positive response. If you haven't tried out the new themes yet, give them a go and tell us what you think.
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/aiVQd3OnlqM/your-initial-feedback-on-gmails-new.html

[G] Review your mail forwarding and delegation settings

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

The Google Apps Blog: Review your mail forwarding and delegation settings

Posted by Saurabh Sharma, Product Manager

A number of Gmail settings are the kinds of things you can set and forget — like mail forwarding and delegation. When I was in college, I used filters to forward bills I received via email to my parents (lucky them!). That was useful for a few years, but not so much now that I've been paying my own bills for a while.

It can be pretty easy to forget about all the settings we've enabled years earlier. So, for about the next week, if you use Gmail's forwarding or delegation features you'll see a message at the top of your inbox each time you sign in. The notice asks you to review your settings and confirm they're still what you want.



If things look right, you're good to go. The message will stop appearing in about a week. If you see any unfamiliar accounts or forwarding setups you no longer need, review your settings and change them as appropriate. Note that any unfamiliar accounts may indicate that your password has been compromised and you should change it immediately.
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/D7xpM-eDrOU/review-your-mail-forwarding-and.html

[G] Gmail Snooze with Apps Script

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

The Google Apps Blog: Gmail Snooze with Apps Script

Posted by Corey Goldfeder, Software Engineer

Editor's Note: For a more technical description, see the Google Apps Developer Blog

At Google, we all use email very heavily -- for communicating with other Googlers, for task management, and to mail around funny pictures of kittens. Because of the volume of email we all deal with, a lot of Googlers subscribe to the "inbox zero" philosophy where we try to keep our inboxes empty except for the messages we currently need to deal with.

What is Gmail Snooze?
One feature that some of us really wanted was for Gmail to let you "snooze" an email. Snoozing means archiving an email for now, but having it automatically reappear in the inbox at some specified time in the future. With Apps Script you can extend Gmail to add this functionality and a lot more yourself.



How to set it up
Even if you don't know how to write a script, it's pretty simple. Go to Google Docs and create a new spreadsheet, then choose "Script Editor" from the "Tools" menu. Paste in the following code:

var MARK_UNREAD = false;
var ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL = false;

function getLabelName(i) {
  return "Snooze/Snooze " + i + " days";
}

function setup() {
  // Create the labels we'll need for snoozing
  GmailApp.createLabel("Snooze");
  for (var i = 1; i <= 7; ++i) {
    GmailApp.createLabel(getLabelName(i));
  }
  if (ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL) {
    GmailApp.createLabel("Unsnoozed");
  }
}

function moveSnoozes() {
  var oldLabel, newLabel, page;
  for (var i = 1; i <= 7; ++i) {
    newLabel = oldLabel;
    oldLabel = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(getLabelName(i));
    page = null;
    // Get threads in "pages" of 100 at a time
    while(!page || page.length == 100) {
      page = oldLabel.getThreads(0, 100);
      if (page.length > 0) {
        if (newLabel) {
          // Move the threads into "today's" label
          newLabel.addToThreads(page);
        } else {
          // Unless it's time to unsnooze it
          GmailApp.moveThreadsToInbox(page);
          if (MARK_UNREAD) {
            GmailApp.markThreadsUnread(page);
          }
          if (ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL) {
            GmailApp.getUserLabelByName("Unsnoozed")
              .addToThreads(page);
          }          
        }     
        // Move the threads out of "yesterday's" label
        oldLabel.removeFromThreads(page);
      }  
    }
  }
}
Then click the "Save" button and give it a name. In the dropdown labeled "Select a function to run," choose "setup" and click the blue run arrow to the left of it. This will ask you to authorize the script, and will create the necessary labels in your Gmail. Then go to the "Triggers" menu and choose "current script's triggers." Click the link to set up a new trigger, choosing the "moveSnoozes" function, a "time-driven" event, "day timer," and then "midnight to 1am." Click save and you're done.

Using the Snooze Label in Gmail
To "snooze" a thread, use Gmail's "Move To" button to move the thread into the "Snooze for X days" label and archive it. Every night, threads will move up through one day of the queue, and at the appointed number of days they will reappear in your inbox, unarchived.

