Saturday, August 6, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Security First: Google Apps and Google App Engine receive SSAE-16 certification

Posted: 06 Aug 2011 02:43 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Security First: Google Apps and Google App Engine receive SSAE-16 certification

Posted by Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security, Google Enterprise

One of the ways our customers can be are assured their data is protected is through third-party audits and certifications. Since 2008, Google Apps has successfully undergone annual SAS 70 Type II audits. This year the SAS70 Type II audit has evolved into the SSAE 16 Type II attestation and its international counterpart, ISAE 3402 Type II. We're happy to announce that Google is one of the first major cloud providers to be certified for compliance to these new standards.

Over the past few weeks, Google has successfully completed the audit process for the SSAE 16 and ISAE 3402 standards for Google Apps and Postini services. In addition, we expanded the audits to include Google App Engine, Google Apps Script, and Google Storage for Developers. Together with the SAS 70 Type II (covering dates prior to June 15th, 2011), these third party audits provide additional assurance to customers that their data is well protected.

Third party audits are only part of the security and compliance benefits of Google Apps and Google App Engine products. We protect our Apps customers' data by employing some of the foremost security experts, by executing rigorous safety processes, and by implementing cutting-edge technology. These protections are highlighted in our security white paper and data center video tour. For more information visit our Google Apps Trust page.

We take extensive measures to protect our users' data and we are constantly innovating to develop new features and capabilities in these areas.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/08/security-first-google-apps-and-google.html

[G] We love Lucy

Posted: 06 Aug 2011 02:43 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: We love Lucy


Lucille Ball may have been born 100 years ago today, but her jokes are timeless. Having grown up with the comedic genius of "I Love Lucy," it's hard to believe that Lucy, Desi, Fred, and Ethel wrapped up the initial series in 1957. Lucy's creativity, absurdity, and ever-changing facial expressions (especially when she was scarfing down candy, stomping on grapes or touting a new energy drink) have brought joy and laughter to generations of viewers.

We're incredibly happy to celebrate her birthday with a doodle to highlight her brilliant career as an actress and businesswoman. Through the old-timey TV live on the google.com homepage all day on August 6th, you can flip the six channels for a special Lucy broadcast.

Happy birthday, Lucy — we still love you!


Posted by Jennifer Hom, Doodler
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/we-love-lucy.html

[G] Open Data in Kenya - Setting the Pace for Africa

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:54 PM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: Open Data in Kenya - Setting the Pace for Africa

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. We believe that the Internet can be a transformational force for societies and for empowering individuals.

That is why we were so excited to hear that Kenya has become the first country in Africa to publish a huge collection of government data with no restrictions. The Kenyan government has now set a precedent for Africa in allowing users to acces such important information. The story below from Google's African blog outlines this exciting development for open government.

Cross-posted from the Google Africa Blog:

The Kenya government's recent launch of an open data web portal has both local and international pundits buzzing. By making this step, Kenya is the first country in Africa to publish over 290 datasets with no restrictions on access and use. Released datasets include a variety from the ministries of Finance, Planning, Local Government, Health and Education and the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics. This, in our humble opinion, is HUGE.

Minister of Information Hon. Samuel Poghisio & President of Kenya, H.E. Mwai Kibaki, getting a glimpse of Google Tools for Government

In the past, most Kenyan government information has been treated by default as a state secret. One had to be physically present at the respective ministry, with a letter of support, to access it. Now, all one needs is an internet connection and a search query. The launch marks a turning point as far as how citizens can engage with government, and will result in new ways through which Kenyans can hold their leaders accountable and amplify their voice on complex issues. For the government, this is a great foundation for fact-based policy making. For the local content landscape, it means new opportunities to analyze rich historical archives and new jobs to apply a stream of usable data: developers, statisticians, teachers and students alike will benefit. For Africa, the Open Data initiative could become the blueprint for how to move into the knowledge economy.

To be clear, this didn't all happen overnight - it is the outcome of several years of prodding by the local ICT community. Google is proud to have played a small but crucial role in supporting the initiative's main aim: to make core government development, demographic, statistical and expenditure data available in a useful digital format for anyone to access.

The Ministry of Information invited Google to join the Open Data Taskforce and help guide the technology and policy work leading up to the launch. In our role, we advocated for use of open standards, APIs for developers and local language support for the datasets. In addition, many of the apps and visualizations showcased at the launch by local developers - like Msema Kweli and Eduweb - made use of the Google Maps APIs & Charting APIs.

