Saturday, September 17, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] A new Stable release of Chrome, expanding the frontiers of the web

Posted: 17 Sep 2011 01:33 AM PDT

Google Chrome Blog: A new Stable release of Chrome, expanding the frontiers of the web

Today, we're happy to ship a new release to the Stable channel of Chrome, following up on last month's Beta channel release. This release contains two significant technologies which allow developers to create even more powerful web apps and games:
  • The Web Audio API enables developers to add fancy audio effects such as room simulation and spatialization.
  • Native Client is an open-source technology which allows C and C++ code to be seamlessly and securely executed inside the browser. Currently, Native Client only supports applications listed in the Chrome Web Store, but we are working to remove this limitation as soon as possible.

This release also contains some changes for our Chrome users on Mac OS X Lion. For all web pages, Chrome uses Lion's overlay scrollbars, which appear only while you're scrolling. We've also added initial support for Lion's full-screen mode, triggered by a full-screen button or Ctrl+Shift+F. Finally, we've fixed many crash bugs, and added some all-around visual polish.

As always, if you already have Chrome installed, it will automatically update itself to the new version soon. If you haven't taken Chrome for a spin yet, you can download it from www.google.com/chrome.

Posted by Brad Chen, Software Engineer
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-stable-release-of-chrome-expanding.html

[G] Strong authentication to protect business user accounts

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 08:41 PM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Strong authentication to protect business user accounts

Posted by Rishi Dhand, Product Manager, Google Apps

Editors note: This post is part of a series that explores the top ten reasons why customers trust Google with their business data. A complete top ten list can be found here.

We recently announced that more than 4 million businesses run on Google Apps and 5,000 more are signing up every day. Many of these business "go Google" for enhanced security features. One example is 2-step verification, an opt-in security feature that we added to Google Apps last year.

2-step verification adds an additional layer of protection to your account and significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access. With 2-step verification, you sign into your account with both your password and a one time verification code you get on your phone. You can generate the code with a mobile app (on Android, iPhone and Blackberry), or get it in an SMS text message or a voice call.

This feature helps ensure that only you can sign in to your account. It also helps protect you if your password gets stolen via phishing attempts, keyloggers or other malicious software, or from another website where you might have used the same password. Without the verification code, hackers can't access your Google Apps account—even if they have your password.

While two-factor authentication is not a new concept, many businesses have historically struggled with deploying it due to cost, IT complexity and usability issues associated with requiring users to carry separate token generators. Google Apps includes 2-step verification at no additional cost, using existing phones to make it simple and easy to deploy. It's available in over 40 languages and in more than 150 countries.

We also support Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)-based Single Sign-On (SSO) for businesses that already use separate authentication technologies and would like to continue using them. Google Apps for Business supports the SAML 2.0 specification and allows businesses to apply custom security features, password management policies, and their own two-factor authentication solution. This SSO capability is an alternative to the 2-step verification feature that is included with Google Apps.

Protecting your accounts with strong authentication mechanisms is a great way to help ensure your information remains safe online. Thousands of If you are an existing customer, you can easily configure 2-step verification, once your administrator has enabled the feature for your domain.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/09/strong-authentication-to-protect.html

[G] This week's Trends: anniversaries, webcams, and the future

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 02:36 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: This week's Trends: anniversaries, webcams, and the future

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 "You're not gonna be the great breakdancer you think you are."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/cS9THivWxQ0/this-weeks-trends-anniversaries-webcams.html

[G] Hedgewars bets on Google Summer of Code

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 02:36 PM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Hedgewars bets on Google Summer of Code

What an exciting summer for the Hedgewars team! This was our first year to participate in the Google Summer of Code program and we managed to survive to the end!

The fun began when we were accepted as a participating organization and prepared the ideas list to be discussed with the students. As an interesting statistic, I do remember that people joining our IRC channel increased by 20% during that time. We didn't expect so much interest, and my best guess is that it was because it's always fun to code for a game, and Hedgewars in particular offered a lot of uncommon initiatives, like programming with FreePascal or experimenting with SDL-1.3.

The only negative part of our experience lies in the fact that of the 2 student slots that we were given, one project wasn't carried out at all which meant that the AI implementation had to be called off. Perhaps a more experienced organization might have noticed subtle hints from the student and avoided this situation, but what counts is that we learned our lesson and will be able to evaluate our students better in the future.

On the other hand, we've had an outstanding success in our second project, Hedgewars on Android: the student was able to fulfill the task requirements and implement a few optional features in the time allocated. He also documented his code (rarity!) and interacted with developers of our dependencies. What I particularly liked was the fact that all of our active developers helped in this project with testing and suggestions.