Because this is an Apps Script, you can edit the code any way you like. If you'd like different snooze times or for unsnoozed messages to get starred, you can easily change the code. And if you have an even better idea for how to use Apps Script to improve Gmail, you can post it to our Gallery (Script Editor > Share > Publish Project) to share with the world.
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/JUiubnrJSuY/gmail-snooze-with-apps-script.html

[G] New Google Search experience for tablets

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Official Google Mobile Blog: New Google Search experience for tablets

(Cross-posted on the Inside Search blog)

As part of our effort to evolve the Google design and experience, we've improved the www.google.com search experience on tablets. We've simplified the layout of search results pages and increased the size of page contents like text, buttons and other touch targets to make it faster and easier to browse and interact with search results in portrait or landscape view.

The search button located below the search box provides quick access to specific types of results like Images, Videos, Places, Shopping and more. Just tap to open the search menu and select an option to see results in one category.




For image results, we focused on improvements that enhance the viewing experience such as enlarged image previews, continuous scroll, and faster loading of image thumbnails.




This improved search experience is rolling out in the coming days to iPad and Android 3.1+ tablets across 36 languages. Give it a try by going to www.google.com in your tablet's browser.

Posted by Xiaorui Gan, Software Engineer
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-google-search-experience-for.html

[G] Who’s New in Google Summer of Code: Part 9

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Who's New in Google Summer of Code: Part 9


Every Friday all summer long we have spotlighted three or four new organizations participating in Google Summer of Code. This time organization administrators from Evergreen, Astrometry.net and Xapian give more insight into their projects and discuss some of the tasks their students are working on this summer.
The Evergreen library system provides a public catalog interface for libraries and manages library operations such as circulation (checkouts and checkins), acquisition of library materials, and sharing resources among groups of libraries. In 2004, the Georgia Public Library Service chose to build an open source solution to satisfy their need for a scalable catalog shared by approximately 285 public libraries in the state of Georgia. The first version of Evergreen was released in 2006: today almost 1000 libraries across the United States, Canada and many other countries run Evergreen.

We were delighted to have two Google Summer of Code students join us in this, our first year in the Google Summer of Code program, as their projects are addressing two of the major pain points with Evergreen:
• A kinder, gentler configuration user interface. Evergreen's flexibility as a system that can be used by a consortium of hundreds of libraries or just a single library by itself has come at a price, as hundreds of configuration options were added over time, but the usability for Evergreen administrators has not kept pace. Joseph Lewis has made use of online usability testing in his quest to improve the the experience of Evergreen administrators.
• Improved packaging and deployment. Evergreen is currently distributed only as a tarball, requiring administrators to go through the standard configure / make / make install cycle. After eliminating some long-standing issues with our build infrastructure, Ben Webb has automated the creation of Arch, Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu packages, and is working towards automating the creation of LiveCDs and virtual machines to help with advocacy and testing.

By Dan Scott, Organization Co-Administrator for Evergreen

----------

Astrometry.net is a computer vision system that takes as input arbitrary images—snapshot, amateur astronomer, or professional—of the night sky, and returns precise meta-data about where those images are located in the sky, and the identities of the astronomical objects visible in those images. If you have a photograph of the night sky, Astrometry.net can identify the constellations, stars and galaxies in the picture. This is not just a cool trick, it makes citizen scientist and badly calibrated astronomical imaging useful for science. That means amateur astronomical images taken in backyards and historical images gathering dust in library archives can be used to make novel astronomical discoveries.

Our Google Summer of Code students, Kevin Chen and Carlos Lalimarmo, are building an image processing and sharing web site where astronomers can process images, share data, use our code, and learn from one another. This site is powered by our core code which can be downloaded and run anywhere, but is accessible to casual users and those who don't want to install the core code. Carlos and Kevin know a lot more about coding for the web than we do at Astrometry.net headquarters (we are astronomers, not coders), so they are making our user experience and our system far better than we ever could have without them. They have re-built our web presence from the ground up and created an integrated API for interfacing with other services, like flickr, where we run on user-submitted images. With Carlos and Kevin's help, Astrometry.net is going from a set of static web pages to a user-generated, interactive community site that is inviting and easy to use. This sets us up for some qualitatively new kinds of citizen science.

