Friday, December 2, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Eggnog, mistletoe and... pigs?

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 01:58 AM PST

Google Chrome Blog: Eggnog, mistletoe and... pigs?

With the help of the Angry Birds team, we've cooked up a few early holiday presents for you.


Starting today, you can play a new episode of your favorite game, with 42 exciting levels. And if you are handy with the slingshot, you'll also be able to find a few new hidden Chrome dimension levels.

In addition, you can check out the first of an additional set of 25 holiday-themed Angry Birds levels. A different level will be unlocked every day until December 25th. There are also three Chrome-exclusive holiday levels that you can unlock with a secret password.


The password will be hidden inside a few apps that can be installed from the Chrome Web Store: Astrid, Earbits, Elfster, Good Food, Google Books and Hipmunk. Follow us on Google+ for some useful hints on how to uncover these magic passwords ;)

And finally, don't worry if you get stuck on a tough level; you can now summon the Mighty Eagle to the rescue from within Angry Birds. Just click the Eagle icon at the top and turn all pigs into bacon.

Not using Chrome but still want to play? Install Chrome with Angry Birds and make sure those pigs get only coal this year.

Posted by Christos Apartoglou, Marketing Manager
URL: http://chrome.blogspot.com/2011/12/eggnog-mistletoe-and-pigs.html

[G] Get more into what you love on YouTube with our new look

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Get more into what you love on YouTube with our new look

From your favorite sports highlights and dance competitions to make-up tutorials, science experiments and great movies, there's a ton of great stuff on YouTube—over 3 billion views worth per day by last count. More and more, behind every great video is a great Channel, and with our announcement last month that more of them are coming to YouTube, we want to make it easier for you to find and keep tabs of what you want to watch.

So, today we're introducing a new homepage, Channel design and a fresh coat of digital paint. Here are three ways these updates will improve your life on YouTube:

1. A new homepage
The YouTube homepage is your gateway to a vast entertainment universe. To help you get more into YouTube, we're making it easier to find and follow great Channels when you arrive. On the left side of the homepage you can create your own, personal, customizable YouTube Channel line-up. Sign in, or create a YouTube account. Then you can browse recommended Channels; customize your homepage's feed; even link your YouTube account to Google+ and Facebook to see what your friends are sharing. The new homepage feed we launched earlier this year is now front and center on the homepage. You can switch between feeds by clicking on different Channels on the left.

For step by step instructions on using the new YouTube homepage, you can go to our help center.

2. Simpler, customizable Channels
Given the homepage's new focus on helping you find and organize your favorite Channels, we would be remiss if we didn't update the look and feel of the Channels themselves. Today we're launching an improved Channel design focused on what matters most: helping users find great videos. As different uploaders have different goals, we've created new Channel templates to meet your needs whether you produce one video a week or have thousands of videos for a fan to browse. Some partners have even uploaded videos talking about the features, or giving tips on how they're taking advantage of the new design. To learn how to opt-in to and test this new Channel design, check out our help center.

3. A new overall design
To bring the new homepage and Channels designs together we've also applied a fresh coat of digital paint across the whole site. In July, we unveiled an experimental design called Cosmic Panda. We've used your feedback to improve our overall design, and today, we're presenting a cleaner and simpler YouTube, with a consistent gray background, bigger video thumbnails and a more streamlined watch page.

Ready to get started? Your new YouTube is already shipped and waiting for you at YouTube.com, and like every new toy, we included an instruction manual (and video) to help.



Our recent Channels expansion, our grants and educational programs, and this new design are all focused on helping you discover a broader range of entertainment on YouTube. We're always innovating and testing new stuff out to make the experience the best it can be for you. We rely on your feedback to figure out when we've gotten it right and when it needs further tweaks. So let us know what you think.

