Friday, October 14, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Google Analytics support in Blogger

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 08:42 PM PDT

Blogger Buzz: Google Analytics support in Blogger

Having a solid understanding of the traffic and visitor engagement statistics of your blog is one of the best ways to help it grow, and that's why today we're excited to announce that you can now easily connect your Google Analytics account with your blog.

Adding Google Analytics to your blog will give you more insight into where your visitors are coming from and help you determine which content they engage with the most. It's an easy to use, powerful, free product that is used internationally by businesses large & small.

If you already have a Google Analytics account, simply navigate to your blog's Settings > Other tab and enter your blog's Google Analytics Web Property ID. Blogger will then insert Google Analytics code into your blog automatically, regardless of which template you're using, including mobile.

For more details and troubleshooting tips, check out this post on the Blogger Developers Network blog.

A few notes:
  • Google Analytics is supported on blogs using Dynamic Views, Layouts templates, and mobile templates, but not Classic templates.
  • Because of the technical differences in how Blogger's stats and Google Analytics collect data, you are likely to see some minor discrepancies between the two.
Posted by Muthu Kannan, Software Engineer

URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/10/google-analytics-support-in-blogger.html

[G] Lightbox update

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 08:42 PM PDT

Blogger Buzz: Lightbox update

When we enabled a brand new photo viewing experience, called Lightbox, by default a few weeks ago, we heard from a number of Bloggers who preferred to use their own, previously installed Lightbox solution, or who simply wanted to continue blogging without the new feature.

Thanks to your feedback, we turned Lightbox off temporarily, and we're re-launching it today with the option to disable it, along with a handful of fixes to bugs that you reported.

To learn more about Lightbox and how it works, check out the original blog post.

If you'd like to disable Lightbox on your blog, log in to Blogger and select "No" next to Lightbox in the Settings | Posts and Comments section (new interface) or the Settings | Formatting section (old interface).

Thanks again for your detailed suggestions, and please continue to share your feedback in our help forum.

Posted by Marcos Almeida, Software Engineer

URL: http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/10/lightbox-update.html

[G] Start the conversation with Google Translate for Android

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 08:42 PM PDT

Official Google Mobile Blog: Start the conversation with Google Translate for Android


Mobile technology and the web have made it easier for people around the world to access information and communicate with each other. But there's still a daunting obstacle: the language barrier. We're trying to knock down that barrier so everyone can communicate and connect more easily.

Earlier this year, we launched an update to Google Translate for Android with an experimental feature called Conversation Mode, which enables you to you translate speech back and forth between languages. We began with just English and Spanish, but today we're expanding to 14 languages, adding Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish.




To use Conversation Mode, speak into your phone's microphone, and the Translate app will translate what you've said and read the translation out loud. The person you're speaking with can then reply in their language, and Conversation Mode will translate what they said and read it back to you.

This technology is still in alpha, so factors like background noise and regional accents may affect accuracy. But since it depends on examples to learn, the quality will improve as people use it more. We wanted to get this early version out to help start the conversation no matter where you are in the world.

We've also added some other features to make it easier to speak and read as you translate. For example, if you wanted to say "Where is the train?" but Google Translate recognizes your speech as "Where is the rain?", you can now correct the text before you translate it. You can also add unrecognized words to your personal dictionary.

When viewing written translation results, you can tap the magnifying glass icon to view the translated text in full screen mode so you can easily show it to someone nearby, or just pinch to zoom in for a close-up view.



Tap the magnifying glass icon to view translations full screen.


Finally, we've also optimized the app for larger screens like your Android tablet.

While we work to expand full Conversation Mode to even more languages, Google Translate for Android still supports text translation among 63 languages, voice input in 17 of those languages, and text-to-speech in 24 of them.

Download the Google Translate app in Android Market — it's available for tablets and mobile phones running Android 2.2 and up.


Posted by Jeff Chin, Product Manager
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/10/start-conversation-with-google.html

[G] Start the conversation with Google Translate for Android

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 08:42 PM PDT

Official Google Blog: Start the conversation with Google Translate for Android

(Cross-posted on the Mobile Blog and the Translate Blog) 

Mobile technology and the web have made it easier for people around the world to access information and communicate with each other. But there's still a daunting obstacle: the language barrier. We're trying to knock down that barrier so everyone can communicate and connect more easily.

Earlier this year, we launched an update to Google Translate for Android with an experimental feature called Conversation Mode, which enables you to you translate speech back and forth between languages. We began with just English and Spanish, but today we're expanding to 14 languages, adding Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish.



To use Conversation Mode, speak into your phone's microphone, and the Translate app will translate what you've said and read the translation out loud. The person you're speaking with can then reply in their language, and Conversation Mode will translate what they said and read it back to you.