By David W. Hogg (NYU) & Dustin Lang (Princeton), Astrometry.net Organization Administrators

----------

Xapian is a Search Engine Library which aims to be fast, scalable, and flexible. It's used by many organizations around the world, including Debian, Ubuntu, One Laptop per Child, and the Gmane mailing list archive. It supports probabilistic ranking and a rich set of boolean query operators. The core library is written in C++, with bindings to allow use from C#, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl.

This is our first year as a mentoring org in Google Summer of Code, but we've been involved with Xapian-related projects for other orgs in previous years, and Xapian has been under development since 1999. We're mentoring four students this year:
• Nikita Smetanin from Russia is working on an assortment of enhancements to Xapian's existing spelling correction support. This involves such enhancements as allowing multiple possible corrections to be suggested, making use of phonetic algorithms, and handling typos which run words together or move a character from one word to the next. He's also made some substantial performance improvements.
• Xiaona Han is from China, and has been adding support for using Xapian from the programming language Lua, which wasn't previously possible. An early portion of this work has already been merged, and appeared in last month's Xapian 1.2.6 release to make it easy for interested users to try out.
• Dai Youli from China is working on segmenting Chinese text to allow it to be more usefully indexed and searched. Chinese text is usually written without spaces or other indications of where the word breaks are, so Youli has been working on implementing an algorithm to determine where the word breaks are. This is a challenging problem, as the algorithm needs to be reliable, fast enough to process large volumes of text, and robust in the presence of words it doesn't know about.
• Parth Gupta is from India, and his project is adding a "Learning to Rank" framework to Xapian. Learning to Rank is one of the hot topics in Information Retrieval research at present - it's the application of machine learning to tuning the relative weighting of the different features used to determine the order to present results to the end user. Parth recently completed a Master's thesis on Learning to Rank, which has given him a good theoretical background for this project.

By Olly Betts, Xapian Organization Administrator

We had 48 new organizations participating this year in the Google Summer of Code. For a complete list of the 175 organizations participating please visit our program site.

By Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2011/07/whos-new-in-google-summer-of-code-part_29.html

[G] Love, fear and car keys

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: Love, fear and car keys

As the world is starting to see Life in a Day—the documentary distilled from 80,000 videos submitted to YouTube from 190+ countries—many people have asked us how the film is structured. Woven into the collage of videos from Australia to Zambia, from the heart of bustling cities to the remote reaches of the earth, are responses to three universal questions: What do you love? What do you fear? What's in your pocket? Check out some of the answers to these questions in the Life in a Day trailer:







To celebrate the one year anniversary of Life in a Day's filming date, we'd love to hear your answer to these questions. So tell us, what do you love, what do you fear and what's in your pocket? Upload a video to YouTube, share a photo on Google+, tweet us with the #lifeinaday hashtag and invite your family and friends to join. Let's spark a dialogue and continue the passion of Life in a Day by highlighting the things that connect us across the globe.



For more information about Life in a Day and where to see it this weekend, visit the Life in a Day channel.



Raymond Braun, Entertainment Marketing, recently watched "Life in a Day Teaser #1: Slim Up."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/ADYMG1pJk50/love-fear-and-car-keys.html

[G] Gmail Snooze with Apps Script

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Official Gmail Blog: Gmail Snooze with Apps Script

Posted by Corey Goldfeder, Software Engineer

Editor's Note: For a more technical description, see the Google Apps Developer Blog

At Google, we all use email very heavily -- for communicating with other Googlers, for task management, and to mail around funny pictures of kittens. Because of the volume of email we all deal with, a lot of Googlers subscribe to the "inbox zero" philosophy where we try to keep our inboxes empty except for the messages we currently need to deal with.

What is Gmail Snooze?
One feature that some of us really wanted was for Gmail to let you "snooze" an email. Snoozing means archiving an email for now, but having it automatically reappear in the inbox at some specified time in the future. With Apps Script you can extend Gmail to add this functionality and a lot more yourself.



