Monday, October 17, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] New YouTube features for music artists

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 11:15 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: New YouTube features for music artists

With 800 million people per month coming to YouTube, you have a pretty big stage to share your music, and now we're adding features to also make YouTube your box office, merchandise table and music store.



The Merch Store

We're launching a feature called the Merch Store that will allow YouTube partners to offer fans merchandise directly on your channel. Fans will be able to buy artists' merchandise, digital downloads, concert tickets and even unique experiences like meetups. These features are made possible through affiliates like Topspin for merchandise, concert tickets and experiences; Songkick for concerts; and iTunes and Amazon for music downloads. We'll be rolling out the Merch Store to music partners globally over the coming weeks, and here's an early look:







If you'd like to learn more, we're hosting a panel on Thursday October 20 @ Noon ET at the Mercury Lounge in NYC, sharing stories with artists who've found success on YouTube. The lineup includes Dru Ha and Buckshot from Duck Down Music, Julia Nunes, Karmin, Portugal. the Man and Ryan Leslie, and an RSVP is available at the YouTube Creator blog.



Whether you're the main event, the opener or jamming from your living room, we want to give you the chance to find an audience and make music your career on YouTube.



Christian Weitenberner, Senior Technical Account Manager, recently watched "Bust Your Knee Caps - Pomplamoose" and then "Bon Iver - Calgary."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/UIEiZt9wtQs/new-youtube-features-for-music-artists.html

[G] Nonprofits use video to drive action on World Food Day

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: Nonprofits use video to drive action on World Food Day

Today is World Food Day and we wanted to highlight some of the ways we're seeing nonprofit organizations around the world are sharing stories of the over one billion people who are living in hunger.



Organizations like the ONE Campaign are employing famous faces like Bono, George Clooney and Jessica Alba to help raise awareness about the issue:







Others like LinkTV are using this important day to highlight the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, which has affected over 11.5 million people thus far:







A collection of videos related to World Food Day are featured on the YouTube homepage today. Watch them to learn more about the global hunger crisis and to see how you can help.



Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched "Rising Food Prices."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/vnN_n4Lc_eQ/nonprofits-use-video-to-drive-action-on.html

[G] Trespass with Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage is in theaters today, and at home on YouTube

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: Trespass with Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage is in theaters today, and at home on YouTube

Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Joel Schumacher. Two Oscars and countless nominations among them, this team is bringing you a new thriller called Trespass that is out in theaters today, and even more—it's available on YouTube Movies in the US as well.



Director Joel Schumacher sat down to talk with us about what lead to the decision to release Trespass on YouTube as well as in theaters, experiences in the film industry and his cast-driven films, which you can see with our YouTube Movie Extras. As Joel says, "I know certain people in my industry are furious about … their films being shown in anyway than they were supposed to be meant to be seen [in theaters]. However, there's no stopping technology."







Trespass joins other YouTube Movies like Kevin Smith's Red State that had a pre-theatrical release on YouTube, one of the many ways we want to help you get more into movies.



Elizabeth Ferdon, YouTube Business Development, watched "A Time to Kill."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/YpYqwQZ5Enk/trespass-with-nicole-kidman-and-nicolas.html

[G] Cloud Services and International Trade

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Cloud Services and International Trade

Posted by Patrick Ryan, Policy Counsel, Open Internet

This year, Google is a private sector, Platinum Sponsor of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the premier economic organization in the Asia-Pacific region which includes trade ministries from 21 member economies that account for 55 percent of global GDP. Like most trade-related organizations, APEC has traditionally focused on trade in goods -- things like manufactured products and agriculture that are shipped across borders. Free trade builds on the law of comparative advantage: that trading partners mutually gain from free, nontariff trade of goods and services. Increasingly, cloud computing is getting attention as a trade matter. At the most recent APEC meeting, on September 20, 2011, U.S. Ambassador Phillip Verveer talked about the economic advantages that cloud computing can bring to small and medium-sized enterprises, and encouraged governments to be careful about the effect of regulations that could slow adoption of the cloud:
"In these circumstances, we would expect every economy to welcome cloud services without regard to the national origin of their producers. But there are complications. One of the big ones is the limitations on trans-border data flows . . . [i]t is very important, however, that we not unnecessarily sacrifice the economic advantages inherent in cloud computing in our arrangements to protect personal privacy. Stated more directly, we should not let our quest for effective privacy mechanisms become a barrier to international trade in cloud services."
We applaud Ambassador Verveer for his statements on cloud and we are encouraged that cloud computing is increasingly considered in the trade context. We agree with Ambassador Verveer that protections of personal privacy are important, and that's why we offer our users clear information on our data security and privacy page. While privacy is critical to any environment -- it shouldn't be used a trade barrier in favor of local industry and prevent small and medium-sized enterprises from taking advantage of the enormous cost savings that cloud services can provide. By analogy, under free trade principles, a country shouldn't condition the sale of rice in their country on the purchase of a rice farm in that country. Similarly, it could be a trade barrier to condition the provisioning of cloud services in a country on the purchase of a server farm in that country. That's not how the Internet was designed, and we hear at APEC and elsewhere an increased appreciation for broader transnational data flows--coupled with enhanced appreciation for privacy and security--and are encouraged by that movement.
URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/10/cloud-services-and-international-trade.html