This technology is still in alpha, so factors like background noise and regional accents may affect accuracy. But since it depends on examples to learn, the quality will improve as people use it more. We wanted to get this early version out to help start the conversation no matter where you are in the world.

We've also added some other features to make it easier to speak and read as you translate. For example, if you wanted to say "Where is the train?" but Google Translate recognizes your speech as "Where is the rain?", you can now correct the text before you translate it. You can also add unrecognized words to your personal dictionary.

When viewing written translation results, you can tap the magnifying glass icon to view the translated text in full screen mode so you can easily show it to someone nearby, or just pinch to zoom in for a close-up view.

Tap the magnifying glass icon to view translations full screen.

Finally, we've also optimized the app for larger screens like your Android tablet.

While we work to expand full Conversation Mode to even more languages, Google Translate for Android still supports text translation among 63 languages, voice input in 17 of those languages, and text-to-speech in 24 of them.

Download the Google Translate app in Android Market—it's available for tablets and mobile phones running Android 2.2 and up.

Posted by Jeff Chin, Product Manager
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/start-conversation-with-google.html

[G] Eclipse Day at the Googleplex 2011

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 08:42 PM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Eclipse Day at the Googleplex 2011

Here at Google, we use Eclipse every day to build our external and internal products, as well as building and releasing Eclipse tools. We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting Eclipse Day at Googleplex on November 30th. Hosting this event is one way to say "thank you" and contribute back to the community.

Eclipse Day is a 1-day conference that highlights Eclipse projects and Eclipse-based products created here at Google. It is also a great opportunity for both Eclipse contributors and users to network and share ideas.

This year we have sessions that cover Android Development Tools, Google Plug-in for Eclipse, WindowBuilder, EGit, m2eclipse, Eclipse 4, SWTBot, Orion, Hudson, a case study by NASA and Google's use of Xtext.

In previous years some of the most popular sessions have been our Eclipse Ignite talks: 5-minute, 20-slide presentations by attendees that wish to show-off what they are doing with Eclipse.

All of us at Google would like to thank Ian Skerrett and everyone at the Eclipse Foundation for assembling this great event. We are happy to welcome the Eclipse community to our campus. We are always looking for ways to make this conference better! Please share your ideas and let us know your thoughts about this year's program.

The conference is free, but you do need to pre-register. We strongly recommend you register early as we have run out of all of our slots every year.

By Alex Ruiz, Google Engineering Tools


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleOpenSourceBlog/~3/rgGYL9rtu9k/eclipse-day-at-googleplex-2011.html

[G] Introducing ad styles: an enhanced feature replacing color palettes

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 03:13 PM PDT

Inside AdSense: Introducing ad styles: an enhanced feature replacing color palettes


If you've been following our announcements in the last few weeks, you know we've been committed to bringing you features that you've been missing from the old AdSense interface. We're now launching another long-requested feature: ad styles. Ad styles extend and enhance all of the functionality of our old color palettes. With ad styles, you can create customized combinations of colors, fonts, and corner styles and then easily apply these to the ad units and search engines across your site.



The best part about ad styles is that when you edit an ad style in the new interface, any ad units or search engines that are using this style will automatically be updated with your changes. So if you want to test a new color for the ad units on your site to see how it performs, you can create a new ad style and apply it to some of your ad units. If it performs well you can then apply it to all of the ad units in your account or revert back to your old colors just as easily. We think this feature will save you time by eliminating the need to re-assign the colors to each ad unit individually.



To create a new ad style, visit the 'My ads' tab. Click 'Ad styles' in the navigation bar and then the '+New' button. You can then assign existing ad styles to your ad units during the ad unit creation process.





Posted by Jessica Hummel - AdSense Engineering


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tuAm/~3/XlJIu6GhroU/introducing-ad-styles-enhanced-feature.html

[G] Step inside the map with Google MapsGL

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:34 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Step inside the map with Google MapsGL

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long Blog)

You're now one step closer to experiencing and interacting with a 3D mirror of the real world within your browser with Google MapsGL. Google MapsGL takes Google Maps and harnesses the power of Web Graphics Library (WebGL) to create far richer visuals and animations.

WebGL is a new technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser without additional installed software. With WebGL your maps experience is much better with 3D buildings, smoother transitions between imagery and the ability to instantly "swoop" into Street View without a plugin.


Starting today, if you're using supported browsers (such as Chrome 14+ or Firefox Beta) with compatible video cards, you can opt in to the early beta release. Visit maps.google.com and click "Try it now," or visit maps.google.com/gl to learn more.