How to set it up
Even if you don't know how to write a script, it's pretty simple. Go to Google Docs and create a new spreadsheet, then choose "Script Editor" from the "Tools" menu. Paste in the following code:

var MARK_UNREAD = false;
var ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL = false;

function getLabelName(i) {
  return "Snooze/Snooze " + i + " days";
}

function setup() {
  // Create the labels we'll need for snoozing
  GmailApp.createLabel("Snooze");
  for (var i = 1; i <= 7; ++i) {
    GmailApp.createLabel(getLabelName(i));
  }
  if (ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL) {
    GmailApp.createLabel("Unsnoozed");
  }
}

function moveSnoozes() {
  var oldLabel, newLabel, page;
  for (var i = 1; i <= 7; ++i) {
    newLabel = oldLabel;
    oldLabel = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(getLabelName(i));
    page = null;
    // Get threads in "pages" of 100 at a time
    while(!page || page.length == 100) {
      page = oldLabel.getThreads(0, 100);
      if (page.length > 0) {
        if (newLabel) {
          // Move the threads into "today's" label
          newLabel.addToThreads(page);
        } else {
          // Unless it's time to unsnooze it
          GmailApp.moveThreadsToInbox(page);
          if (MARK_UNREAD) {
            GmailApp.markThreadsUnread(page);
          }
          if (ADD_UNSNOOZED_LABEL) {
            GmailApp.getUserLabelByName("Unsnoozed")
              .addToThreads(page);
          }          
        }     
        // Move the threads out of "yesterday's" label
        oldLabel.removeFromThreads(page);
      }  
    }
  }
}
Then click the "Save" button and give it a name. In the dropdown labeled "Select a function to run," choose "setup" and click the blue run arrow to the left of it. This will ask you to authorize the script, and will create the necessary labels in your Gmail. Then go to the "Triggers" menu and choose "current script's triggers." Click the link to set up a new trigger, choosing the "moveSnoozes" function, a "time-driven" event, "day timer," and then "midnight to 1am." Click save and you're done.

Using the Snooze Label in Gmail
To "snooze" a thread, use Gmail's "Move To" button to move the thread into the "Snooze for X days" label and archive it. Every night, threads will move up through one day of the queue, and at the appointed number of days they will reappear in your inbox, unarchived.

Because this is an Apps Script, you can edit the code any way you like. If you'd like different snooze times or for unsnoozed messages to get starred, you can easily change the code. And if you have an even better idea for how to use Apps Script to improve Gmail, you can post it to our Gallery (Script Editor > Share > Publish Project) to share with the world.
URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/gmail-snooze-with-apps-script.html

[G] Happy SysAdmin Day from Google - here’s to many happy returns (on investment)

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Happy SysAdmin Day from Google - here's to many happy returns (on investment)

Posted by Anna Mongayt, Google Apps Premium Services Lead

Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day - a humble holiday for all the men and women who keep our IT systems churning and burning. At Google, we've had the opportunity over the years to work with many talented teams of SysAdmins, and across the board two things are true: these folks care deeply about technology and giving people the best tools to work together.

We've heard stories of teams who spent thousands of hours managing email systems, dealing with laptops going haywire, sorting through disaster recovery scenarios, patching servers and software, working with employees frustrated over lost data, resetting passwords, archiving mail, and managing other tasks fearlessly.

The most enjoyable part of my job has been helping these hard-working teams recover extra time in their days, and making their budgets go further (while helping them look good to executives!) by moving to the cloud. We've heard great stories about teams who had so much leftover time that they went out for haircuts and some of them even had time to choreograph a dance to our Gmail Motion April Fool's joke.

Motorola's Sr. Director of IT Strategy and Services, Jason Ruger, getting his hair cut after moving to Google Apps.

Here are some of our favorite stories over the past year:

  • Andrew Murrey, VP of IT Infrastructure, Cinram: "Since moving to Google Apps, my IT team is much happier. We previously had 16 full-time people managing our messaging systems, spending about 8,000 hours per year backing up email, fixing file storage problems, or managing server issues. We now need only two folks to look after messaging and the other 14 are now more focused on business-critical projects. They're so happy they wear Google t-shirts about once a week!"
  • Dan Moore, CIO, Quality Distribution: "The lower hardware requirements of web enabled applications allow our IT department to spend more time delivering improvements to the user experience. One of our first examples of this was our implementation of video and voice chat via Google Talk into our driver recruiting process."
  • Luke Leonhard, Web Services Manager, Brady Corp: "Our jobs went from constraining and limiting people's usage to making sure everyone uses these tools as effectively as possible to be as productive as possible." Check out the photo of the Brady SysAdmin team below.

