Saturday, December 3, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Expanding Safe Browsing Alerts to include malware distribution domains

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST

Google Online Security Blog: Expanding Safe Browsing Alerts to include malware distribution domains

Posted by Nav Jagpal, Security Team

For the past year, we've been sending notifications to network administrators registered through the Safe Browsing Alerts for Network Administrators service when our automated tools find phishing URLs or compromised sites that lead to malware on their networks. These notifications provide administrators with important information to help them improve the security of their networks.

Today we're adding distribution domains to the set of information we share. These are domains that are responsible for launching exploits and serving malware. Unlike compromised sites, which are often run by innocent webmasters, distribution domains are set up with the primary purpose of serving malicious content.

If you're a network administrator and haven't yet registered your AS, you can do so here.
URL: http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2011/12/expanding-safe-browsing-alerts-to.html

[G] Here comes Santa Claus

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST

Google LatLong: 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
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/12/here-comes-santa-claus.html

[G] This week's Trends: mustaches, coasters, and shoppers

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST

YouTube Blog: This week's Trends: mustaches, coasters, and shoppers

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:

  • We saw how one young man's speech went viral TWICE in 2011.



  • We waived goodbye to everyone's Movember facial hair.



  • We got a first person view of some really wild roller coasters.



  • We collected the craziest videos from the Black Friday shopping chaos.



  • And one of our Most Shared videos was this train station flash mob captured in Mumbai:






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 "Miracle on 42nd Street."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/BFoQo0wwcsE/this-weeks-trends-mustaches-coasters.html

[G] Think With Google’s December Adventure: Search Tips Recap

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST

Inside AdWords: Think With Google's December Adventure: Search Tips Recap

As we announced earlier this week, we'll be sharing insights and daily tips this month on Think with Google's Plus Page, to help you make the most of your holiday marketing.

Here are the four search ad related insights we covered this week (and a fun factoid):
Click on the titles to view the original Google+ posts and comments.
  1. Monday: 57% of shoppers still plan to do most of their holiday buying after Cyber Monday – Prepare for the big shopping days ahead by scheduling budgets to meet demand. Learn how in the "budget scheduling" section of this helpful article to learn how.
  2. Tuesday: Online ads are surprisingly under-served during the holidays – Take a look at the seasonal spike in shopping queries versus the level supply of ads. Grab people's attention with ads at the top of the page by taking advantage of our newly launched options for Automated Rules.
  3. Wednesday: Searches for "layaway" are heating up – Layaways are catching fire again with budget-conscious consumers at retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart - especially in the Southern US. Geo-target your campaigns to areas where holiday shoppers are looking through the Location Targeting Tool.
  4. Thursday: December has arrived, bringing eight projected $1 billion+ online shopping days – Target those last-minute, undecided buyers with keyword terms such as "quick and easy gift ideas." The rush to purchase gift cards has also started, so make sure you have relevant keywords and ads.
  5. Friday Fun Factoid: The Cold Truth – Did you know people in the US catch an average of three colds a year, per person? At about 1 billion colds annually, that's nothing to sneeze at. And this year's cold season could be worse than usual: Cold- and flu-related searches on Google are up by 61% so far over the same period last year. That means we'll see 14.1 million more cold- and flu-related searches this December than last December. So wash your hands before hitting the keyboard and bundle up, folks!
To learn more, follow Think with Google on Google+ or add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/12/think-with-googles-december-adventure.html

[G] Find what you need fast in the new AdWords Help Center

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST

Inside AdWords: Find what you need fast in the new AdWords Help Center

Today we are happy to announce the launch of our new AdWords Help Center for opted in U.S. users. Based on your feedback we redesigned the Help Center to make it much easier for you to find the information for which you're searching.

Here are some of the changes we've made:

1. Simplified navigation: More easily navigate to the right content using the new menu at the top of each page.


2. Visible contact options: Find options to reach Google with a click on the "Contact us" button in the top right of any page.

3. More screenshots and videos: Use the screenshots and videos in many of the articles to quickly learn how to make the most of Google AdWords.

To opt into the new Help Center, select "Try the new look" from the yellow bar at the top of the page.


You can also opt out at any time by selecting "Go back to the old look" in the bottom right corner.

We're rolling the changes out gradually, starting with about 60 of the most important topics. Stay tuned for more updates, as well as the global roll out, over the new few quarters.

Do you like the new Help Center? We'd like to hear what you think. Once you've opted-in to the new Help Center, just click the "Send Feedback" link in the lower right corner of any Help Center page.

You can also follow a thread in the Forum if you have something to share with the users in the AdWords Community.

Posted by The AdWords Help Center Team
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/12/find-what-you-need-fast-in-new-adwords.html

[G] Say yes to CS during CSEdWeek

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Say yes to CS during CSEdWeek

This Sunday marks the start of the third annual Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), taking place in the U.S. from December 4-10. CSEdWeek underscores the need for strong computer science education programs to ensure the nation has a pipeline of future workers skilled in technology. It's a call to action that urges local efforts by parents and teachers to not only pay attention to CS education, but also to elevate its status and quality.

Current projections show we'll have 1.4 million new computing jobs by 2018, but a recent
report from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) found that only nine states count high school computer science courses as a core academic subject in graduation requirements. You don't have to be an engineer to do the math here—if things stay this way, there will be a shortage of skilled workers to fill these valuable jobs.