Finally, we were involved in helping bring several datasets to life using the Google Public Data Explorer. In the live example below, based on data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, users can easily see and interact with the Social, Physical Infrastructure and other Government expenditure trends from 2002-2008. Questions like " How much capital expenditure was spent on Schools & Health in 2007" can be answered by simply pressing play.



Other advances in government transparency highlighted at the launch were the Kenya Gazettes and Parliamentary Hansards archives, which are now online via Google Books through a partnership with the Kenya National Assembly and the National Council for Law Reporting.

It is extremely rewarding to see an African government adopting values that are so deeply espoused by Google and development community at large - democratizing access to information. In his speech, the President of Kenya recognized that "information is power and an informed citizenry is an empowered citizenry" and promised to continue to work towards access to information and free flow of information. We look forward to working with other countries to helping make the ideal of an informed citizenry a reality.

Posted by Denis Gikunda, Local Content Programs and Ory Okolloh, Government Relations & Public Policy, Google Africa
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-data-in-kenya-setting-pace-for.html

[G] Visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial with Google Maps

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:54 PM PDT

Google LatLong: Visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial with Google Maps


This past March, we announced Street View imagery of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Known as the "Atomic Bomb Dome," the Memorial bears witness to the devastation of nuclear war. The once proud pre-war structure nearly destroyed by the bomb still stands unrestored -- a monument to those lost and a powerful symbol of peace.

Yesterday in Japan, we went one step further, making new imagery of the interior of the Memorial available via its Place page. While millions have visited the Memorial, you can only safely view it from the outside, standing behind a fence, because of the extent of the damage.


View Larger Map

However iconic the Dome may be, it's difficult to comprehend the magnitude and scope of the devastation from the outside of the building. But with the support of the Hiroshima city government, we gathered hi-resolution imagery that actually enables you to "walk" through the building room by room, using the same technology we've used to photograph other historic monuments around the world. The difference here is that while you can wander the gardens of Versailles or streets of Rome in person, the only way you can access the interior of the structure is digitally.

We launched this imagery in Japan on August 5th, one day before the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. You can access this collection via the Memorial's Place page, or start exploring via this link. As with all of our special collections, we hope this imagery helps people around the world virtually travel to places they'd never otherwise have a chance to see.

Posted by Wakaba Okura, Program Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/08/visit-hiroshima-peace-memorial-with.html

[G] Inside Google's search office

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:54 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Inside Google's search office

(Cross-posted on the Inside Search Blog)

I've been working with Matt Cutts and Ben Gomes in the same office for over 10 years. We work on search every day, and earlier this week, we took our office talk to the stage at an event hosted by the Churchill Club. Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan moderated our in-depth discussion on search, how it works, and what's ahead for us in the future. We also reminisced about first joining Google, the time my car ran out of gas as Ben and I discussed a change to the algorithm, and other great memories over the years.

Come sit inside our office for a chat about Google Search:


  • To hear more about the principles that drive changes to the algorithm and how these changes are tested and implemented, go to 15:40
  • To hear the discussion on why we don't hand-pick results, start watching at 41:04
  • For more on my vision for the future of search, jump to 1:12:28
  • Guess who Danny thinks is the brains, looks, and brawn of this operation at 1:08 (hint: I'm the brains).
Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/inside-googles-search-office.html

[G] Restoring Bletchley Park, birthplace of modern computing

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:54 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Restoring Bletchley Park, birthplace of modern computing


Late last year Google backed the bid to buy the papers of the British computer scientist and wartime codebreaker Alan Turing and return them to their rightful home at Bletchley Park. We were thrilled when this was finally achieved in February.

Now we've joined forces with the Bletchley Park Trust to help raise funds to rebuild Block C, the original wartime building that once housed the vast punched card index—in essence, the "search engine" at the heart of Bletchley Park's decryption activity.


Block C at Bletchley Park, awaiting restoration


Bletchley Park played a pivotal role in computing history. For decades the extraordinary achievements of its veterans were hidden by order of the UK's Official Secrets Act. It was not until the 1980s that the full secret of Colossus—the world's first electronic programmable computer—was revealed. Housed at Bletchley Park, Colossus and other custom-built machines were crucial aids in the code-breaking, reputed to have shortened World War II by two years.


