Thursday, March 15, 2012

Googland

Googland

[G] Star and label messages before you send them

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:55 AM PDT

The Google Apps Blog: Star and label messages before you send them

Posted by Craig Prince, Software Engineer

Have you ever sent an important email that you wanted to follow up on, but a couple days later realized you hadn't? Starting today, you can organize your messages before sending them by starring them or adding a label, making it easy to keep track of your sent messages.

When composing a new message, you can assign labels or star it by using the labels drop-down menu. As you'd expect, recipients of messages organized this way won't see your labels or stars.



URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleAppsBlog/~3/rIBWzP-fBms/star-and-label-messages-before-you-send.html

[G] Making our ads better for everyone

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:55 AM PDT

Official Google Blog: Making our ads better for everyone

We believe that ads are useful and relevant information that can help you find what you're looking for online—whether you're comparing digital cameras or researching new cars. We also want you to be able to use Google and click on any ads that interest you with confidence. Just as we work hard to make Gmail free of spam and the Google Play Store free of malware, we're committed to enforcing rigorous standards for the ads that appear on Google and on our partner sites.

Like all other Internet companies, we're fighting a war against a huge number of bad actors—from websites selling counterfeit goods and fraudulent tickets to underground international operations trying to spread malware and spyware. We must remain vigilant because scammers will always try to find new ways to abuse our systems. Given the number of searches on Google and the number of legitimate businesses who rely on this system to reach users, our work to remove bad ads must be precise and at scale.

We recently made some improvements to help ensure the ads you see comply with our strict policies, so we wanted to give you an overview of both our principles and these new technologies.

Ads that harm users are not allowed on Google
We've always approached our ads system with trust and safety in mind. Our policies cover a wide range of issues across the globe in every country in which we do business. For example, our ads policies don't allow ads for illegal products such as counterfeit goods or harmful products such as handguns or cigarettes. We also don't allow ads with misleading claims ("lose weight guaranteed!"), fraudulent work-at-home scams ("get rich quick working from home!") or unclear billing practices.

How it all works
With billions of ads submitted to Google every year, we use a combination of sophisticated technology and manual review to detect and remove these sorts of ads. We spend millions of dollars building technical architecture and advanced machine learning models to fight this battle. These systems are designed to detect and remove ads for malicious download sites that contain malware or a virus before these ads could appear on Google. Our automated systems also scan and review landing pages—the websites that people are taken to once they click—as well as advertiser accounts. When potentially objectionable ads are flagged by our automated systems, our policy specialists review the ads, sites and accounts in detail and take action.

Improvements to detection systems
Here are some important improvements that we've recently made to our systems:

  • Improved "query watch" for counterfeit ads: While anyone can report counterfeit ads, we've widened our proactive monitoring of sensitive keywords and queries related to counterfeit goods which allows us to catch more counterfeit ads before they ever appear on Google
  • New "risk model" to detect violations: Our computer scanning depends on detailed risk models to determine whether a particular ad may violate our policies, and we recently upgraded our engineering system with a new "risk model" that is even more precise in detecting advertisers who violate our policies
  • Faster manual review process: Some ads need to be reviewed manually. To increase our response time in preventing ads from policy-violating advertisers, we sped up our internal processes and systems for manual reviews, enabling our specialists to be more precise and fast
  • Twenty-four hour response time: We aim to respond within 24 hours upon receiving a reliable complaint about an ad to ensure that we're reviewing ads in a timely fashion

We also routinely review and update the areas which our policies cover. For example, we recently updated our policy for ads related to short-term loans in order to protect people from misleading claims. For short-term loans, we require advertisers to disclose fine-print details such as overall fees and annual percentage rate, as well as implications for late and non-payment.

Bad ads are declining
The numbers show we're having success. In 2011, advertisers submitted billions of ads to Google, and of those, we disabled more than 130 million ads. And our systems continue to improve—in fact, in 2011 we reduced the percentage of bad ads by more than 50% compared with 2010. That means that our methods are working. We're also catching the vast majority of these scam ads before they ever appear on Google or on any of our partner networks. For example, in 2011, we shut down approximately 150,000 accounts for attempting to advertise counterfeit goods, and more than 95% of these accounts were discovered through our own detection efforts and risk models.

Here's David Baker, Engineering Director, who can explain more about how we detect and remove scam ads:



What you can do to help
If you're an advertiser, we encourage you to review our policies that aim to protect users, so you can help keep the web safe. For everyone else, our Good to Know site has lots of advice, including tips for avoiding scams anywhere on the Internet. You can also report ads you believe to be fraudulent or in violation of our policies and, if needed, file a complaint with the appropriate agency as listed in our Web Search Help Center.

Online advertising is the commercial lifeblood of the web, so it's vital that people can trust the ads on Google and the Internet overall. We'll keep posting more information here about our efforts, and developments, in this area.