We want to increase access to education and technology for all students, which is why we support initiatives like CSEdWeek that are vital to accomplishing that very goal. CSEdWeek is a chance to eliminate misperceptions about CS and computing careers and increase awareness about all the opportunities understanding computing enables. Furthermore, a high-quality education that includes CS teaches students skills and processes that will benefit them no matter what field they choose to go into. The overarching goal is to have K-12 computer science become one of the core disciplines in our national education system.

A few ideas about what you can do this week:
  • Students can celebrate CSEdWeek and spread the word by changing their Google+, Facebook, Twitter or other social media profiles to a computer scientist you identify with most.
  • Teachers can use CS Unplugged to teach lessons that explain how computers work, and at the same time, address critical mathematics and science concepts from number systems and algorithms to manipulating variables and logic.
  • Anyone can "Take the Pledge" to join in and/or support teachers, students, parents and others who are participating in CSEdWeek activities and events.
CSEdWeek is a major activity of Computing in the Core (CinC), a non-partisan coalition of which we're proud to be a member, alongside other corporations, associations, scientific societies and nonprofits striving to elevate computer science education to a core academic subject in K-12 education. Including CS as a core subject will give young people career-readiness knowledge and the skills necessary to thrive in a technology-focused society.

For additional information on CSEdWeek or to find out about events for students, parents and educators in your area, please visit the CSEdWeek website: www.csedweek.org.

Posted by Tara Canobbio, K-12 Education Outreach
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/say-yes-to-cs-during-csedweek.html

[G] Create a mobile-friendly website

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST

Inside AdSense: Create a mobile-friendly website


Did you know that there will be a mobile device for every person on earth by 2015, and that mobile searches have grown by 4x since 20101? That means that every day more and more of your users are looking for your content…on mobile devices. What's their experience like? Can they easily read what's on the screen without pinching and zooming? Do you have links that are difficult to click instead of user-friendly navigation buttons?



61% of users are unlikely to return to a site that isn't mobile friendly2. It's important to remember that even if users can see a website on a smartphone, it doesn't necessarily mean that the site is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate. Your users are going mobile as we speak, and so the most important thing you can do to grow your business using the mobile web is to create a mobile-friendly website.



Here are ten tips to help you design a mobile-friendly site:


  1. Keep it quick - Design your site to load fast and make copy easy to scan

  2. Simplify navigation - Create clear navigation and search functionalities

  3. Be thumb-friendly - Design your site so any size hand can easily interact with it

  4. Design for visibility - Make it easy for your customers to read

  5. Make it accessible - Mobile sites should work across all mobile devices

  6. Make it easy to convert - Create clear ways for your users to make purchases or contact you

  7. Make it local - Consumers look for local info on their phones all the time

  8. Make it seamless - Convert as much of the functionality of your desktop site to mobile

  9. Use mobile site redirects - Ensure that visitors who visit your website from a mobile device are redirected to your mobile-friendly site

  10. Listen, learn and iterate - Make testing and optimization an ongoing process



To review a detailed set of these best practices, download a copy of the 10 Mobile Site Best Practices. Visit howtogomo.com to explore actual mobile site examples of each best practice and use the GoMoMeter to see how your site is faring on mobile*.








Finally, take a look at Google Sites for Mobile Landing Pages*, a free and easy-to-use tool that enables you to build mobile pages.



1Gartner, 2010; Google Internal Data, 2011; Cisco, 2011

2Compuware and Brand Anywhere and Luth Research

*Note: These resources are currently only available in English, but will be available in other languages shortly.



Posted by Dairine Kennedy, AdSense Mobile Specialist



URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tuAm/~3/G6Uyg9Kdspc/create-mobile-friendly-website.html

[G] Take a walk on the sell-side

Posted: 02 Dec 2011 06:31 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Take a walk on the sell-side

In June, we announced that we are acquiring Admeld, a New York-based company that helps large publishers (also known as the "sell-side" by people, like me, who live and breathe display advertising) maximize their revenues from online advertising. We're pleased that the U.S. Department of Justice has today cleared this deal. We'll close the acquisition in the coming days and then start the real work—building improved products and services that help our publisher partners to make more informed decisions across all their ad space, and to grow their revenues.

The opportunity for major online publishers is huge...and growing. People are spending more and more time consuming online content across numerous devices, advertisers are running more online and mobile campaigns to reach them; and ads continue to get more engaging and relevant. This represents an unprecedented moment for publishers. We believe that improved technology and services can help publishers seize it and make online advertising work much better.

For now, it's business as usual—Admeld's products will operate separately to Google's existing solutions (such as DoubleClick for Publishers and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange). But over time, there are opportunities to bring the best of both businesses together in a variety of ways; and to develop entirely new solutions, too.

As we do this, Admeld and Google are guided by some core shared beliefs:
  • We want to give publishers more control over their ad space, and offer more flexible ways to manage and sell it. Publishers' businesses should influence the technology they use; not the other way around
  • We believe that publishers can make better decisions to maximize their revenues when they have better insights at their fingertips
  • We envisage a much simpler system that enables publishers to manage and sell their ad space—across desktop, video, mobile, tablets and more
The content produced by Google's and Admeld's publisher partners is the lifeblood of the Internet. We can't wait to start building the next generation of tools and services that will help them grow their businesses.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Display Advertising

(Cross-posted on the DoubleClick Publisher Blog)
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/take-walk-on-sell-side.html
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