Posted by the YouTube team
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/get-more-into-what-you-love-on-youtube.html

[G] Get more into what you love on YouTube with our new look

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Get more into what you love on YouTube with our new look

From your favorite sports highlights and dance competitions to make-up tutorials, science experiments and great movies, there's a ton of great stuff on YouTube — over three billion views worth per day by last count. More and more, behind every great video is a great Channel, and with our announcement last month that more of them are coming to YouTube, we want to make it easier for you to find and keep tabs of what you want to watch.



So, today we're introducing a new homepage, Channel design and a fresh coat of digital paint. Here are three ways these updates will improve your life on YouTube:



1. A new homepage

The YouTube homepage is your gateway to a vast entertainment universe. To help you get more into YouTube, we're making it easier to find and follow great Channels when you arrive. On the left side of the homepage you can create your own, personal, customizable YouTube Channel line-up. Sign-in, or create a YouTube account. Then you can browse recommended Channels; customize your homepage's feed; even link your YouTube account to Google+ and Facebook to see what your friends are sharing. The new homepage feed we launched earlier this year is now front and center on the homepage. You can switch between feeds by clicking on different Channels on the left.



For step by step instructions on using the new YouTube homepage, you can go to our help center.



2. Simpler, customizable Channels

Given the homepage's new focus on helping you find and organize your favorite Channels, we would be remiss if we didn't update the look and feel of the Channels themselves. Today we're launching an improved Channel design focused on what matters most: helping users find great videos. As different uploaders have different goals, we've created new Channel templates to meet your needs whether you produce one video a week or have thousands of videos for a fan to browse. Some partners have even uploaded videos talking about the features, or giving tips on how they're taking advantage of the new design. To learn how to opt-in to and test this new Channel design, check out our help center.



3. A new overall design

To bring the new homepage and Channels designs together we've also applied a fresh coat of digital paint across the whole site. In July, we unveiled an experimental design called Cosmic Panda. We've used your feedback to improve our overall design, and today, we're presenting a cleaner and simpler YouTube, with a consistent gray background, bigger video thumbnails and a more streamlined watch page.



Ready to get started? Your new YouTube is already shipped and waiting for you at YouTube.com, and like every new toy, we included an instruction manual (and video) to help.







Our recent Channels expansion, our grants and educational programs, and this new design are all focused on helping you discover a broader range of entertainment on YouTube. We're always innovating and testing new stuff out to make the experience the best it can be for you. We rely on your feedback to figure out when we've gotten it right and when it needs further tweaks. So let us know what you think.



The YouTube team


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/1ux1Z8gFfew/get-more-into-what-you-love-on-youtube.html

[G] Turkish President Abdullah Gül answers your questions on YouTube World View

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Turkish President Abdullah Gül answers your questions on YouTube World View

In the last 10 days, users from all around the world asked 2,692 questions and cast 98,038 votes to determine the most popular questions for the Turkish President Abdullah Gül. You can now head over to www.youtube.com/worldview to watch the President answer a selection of challenging questions ranging from Turkey's involvement in the current affairs of Syria and the Middle East, the issues of Kurdish minorities, the soaring unemployment rates in the education sector and how he feels he has changed as a person since he became the President. The World View interview was shot in the glamorous reception hall of the Çankaya Presidential compound, with Oğuz Haksever from local media partner, NTV, acting as the moderator.









Zeynep Inanoğlu, Head of Consumer Marketing, Google Turkey, recently watched, "Fighting for an AIDS Free Generation by 2015."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/WIuhpR1PliE/turkish-president-abdullah-gul-answers.html

[G] Here comes Santa Claus

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Here comes Santa Claus

Whether you know him as Père Noël, Weihnachtsmann, Babbo Natale, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus, there's a chance you're anticipating a visit from the jolly old man this December 24. Although he goes by many different names, the magic he brings to the holidays is felt by children and adults celebrating Christmas all over the world.

Growing up in Lawrence, Kansas, I have fond memories of racing to the tree Christmas morning to see what Santa left during his stop in my town. Sometimes it took a lot of work to stay on the right side of the "naughty or nice" list, but Santa came through for me every year.