Overall I feel like we've all had our share of fun gathering ideas from the community, sorting out students' proposals, managing student's work, and achieving results. Our student is sticking around to finish and maintain his project and is about to join our development team, so my guess is that he also enjoyed his time with the Hedgewars team during Google Summer of Code.

Finally, with our repo full of new code and our bag full of experience, we look forward to next year's Google Summer of Code where we plan to have just as much fun and success (and hopefully even more).

Thanks to all the people involved, mentors, students and admins.

By Vittorio Giovara, Hedgewars Organization Administrator for Google Summer of Code

This post is cross posted from the Hedgewars blog, where you can find additional details about their experiences with the Google Summer of Code.


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleOpenSourceBlog/~3/UjzeR3OaGlU/hedgewars-bets-on-google-summer-of-code.html

[G] Introducing Voice Actions for Android in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 02:36 PM PDT

Official Google Mobile Blog: Introducing Voice Actions for Android in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain

Last year in the US, we introduced Voice Actions, a series of spoken commands that let you control your Android phone or tablet with your voice. You can call businesses and contacts, send texts, browse the web and complete other common tasks, all just by speaking into your phone.

Today, we're pleased to announce that users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain can now use Voice Actions in British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

To use Voice Actions, tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen, open the Voice Search app, or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the "Speak Now" screen. You can see how it works in this video.



Speak any of these commands to perform a Voice Action on your phone:
  • send text to [contact] [message]
  • call [business]
  • call [contact]
  • go to [website]
  • navigate to [location/business name]
  • directions to [location/business name]
  • map of [location]
And of course, you can still conduct a Google search using your voice.

Use Voice Actions to get directions, or send a text using just your voice

Voice Actions is available on phones and tablets running Android 2.2 and higher. If you don't have Voice Search on your phone yet, you can download it from Android Market - if you do have Voice Search, you can just start using Voice Actions.

We think Voice Actions helps you get things done on your phone faster and easier. Give it a try, and let us know what you think!

Posted by Bertrand Damiba, Product Manager
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/09/introducing-voice-actions-for-android.html

[G] Earn more by promoting Google Affiliate Exclusive Opportunities

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 02:36 PM PDT

Inside AdSense: Earn more by promoting Google Affiliate Exclusive Opportunities








With the arrival of fall, the holiday shopping season begins. Give your readers an early start by posting Google
Affiliate Network Exclusive Opportunities on your site, and also earn additional revenue. Over 40 great shopping opportunities will be available exclusively to Google Affiliate Network
publishers. In addition, special opportunities will be live for one weekend only, from Friday, September 23  through September 26.



This limited time offer enables you to add a variety of great consumer opportunities to your site and earn
a performance fee from orders that originated from your links.



Here are just a few examples of exclusive opportunities that you can post: 















$15 Off $50




Free Shipping on all orders


 Get $15 off Your Next $125 Purchase!



How do I promote these opportunities on my site?

To promote any of these exclusive opportunities, you’ll first need to be an approved publisher in Google Affiliate Network. Google Affiliate Network is available to all
AdSense publishers, and while most advertisers in the program are based in the US and Canada, many have international shipping capabilities. For more details, view all Google Affiliate Network opportunities available.



  1. Apply for Google Affiliate Network with your AdSense Publisher
    ID (or sign in if you're already a Google Affiliate Network publisher).     


  2. Once approved, review the opportunities available (link to GAN Blog Post to be added once live) and click the "Apply Now" link for everyone that you wish to
    promote.


  3. Tracking links will be available in your Google Affiliate Network account by viewing the Home tab. You can also search for “September
    Exclusive Opportunities†links in the Links section on September 23.


Need help applying or want more information? Review the Getting Started guide today.



When can I post these opportunities on my site?

All opportunities will be available on September 23, and all will expire at midnight September 26. Please note that it won’t be possible to post any of these exclusives until
September 23.



Posted by Jamie Ross, Google Affiliate Network




URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tuAm/~3/IKWo5615aso/earn-more-by-promoting-google-affiliate.html

[G] Watch Austin City Limits Music Festival all weekend on YouTube

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 02:36 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: Watch Austin City Limits Music Festival all weekend on YouTube

This year marks Austin City Limits Music Festival's 10th anniversary, and starting today, we're streaming the festival live on YouTube. Check out the trailer for the event:







Looking for big headliners? Rock? Rap? Indie? Electronic? Get your fill of bands including Coldplay, Social Distortion, Big Boi, TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes, Cut Copy and over 30 more artists. Check out the full webcast schedule and mark your calendars—it's going to be a great weekend of music.



The Dell and AMD-sponsored webcast kicks off today at 11:30 a.m. PT on youtube.com/aclfestival. We'll see you there!



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched "Austin Kiddie Limits 2011."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/RH1rzpHPpUY/watch-austin-city-limits-music-festival.html
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