Posted by Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP, Engineering
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/making-our-ads-better-for-everyone.html

[G] Access custom Google Earth content on your mobile device

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:55 AM PDT

Google Lat Long: Access custom Google Earth content on your mobile device


One of the most powerful features of Google Earth is the ability to view custom maps or overlays, which are also commonly known as KML files. Ever since we introduced Google Earth on mobile devices, users have requested support for custom content. Today, we are proud to announce Google Earth 6.2 for Android and iOS, which includes support for KMLs. Now anywhere you find a "Google Earth file" (KML file) while you're browsing the mobile web, just click on the link and the Google Earth app will automatically launch and load the custom map.

With this release, the Google Earth Gallery is also now available in the mobile app, enabling you to easily explore some of the best maps from around the web directly within Google Earth. For example, not sure if that was an earthquake? Go to the Earth Gallery and click on the USGS' real-time earthquake map to see recent earthquakes from around the world.


Maybe you're interested in finding hiking trails on your next vacation. Check out Everytrail to find a hike wherever you might be.


If you're a basketball fan, be sure to check out the new College Basketball Tournament map, which takes you on a virtual trip to the school and stadiums of this year's competing teams.


For Google Earth for Android users, we've also added a new "Share" feature, which allows you to share a screenshot of your current view with people in your Google+ circles, via Gmail, or on other applications. Now you can share your favorite places with friends and family from your desktop computer, mobile phone or tablet. And, if you follow the Google Earth +Page, you can see what others are sharing and discover new locations around the world.

The 6.2 release of Google Earth for Android and iOS also includes improvements in navigation, which make it even easier to fly to your favorite spots on the globe.

To check out the latest version of Google Earth for Android phones and tablets, download it now from Google Play. For iOS users, look for the latest version of Google Earth in the iTunes App Store soon!

Posted by Peter Birch, Google Earth Product Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2012/03/access-custom-google-earth-content-on.html

[G] Making our ads better for everyone

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:55 AM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: Making our ads better for everyone

Posted by Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP, Engineering

Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog

We believe that ads are useful and relevant information that can help you find what you're looking for online—whether you're comparing digital cameras or researching new cars. We also want you to be able to use Google and click on any ads that interest you with confidence. Just as we work hard to make Gmail free of spam and the Google Play Store free of malware, we're committed to enforcing rigorous standards for the ads that appear on Google and on our partner sites.

Like all other Internet companies, we're fighting a war against a huge number of bad actors—from websites selling counterfeit goods and fraudulent tickets to underground international operations trying to spread malware and spyware. We must remain vigilant because scammers will always try to find new ways to abuse our systems. Given the number of searches on Google and the number of legitimate businesses who rely on this system to reach users, our work to remove bad ads must be precise and at scale.

We recently made some improvements to help ensure the ads you see comply with our strict policies, so we wanted to give you an overview of both our principles and these new technologies.

Ads that harm users are not allowed on Google
We've always approached our ads system with trust and safety in mind. Our policies cover a wide range of issues across the globe in every country in which we do business. For example, our ads policies don't allow ads for illegal products such as counterfeit goods or harmful products such as handguns or cigarettes. We also don't allow ads with misleading claims ("lose weight guaranteed!"), fraudulent work-at-home scams ("get rich quick working from home!") or unclear billing practices.

How it all works
With billions of ads submitted to Google every year, we use a combination of sophisticated technology and manual review to detect and remove these sorts of ads. We spend millions of dollars building technical architecture and advanced machine learning models to fight this battle. These systems are designed to detect and remove ads for malicious download sites that contain malware or a virus before these ads could appear on Google. Our automated systems also scan and review landing pages—the websites that people are taken to once they click—as well as advertiser accounts. When potentially objectionable ads are flagged by our automated systems, our policy specialists review the ads, sites and accounts in detail and take action.

Improvements to detection systems
Here are some important improvements that we've recently made to our systems:

  • Improved "query watch" for counterfeit ads: While anyone can report counterfeit ads, we've widened our proactive monitoring of sensitive keywords and queries related to counterfeit goods which allows us to catch more counterfeit ads before they ever appear on Google
  • New "risk model" to detect violations: Our computer scanning depends on detailed risk models to determine whether a particular ad may violate our policies, and we recently upgraded our engineering system with a new "risk model" that is even more precise in detecting advertisers who violate our policies
  • Faster manual review process: Some ads need to be reviewed manually. To increase our response time in preventing ads from policy-violating advertisers, we sped up our internal processes and systems for manual reviews, enabling our specialists to be more precise and fast
  • Twenty-four hour response time: We aim to respond within 24 hours upon receiving a reliable complaint about an ad to ensure that we're reviewing ads in a timely fashion

We also routinely review and update the areas which our policies cover. For example, we recently updated our policy for ads related to short-term loans in order to protect people from misleading claims. For short-term loans, we require advertisers to disclose fine-print details such as overall fees and annual percentage rate, as well as implications for late and non-payment.