[G] A fall sweep

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: A fall sweep

We aspire to build great products that really change people's lives, products they use two or three times a day. To succeed you need real focus and thought—thought about what you work on and, just as important, what you don't work on. It's why we recently decided to shut down some products, and turn others into features of existing products.

Here's the latest update on what's happening:
  • Code Search, which was designed to help people search for open source code all over the web, will be shut down along with the Code Search API on January 15, 2012.
  • In a few weeks we'll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+. While people obviously won't be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.
  • Jaiku, a product we acquired in 2007 that let users send updates to friends, will shut down on January 15, 2012. We'll be working to enable users to export their data from Jaiku.
  • Several years ago, we gave people the ability to interact socially on iGoogle. With our new focus on Google+, we will remove iGoogle's social features on January 15, 2012. iGoogle itself, and non-social iGoogle applications, will stay as they are.
  • The University Research Program for Google Search, which provides API access to our search results for a small number of approved academic researchers, will close on January 15, 2012.
In addition, later today the Google Labs site will shut down, and as previously announced, Boutiques.com and the former Like.com websites will be replaced by Google Product Search.

Changing the world takes focus on the future, and honesty about the past. We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+. Our users expect great things from us; today's announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome.

Posted by Bradley Horowitz, Vice President, Product
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/fall-sweep.html

[G] Open Government in Action

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: Open Government in Action

Posted by Seth Webb, Senior Policy Manager

When someone uses Google to search, it's our job to provide them with answers.  We've come a long way in developing search technology that delivers the most relevant results for our users, but there are still some answers that are difficult to find and provide.

This became painfully clear during the health care debate last year.  In the space of a few weeks, we had a sharp increase in search queries about the health care bill or a specific provision of the legislation.  Unfortunately, we couldn't provide the best information to our users simply because a lot of congressional information isn't readily available in a digital format.

Congress and members of Congress share information in a lot of modern ways through Twitter, Facebook, and on the web, but some congressional data sharing processes are older than Congress itself, as groups like the Sunlight Foundation have pointed out.  

Last week, Karen Haas, the Clerk for the House of Representatives, changed the game dramatically.  She led an effort to update the Clerk's legislative activities page so that it now includes a huge amount of browsable — and searchable — information.  The new features include detailed summaries of daily floor action, what bills were debated and introduced each day (with links to the full text of the bill) and a detailed summary of every vote.  

In addition, each "house floor proceedings" page now includes archived video from the House floor and a detailed XML file for each day's activity so that web developers and others can use and share this information.  

The House of Representatives has demonstrated great leadership on this project.  We look forward to using this congressional data to improve Google Search now and in the future as the congressional commitment to open government expands.  
 
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/10/open-government-in-action.html

[G] This week's Trends: Wall Street, Nicki Minaj, antelope

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: This week's Trends: Wall Street, Nicki Minaj, antelope

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 "Wilson vs. Wilson."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/EVvBSiWUKko/this-weeks-trends-wall-street-nicki.html

[G] Google Code-in: Are you in?

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Google Code-in: Are you in?


Listen up, future coders of the world: today we're launching the second annual Google Code-in competition, an open source development contest for 13-17 year old students around the world. The purpose of the Google Code-in competition is to give students everywhere an opportunity to explore the world of open source development. We not only run open source software throughout our business, we also value the way the open source model encourages people to work together on shared goals over the Internet.

Open source development involves much more than just computer programming, and the Google Code-in competition reflects that by having lots of different tasks to choose from. We organize the tasks into eight major categories:

1. Code: Writing or refactoring code
2. Documentation: Creating and editing documents
3. Outreach: Community management and outreach, as well as marketing
4. Quality Assurance: Testing and ensuring code is of high quality
5. Research: Studying a problem and recommending solutions
6. Training: Helping others learn more
7. Translation: Localization (adapting code to your region and language)
8. User interface: User experience research or user interface design and interaction

On November 9, we'll announce the participating mentoring organizations. Mentoring organizations are open source software organizations chosen from a pool of applicants who have participated in our Google Summer of Code program in the past. Last year we had 20 organizations participate.