Tony Sale, leader of the Colossus rebuild project, demos it 
at the National Museum of Computing

Today, Block C is derelict. We hope to help restore it to serve as a visitor and learning centre for both Bletchley Park and the UK's National Museum of Computing. The fund-raising campaign kicked off this week with a Google-supported garden party in the Bletchley Park grounds, at which over £10,000 was raised. We still have a long way to go, though, so if you'd like to contribute, please donate at the Bletchley Park website.

If you're in London, Bletchley Park is less than an hour away by train, and well worth an afternoon's visit. You can see a working replica of Colossus, along with many other exhibits highlighting wartime work at Bletchley Park and the UK's rich computing heritage.


Posted by Peter Barron, Director of External Relations for Europe, Middle East and Africa
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/restoring-bletchley-park-birthplace-of.html

[G] Give your templates a refresh in the new document editor

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:54 PM PDT

The Google Apps Blog: Give your templates a refresh in the new document editor

We continue to add new features like pagination and discussions to the new document editor, and we want to make sure you always have access to all of the latest functionality -- whether you're creating a new doc from scratch or using a template from the gallery. As part of this effort, we're removing Google Docs templates created in the old document editor from the Google Docs template gallery.

Starting on September 30th, old style templates will remain accessible to their owners and to anyone who the template has been shared with, but they will no longer be visible in the public gallery. This will only apply to the public Google Docs template gallery; templates created in Google Apps domains will not be affected by this change.

You can ensure your templates remain in the gallery by converting them to the new document editor. Just follow these simple steps:
  1. Open the document from your documents list
  2. Click the Preview link at the top of the document to see what it looks like in the new editor
  3. From inside the preview window, click the Update this document link
When old style templates are removed from the gallery on September 30th, the template owners will still be able to restore the templates to the gallery by upgrading them to the new editor.

By making this change, we hope to bring the best possible experience to more documents.

Posted by: Jeff Harris, Product Manager
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/PkWwFcWgBdU/give-your-templates-refresh-in-new.html

[G] Who’s New in Google Summer of Code: Part 10 Final Edition

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:54 PM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Who's New in Google Summer of Code: Part 10 Final Edition


Every Friday this summer we have spotlighted three or four of the new organizations participating in this year's Google Summer of Code. For our final post in the summer series we have organization administrators from Processing, Orange, and FOSSASIA discussing their projects and some of the tasks their students have been working on all summer.

Processing is a programming language, development environment, and online community that promotes software literacy within the visual arts. It focuses on programming graphics, animation, and interactive applications. Because Processing is free and open source, it is easily accessible to schools and students around the world. The Processing community has written over one hundred libraries to extend the software into other domains including computer vision, data visualization, music, and electronics.

This is our first year participating in Google Summer of Code and we are thrilled to have two great students helping us on our project. Peter Kalauskas is busy working on Dynamic Library Loading. Currently the Processing software is extended by libraries that need to be downloaded and installed separately. Peter's work will make it possible to add and update libraries through our IDE (Integrated Developer Environment). Harshani Nawarathnai is working on enhancing the PDE (Processing Development Environment); work has started on a version that is built on top of Eclipse. We hope this will bring advanced IDE features into Processing, while maintaining the simplicity of our editor/compiler. For now, there's a working Eclipse plug-in, but we're working to support our own standalone application that supports all the syntax and static checking tools available in Eclipse for other languages.

By Casey Reas, Processing Organization Administrator

----------
Orange, Data Mining Fruitful & Fun, is an open source component-based data mining and machine learning software suite. Orange features easy to use yet powerful and flexible visual programming front-end for explorative data analysts and visualization, and Python bindings and libraries for scripting. Being developed at the Bioinformatics Laboratory at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, it is actively used in research, incorporating cutting edge tools and techniques, and it is constantly evolving.
This summer, through the Google Summer of Code program, we have three students working on improving various aspects of Orange. Marinka Zitnik is working on providing the Orange community with a unified and efficient interface to matrix factorization algorithms and methods. Wencan Luo is extending Orange to support multi-label classification. Miha Cancula is replacing the current visualization framework based on Qwt with a custom library, depending on Qt. We are already seeing very useful results from the students' work.
By Mitar Milutinovic, Orange Organization Administrator
----------

FOSSASIA is participating in Google Summer of Code for the first time this summer. The goal of the FOSSASIA network is to bring young Open Source developers together with experienced international developers to join or start new Free and Open Source projects. FOSSASIA's Google Summer of Code projects focus on open source for social change and communication. All the students are putting in a lot of effort, however their progress is varying as students have different skill levels.

