Thursday, November 10, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Improving themes in Gmail’s new look

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:52 AM PST

The Google Apps Blog: Improving themes in Gmail's new look

Posted by Jason Cornwell, User Experience Designer

One of the most visible improvements in last week's Gmail update is the entirely new theme system and the new high definition themes that it supports. This refresh to themes both simplifies them and makes them more immersive. You can browse what some of the new themes look like below:


Themes are now implemented as semitransparent layers on top of a large background image. Each theme uses either a dark or light variant of most UI elements to balance legibility and visibility of the background image, allowing the background image to peek through and provide color and personality. Background imagery can also change based on date, time, or weather. Bringing all these changes together really makes the new themes shine:
Old
New
Old
New

In addition, these changes also reduce the technical complexity of the theme system, which will enable us to create more beautiful and unique themes in the future.

Like the new themes? You can switch to the new look today by clicking on Switch to the new look in the bottom-right of Gmail.
URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/h1-jiW0O288/improving-themes-in-gmails-new-look.html

[G] Think Insights with Google is out of beta and packing a data punch

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:52 AM PST

Official Google Blog: Think Insights with Google is out of beta and packing a data punch

Quick pop quiz:
  1. Based on search history, consumer demand for pretzels peaks in what month of the year?
  2. How much (in $) does search add to the world's GDP?
  3. In 2011, what percent of people dreamed and brainstormed about their next vacation?
  4. What percent of the daily queries on Google.com have never been seen before?
These are just a few questions that can be answered* on the new Think Insights with Google, our information and resource hub for marketers. The site is fresh out of beta and sporting a playful new look, helpful tools, more studies, the latest trends and exciting videos. We invite you to visit the site, take a look around and see what's new.


If you only have a few minutes to spare, try playing with our new Real Time Insights Finder tool. With just a few clicks you can spot emerging trends and gain valuable consumer insights, all in real time. For example, the most popular video in common among males 25-34 in Italy and the U.S. is the Official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 game trailer.


Although we've made a lot of enhancements to Think Insights based on initial user feedback, we're always trying to iterate and improve. So please don't be shy! Join the conversation by adding the Think with Google page on Google+ to one of your circles, or stay tuned for updates by subscribing to our newsletter.

Think Insights is forward-thinking and rooted in data. We hope you'll use it as a one-stop shop for consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research.

*Answers to pop quiz (they can all be found on Think Insights in less than 60 seconds):
  1. December, Real Time Insights Finder Tool
  2. $540 billion directly to global GDP, The Impact of Internet Technologies: Search Study, Jul 2011
  3. 50%, 5 Stages of Travel Interactive Infographic
  4. 16%, Search Fact & Stat
Posted by Laura McClung, Ads Marketing
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/think-insights-with-google-is-out-of.html

[G] Improving themes in Gmail’s new look

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:52 AM PST

Official Gmail Blog: Improving themes in Gmail's new look

Posted by Jason Cornwell, User Experience Designer

One of the most visible improvements in last week's Gmail update is the entirely new theme system and the new high definition themes that it supports. This refresh to themes both simplifies them and makes them more immersive. You can browse what some of the new themes look like below:


Themes are now implemented as semitransparent layers on top of a large background image. Each theme uses either a dark or light variant of most UI elements to balance legibility and visibility of the background image, allowing the background image to peek through and provide color and personality. Background imagery can also change based on date, time, or weather. Bringing all these changes together really makes the new themes shine:
Old
New
Old
New

In addition, these changes also reduce the technical complexity of the theme system, which will enable us to create more beautiful and unique themes in the future.

Like the new themes? You can switch to the new look today by clicking on Switch to the new look in the bottom-right of Gmail.
URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/improving-themes-in-gmails-new-look.html

[G] Jeff Gordon: Driving you to end hunger

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:52 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Jeff Gordon: Driving you to end hunger

Today we welcome guest blogger Jeff Gordon, a four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion with 85 victories to his name and even more accolades across the sport of racing. Today Jeff is focusing his energy toward a different goal: ending hunger among older Americans.



Too many Americans are living on a dangerous edge—not always knowing where their next meal is coming from. Of the 51 million Americans who face the threat of hunger, nearly nine million are over the age of 50. I don't think anyone should have to make the devastating choice between food and other basic needs.



So I've teamed up with AARP and AARP Foundation and YouTube in Drive to End Hunger to raise awareness and support for older Americans struggling with hunger, To educate you about this serious issue, Drive to End Hunger and I have posted videos you can see on our AARP YouTube channel. We're using the channel as a place where you can connect with other members and supporters, make a playlist of other YouTube videos that talk about this issue and see how we're engaging fans at-track and in their communities.




So far we've gotten great feedback and participation in the campaign and to videos like Check Out Line, which helped us donate more than 3.7 million meals to local hunger relief organizations. By working together, we can solve the problem of senior hunger and improve the lives of the people who took care of us for so many years. Join the conversation at youtube.com/aarp and support Drive to End Hunger today!



Thanks again for your support!