Like most traditions, this one has evolved over time. Now, in addition to racing downstairs to their stockings, children can follow Santa online on his annual trip from the North Pole to their chimney. With NORAD Tracks Santa, children and families can watch Santa as he delivers presents all over the globe (with a little help from the North American Aerospace Defense Command). If you haven't yet followed this tradition in your family, we'd like to invite you to join us this Christmas Eve.

The countdown to track Santa begins today. Visit www.noradsanta.org the entire month of December to play holiday games and learn fun facts about NORAD and Santa. Set a reminder for 2 a.m. EST on December 24 to start tracking Santa in real-time on the website using Google Maps, and in 3D with Google Earth. If your phone is handy on Christmas Eve, you can also search for [santa] on Google Maps for mobile to track his journey on the go.

Wherever you are, we look forward to counting down to the holidays with you at www.noradsanta.org. Be sure to finish all your holiday shopping in time so you can join us for the main event on December 24.

In the meantime, to get into the Santa tracking spirit, follow NORAD Tracks Santa on Google+ and enjoy a few highlights from last year's journey in this video:



Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long blog)
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/here-comes-santa-claus.html

[G] Taking your channels to a new limit

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

Inside AdSense: Taking your channels to a new limit


As you know, channels in your AdSense account are powerful reporting tools. Custom channels help you track ad performance and enable advertisers to target their ads for maximum impact, while URL channels allow you to deep-dive into the performance of AdSense for content on your subdomains.

To date, you've been limited to a total of 200 custom and URL channels, and many of you have asked for more. That's why today, we're very excited to announce that we've raised this limit to 500 custom channels per product, and 500 URL channels for AdSense for content. You'll see your available custom channels count clearly displayed in the custom channels table, and also highlighted in the "create new custom channel" pop-up.

This change will enable you to expand your testing, and you'll be able to do more granular analysis of how different formats, ad styles, and ad types perform. In addition, you can use your increased allocation of custom channels to create new ad placements for advertisers to target directly. This can help increase the amount you earn from placement targeting, as advertisers will be able to review the information you've provided about your ad units to match their campaigns to your site and audience. As the holidays approach and advertisers look to create additional placement targeted campaigns, now is the perfect time to set up more custom channels and ad placements.

Log in to your AdSense account today and visit your My ads tab to get started.

Posted by Alex Benton -- AdSense Engineering


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tuAm/~3/U8_SGfE4_OA/taking-your-channels-to-new-limit.html

[G] Bringing Japanese and Hollywood full-length films to YouTube in Japan

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Bringing Japanese and Hollywood full-length films to YouTube in Japan

Japan has a long and revered history of cinema. Masters Ozu Yasujiro and Kurosawa Akira have made a lasting influence on the art of filmmaking. Moreover, the Japanese nation is well-known for its voracious appetite of films both local and global.



So we have some great news for all the film buffs in Japan — YouTube will now offer Japanese and Hollywood releases for rent at youtube.com/movies.



We're starting off with a few hundred titles — both new releases and classic films — from two of the biggest Japanese studios Bandai and Toei, as well as from Hollywood studios Warner Brothers, NBCUniversal, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. We have the latest "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2", as well as classic animations like "Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn: Day of the Unicorn" and tokusatsu action film "Kamen Rider x Kame Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010."



Over time we'll be adding additional videos and features to the Movies page, as well as featuring titles from additional studios. Japanese users should check back often on youtube.com/movies to see what's new.



Yuhei Mizuno, Director of Content Partnerships, Japan, recently watched "AK 100:25 Films by Akira Kurosawa - The Criterion Collection." 


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/-Pa-PMyhiKk/bringing-japanese-and-hollywood-full.html

[G] More Google Cluster Data

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

Research Blog: More Google Cluster Data

Posted by John Wilkes, Principal Software Engineer

Google has a strong interest in promoting high quality systems research, and we believe that providing information about real-life workloads to the academic community can help.