The project of "foo-script" (Adam Rakowski) is moving forward most quickly. He expands the uses for the next Crypto-Stick (an USB hardware device with an integrated openGPG smart card firmware) edition and develops plugins for popular applications like Firefox. With the Stick you can easily encrypt your emails and achieve convenient online authentication. Secondly Chanrithy Thim, the MoonOS developer from Cambodia has been improving Appshell, a framework for applications that lets developers easily create application bundles. A single file contains all the data and files needed to run an application, so all a user has to do is to launch it. Google Summer of Code projects will be presented at this year's FOSSASIA Summit taking place in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on November 11-13, 2011.

By Hong Phuc, FOSSASIA Organization Administrator
These are just a few of the 48 new organizations participating in this 7th year of the Google Summer of Code. For a complete list of the 175 organizations participating in the Google Summer of Code visit our program site. This year's program wraps up with 'pencils down' on August 22nd, for other important dates please check our timeline.

By Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleOpenSourceBlog/~3/hdJq7SSWyMY/whos-new-in-google-summer-of-code-part.html

[G] This week's Trends: singers, whales, and animations

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:54 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: This week's Trends: singers, whales, and animations

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:





Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Saved By the Bell Interactive Game."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/M3SE4z6lkCo/this-weeks-trends-singers-whales-and.html

[G] Give your templates a refresh in the new document editor

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 10:54 PM PDT

Docs Blog: Give your templates a refresh in the new document editor

We continue to add new features like pagination and discussions to the new document editor, and we want to make sure you always have access to all of the latest functionality -- whether you're creating a new doc from scratch or using a template from the gallery. As part of this effort, we're removing Google Docs templates created in the old document editor from the Google Docs template gallery.

Starting on September 30th, old style templates will remain accessible to their owners and to anyone who the template has been shared with, but they will no longer be visible in the public gallery. This will only apply to the public Google Docs template gallery; templates created in Google Apps domains will not be affected by this change.

You can ensure your templates remain in the gallery by converting them to the new document editor. Just follow these simple steps:
  1. Open the document from your documents list
  2. Click the Preview link at the top of the document to see what it looks like in the new editor
  3. From inside the preview window, click the Update this document link
When old style templates are removed from the gallery on September 30th, the template owners will still be able to restore the templates to the gallery by upgrading them to the new editor.

By making this change, we hope to bring the best possible experience to more documents.

Posted by: Jeff Harris, Product Manager
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/07/give-your-templates-refresh-in-new.html

[G] YouTube brings you Lollapalooza live all weekend

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTube brings you Lollapalooza live all weekend

Here at YouTube we love putting you in the front row of amazing concert experiences, from Coachella to Jane's Addiction. Starting at 11:30am PT today we'll be livestreaming the 20th anniversary Lollapalooza music festival with dozens of the best performances, brought to you by Dell and AMD. We'll also have a host of your favorite YouTube stars on location, reporting behind-the-scenes throughout the weekend.



What can you expect? We kick off the day with British sensations The Vaccines, before the Smith Westerns play a homecoming set in their native Chicago at 1:30pm. Don't miss Bright Eyes at 4:30pm and then see a little band called Coldplay round up the evening starting at 6:15pm.



All eyes will be on My Morning Jacket as Saturday night's headliners, but keep a hole in your afternoon to watch Walk the Moon at 12:15pm and Beats Antique 5:15pm, who also recorded these videos from the road:











Clear your schedule for Sunday, because it's a stormer, from opener Imelda May through to the mighty Foo Fighters, via an eclectic lineup including Portugal. The Man (3pm) Explosions in the Sky (5pm) and Damian "Jr Gong" Marley & Nas (5:15pm).







If that's still not enough for your eyes and ears, some of YouTube's popular stars will be on the ground at Grant Park, bringing you behind the scenes reports and interviews with the artists. Subscribe to ShayCarl, NicePeter, LisaNova and CTFxC for a true insight into what's happening off stage.



