Saturday, October 29, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] This week's Trends: commercials, conflicts, light shows

Posted: 28 Oct 2011 11:30 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: This week's Trends: commercials, conflicts, light shows

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 "Japanese Monkey Potato Feeding Frenzy."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/JSbof0M9xkg/this-weeks-trends-commercials-conflicts.html

[G] Faces of Docs: Vance Vagell, User Interface Software Engineer

Posted: 28 Oct 2011 11:30 AM PDT

Docs Blog: Faces of Docs: Vance Vagell, User Interface Software Engineer


One of my favorite things about being the community manager on the Google Docs team is working alongside people with a myriad of backgrounds, interests, and talents. From learning of one of teammate's pro cricket player past or another's literary aspirations, I'm constantly discovering new things about the people I spend my workdays with. I thought you might enjoy reading about them, too--which is why we're taking a cue from our friends at Gmail to bring you "Faces of Docs," a series that will spotlight the people that make up our team.





Photo by: Antonella Pavese


Name:
Vance Vagell

What do you do on the Docs team and how long have you been at Google?
I lead a team of user experience (UX) prototypers. We build realistic-looking prototypes of new Google Docs features, so that our researchers can try them out with people. This lets us improve them before our engineers build the real thing. I've been here two years, but things move so quickly it may as well be 10.

What's your typical day like?
I hop on the subway, read a few chapters of whatever sci-fi novel I'm working through (currently "Olympos" by Dan Simmons), and get to the office in about an hour.

Grab a coffee, then try to tackle my email inbox. Afterwards, I'm usually doing one of three things: building a prototype, preparing for a study, or running brainstorm and design sessions. My mind is usually at least one year in the future, although sometimes people force me to think about near-term problems.

What do you like most about what you do?
Watching someone enjoy a feature I've helped revise a few times—once we've finally gotten it right. I like being an advocate for what's truly useful, and what people need. On the other hand, occasionally I get to work on bigger changes that help push technology in new directions, and that's a blast too.

What's the most challenging part of your role?
There are so many teams that want to see their ideas prototyped, that sometimes I have to put a few on the backburner. That said, we always prioritize, and then squeeze in a few "blue sky" projects so we keep moving forward and never get stuck in the status quo. We call a project "blue sky" when it's unrealistic by today's standards, but could be a great direction tomorrow.

What did you do before joining Google?
I've always worked in NYC—love the east coast (as I alienate myself from my west coast colleagues with this post). Started out as an indie game developer, then worked in voice technology for a few years. I was delighted to discover a posting for "User Interface Software Engineer" at Google NYC, and haven't looked back since. I focus more on UX than engineering these days, but there's an important intersection between the two that I represent.

What are the three Docs features you wouldn't be able to live without?
Can I list ones that haven't launched yet? Probably not. Okay, in that case: @-mentions in document comments that shoot off emails to people, Google Forms to quickly gather feedback, and real-time editing to bang out ideas as a group. These are all critical to my daily work.

What do you do when you're not working on Docs?
Far too much computer gaming. Some of my favorites: Everquest (original and EQ2), Planetside, Eve Online, and City of Heroes.

Also love to go bird-watching. My favorite spot is Central Park. People are often surprised that you can spot over 20 bird species in a single afternoon there with a pair of binoculars. Did you know there's a family of red-tailed hawks in the park that has reared several seasons of chicks now? Google "Pale Male". On one outing, one of those hawks dove not more than a foot above my head to pick up a mouse beneath a tree across from me. Promptly carried it to a nearby branch and … dined. Very cool experience.

What kind of desk flair do you have?
Souvenirs from aquariums and zoos I've visited, and a photobooth print out of me and my partner at one of the Google NYC holiday parties. At last year's, they had caricature artists, but I'm not ready to share that particular image of me yet. :)

What's your pet peeve?
Apathy. Be passionate about something, and don't be afraid to stand up for it.

What do you do in your downtime?
Between projects I like to catch up on UX blogs and papers. Some of my favorites are UX Matters, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, and Don Norman's essays.

What would your last meal be?
Definitely my partner Ray's vegetable curry, it's sublime, and you can't beat home-cooked!

Posted by: Teresa Wu, Community Manager
URL: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/10/faces-of-docs-vance-vagell-user.html

[G] Highlighting ad titles

Posted: 28 Oct 2011 11:30 AM PDT

Inside AdSense: Highlighting ad titles


As we continue to improve and launch new features, we're always interested in hearing your ideas and feedback. Many of you have shared that you want to be able to change the title color of ads when a user moves their mouse over the title link. After a period of testing, we found that this feature resulted in higher earnings for publishers while also increasing user and advertiser value. We are pleased to announce today that we have updated all text ads with this change.



As you can imagine, there are numerous combinations of link and background color across the ad units on all publisher pages. After extensive testing, we have found that the color of the change itself can make a big difference: the wrong shade can even be detrimental to clickthrough rate (CTR). To determine the color that the title link will change to when a user places their mouse cursor over it, we'll take your chosen title color and find a nearly complementary color on the color wheel. For example, a blue title would change to red. These colors outperformed all the others we tested.



We'll continue to keep studying the effects of color on CTR and ad performance to bring you more enhancements in the future. Please also feel free to keep sharing your product feedback and suggestions!



