Friday, November 18, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Turkey’s President takes your questions

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Turkey's President takes your questions

In 2011, YouTube World View has traveled the globe, bringing citizen questions to the world's most influential leaders. Now, World View is headed to a country that has received heavy news coverage this year -- Turkey. Starting today, Turkish President Abdullah Gül will take your questions at www.youtube.com/worldview and will answer them at the beginning of December.



President Gül wants to hear your questions on topics such as the future of Turkey's economy, Turkey's growing role in Middle East, the country's democratization movement and the recent focus on a new Constitutional draft. Go to www.youtube.com/worldview to submit your question via video or text, and to vote on the questions you think should be asked.



On December 1, the President will answer a selection of the top-voted questions and his answers will be uploaded to YouTube and broadcast by local media partner, NTV. The deadline to submit is November 28.



Zeynep Inanoğlu, Head of Consumer Marketing, Google Turkey, recently watched, "YouTube Space Lab - What will you do?"


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/DlY0dtiV5cQ/turkeys-president-takes-your-questions.html

[G] See your rated places and discover new ones directly on the map

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: See your rated places and discover new ones directly on the map



(Cross-posted on the Google Places Blog)

Since the My Places tab was released earlier this summer, you've been able to view all the places you've rated in one manageable list. This list is now being used to personalize your view of Google Maps, enabling you to visualize all the various places you've visited, loved, loathed, and might want to check out right on the map.

Starting today, business labels for locations you've rated with Google Places will be highlighted on the map with your corresponding rating beneath it. Additional places that our system thinks you might enjoy visiting -- either to eat, shop, or more -- will be highlighted as well. These personalized recommendations are based on the places and ratings you've already shared.

Rated Foreign Cinema 5 Stars. Ritual Coffee & Spork are recommended by Google Places

Whereas old paper road maps only became "personalized" when you accidentally folded them the wrong way, spilled a drink on them while driving or physically got out a highlighter to circle locations of interest, we hope this simple and lightweight way of emphasizing the places you've shared your opinions about makes Google Maps even more personal, relevant and helpful.

These highlighted map labels are available on the desktop and Google Maps for Android. To get started, sign in with your Google account and either check out a place you've rated or contribute more Places ratings.

Posted by Myles Jordan, Software Engineer
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/see-your-rated-places-and-discover-new.html

[G] Map your military service for Veterans Day

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: Map your military service for Veterans Day


Today is Veterans Day in the U.S., and we're honoring this community by sharing relevant Google tools for veterans and families all over the world--you can learn more on the Google for Veterans and Families site. I specifically wanted to highlight a couple of these tools that enable people to map and tell their stories using Google Earth and Google Maps.

Explore veteran tours in Google Earth
For Veterans Day we're featuring several stories created by veterans that show how Google Earth can be used to create a 3D virtual tour of their service history, complete with photos and videos. Fly back to the 1940's to hear about six siblings who served in WWII and an Army nurse who worked in post-war Japan. Then see where a Marine Lieutenant spent four years during the Vietnam War. Watching these tours requires the Google Earth plug-in, which you can download here. We hope to make this story-telling tool available to everyone soon.


Make a Custom Map of your service
Google Maps makes it easy (and fun!) to create a simple Custom Map and also share with others. With our mapping tools, veterans can map their service and then share the personalized map with their families and friends. Stories, photos and videos can be geo-located so the complete story is recorded and marked on a map.

We hope our mapping tools can be useful to the veteran community for sharing and recording life stories. For more other relevant Google products, we invite you to explore the Google for Veterans and Families site, www.googleforveterans.com.

Posted by Sean Askay, Developer Advocate
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/map-your-military-service-for-veterans.html

[G] Announcing the 2012 Google Model Your Town Competition

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: Announcing the 2012 Google Model Your Town Competition


[Cross-posted from the SketchUp blog]

Following the success of last year's Google Model Your Town competition, today we're launching the second Google Model Your Town Competition. Model Your Town is about geo-modeling – making photo-textured models of real-life buildings that appear in Google Earth. The Model Your Town Competition is also a chance to celebrate your town by adding it to the 3D map. Of course, the USD$25,000 for a local school/district is a nice incentive too.

Barranco, Lima, Peru

The Model Your Town Competition is open to just about everyone, just about everywhere in the world. Form a team, model buildings (using SketchUp or Building Maker) and upload them by the end of February 2012.