Google and the Brady Corporation team during Google Apps Go Live

To all of the SysAdmins out there supporting the more than 30 million users of Google Apps, our hats are off to you. So serve up the ice cream and cake, and celebrate the hard work of your SysAdmin today.


SysAdminDay
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/07/happy-sysadmin-day-from-google-heres-to.html

[G] Gone fishin’—piloting community supported fisheries at Google

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Gone fishin'—piloting community supported fisheries at Google

(Cross-posted on the Google Green Blog)

I've always loved the ocean—I was born in Shanghai, which means "upon the sea." And as a chef, I'm always drawn to food that claims a spirit of place. After moving to California, near Half Moon Bay, I began visiting the docks to buy seafood, and got to know the fishermen.

Over time, it became evident to me that this part of our food supply is broken: many consumers purchase stale, unsustainably-raised fish from chain grocers. Meanwhile, fishermen often sell their diminishing catch to wholesalers at a very low profit, meaning their livelihoods are no longer sustained by their catch. There's also the environmental factor to consider: Overfishing and illegal practices cause worldwide decline in ocean wildlife populations and wreak havoc on underwater habitats—not to mention the carbon footprint of transporting seafood far from its origin.

Google's chefs have long been committed to sourcing food for our cafes as locally, seasonally and organically as possible. And in our Mountain View headquarters, many employees cook with the same ingredients at home thanks to on-site Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs. When I joined the team as an executive chef in Mountain View, I wanted to make a difference in our purchasing program for seafood. For the five years leading up to then, I wrote a column for the San Francisco Chronicle called "Seafood by the Season," and I knew it could be done. In early 2010, we began a push to apply the most rigorous standards to our seafood-buying practices, and respond to the in-the-moment fluctuations of the catch from small, independent fishermen.

Things took off from there. My colleague Quentin Topping dreamed of providing the same high-quality seafood we serve in our cafes for Googlers to take home to their families. That idea became the Google Community Supported Fishery (CSF), which we launched in May 2011. In this program, Googlers sign up to purchase a weekly supply of local, sustainable seafood, supplied through a partnership with the Half Moon Bay (HMB) Fisherman's Association.


The Google Culinary team on a visit with fishermen in Half Moon Bay, Calif.—Quentin and I are the second and third from the left, in black.

We tend to think on a massive scale at Google—whether it's how to deliver instant search results around the globe or help thousands of small businesses get online—but when it comes to feeding our employees at work and at home, it really comes down to a local touch. Knowing where our seafood, meat and produce come from, as well as knowing how they're raised, farmed or harvested, makes all the difference in the on-the-ground work of sustainability. We see many bright spots ahead for our Community Supported Agriculture and Fishery programs, such as expansion to other offices and adding a grass-fed beef and pasture-raised poultry program. It's exciting to work someplace where we can think big and local.

We know of two CSFs in the Bay Area. The Half Moon Bay Fishermen's Association supplies only Google at the moment, but will soon add public drop-off sites—keep posted by visiting Farmigo.com. The other is CSea out of Bodega Bay. If you live elsewhere, we hope you'll consider stepping up to create one in your area.

And even if you don't live near the ocean or have direct access to fresh-caught seafood, the choices you make about what fish to purchase or order in restaurants can make a real difference. You may want to consider following the guidelines that we used for our Google Green Seafood policy: Whenever possible, purchase species caught locally and in-season, by small, independent fisher-families, using environmentally-responsible methods. We think it's important to be responsive to the fluctuations of catch too, and source from fisheries that enforce catch limits or are guided by ecosystem-based management programs. As for us, we'll continue to research and source responsibly managed farmed seafood, and always keep transparency and Googler health at the center of our program.