In support of this we published a small (7-hour) sample of resource-usage information from a Google production cluster in 2010 (research blog on Google Cluster Data). Approximately a dozen researchers at UC Berkeley, CMU, Brown, NCSU, and elsewhere have made use of it.

Recently, we released a larger dataset. It covers a longer period of time (29 days) for a larger cell (about 11k machines) and includes significantly more information, including:

  • the original resource requests, to permit scheduling experiments
  • request constraints and machine attriibutes
  • machine availability and failure events
  • some of the reasons for task exits
  • (obfuscated) job and job-submitter names, to help identify repeated or related jobs
  • more types of usage information
  • CPI (cycles per instruction) and memory traffic for some of the machines


Note that this trace primarily provides data about resource requests and usage. It contains no information about end users, their data, or access patterns to storage systems and other services.

More information can be found via this link, which will (after a short questionnaire) take you to a site that provides access instructions, a description of the data schema, and information about how the data was derived and its meaning.

We hope this data will facilitate a range of research in cluster management. Let us know if you find it useful, are willing to share tools that analyze it, or have suggestions for how to improve it.
URL: http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-google-cluster-data.html

[G] America’s oldest flour company finds success on the web

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

Official Google Blog: America's oldest flour company finds success on the web

From time to time we invite guests to post about items of interest and are pleased to have PJ Hamel, web producer for education and community at King Arthur Flour, join us today. In this post, PJ talks about the unlikely story of a small flour company based in Vermont that's made it big with the help of the web. -Ed.

This is the story of a small, regional company that sells… flour. Yes, flour. It's the story of how King Arthur Flour, a centuries-old company, used the web to grow into an international business, devoted to spreading the pure joy of baking throughout the world. Thanks to the web, it's a story that will stretch far into the future.

Now America's oldest flour company, King Arthur Flour began in 1790. George Washington had just become the United States' first President. Despite the recent Revolution, Americans missed their English flour. So Henry Wood, a Boston entrepreneur, began to import flour from England. (Import from England—our arch-enemy? Even then, King Arthur Flour wasn't afraid to make a bold move.)

Over the next two centuries King Arthur grew, in its own small way. The business gradually moved beyond the Boston area, and sold its flour throughout all of New England (we also moved our HQ to Vermont). In 1990, King Arthur launched The Baker's Catalogue, a mail-order catalogue selling flour, tools and baking ingredients. Over the next five years, the catalogue helped introduce King Arthur Flour to markets outside of New England.

By 1996, King Arthur Flour was selling like hotcakes, with flour in supermarkets across the U.S. The World Wide Web was also growing in reach. That's when we decided to make another bold move: taking our business online. We could see the power of the web—how it would enable us to reach customers and markets a small company like ours would never have had access to in the past.

King Arthur's first site, in retrospect, was crudely designed and very, very basic. It featured five recipes, information about our flours and a bit of our history.


Since then, however, we've ramped up our presence on the web—and become tech savvy. Today, we've published more than 2,000 recipes online, all tested by bakers in our test kitchen. Over 75 percent of our catalogue sales now come in through our e-commerce site, which we built in 1999. We now connect directly with our customers through our blog, ratings and reviews and the social web.

Customers new and old find us via Google search, through both organic search results and targeted ads; we manage 2,000+ baking-related keywords on Google AdWords. Email marketing, and the spread of our recipes and content throughout the web, have established us as a true resource to millions of people who love to bake. In fact, during the peak of the holiday baking season, we receive almost 2 million site visits and 10 million pageviews per month.

And we're always looking for new ways to inspire people to try baking. In the past year alone, we've implemented:
  • a mobile- and tablet-optimized website
  • the Google Catalogs app for iPad and Android
  • SMS (text message) marketing
  • QR codes on our flour bags and our catalogs
  • Online baking contests
  • Baking Hangouts on Google+ and free, live streamed baking classes
The energy we've put into our online presence has produced tremendous growth for the business. Our workforce has quintupled in size, and we've built a huge new warehouse to handle the enormous increase in orders and sales. Brand awareness (and flour sales) have reached new heights across the U.S.; indeed, around the world. And significant growth continues year after year, with no signs of slowing down.