Last year's competition drew 361 participating students from 48 countries, who worked for two months on a wide variety of brain-teasing tasks ranging from coding to video editing, all in support of open source software. In January, we announced the 14 grand prize winners, who we flew to our headquarters in Mountain View, California to enjoy a day talking to Google engineers and learning what it's like to work at Google, and another day enjoying the northern California sights and sun.

Visit the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Google Code-in site for more details on how to sign up and participate. Our goal this year is to have even more pre-university students in the contest than last time around, so help us spread the word, too.

Stay tuned to the contest site and subscribe to our mailing list for more updates on the contest. The Google Code-in contest starts on November 21, 2011, and we look forward to seeing the clever and creative ways all of the participants tackle their open source challenges.

By Carol Smith, Google Code-in Program Manager, Open Source Team


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleOpenSourceBlog/~3/btF59jPwzBY/google-code-in-are-you-in.html

[G] Multi-Channel Funnels: Your top questions from the Webinar

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Google Analytics Blog: Multi-Channel Funnels: Your top questions from the Webinar

On Tuesday, October 11 we hosted a webinar about Multi-Channel Funnels. During the presentation we collected lots of great questions from participants; you'll find responses to the top questions below. You can also watch a recording of the webinar here:







How do I access the Multi-Channel Funnels reports?

Multi-Channel Funnels (MCF) reports are available in all Google Analytics (GA) accounts and can be found in the standard reporting tab: click on Conversions at the left-hand side of the user interface, then click Multi-Channel Funnels. To access the MCF reports, you must be using the new version of GA, (check the link at the top right of your user interface). In order to have data populated, the profile must have at least one active goal or have ecommerce tracking. (Also note that if you have filters on your profiles, MCF reports may not give accurate results because filtered profiles include only a subset of your traffic and can therefore cause certain interactions from users prior to conversion to be excluded.)



Are special tags required for Multi-Channel Funnels? What about for paid or social campaigns?

Multi-Channel Funnels uses the same Google Analytics site and campaign tagging that other reports in GA use, so there is no additional site tagging required. All types of campaigns, including paid campaigns on social networks, can be manually tagged using Google Analytics URL parameters. The help center has more details on campaign tagging.



How do you recommend tracking conversions for both ecommerce and non-ecommerce sites?

Conversions are measured based on the goals or ecommerce tracking you have set up in Google Analytics. You can create goals for many different kinds of events on your site, not just ecommerce transactions. For instance, you could create a goal to track when a lead form is submitted, or when a PDF is downloaded. Once you've created goals, you can view MCF reports in aggregate, or you can select the specific goal you'd like to analyze from the "Conversions" drop down at the top of the reports.



How are conversions measured if a user has purchased two different times in the same month?

Each conversion path is treated separately, so there would be a unique conversion path for each of the two conversions, even if by the same user. Note that MCF reports look only at the paths of visitors who converted, not those who did not convert; conversion rate metrics are not included in these reports.



Can you manually change the Time Lag lookback window?

The Time Lag window is currently set to 30 days. We've found that this time period covers a wide range of use cases and provides rich data for most users. User objectives may vary, so we are exploring ways to provide different lookback options. At this time we have nothing to announce.



Is Multi-Channel Funnel data retroactive? How far back does it go?

Yes, it is retroactive until the beginning of this year (January 2011).



How do Multi-Channel Funnels reports handle display interactions?

A display interaction is a click to your site from a display ad. To track these interactions as "display," you can create a custom channel grouping and specify parameters for display. For clicks from the Google Display Network, you can group these by setting the Ad Distribution Network to Content. Note that display impressions are not included in Multi-Channel funnels data. Only clicks and visits to the site are tracked at this time. This is an area of interest, but we have nothing to announce at this time.



How do I define certain pages as "Social" for the Multi-Channel Reports?

The Basic Channel Grouping in Multi-Channel Funnels assesses the traffic source and automatically classifies referrals from about 150 domains as Social Networks. The help center includes a description of the basic channel groupings. You can see the list by creating a copy of the basic channel grouping and editing the Social Network channel grouping.



What are best practices for using Channel Groupings in Multi-Channel Funnels?