We've been using WebGL to create experiences like our Chrome experiments "3 Dreams of Black" and "All is Not Lost," which happen right in the browser. Previously, such sophisticated 3D graphics have only been possible on traditional desktop applications and have required manual installation. WebGL ushers in a whole new generation of graphics on the web, and with that, we can begin to redefine the expectations of an online map.

Check out Chrome Experiments WebGL for more WebGL-powered applications, and opt in to Google MapsGL to begin using the next generation of mapping today.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Earth
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/step-inside-map-with-google-mapsgl.html

[G] Google Books Returns to the Annual Boston Book Festival

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:34 AM PDT

Inside Google Books: Google Books Returns to the Annual Boston Book Festival

Posted by Abe Murray, Google Books Product Manager

Bostonian bookworms curious about ebooks and the latest talented writers are in for a treat this Saturday, October 15th at the third annual Boston Book Festival – a free one-day event celebrating books and authors that's expected to attract more than 30,000 people. We'll be there hosting a Google eBooks Petting Zoo inside the main Boston Book Festival tent at Copley Square, as well as sponsoring two panel discussions.

Interested passers-by to the Google eBooks Petting Zoo will be able to try out a variety of eReaders and tablets and explore the possibilities of reading books electronically on their favorite device. You'll be able to view Google eBooks on these devices from our vast selection that includes free classic titles and new bestsellers.

Attendees may also enjoy Google's sponsored panels, A Reason to Lead and Far Out Fiction:
  • A Reason to Lead will explore Governor Deval Patrick's memoir, A Reason To Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life. Governor Patrick will also discuss his story and the call to lead with Walter Isaacson, editor of Profiles in Leadership and author of the forthcoming authorized biography of Steve Jobs.

    (A Reason to Lead includes an introduction by Google's Scott Dougall, Director of Product Management, and will begin at 12:45pm at the Back Bay Events Center John Hancock Hall at 180 Berkeley Street)

  • Far Out Fiction will include discussions with four of America's most imaginative talents. Gregory Maguire will speak about his soon-to-be-released Out of Oz; Karen Russell will present her much acclaimed debut novel, Swamplandia; pop culture vulture Chuck Klosterman will reveal his latest work of fiction, The Visible Man; and Kate Beaton will round out the session with her witty drawings of historic and literary characters navigating the modern world in Hark! A Vagrant.

    (Far Out Fiction includes an introduction by Google's Steve Vinter, Engineering Director, and will begin at 4:30pm at the Trinity Church Sanctuary at 206 Clarendon Street)
If you're in the area, we invite you to check out these panel presentations at the Festival. And of course, feel free to drop by our booth anytime between 10am and 8pm for your chance to get "up close and personal" with ebooks. We look forward to seeing you there!


URL: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2011/10/google-books-returns-to-annual-boston.html

[G] Google Apps opens the door to savings for Mid-Atlantic Door Group

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:34 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Google Apps opens the door to savings for Mid-Atlantic Door Group

Posted by Lena Furr, MIS Director, Mid-Atlantic Door Group. and Tom Ronayne, General Manager AIRO Tech.

Editors note: Today's guest bloggers are Lena Furr, MIS Director for Mid-Atlantic Door Group and Tom Ronayne, General Manager of AIRO Tech, a technology services subsidiary of Mid-Atlantic Door Group, a 38-year-old specialty contracting company based in Washington, DC area. A PDF version of their case study is also available.



At Mid-Atlantic Door Group, we distribute and install everything from industrial overhead doors, door operation systems and loading dock equipment for commercial customers to garage doors and retractable awnings for residential customers. We have approximately 240 associates and operate together with our subsidiaries in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 1987 we created a technical services company, AIRO Tech, which designs and develops web-based business applications for outside specialty contracting companies as well as our own.

Recently, we were looking for ways to reduce IT license and maintenance costs and we wanted to get to our data easily from different devices, especially mobile ones. We had some experience building our own operational applications and our focus had been on clean, optimized interfaces developed for speed and mobility. So when it came time to upgrade our email and productivity applications we looked for solutions that embraced those elements.

Our previous environment included Microsoft® Exchange, Outlook and Office, but we found ourselves spending too much time and money on licenses and server maintenance. We had different versions on different machines and we were continually updating software on our desktops and laptops. Google Apps allowed us to to break free from those high-cost, high maintenance applications.

Our users are getting their email on a variety of devices and we've seen effective use of Google Docs especially for collaboration between our users. It's just so easy to use, the collaboration comes naturally since it's built right in. We also deployed Google Message Discovery, an email archive that provides an audit trail for our compliance needs.

By deploying Google Apps we were able to avoid $43,000 in upgrade costs we were facing in our old environment. The ability to access email in a browser also allowed us to transition many of our users to Linux-based desktops which also helped reduce our costs. Together with other license and application reductions, we saved nearly $60,000 in total.