You can model as many structures as you like – which types of buildings you choose to include is entirely up to you. The important thing is that your choices say something about the character and history of your town.

If your town wins, a bunch of us from the SketchUp team will visit, throw you a dinner party and do our best to make you feel like the local hero that you truly are. Check out the competition website for details, and start rounding up teammates!

Here's some inspiration by way of the 2010 winner, Jorge De Albertis, from Lima, Peru (just to get your creative juices flowing):


New to geo-modeling? Learn more at Your World in 3D, then get started modeling your town!


Posted by Allyson McDuffie, Google Geo team
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/announcing-2012-google-model-your-town.html

[G] Getting to know you

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: Getting to know you

Every week, we try to share a fun little something about Google Maps and Google Earth on our social channels to help you stay tuned in to the latest product announcements and provide tips on how to get the most out of your Maps and Earth experiences.

But to make sure our posts are interesting and valuable to you, our readers, we thought it'd be useful to ask what you'd like to read, watch and share. Whether you're a user, developer or journalist, we want to know more about who you are and what you'd like to see from us. To collect your feedback, we've set up an anonymous form with a few questions — you can find it here.

We'll leave the form open for the next few days. Thanks in advance to those of you who take a few minutes to respond!

Posted by Brian Hendricks, Google Maps marketing
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/getting-to-know-you.html

[G] Get news, learn tips and join Hangouts on the Google Maps Google+ page

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: Get news, learn tips and join Hangouts on the Google Maps Google+ page


Just a few moments ago, the Google+ team introduced Pages to help you better get to know your favorite brands, businesses and organizations. But the exciting news doesn't end there! Today, we'd like to welcome all fans of Google Maps to join us on Google+ by adding our new page to your circles.

Here's just some of the stuff you'll find when you follow us on Google+:
  • Product news and announcements. Stay up to date and share with friends.
  • Hangouts with the Maps team. Bring your questions!
  • User spotlights. We want to showcase you, our awesome community members.
  • #GMapsTrivia. Put your geo skills to the test for bragging rights.
  • Pro tips. Tricks from Googlers and fellow users so you can get the most out of Maps.
This page is a place for you to connect with our team and other Maps fans, discuss ideas and share feedback, and learn a new thing or two about our product. So say hello in the comments on our page, and we'll see you soon in a Hangout!


Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Google Maps and Places community manager, and Brian Hendricks, Google Maps marketing
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/get-news-learn-tips-and-join-hangouts.html

[G] Share biking and walking directions with Custom Maps

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: Share biking and walking directions with Custom Maps


Attention avid bikers and walking enthusiasts: You can now use your desktop to create a biking or walking itinerary using Custom Maps in Google Maps. You can choose to share these directions by allowing people to view your Custom Map and avoid the hassle of scribbling them down or printing them out. Additionally, you can access these stored directions from your phone with the Google Maps Android application.

This provides a quick and easy way to navigate trips that have multiple routes and stops when you're on-the-go. Give it a try the next time you plan a group bike ride or to keep track of your favorite jogging routes.

To start, first get directions to your destination(s) and select the biking or walking icon in Google Maps. Next, scroll down to the bottom of the directions in the left-hand panel and click the "Save to My Maps" link.




You can then save the directions to an existing custom map or create a new one. Once the directions have been added to a custom map, you can continue to insert extra stops or make notes. After you complete mapping out your itinerary, you can choose to share it with friends or a workout buddy.



If you have an Android-powered device, you can access stored directions in Custom Maps right from your mobile phone - just click on the layers icon in the upper toolbar and select the saved Custom Map you want.

If you don't have an Android phone, you can open your Custom Maps using your phone's browser and visiting maps.google.com.



For more tips on custom maps, visit our help center.

Posted by Beth Liebert, Product Manager, Custom Maps
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/share-biking-and-walking-directions.html

[G] Recap: Google Geo User Summit in Barcelona

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: Recap: Google Geo User Summit in Barcelona


Settled between the Catalan Coastal range and Mediterranean sea, the city of Barcelona is home to an array of culinary treasures, iconic architecture, endless museums and beaches, and the impressive FC Barcelona football stadium. The city's distinctive mix of tradition and innovation thus proved the ideal host to the Google Geo User Summit Barcelona. From October 12th-14th, Google Map Maker, Google SketchUp and Building Maker, and Panoramio welcomed some of our most passionate mappers, 3D modelers and Panoramio photographers across Europe and the Middle East to celebrate their invaluable contributions to an ever-growing Geo Community.