The rules used to create the basic channel groupings are described in the help center, which also includes further information on using channel groupings. Note that channel groupings are only available in MCF reports and cannot be used in other GA reports at this time.



Why are there discrepancies between Multi-Channel reports and My Site reports for ecommerce stats of AdWords traffic?

As mentioned during the webinar, the data in the Multi-Channel Funnel reports can currently be 24-36 hours delayed beyond the data shown in other Google Analytics reports. As such, if the date range selected includes the most recent 2-3 days, there can be differences between the two reports. For older date ranges, the conversion counts and ecommerce totals should match.



Is remarketing counted as display activity?

Any campaign can be tracked by following GA parameters. You can define how remarketing is included or not included in channel groupings and with custom campaigns.



How is the value of first interactions, last interactions, and assist interactions calculated?

Any click from a channel to your website is counted as an interaction. When a user converts, Multi-Channel Funnel reports combine these different interactions into a full conversion path. You can read more about interactions and channel contributions here. Note that assist interactions exclude the last interaction.



Can Multi-Channel Funnel data be exported through the API?

No, Multi-Channel Funnel data is not yet available through the API, but this functionality is planned.



Please also check our help center for further details on all of your questions!





Posted by Bill Kee, Product Manager, Google Analytics team


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tRaA/~3/shn2CE4mH00/multi-channel-funnels-your-top.html

[G] Mabuhay, YouTube Philippines!

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: Mabuhay, YouTube Philippines!

While YouTube has been available in the Philippines' native Tagalog language since 2010, we have opened a new chapter for YouTube in the Philippines with the launch of a fully localized version of the platform.



As we were launching this new Philippines homepage, we also had the launch of two official government channels from current President Benigno Aquino III at his official channel and news channel. Through his representative Secretary Ricky Carandang, President Aquino also announced his plans to have a livestreamed chat with us with our YouTube World View program on November 4, in partnership with ABS-CBN. President Aquino will be the first Head of State in Asia to participate in the program, and you can ask submit and vote on questions via Google Moderator starting October 21.



This new Philippines homepage spotlights the most relevant videos to Filipinos, as well as more content from an array of Filipino partners such as broadcasters ABS-CBN, GMA Network Inc., TV5, record labels VIVA Records/Vicor Records, Pinoy Tuner, Star Records, and production company Oak3. If you're in the Philippines, the site will automatically detect your location and send you to the Philippines page, but anyone interested in Filipino content can get there by just selecting "The Philippines" at the bottom of the page in the Location section.



At the launch event in Manila, we also debuted a video interview from one of our favorite Filipino YouTube success stories, Charice Pempengco.







Filipinos have already been using YouTube to make a name for themselves across the globe. Rock band Journey chose Filipino singer-songwriter Arnel Pineda to be their new vocalist after seeing videos of him belting out their hits on YouTube. And of course, the immaculately choreographed prisoner dance routines for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and the Black Eyed Peas' "Bebot" brought world renown to the uniformed inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.



With the YouTube Partner Program also opening in the Philippines today, we hope that talented Filipino video creators like the next Charices will sign up and start turning their passions into their careers.



Adam Smith, Director of Product Management, YouTube Asia-Pacific, recently watched "Will Ferrell & Manny Pacquiao Sing 'Imagine."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/HN022w8X9Nw/mabuhay-youtube-philippines.html

[G] First steps Towards MMS support

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Google Voice Blog: First steps Towards MMS support


MMS has been one of the constant feature requests since we launched Google Voice and we've been hard at work trying to make this happen.

Today, we're happy to announce that we've made the first step in our efforts to bring this feature to our users. Google Voice users are now able to receive pictures and other multimedia messages from Sprint subscribers. The multimedia attachments will display on their mobile forwarding phone and in their email inbox when they enable text to email forwarding in their Google Voice settings. We are also planning on making them display in the Google Voice inbox.

We are working with other mobile operators to make this work across all mobile phones and will update our users as more and more operators offer support for this.

Posted by Ilya Frank, Senior Software Engineer
URL: http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-steps-towards-mms-support.html

[G] Faster updates to local business listings

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Google LatLong: Faster updates to local business listings

(Cross-posted on the Small Business Blog.)

Our goal to create a digital representation of the real world doesn't just mean a birds' eye view through Google Earth, or a street-level view through Google Maps. It means providing a local view as well, and tools like Google Places help people across the globe learn about and connect with the places and businesses in their immediate areas.