Posted by Liv Wu, Executive Chef
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/gone-fishinpiloting-community-supported.html

[G] 2-step verification: stay safe around the world in 40 languages

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: 2-step verification: stay safe around the world in 40 languages

Posted by Nishit Shah, Product Manager, Google Security

 (Cross-posted on the Online Security Blog)

 Earlier this year, we introduced a security feature called 2-step verification that helps protect your Google Account from threats like password compromise and identity theft. By entering a one-time verification code from your phone after you type your password, you can make it much tougher for an unauthorized person to gain access to your account.

 People have told us how much they like the feature, which is why we're thrilled to offer 2-step verification in 40 languages and in more than 150 countries. There's never been a better time to set it up: Examples in the news of password theft and data breaches constantly remind us to stay on our toes and take advantage of tools to properly secure our valuable online information. Email, social networking and other online accounts still get compromised today, but 2-step verification cuts those risks significantly.

 We recommend investing some time in keeping your information safe by watching our 2-step verification video to learn how to quickly increase your Google Account's resistance to common problems like reused passwords and malware and phishing scams. Wherever you are in the world, sign up for 2-step verification and help keep yourself one step ahead of the bad guys.

 To learn more about online safety tips and resources, visit our ongoing security blog series, and review a couple of simple tips and tricks for online security. Also, watch our video about five easy ways to help you stay safe and secure as you browse.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/07/2-step-verification-stay-safe-around.html

[G] YouTube is what you make it

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTube is what you make it

Did you ever think you'd be a part of a revolution? Wonder if your contributions to the world would add up to something greater?



As we take the stage today at VidCon 2011, I can tell you for certain that they have. This two day gathering of annoying oranges, ukulele stars, voracious vloggers, super fans and thousands of other YouTubers like you is about changing the media landscape—one upload, view and mashup at a time. Not satisfied with just watching media, you've become the media. Not satisfied with flipping channels complaining there's nothing on, you've created new ones with hundreds of millions of viewers, some of which will become as well known as networks like MTV, CNN and ESPN.



To all the people who are creating content on YouTube, THANK YOU. You have built the site into what it is today and we're as committed as ever to providing you with the tools you need to make high quality videos and drive audiences to your channels. Initiatives like YouTube NextUp, the YouTube Creator Institute, and the revamped Creator Hub are part of this effort, as is the work we're doing to make YouTube easy to watch on TV. And keep the feedback coming on Cosmic Panda—we look forward to re-inventing with you how YouTube works and feels in the future.



If you weren't able to make it to VidCon this year and are eager to catch some familiar YouTube faces, we'll be livestreaming a special VidCon performance on Saturday at 5pm PT. Come by and check it out!



Salar Kamangar, Head of YouTube, recently watched "VidCon 2011 Approaches."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/qLXrteZWoBQ/youtube-is-what-you-make-it.html

[G] A look back as we move ahead: Google Docs and Google Sites

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 02:19 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: A look back as we move ahead: Google Docs and Google Sites

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Product Marketing Manager

We've all been frustrated by technology that gets slower, less reliable and less useful over time. Google Apps is different – it actually gets better automatically week after week without patches or updates to manage. People can absorb this stream of innovation without being distracted from their workflow, so this month we're taking a look back to highlight the most interesting ways that Google Apps has grown up over time. Last week, we started with Gmail and Google Calendar.

Today we'll break down how Google Docs and Sites support better teamwork, mobile productivity, ease of use and trustworthiness – four areas where Google Apps excels. We're holding a webinar next Thursday to explore these developments (details below), so join us if you're interested in learning more. We hope you'll find a few capabilities here that you didn't know about before, or haven't tried in some time.