View of Barcelona from Museu Nacional D'art de Catalunya by Matthew Walters, Panoramio contributor

The summit was an exciting opportunity for many of our top contributors to share their geographic crowd-sourced efforts, work directly with Google engineers to brainstorm potential new product features, and set strategies for improving the overall Geo community. Attendees also had a chance to mind-meld with our product leaders during a day of unconference sessions, sharing thoughts, ideas, and stories about their experiences that will help us to improve our products.

Following a keynote address by Aidan Chopra, Google Geo Evangelist, attendees shared their inspiring projects and practices with a rapt audience. We learned from Levan Beruchashvili how the National Agency of Public Registry helped map the entire country of Georgia for its recent graduation to Google Maps. Arek Pawlowski described hosting multiple SketchUp workshops at his university, creating almost 450 models in an ongoing effort to put all of Toruń, Poland into 3D. As it is the user-generated content that fuels the Google Geo products, these and other contributor testimonials stood out as the highlight of the summit.

Attendees at the Google Geo User Summit Barcelona!

To learn more about the Google Geo User Summit Barcelona, visit the event website, where you can browse photographs of the conference and its beautiful setting along the Mediterranean coast. Extensive session notes and user presentations are also available. If you're interested in attending future events, please see the Map Maker Events Calendar, 3D Events Calendar and Panoramio Events Calendar. This summit was one exciting part of an ongoing celebration of the passionate mappers, modelers, and photo contributors who are improving Google Maps and Google Earth for the world to share. A tremendous thanks to all those who attended and helped make the event a success!

Posted by Lori Savageau, Community Manager, Google Map Maker
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/recap-google-geo-user-summit-in.html

[G] Connect with mapping enthusiasts in the Google Earth Community

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: Connect with mapping enthusiasts in the Google Earth Community


Do you ever wonder what Europe's light pollution looks like? You might be curious to tour the world's mazes. Or maybe you have a school project to research all of New York City's cemeteries? In the Google Earth Community, we've learned that if you can dream it up, you can map it.

Map showing artificial night sky brightness in Europe, posted by member markdj in the Google Earth Community.

Exploring the Google Earth Community's discussion forums, you'll discover a unique geographic encyclopedia built from user contributions. From the beautiful to the bizarre, Google Earth Community maps are spawned from the curiosity and collaboration of forum discussions. The scope and quality of these maps are thanks largely to the Google Earth Community moderators, a core group of forum members who help curate content and educate users on how to use Google Earth as both an exploration and a documentation tool.

Recently, we hosted several members of the Google Earth Community, educators, bloggers and Help Forum Top Contributors in Rome for a user summit. Apart from discussions around new features in Google Earth and the future of geographic content sharing, the event was also a special opportunity for passionate Google Earth users to meet in person. Many Google Earth Community members have been contributing to forum discussions for over 8 years now, long enough to become friends as well as collaborative cartographers.

Attendees of the Rome user summit enjoy a day at the Vatican (photo courtesy of Frank Taylor).

Ultimately, it's that kind of collaboration that makes the community around Google Earth so special. Have a question about overlays or tours? Top Contributors from the Help Forum are on it. Looking to share your own map of the animals you've found in Street View? The Google Earth Community will point you in the right direction. Read more about sharing your Google Earth content, and then begin your own exploration of Google Earth. After all, if you don't map all the neolithic monuments of the Sahara, who will?

Posted by Robin Ziegler, Google Earth Community Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/connect-with-mapping-enthusiasts-in.html

[G] A new way to get information about real-world places

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: A new way to get information about real-world places


(Cross-posted on the Inside Search blog.)

I love eating out with my friends and trying new places, but one of the most difficult questions you can ask me is "Where do you want to eat?" Today, we're making a few improvements to Google search that will make it a lot easier and faster to answer this question. For example, I mentioned to a friend that I'll be visiting Boston, and he suggested that I check out a barbecue place called Redbones BBQ in Davis Square. Since I don't know that restaurant, I do a quick search for [redbones bbq] to see if it's a place I'd like.