You can also see the full webcast schedule on the Lollapalooza channel, and get updates throughout the weekend via @youtube on Twitter.



Tim Partridge, YouTube Music Marketing Manager, recently watched "Foo Fighters Garage Tour Full Length."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/yhcQ-jnDv3Q/youtube-brings-you-lollapalooza-live.html

[G] Google News highlights unique content with Editors’ Picks

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT

Google News Blog: Google News highlights unique content with Editors' Picks

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

News organizations tell stories online in ways that bring together the best of traditional and digital journalism, whether that involves long-form investigative features, compelling photo slideshows or interactive maps and charts that add new levels of engagement to the day's news. To help connect you to the best works of news publishers, Google News is introducing a new section in the right-hand column of the U.S. edition. The section is called "Editors' Picks," and it displays original content that publishers have selected as highlights from their publications. This is the latest addition to recent improvements we've made to the variety and presence of stories and multimedia on Google News.

An array of news organizations, including local, national and niche publishers, are now using Editors' Picks to display their best, most engaging content. Because Google News relies on algorithms, Editors' Picks will always be just that—picks provided by publishers themselves, and not by Google. You can browse a set of publisher feeds that span national, specific and local interests—like The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, the Guardian and The Root, among many others—via the side-to-side arrows next to each publisher's logo. The feeds you see are chosen based on a variety of factors, including your news preferences. If you're interested in using source preferences on Google News, Editors' Picks helps you do that with the slider that appears just below the articles.


You may have first noticed Editors' Picks as an experiment last year. Based on the data from that experiment, we have been working with nearly two dozen publishers in recent months and have seen a positive response from readers and publishers alike: readers get the news they're interested in from the sources they trust, and publishers receive higher traffic to their websites. We encourage any news organizations that are interested to visit our Help Center to get started.

Posted by Yogita Mehta, Software Engineer, Google News Team
URL: http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/google-news-highlights-unique-content.html

[G] New in Labs: Preview Pane

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT

The Google Apps Blog: New in Labs: Preview Pane

Posted by Maciek Nowakowski, Associate Product Manager

When I check my email, I often rely on the message snippets to figure out which messages to open first. Sometimes, though, I want to see more than snippets, which is why I'm happy to announce that you can now preview messages in your inbox using a new feature in Gmail Labs called Preview Pane. It's probably a very familiar layout to those of you who have used Gmail on a tablet device. We also think it's going to work especially well if you have a larger resolution screen.


Click the image above to see a larger version.

After you enable Preview Pane from the Labs tab in Gmail Settings you'll see a toggle button in the top right corner of your message list, which lets you switch between preview and list views.


For those of you who have more vertical space you can also move the preview pane below your message list. You can enable this using the dropdown arrow next to the toggle button:


By default there is a 3-second delay in marking a conversation as read after previewing it. If that doesn't feel natural to you, you can change the timing in the General tab of settings:


If you'd like to remove the new layout, simply return to Gmail Settings and disable the lab. Finally, don't forget to let us know what you think about the latest addition to Gmail Labs.
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/t2MZyquOefM/new-in-labs-preview-pane.html

[G] Looking for Developer Evangelists

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: Looking for Developer Evangelists

Do you love Google Analytics? Are you passionate about web technologies? Want to help drive cutting edge Analytics extensions and integrations?



If this sounds like you, then we're looking for qualified and inspired engineers to join our Analytics team to help 3rd party developers get the most out of our product. You'll work with a variety of Google Analytics technologies, including the JavaScript tracking code, Mobile SDKs, and Data APIs. You'll write sample applications, help partners troubleshoot integrations, and present best practices at conferences. In short, you'll help to make engineers just like you even more successful!



If you're interested we'd love to hear from you.



Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Developer Programs Engineer


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tRaA/~3/FazurL5fCWA/looking-for-developer-evangelists.html

[G] Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT

Inside Google Books: Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War

Posted by Victoria Carlson, Google eBooks

Growing up as the child of an Air Force colonel with a passion for military history, I have traveled to almost every battlefield in the United States. Thus, there is a special place in my heart for Revolutionary and Civil War history. As this year is the Civil War's 150th anniversary, I've been celebrating in my own way, by reading as many related Google eBooks as I can download.