We use a variety of authoritative sources to give users relevant local information about places that might interest them, including data from partners, users, and directly from business owners who verify their organic listings via Google Places for business. In addition, we always want to know about changes to a business that should be reflected on our local search products. That's why we have the "Report a problem" tool on Google Maps, and also enable users to click on the "Edit this place" link at the top of the Place page to provide updates to a business listing.

And while some business owners may have previously verified their organic listing to ensure that their company information was correct at that particular moment in time, we recognize that amidst all the work that goes into running a successful enterprise, remembering to update their Google Places account may not always be top of mind. Oftentimes, a neighborhood local or a loyal customer is eager to help their favorite business update its online presence when it moves into a bigger space across the street, or extends its hours for the summer season.

That's why today, we're introducing a new process that helps streamline the way updates are made to potentially outdated or incorrect business listings. Previously, verified business listings would always reflect the information provided by its owner - even if we received data about an updated name, address, or hours of operation. But now, if a user provides new information about a business they know -- or if our system identifies information from another source on the web that may be more recent than the data the business owner provided via Google Places -- the organic listing will automatically be updated and the business owner will be sent an email notification about the change. Without requiring any effort on the part of the business owner, we'll take measures to keep their listing up-to-date if our system determines that the edit is accurate. Of course, if the business owner disagrees or has even more recent information, they can always directly log in to their Google Places account and make further edits.

Online ads from business owners using our AdWords or AdWords Express programs will not be affected by these automatic updates. Ads will continue to display the business information the owner has provided in Google Places.

We hope these new features help users find the most accurate local information available, and make it even easier for business owners to manage their online presence. If you're a business owner with additional questions about your specific listing, please consult the Google Places for business Help Center or visit our user support forum.

Posted by Lior Ron, Google Places Product Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/10/faster-updates-to-local-business.html

[G] Congratulations to the 2011 Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant awardees

Posted: 16 Oct 2011 09:58 AM PDT

Google LatLong: Congratulations to the 2011 Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant awardees


The nonprofit mapping community is alive with amazing game-changing ideas. In May, Google Earth Outreach asked nonprofit organizations to think big: what kind of map would they want to create if they had the funding or developer resources to do so? We were thrilled by the number of applications we received, full of concrete ideas for tremendously impactful maps.

While it was difficult to select projects with the highest potential impact from the long list of great applications we received, we are excited to announce the Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant awardees. Each organization below proposed cutting-edge visualizations in the public benefit sector utilizing a broad spectrum of tools ranging from narrated tours in Google Earth to Google Maps and Places API applications for Android to Google Fusion Tables. In total, we've awarded over $300,000 to the Google Earth Outreach Developer Grantees. We wish to congratulate all awardees for developing proposals that we hope will help them make the world a better place.

These organizations are all currently making great progress towards their project goals. Within the coming months, they will complete development of their mapping applications. We look forward to sharing the completed projects with you on the Google Earth Outreach site, so check back soon!

Atlantic Public Media One Species at a Time: Stories of Biodiversity on the Move, with the Encyclopedia of Life (in Google Earth narrated tours)
California Academy of Sciences A Global Water Story: Translating immersive programming about water from the Planetarium to Google Earth
David Suzuki Foundation Our Natural Capital: mapping ecosystem services in southern Ontario, Canada
Golden Gate Parks Conservancy The Story of Crissy Field: the transformation of an urban park in Google Earth
HabitatMap, Inc. AirCasting: citizen air quality monitoring using Android devices
The HALO Trust Notes from the (Mine)Field: a Google Earth tour of humanitarian landmine clearance
International Rivers Network The Wrong Climate for Damming Rivers
The Nature Conservancy Adopt an Acre in Google Earth & Maps
Pepperwood Foundation, on behalf of iNaturalist.org iNaturalist App on Android: citizen naturalists armed with Android devices can upload photos of flora and fauna to iNaturalist.org
Save the Elephants Tracking Animals for Conservation: Real-time mapping in the field on Android and Publishing Elephant Tracking Data in Fusion Tables
Water for People SanMap: supporting sanitation-related businesses in urban African cities
When I Walk, Inc. AXSmap mobile app using Google Places API for reviews and ratings of accessibility
Widecast Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network - Bonaire Track Your Turtles: The Great Migration Game and sea turtle monitoring in Bonaire
World Resources Institute Google Earth Tour of Reefs at Risk
World Wildlife Fund Eyes on the Forest: Interactive map on Sumatran Deforestation

These organizations were funded through the Google Inc. Charitable Giving Fund at the Tides Foundation.

Posted by Tanya Birch, Google Earth Outreach
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/10/congratulations-to-2011-google-earth.html
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