When I do, I see the same familiar search results page but I notice that there's now a new panel to the right of the results -- where previously only a map appeared -- with much more information than before. I see two images with pegman, the Street View mascot, below the map so I click on the first one. This instantly takes me to an immersive 360-degree interior view of the restaurant, as if I were virtually teleported to Redbones.


I pan around and see that it's a cool colorful restaurant with a nice, comfy feel. What's more, when I go back to the search results panel and click on the second image, I'm able to look around the outside of the restaurant and get a sense for the neighborhood via the familiar Street View experience. I'm beginning to really like this place! Further down the panel, I see the price range indicating it won't be too expensive and an "at a glance" summary that tells me Redbones has great beer and pulled pork sandwiches -- and menu links if I want to see more. Thanks to this helpful information right on the search results page, I've quickly been able to make my decision: I'm going to Redbones for a pulled pork sandwich.

Even if I'm not looking for a particular place by name, I can learn about places and quickly decide which ones are right for me. If I want to find a bar near Redbones for a few drinks after dinner, I can just search for [bars davis square] and get a familiar list of results. Only now, scanning the list and comparing places is easier than ever, since the instant preview feature will show the same detailed information about the various bars when I hover over the ">>" symbol to the right of each result. After just a few seconds perusing the additional local information for different places, I know that Joshua Tree has a great beer selection and that the Orleans has live music but is a bit farther away.


This new type of layout may appear on the search results page for a range of real-world places -- restaurants, hotels, local businesses, landmarks, museums and more. Of course, the local information that appears will vary depending on what's available online. So the next time you plan your visit to the New England Aquarium or Fenway Park, you might be able to check out their opening hours, get directions, and find the nearest transit stops, all from a simple Google search.

In the coming weeks, you'll start seeing the improved local search experience in more than 40 languages. Give it a try and start discovering new local favorites, near and far!

Posted by Jim Müller, Tech Lead
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-way-to-get-information-about-real.html

[G] Take a walk in the park with Street View

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Google LatLong: Take a walk in the park with Street View


(Cross posted to Official Google Blog)

Whether you're planning a trip to a park around the block or around the world, you'll now find more parks showing up in Street View. Over the past year, the Street View team, equipped with the Street View trike, traveled to 22 different countries to photograph some of the world's most beautiful and unique parks. Starting today, you can explore the couple hundred new special collections we've added by visiting our gallery.

You can now tour High Line, which sits 30 feet in the air, over the bustling streets of New York City. The park sits on an elevated freight train spur that spans 1.5 miles and cuts through the western side of Manhattan. Because of Robert Hammond and Joshua David's efforts, visitors can experience an innovative park that would have otherwise been a demolished urban structure.


You can tour the park in Street View here:


Across the pond, you can visit Kensington Gardens in London. Once privately owned by Kensington Palace, the majestic arbor skyline and delicate flower beds draw locals and tourists alike. Kensington Gardens is also dotted with famous statues, such as Peter Pan, and home to the idyllic Serpentine Bridge.


Community parks are where we take our evening stroll, play sports on weekends and picnic with friends. Koganei Park in Tokyo, Japan is one such place, especially during the cherry blossom season—a charming park beloved by photographers, joggers and romantics.


You can see more Street View special collections in this gallery or get inspired to travel with this video.

Posted by Ryan Falor, Product Manager for Street View
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/10/take-walk-in-park-with-street-view.html

[G] Explore open source with the Google Code-in contest

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Explore open source with the Google Code-in contest

Every time you send a text, check a webpage or post a status update, you are using open source software. The Internet is made of open source. But have you ever created any yourself? If you're a pre-university student between 13 and 17 years old, now you can—and win prizes along the way. Our Google Code-in contest starts this coming Monday, November 21, and you can sign up now. During the contest, which lasts for 57 days, participants can work on cool online tasks for 18 different open source organizations. Possible challenges include document translations, marketing outreach, software coding, user experience research and a variety of other tasks related to open source software development.

Participants earn points for each task they successfully complete and can earn prizes like t-shirts, cash and certificates of completion. The ten participants with the highest points earned by the end of the competition receive a grand prize trip to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. next spring for themselves and a parent or legal guardian. They'll spend the day getting a tour of campus, meeting Google engineers and enjoying other fun surprises.