Last week, I read about Fort Sumter and its eventual surrender to South Carolina in Reminiscences of Fort Sumter and Moutrie in 1860-'61,. Right now, I'm reading a fascinating book called Woman's Work in the Civil War. Interestingly, the author only decided to write this book after searching for a different book and discovering the heroic sacrifices and bravery that many women had shown, but were not remembered for.

I also found a rare firsthand account from Abner Doubleday that provides a riveting perspective of a staunch Unionist. In his narrative he claims to have been the only officer of the garrison who actually wanted Lincoln to win the presidential election.

While surfing through lists of Civil War books, I stumbled upon Manassas: a novel of the war by revered author Upton Sinclair. This novel provides a very detailed description of life before the war, focusing on a young Southern man's life in the Union army.

Toward the middle of 1861, the North had increased its naval strength and began a blockade of the South. The South's efforts to create small and fast ships that could outmaneuver the North is detailed in Three Years on the Blockade: a naval experience.

Next on my tour of the Civil War is The Uprising of a Great People: The United States in 1861. This translated novel presents the perspective of a French citizen on events and slavery in the US during the war.

From there, I plan on following the 150th anniversary of different Civil War events. I can't wait to begin reading about Confederate "Stonewall" Jackson's defeat of the Union forces in 1862, and Lincoln's preliminary announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Till next year, I'll satiate my curiosity by searching through general Civil War books and reading personal accounts from both Confederates and Unionists.
URL: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2011/08/celebrating-150th-anniversary-of-civil.html

[G] New in Gmail Labs: Preview Pane

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: New in Gmail Labs: Preview Pane

Posted by Maciek Nowakowski, Associate Product Manager

(Cross-posted from the Gmail Blog.)

When we check our email, many of us rely on the message snippets to figure out which emails to open first. We've been listening to your feedback though, and we know that sometimes, you want more than snippets. This is why I'm happy to announce that you can now preview messages in your inbox using a new feature in Gmail Labs called Preview Pane. It's probably a very familiar layout to those of you who have used Gmail on a tablet device. We also think it's going to work especially well if you have a larger resolution screen.


Click the image above to see a larger version.




After you enable Preview Pane from the Labs tab in Gmail Settings you'll see a toggle button in the top right corner of your message list, which lets you switch between preview and list views.


For those of you who have more vertical space you can also move the preview pane below your message list. You can enable this using the dropdown arrow next to the toggle button:


By default there is a 3-second delay in marking a conversation as read after previewing it. If that doesn't feel natural to you, you can change the timing in the General tab of settings:


If you'd like to remove the new layout, simply return to Gmail Settings and disable the lab. Finally, don't forget to let us know what you think about the latest addition to Gmail Labs.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-in-gmail-labs-preview-pane.html

[G] Google News highlights unique content with Editors’ Picks

Posted: 05 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Google News highlights unique content with Editors' Picks

(Cross-posted on the Google News Blog)

News organizations tell stories online in ways that bring together the best of traditional and digital journalism, whether that involves long-form investigative features, compelling photo slideshows or interactive maps and charts that add new levels of engagement to the day's news. To help connect you to the best works of news publishers, Google News is introducing a new section in the right-hand column of the U.S. edition. The section is called "Editors' Picks," and it displays original content that publishers have selected as highlights from their publications. This is the latest addition to recent improvements we've made to the variety and presence of stories and multimedia on Google News.

An array of news organizations, including local, national and niche publishers, are now using Editors' Picks to display their best, most engaging content. Because Google News relies on algorithms, Editors' Picks will always be just that—picks provided by publishers themselves, and not by Google. You can browse a set of publisher feeds that span national, specific and local interests—like The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, the Guardian and The Root, among many others—via the side-to-side arrows next to each publisher's logo. The feeds you see are chosen based on a variety of factors, including your news preferences. If you're interested in using source preferences on Google News, Editors' Picks helps you do that with the slider that appears just below the articles.


You may have first noticed Editors' Picks as an experiment last year. Based on the data from that experiment, we have been working with nearly two dozen publishers in recent months and have seen a positive response from readers and publishers alike: readers get the news they're interested in from the sources they trust, and publishers receive higher traffic to their websites. We encourage any news organizations that are interested to visit our Help Center to get started.

Posted by Yogita Mehta, Software Engineer, Google News Team
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/google-news-highlights-unique-content.html
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)