King Arthur spent 205 years offline and 16 years (and counting) online. Thanks to the web, this little flour company in Vermont has truly become America's baking resource. We're a 221-year-old startup—looking to grow, and loving every minute of it.



Posted by PJ Hamel, Web Producer, Education and Community, King Arthur Flour
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/americas-oldest-flour-company-finds.html

[G] Imagery Update: Week of November 28th

Posted: 01 Dec 2011 03:51 PM PST

Google LatLong: Imagery Update: Week of November 28th


The winter and holiday seasons are quickly approaching but that hasn't stopped the Google Earth and Maps Imagery Team from updating aerial and satellite imagery throughout the globe. Today, we'd like to share several interesting features identified in this latest release.

The first example shown below is part of an aerial image acquired this past September of the ski slopes in Breckenridge, Colorado. The slopes have already accumulated several inches of snow over the past few weeks and although it's still very early in the ski season, a third of all ski lifts are now open! If you can't make it to the mountains quite yet, be sure to experience the next best thing with Street View imagery from some of the most popular ski destinations.

Perspective view of ski slopes in Breckenridge, Colorado

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is full of iconic landmarks from American history. The aerial image shown below, which was acquired this past October, shows some of the most well known buildings along the east bank of the Schuylkill River. At the bottom left of the image are the fifteen structures comprising Boathouse Row, and the upper right shows the Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the far right corner of the image are the stone steps made famous in the Rocky movies.

Boathouse Row, Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"X" marks the spot in the satellite image below of part of Miramar, Argentina. Of course, the feature is comprised of roads that lead to the town's central sculpture, Monumento al Gral Alvarado, and the four parks comprising the central plaza.

Miramar, Argentina

As we close in on the Christmas season, it seems appropriate to feature several well known churches that have been updated with new imagery. The first example, shown below, is aerial imagery of the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Gdańsk, Poland. The structure is considered one of the largest Brick Gothic buildings ever constructed, and has sufficient space to hold 25,000 people!

Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Gdańsk, Poland

This next example shows updated aerial imagery of Burgos, Spain. In the upper left, is the Burgos Castle, overlooking the Burgos Cathedral in the lower right. This cathedral is famous for its vast size and unique French Gothic architecture.

Burgos, Spain

Finally, below is an updated image of the Calvary Baptist Church of Hi Vista, California, perhaps one of the more notable churches of late. This church was of course used famously in the Kill Bill Vol. I movie as the site of near demise for the heroine, "The Bride."

Calvary Baptist Church, Hi Vista, California

If you'd like to receive an email notification when the Google Earth and Maps Imagery team updates your favorite site(s), we've got just the tool: The Follow Your World application!

These are only a few examples of the types of features that can be seen and discovered in our latest batch of published imagery. Happy exploring!

High resolution aerial updates:
USA: Alamosa, CO; Albany, NY; Altoona, PA; Atlanta, GA; Bartlesville, OK; Bishop, CA; Boise City, OK; Clarksville, TN; Clayton, NM; Edwards, CA; Erie, PA; Georgetown, SC; Great Bend, KS; Guymon, OK; Hot Springs, AR; Lamar, CO; Lawton, OK; Llano, TX; McAlester, OK; Merced, CA; Oklahoma City, OK; Palmdale, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Redding, CA; Roseburg, OR; Scranton, PA; Springfield, MO; Texarkana, TX; Twin Falls, ID; Vail, CO

Poland: Bielsko-Biala, Lubaczowski, Malborski, Mazowieckie, Mielecki, Wolowski, Wolczyn,

Spain: Burgos

Switzerland: Horgen

Countries/regions receiving high resolution satellite updates:
Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Svalbard, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, West Bank, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

These updates are now available in both Google Maps and Google Earth. For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

Posted by Eric Kolb, Geo Data Strategist
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/imagery-update-week-of-november-28th.html
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