Last year's winners at the Googleplex

Last year's Google Code-in had 361 students from 48 countries completing 2,167 tasks over the course of the the eight-week contest. We hope to have even more students participate this year. Help us spread the word by telling your friends, classmates, children, colleagues, teachers—everyone!

If you'd like to sign up, please review our Frequently Asked Questions and the contest rules on our program site. You can also join our discussion list for any other questions. For details on important dates for the contest, see the timeline. You can go ahead and register for your account now on the program site so you will be able to start claiming tasks right away when the contest opens on Monday, November 21 at 12:00am (midnight) PST.

We hope you'll spend your winter (or summer, for our friends in the southern hemisphere) learning about the ins and outs of open-source development through hands-on experience. On your marks...

Posted by Stephanie Taylor, Open Source Programs
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/explore-open-source-with-google-code-in.html

[G] AdSense crawler errors: Check your robots.txt file for improved ad targeting and relevancy

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

Inside AdSense: AdSense crawler errors: Check your robots.txt file for improved ad targeting and relevancy

This is the first post in our two-part AdSense Crawler Errors series.

There are many ways that publishers can go about optimizing their site for AdSense; opting-in to text/image ads, upgrading to our preferred ad formats, and increasing ad coverage across a site are just a few of the more well-known ones. But did you know that there's another straightforward optimization tip that many publishers often overlook?

A bit of context
Your site's robots.txt file essentially acts as a gatekeeper that determines which web crawlers, web robots, and search engines have access to your site and which do not. Those that are granted permission can do things like view your pages and index your site. Those that don't have permission are not able to view or index specific sections of your site, depending on what you've specified.

AdSense ads are displayed through the use of an AdSense web crawler. That crawler scans your page's content and determines which ads to display, according to specific keywords. If our AdSense crawler is being blocked by your robots.txt file, we're going to have a difficult time displaying relevant ads on your site. As a result, your users may see less relevant ads, which can lead to a lower CTR.

How you can help yourself
View the contents of your robots.txt file by going to [yourdomain.com]/robots.txt.  (If you have a subdomain, it likely has a robots.txt file as well, located at [sub.yourdomain.com]/robots.txt.) Be sure that the file is configured to allow our AdSense ad crawler to view your site. You can do that by simply adding the following two lines to the very top of the file:
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Disallow:
This will ensure that our AdSense ad crawler can access your site and will help display more relevant ads. As a result, you can potentially benefit from increased ad revenue. Please note that making this change will not impact your Google search rankings. Adding these two lines to your robots.txt file will only help to deliver better, more relevant ads to pages with AdSense code already on them. Pages that don't have AdSense ad code will not be affected.

If you have URLs with any errors, you can see what they are by logging into your AdSense account and clicking on 'Account Settings' from the home page. From there, click on 'View errors' under 'Access and Authorization.'
Stay tuned for the second post in our AdSense Crawler Errors series, where we'll cover crawler login issues and how you can solve them.

Posted by Andrew Boni - Inside AdSense Team
URL: http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/11/adsense-crawler-errors-check-your.html

[G] A mid-Movember check-in

Posted: 17 Nov 2011 05:10 PM PST

YouTube Blog: A mid-Movember check-in

It's that time of year...when the trees turn, the leaves fall, and stubble grows to full-fledged 'stache. In honor of Movember, an international mustache growing fundraiser, YouTubers worldwide are "mo"-bilizing to fight prostate and other men's cancers.



Hundreds of Movember videos are being uploaded every day, with over 1500 every week. In case you're lacking inspiration or you're starting to question whether fighting prostate cancer is worth the daily stares directed at your Fu Manchu, the YouTube community has your tips, musical tributes, and vlogs.



For what NOT to do with your stache this Movember season:







If you're unable to grow facial hair, you can raise awareness for prostate cancer by painting your nails with mini handlebar staches:







Looking for 'mo' style tips? Check out this musical tribute to history's best mustaches:







And you can check out vloggers all around the world chronicling their stache growth:







Don't forget to check out the official Movember YouTube channel or Movember.com for more information on how you can raise awareness and funds for the fight against men's cancer.



Jessica Mason, Communications Associate, recently watched, "Mo Sistas Unite."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/Kv7FHHweJrg/mid-movember-check-in.html
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