Posted by Stephen Yuan, AdSense Engineering


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tuAm/~3/v3UTDKAJctY/highlighting-ad-titles.html

[G] Chronicling the life of Chez Panisse Restaurant, one menu at a time

Posted: 28 Oct 2011 11:30 AM PDT

Inside Google Books: Chronicling the life of Chez Panisse Restaurant, one menu at a time

Posted by Cindy Chen, Product Specialist, Geo

Recently, Google had the pleasure of hosting Patricia Curtan to chat about her new book, Menus for Chez Panisse, as part of the Authors@Google speaker series. Patricia is an artist, designer and printmaker with a long association with Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. She has designed and printed letterpress and linoleum block special-occasion menus for the restaurant for several decades. Her gorgeous new book gathers these menus in one place and provides an intimate look into the history and life of this important establishment. Chez Panisse and its founder, Alice Waters, have been credited as key influencers in the organic food movement, famous for its emphasis on sustainable, organic, locally grown and seasonal ingredients.


Patricia's talk was fascinating. She explained her process of carving linoleum tiles that the US Army once used for submarine flooring to make the blocks she needs for her prints. She also talked about her ties to Chez Panisse. She worked as an apprentice in a printing office owned by a friend of Alice Waters. When the kitchen was understaffed one night, she was asked to fill in at the restaurant. She fell in love and never left. Throughout her time at Chez Panisse, Patricia continued to draw and print as a hobby. Years later, she left the kitchen to focus on printmaking, hand-making special-occasion menus for the restaurant's daily evolving meals amongst other artistic endeavors.

Linoleum block prints carved by Patricia

Patricia working at her press

Patricia brought some of her menus for us to examine after her talk. There is something visceral and tactile about holding a piece of her work. I thought about how hand made objects elicited within me the natural desire to create in the same way that Chez Panisse may bring patrons closer to the desire to cook and grow their own food.

At lunch after the talk, Patricia discussed the importance of making things with our own hands and growing our own food. She told us, "When we grow food with our own hands, whether it's the basil plant on your windowsill, or the small garden on the rooftop, we build a connection with that food. We are more eager to gather, taste and prepare. In the same way, when we hold a handmade menu, we understand the time, love and care that went into its making. It's a very important part of the magic that is Chez Panisse."

Patricia at lunch in one of the Google cafés

Inspired by the talk, I visited the restaurant last week. Patricia's insider tip to me was to always order the salad, and I am glad I did. The magic of Chez Panisse lies in its ingredients. The signature of Californian cuisine is local, seasonal ingredients, cooked to highlight the freshness of the ingredients.

Patricia's illustrated menus adorn the walls in the upstairs café

Menus for Chez Panisse is a collection of Patricia's work, providing unique snapshots into the life of the restaurant. What Julia Childs, James Beard, Hillary Rodham Clinton ate there can all be found within the book's pages. Other menus show how much a meal cost when the restaurant first opened its doors in 1971... $1.75! How some things have changed!


For other works by Alice Waters and Patricia Curtan, check out:


Patricia Curtan @ Google speaking about Menus for Chez Panisse
URL: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2011/10/chronicling-life-of-chez-panisse.html

[G] OpenMRS welcomes with open arms

Posted: 28 Oct 2011 11:30 AM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: OpenMRS welcomes with open arms

Recently, I had the rare privilege of attending the annual Implementers meeting of OpenMRS, my Google Summer of Code mentoring organization. Thanks largely to the conference sponsorship by Google, OpenMRS was able to fund my week-long visit to Kigali, Rwanda. I traveled over 4,500 miles to meet with core OpenMRS developers, other volunteers, implementers (people with both IT skills and health care experience who work to deploy OpenMRS in their hospital, clinic, laboratory, etc.), service providers and researchers who had gathered there for the conference.

Arriving at Kigali, I was amazed at the diversity and fellowship amongst the community, and of how happy they were to accept me as one of their own. I took part in a pre-conference hackathon and visited the OpenMRS Implementation meeting at Rwanda's TRAC Plus health clinic. I listened to why implementers from Village Health Works used an Access database for their Burundi clinic, and to Dr. Joaquin Blaya's work with Interactive Voice Response. Eduardo Jezierski, the CTO of InSTEDD, talked to me about their work in Haiti, while Christopher Bailey of the World Health Organization spoke of his experience working with developing countries.


I also enjoyed a Chinese meal with a group of US-based developers for the AMPATH program in Western Kenya. I visited the Kigali Genocide museum, played cards with a group of research scientists, academics and other developers and spilled my drink all over a director's laptop. I had dinner with OpenMRS co-founder Dr. Burke Mamlin, brought a drink for co-founder Dr. Paul Biondrich and had breakfast with an MIT graduate who explained why he quit building space satellites and an engineering career to enroll in medical school.

My participation at the conference was an eye opener for several reasons. First of all, it helped me make the transition from Google Summer of Code student to full fledged community member. I stopped being just an offshore volunteer, and understood my organization for what it really was. I saw my project as a community, a group of vibrant, talented and extremely capable people with a wide range of interests in software development, research, medicine, health informatics and public health. I understood that OpenMRS is not "just" OpenMRS, but a massive network of implementers, developers, healthcare workers and other organizations. I saw the dedication and professionalism of community members and their sincere concern to help make the world a better place. I also realized how community members were supporting themselves while enjoying what they do by serving as consultants, developers and service providers.

One of the goals of Google Summer of Code is to encourage students to contribute to open source projects. I believe that my experience at the conference highlights something that is an important part of the Google Summer of Code experience – helping students integrate into their project's community so that they are more likely to stay involved long after the program deadlines have passed. I think program administrators could help facilitate this transition from student to community member by introducing more flexible methods of student evaluation and by giving more weight to community participation in the evaluations.

By Suranga Kasthurirathne, Google Summer of Code student and OpenMRS community member
URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2011/10/openmrs-welcomes-with-open-arms.html
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