Jeff Gordon, Racecar Driver, recently watched "Drive to End Hunger: Daytona."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/kPGK4CNkB90/jeff-gordon-driving-you-to-end-hunger.html

[G] Translate more Indic languages with the updated Google Translate for iPhone app

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 01:52 AM PST

Official Google Mobile Blog: Translate more Indic languages with the updated Google Translate for iPhone app

(Cross posted on the Google Translate Blog)

Back in June, we launched five new experimental Indic languages for Google Translate on the desktop and mobile webapp. Today, we've updated the Google Translate for iPhone app to add these new alpha languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. This brings the total number of languages supported by the app to 63 languages.


The updated app supports the ability to view dictionary results for single words and to display romanizations for these new Indic languages. So even if you can't read the script the words are written in, you can still take a shot at reading the translation.

Since these are still experimental alpha languages, you can expect translations be less fluent and include many more untranslated words than some of our more mature languages—like Spanish or Chinese—which have much more parallel data to power our statistical machine translation approach. Despite these challenges, we believe users will find these new languages helpful and we're excited to be making them available through the Translate app.

Updates will appear in the App Store in supported countries throughout today. Google Translate for iPhone now supports text translation among 63 languages, voice input in 17 of those languages, and text-to-speech in 24 of them. Get the latest version of Google Translate for iPhone app from the App Store and start breaking down language barriers wherever you are!

Posted by
Jeff Chin, Product Manager, Google Translate
URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/11/translate-more-indic-languages-with.html

[G] Simplifying eCommerce reporting across international sites with multiple currencies

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 11:25 AM PST

Google Analytics Blog: Simplifying eCommerce reporting across international sites with multiple currencies


It's quite common for organizations to have complex reporting requirements that combine multiple data sources. In these cases, an efficient way to get at Google Analytics data is to use the API. But for those without the development resources needed to access the API there are many Google Analytics Apps available that can offer a solution. The following mini case study is about Analytics Canvas, a 3rd party Google Analytics App. Analytics Canvas helped Fairmont Raffles Hotels International take a complex reporting task and make it easy.




Like most global organizations, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International has regionally operated business units. Each unit typically maintains its own reporting profile in Google Analytics. But with individual business unit profiles, how do you analyze the data across all the business units? And, how do you combine external business data with each of these Google Analytics profiles?




For Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, the answers lie in the Analytics Canvas tool from nModal. Analytics Canvas is an easy to use, drag-n-drop interface for creating data queries and transformations needed for advanced reports and dashboards. Analytics Canvas can extract data from multiple Google Analytics accounts, combine it with additional data sources, and then segment and filter the data.














Barbara Pezzi, Director Analytics & Search Optimization, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, uses Analytics Canvas to automate her complex reporting tasks. "We trade in over 10 different currencies on our websites. We needed to have multiple international hotels' eCommerce data converted to a common currency in various reports, such as 'All Traffic Sources' and 'Campaigns', to analyze the overall production of each traffic channel and marketing initiative. Traditionally we would have to export data from multiple profiles and do currency conversion by hand in spreadsheets. With almost 100 hotels, the large number of profiles made it a very time consuming and potentially error prone task to get a multi-hotel, single currency report." With Analytics Canvas, Fairmont automated this task in minutes with a single currency report for all its hotels.













Analytics Canvas was built by nModal Solutions Inc using the Google Analytics API. Here is what James Standen, the founder of nModal, has to say "The Google Analytics API is very easy to use and the full access to data makes it possible to make a very powerful query interface. So far we've had a great response to Analytics Canvas. People are very pleased to have greater access to their web traffic data, and we're thrilled to hear about the interesting new applications and integrations our customers are able to do using our tool."





The Analytics Canvas application can be found through the Google Analytics App Gallery and can be downloaded from the Analytics Canvas website.





If you're interested in developing applications for the Google Analytics platform visit Google Analytics for Developers.




Posted by Pete Frisella, Google Analytics API team


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tRaA/~3/-KCl9a48ixA/simplifying-ecommerce-reporting-across.html

[G] Bringing AdMob Mobile Inventory to the DoubleClick Ad Exchange

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 11:25 AM PST

DoubleClick Publisher Blog: Bringing AdMob Mobile Inventory to the DoubleClick Ad Exchange

(Cross posted from the DoubleClick Advertiser Blog)

In 2009, we launched the DoubleClick Ad Exchange as a way to simplify the process of buying and selling display advertising, drive performance for our advertiser and publisher partners, and open up the display marketplace. In the two years since, exchange-based trading has taken off -- we've seen the volume of trades on our own exchange grow by more than 150% in the past year. At the same time, display, as a medium, has evolved.

Display started as just banner ads on websites, but has grown to include a range of formats as diverse as the web itself -- rich media ads that bring a page to life, in-stream ads that play before your favorite online video, and ads that run in the mobile version of your daily newspaper. To reflect this growing diversity, we have been expanding the types of formats in the Exchange. We support the most popular types of rich media ads, including units that run in-page with video, or expand when you click or mouse over them. It's also possible to buy ads across the mobile web. Earlier this year, we announced that in-stream video formats were coming to the Exchange, and we've seen huge demand since launch: the number of buyers for in-stream video has tripled over the past quarter.