Google Apps gives us the ability to work from anywhere on a wide variety of mobile devices. We are looking at deploying more mobile devices including smartphones, Chromebooks and tablets in the near future. Based on our encouraging experience so far, we anticipate that our Google Apps deployment will make it easy for us to do that.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/10/google-apps-opens-door-to-savings-for.html

[G] Growing the Google Commerce Search Family

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:34 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Growing the Google Commerce Search Family

Posted by Naveen Viswanatha, Product Manager, Google Commerce

Two years ago in November, we launched Google Commerce Search, which provides the search quality of Google to e-commerce websites with interactive user features such as Suggestions, Search As You Type and Product Recommendations. With Google Commerce Search, retailers such as GNC, L'Occitane and Forever21 are powering fast, interactive and relevant search and navigation for their customers. Simple integration with mobile and local search results allows shoppers to find products in physical stores nearby, helping retailers offer a great shopping experience from start to finish.

We've grown both in product features and user adoption in the past two years, but we're not done yet. In fact, we want to make it even easier for retailers to adopt Google Commerce Search to help them achieve amazing results and meet their customers' needs.

So today we're announcing that we're growing the Google Commerce Search family with the launch of the Google Commerce Search Reseller Program. Through this new program, technology providers can bring the unique capabilities of Google Commerce Search to their retail clients.

We've been working with some leading technology providers who have developed solutions around Google Commerce Search for the web and for mobile, and we're excited to formalize the program and invite even more technology providers to come on board with us.

Our first new reseller is Branding Brand, a leader in the mobile commerce space who works with large multi-channel retailers to develop mobile and social commerce applications. The firm sought out Google when they heard about Google Commerce Search, as they knew it would deliver additional value to their customers. "Mobile users are often action-oriented--whether they're locating a store, seeing what products are available nearby, or searching for a specific item–so it's important to quickly provide relevant information in the proper context. Google Commerce Search allows us to do exactly this," says co-founder Chris Mason. GNC was Branding Brand's first client to launch with Google Commerce Search earlier this year, and here is what their CMO Jeff Hennion has to say about the results:



In fact, with Branding Brand we'd also like to announce our newest retail customer: Timberland. With Branding Brand and Google Commerce Search, Timberland has been able to make their mobile vision a reality, both in the core site experience but also in integrating the critical search capabilities provided by Google Commerce Search. Timberland makes quality and environmentally-responsible products, so we couldn't be happier to welcome them to our family.

"At Timberland, the consumer always comes first. Our priority in developing our mobile website was making sure customers had the best experience possible," said Chris Hardisty, director of Timberland Global E-Commerce. "Shoppers today expect fast and relevant results especially on mobile where speed and interactivity matter most. Since we launched our mobile-optimized website, we have seen mobile sales grow 20 times faster than our desktop site sales."

We're also happy to welcome Perficient, a leading technology integrator specializing in e-commerce. Perficient was keenly interested developing solutions around Google Commerce Search given the capabilities it can provide to their clients. "Google Commerce Search brings retailers of all sizes the advanced Google search features that were previously only available to the biggest players in the space, including Search As You Type, local product availability, and engaging mobile experiences," says Sameer Peera, Principal of Perficient's National Commerce Practice.

If you're interested in becoming a Google Commerce Search reseller, please let us know by getting in touch.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/10/growing-google-commerce-search-family.html

[G] Step inside the map with Google MapsGL

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 11:34 AM PDT

Google LatLong: Step inside the map with Google MapsGL

You're now one step closer to experiencing and interacting with a 3D mirror of the real world within your browser with Google MapsGL. Google MapsGL takes Google Maps and harnesses the power of Web Graphics Library (WebGL) to create far richer visuals and animations.

WebGL is a new technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser without additional installed software. With WebGL your maps experience is much better with 3D buildings, smoother transitions between imagery and the ability to instantly "swoop" into Street View without a plugin.



Starting today, if you're using supported browsers (such as Chrome 14+ or Firefox Beta) with compatible video cards, you can opt in to the early beta release. Visit maps.google.com and click "Try it now," or visit maps.google.com/gl to learn more.

We've been using WebGL to create experiences like our Chrome experiments "3 Dreams of Black" and "All is Not Lost," which happen right in the browser. Previously, such sophisticated 3D graphics have only been possible on traditional desktop applications and have required manual installation. WebGL ushers in a whole new generation of graphics on the web, and with that, we can begin to redefine the expectations of an online map.

Check out Chrome Experiments WebGL for more WebGL-powered applications, and opt in to Google MapsGL to begin using the next generation of mapping today.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Earth
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/10/step-inside-map-with-google-mapsgl.html
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