Designed for Teams
Google Docs and Sites were built from the ground up to make teamwork seamless. Being able to simultaneously edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations without the hassles of attachments is just the start.
  • Great documents come from great discussions, so in addition to collaborative editing, Google Docs also enables conversations right alongside your content. Comments can be directed to specific co-editors, who can then respond in the document's discussion panel or over email.
  • Sometimes you want to collaborate freely with others in a spreadsheet, but other situations call for a bit more control. Data validation lets you enforce cell input restrictions. You can also protect sheets – making them view-only – or hide sheets entirely within a collaborative workbook.
  • Forms in Google Docs also offer a structured way of collecting information in a spreadsheet from others. Questions can be multiple choice or open-ended, and your surveys can include branching logic to display different questions to a respondent depending on how they respond to earlier questions.
  • When a document, spreadsheet or presentation isn't able to truly capture an idea, try a collaborative drawing. The same real-time co-editing found in those other formats is part of the drawing editor, too.
  • Across documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings, revision history lets you see any edit made by any collaborator since the file was created, which comes in handy when you need to revert changes or view a previous version.
  • Google Sites can really bring a collection of information together neatly – including embedded documents, spreadsheets and presentations – into a collaborative team, project or public website. Anyone with edit access can contribute and share, no programming skills required.
  • In today's world of distributed contributors, working across language barriers can be critical. With automatic document translation, site translation, and even a translation spreadsheet function all powered by Google Translate, being productive in multiple languages has never been easier.
  • If you can't measure it, you can't manage it, so we added built-in analytics within Google Docs and Google Sites, which provides content owners with aggregate stats and metrics about who's accessing their files and sites.
  • Beyond collaborative documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings, you can upload and share any type of file with Google Docs, including pictures, videos, and special file formats like CAD drawings. Simply upload to Google Docs and decide who should have access. You can even set permissions to a mailing list, which automatically adjusts access as individuals are added to and removed from the group.
  • Shared collections is a great way to efficiently manage sharing access across a group of files. Instead of sharing file-by-file, you can share a whole folder of information all at once.
  • And if you're looking to bring more efficient collaboration to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint without upgrading to Office 2010, give Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office a try.

Productive Anywhere
Mobile access to email, contacts and calendar information is pretty common now, but access to documents, spreadsheets, presentations and team sites across all major smartphone platforms is unique to Google Apps.
  • Unlike software and files that live on one specific computer, you can access and work with information in Google Docs and Google Sites from any computer without hassles like software licenses and VPN connections.
  • Beyond simple mobile document viewing, you can edit documents and spreadsheets from Android and iOS devices. This can be a faster way to make a simple change than firing up your laptop.
  • The Google Docs mobile app for Android allows you to browse, search, open and share your Google Docs files from your phone or tablet. This app even lets you convert mobile phone pictures into editable documents.
  • Google Sites are also optimized for smaller screens through automatic mobile rendering. When you're viewing a site on a small screen, we can automatically display a version of the site that's easier to use on your phone or tablet.

Simple & Affordable
Google Docs and Sites bring together the best of two worlds: the power of the web and the richness of traditional software applications, all at a dramatically lower cost than buying, installing and managing client software.

Pure & Proven Cloud
As with Gmail, the collaboration tools in Google Apps for Business are backed by a service uptime guarantee and transparent system performance information. And compared to sharing information using old tools like thumb drives, Google Apps can help businesses keep their data a whole lot safer, too.
  • Our 99.9% uptime SLA guarantees reliable access to Google Apps, and our commitment doesn't have any exceptions for planned maintenance. This is because our systems are designed to handle updates without interrupting service for customers.
  • Our publicly available status dashboard offers transparency about the health of our systems, and 24x7 phone and online support is there when you need it.
  • Google goes to extensive lengths to protect the customer information in our data centers, including extensive personnel background checks, security-focused processes, advanced technology, and around-the-clock physical protection.
  • Google Docs and Sites have completed a SAS 70 Type II audit, and have achieved the U.S. Federal goverment's FISMA certification.
  • With default https connections, your information is encrypted as it travels from your web browser to our servers. This helps protect your data by making it unreadable to others sharing your network.
  • Google Apps accounts can be further secured with 2-step verification, which requires users to sign in with something they know (their password) and something they have (their mobile phone). With verification codes available via SMS, even basic mobile phones can serve as powerful authentication devices.

As with Gmail and Google Calendar, Google Docs and Sites have been on a fast innovation path (85 improvements last year alone!) that you just can't get from typical software upgrades every three to five years. So if you missed any of these new features over the years, give them a go – you're bound to find a few that'll help you work more efficiently. And if you'd like to hear more about many of these updates, join us for a free webinar next Thursday.

A look back as we move ahead: Google Docs and Google Sites
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
9:00 a.m. PDT / 12:00 p.m. EDT
Register here
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/07/look-back-as-we-move-ahead-google-docs.html
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