Today, we are announcing another step forward -- in the coming weeks, AdMob developers will be able to make their in-app inventory available on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange. Initially, a small number of pre-qualified buyers will be able to compete for this inventory. Over time, we'll be rolling it out more broadly. Ultimately, this will give app developers and publishers access to a wider pool of buyers like demand-side platforms and agency trading desks, improving their potential returns, and helping grow the overall mobile web economy. And marketers on our Exchange will be able to buy, in real time, ads that run inside people's favorite mobile games, news apps and more. With this important addition, the DoubleClick Ad Exchange will be truly cross-format...and will become the first exchange to support this full range of ad formats.

VivaKi, one of our key partners on the Exchange, is gearing up to start buying in-app ads on the Exchange. "We are delighted to be working with Google as they open up the DoubleClick Ad Exchange to include AdMob in-app inventory, and to deliver this opportunity to our clients," says Kurt Unkel, Senior Vice President, VivaKi Nerve Center. "We anticipate this experience will help us bring mobile to scale to our partners, and will provide insight into the operational elements and the creative assets that work best in this environment."

A cross-format exchange is just one of the ways we're looking to simplify the process of buying and selling display advertising, but one we think will create tremendous value for advertisers and publishers. We will continue to work with our partners to help them get the most out of what the evolving display market has to offer -- today, tomorrow, and in the years ahead.

Posted by Chip Hall, Director, DoubleClick Ad Exchange

URL: http://doubleclickpublishers.blogspot.com/2011/11/bringing-admob-mobile-inventory-to.html

[G] LinuxDay 2011 Italy celebrates 20 years of Linux

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 11:25 AM PST

Google Open Source Blog: LinuxDay 2011 Italy celebrates 20 years of Linux

Every October in Italy we hold an event dedicated to GNU/Linux and open source software development called LinuxDay 2011 Italy. The event is organized by the Italian Linux Society (ILS) and local Linux User Groups (LUG's). LUG's hold conferences in many cities spreading the philosophy of "Freedom, as in free speech," with the goal of popularizing the use and development of open source software.

This year the event was held on October 22nd, and was special because 20 years ago a man named Linus Torvalds made the very first announcement in a mailing list about a new "(free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones" that was the Linux OS.

My LUG and I have been involved in the organization of LinuxDay in Matera, a beautiful city that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This year I decided to talk about my experience as a Google Summer of Code student because it has been an awesome experience that has allowed me to both improve my programming skills and to increase my involvement in the open source community. The concept of community is very important for open source development and this is the message I tried to spread through my talk. Many students were present during my speech and asked me for more information about the Google Summer of Code program. I hope my talk will encourage more Italian students to participate in the program in the coming years.

I would like to thank Google for offering us this opportunity and my colleagues who helped organize this wonderful event. Time spent together is always worthy of some sacrifice, we are maybe the last dreamers in the world, believing that changing the world is possible starting from changing ourselves. "Dreaming together a world of Freedom, and working to build it".

By Margherita Di Leo, Google Summer of Code Student



URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleOpenSourceBlog/~3/g9PfLRp3h74/linuxday-2011-italy-celebrates-20-years.html

[G] Welcoming the next generation of cooking and fitness trainer stars

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 11:25 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Welcoming the next generation of cooking and fitness trainer stars

Thinking of searching YouTube for a cooking recipe this holiday season? Want some videos to help you achieve that New Year's fitness resolution? You're in good company. Searches on YouTube for cooking recipes spike around the end of every year, and searches for fitness exercises spike just around the start of the new year.



We have partners who are doing amazing things with food and fitness, and to supercharge their careers, we created the YouTube Next Chef and the YouTube Next Trainer programs. We'd like to introduce you to the first class of partners who'll be attending a 12-week course via Google+ Hangouts and receiving a $15,000 equipment and promotional package, all to help them share their passion for food or fitness on YouTube with you.



YouTube Next Chef

The partners of the YouTube Next Chef class include self-taught chefs, cookbook authors, former restaurant owners and more. Their culinary styles range from making a full meal with just one pot to vegan desserts to gourmet on a budget, and represent five countries around the world. These partners will be taught by the finest folks in culinary arts, including editors from CHOW.com, YouTube Partners like Rob Nixon, and industry experts like Lee Allison.







YouTube Next Trainer

If fitness is your goal, our YouTube Next Trainers are here to help. This international group can teach you exercises using city landscapes, fitness routines made for athletes, safe parkour training exercises, pilates made simple and more. Expect to see these partners get top tier training from our featured mentors Billy Blanks, YouTube Partners like DeStorm, and industry experts like Julie DelaBarre.







Stay tuned for weekly videos starting Nov 15 for YouTube Next Chef and Nov 23 for YouTube Next Trainer.



Austin Lau, YouTube Creator Programs, recently watched "The Coolest Extreme Skiing Dudes."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/eKIxPanlNrw/welcoming-next-generation-of-cooking.html
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