Bad ads are declining
The numbers show we're having success. In 2011, advertisers submitted billions of ads to Google, and of those, we disabled more than 130 million ads. And our systems continue to improve—in fact, in 2011 we reduced the percentage of bad ads by more than 50% compared with 2010. That means that our methods are working. We're also catching the vast majority of these scam ads before they ever appear on Google or on any of our partner networks. For example, in 2011, we shut down approximately 150,000 accounts for attempting to advertise counterfeit goods, and more than 95% of these accounts were discovered through our own detection efforts and risk models.

Here's David Baker, Engineering Director, who can explain more about how we detect and remove scam ads:



What you can do to help
If you're an advertiser, we encourage you to review our policies that aim to protect users, so you can help keep the web safe. For everyone else, our Good to Know site has lots of advice, including tips for avoiding scams anywhere on the Internet. You can also report ads you believe to be fraudulent or in violation of our policies and, if needed, file a complaint with the appropriate agency as listed in our Web Search Help Center.

Online advertising is the commercial lifeblood of the web, so it's vital that people can trust the ads on Google and the Internet overall. We'll keep posting more information here about our efforts, and developments, in this area.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2012/03/making-our-ads-better-for-everyone.html

[G] Syrian citizen journalists capture Netizen Prize

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:55 AM PDT

Google Public Policy Blog: Syrian citizen journalists capture Netizen Prize

Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Cross-posted from the European Public Policy Blog

Earlier this week, Reporters Without Borders awarded the Netizen Prize to Syrian citizen journalists at a ceremony in Paris. The Netizen Prize is awarded annually to a blogger, online journalist or cyber-dissident who has helped to promote freedom of expression on the Internet.

For the past year, Syrian citizen journalists have continued to collect and disseminate information on the uprising wracking their country. Reporters Without Borders tonight honored these courageous activists, awarding them the 2012 Netizen Prize.

Jasmine a 27-year-old Syrian activist living in Canada, accepted the award in a ceremony in Paris on behalf of the Local Coordination Committees. She preferred to use a pseudonym to protect her family inside Syria. "The Netizen Prize proves that our voices were heard and that we succeeded in delivering the stories of millions of Syrians who are struggling on the ground to achieve what they have always dreamed - to live in freedom and dignity" she said.



This is third year in a row that Google has sponsored the Netizen Prize. Reporters Without Borders counts 200 cases of netizens arrested in 2011, up 30% over the previous year. Five were killed. This is the highest level of violence against netizens ever recorded. More than 120 are currently in jail for keeping us informed. Our own products are blocked in about 25 of 125 countries in which the company operates. "The Internet allows courageous individuals in Syria and elsewhere to tell their story to the world," said Google France President Jean-Marc Tassetto. "The Netizen Prize and our work with Reporters Without Borders testifies to our belief that access to information will lead to greater freedom and greater social and economic development."

Syrian journalists and bloggers are threatened and arrested by the government. International news organizations are, for the most part, kept out of the country. In their absence, the committees have become almost the only way to keep the world abreast of the violence wracking the country. They emerged spontaneously following the start of the Syrian revolution last March, bringing together human rights activists and local journalists, and now are found in most cities and towns across the country. "The Netizen Prize proves that our voices were heard," Jasmine said.

Informants on the ground send information and the committees confirm it from multiple sources. A third group translates the news into English and distributes it. News, videos and pictures are posted on the group's Facebook page, on its photo blog, and on the group's own website. "There are millions of stories that made us cry, laugh, get mixed emotions since the uprising began," Ola added. "We were talking to a mother of three detainees and she made us all promise each other that no matter what, we will never stop covering the events of our beloved Syria."

The award was distributed on World Day Against Cyber Censorship. In 2010, the Netizen Prize was awarded to Iranian cyberfeminists. Last year, it went to Nawaat, a group blog run by independent Tunisian bloggers. The nominees for the Netizen Award 2012 come from across the globe, ranging from Russia to Syria to Brazil and China. their geographic diversity a reflection of the growing impact of the Net.
URL: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2012/03/syrian-citizen-journalists-capture.html

[G] Get ready for spring with Google Affiliate Network exclusive promotions

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:55 AM PDT

Google Affiliate Network: Get ready for spring with Google Affiliate Network exclusive promotions

Spring into action by giving your audience access to exclusive promotions, available only to Google Affiliate Network publishers. This opportunity enables you to promote a variety of limited-time deals and earn a performance fee from orders that originate from your links.

If you aren't already a Google Affiliate Network publisher, join today. Over 40 exclusive promotions will be available for one weekend only, from Friday, March 23 through Monday, March 26. 


                                


How do I access these promotions?
To access any of these exclusive promotions, you need to be an approved publisher in Google Affiliate Network.
  1. Apply for Google Affiliate Network with your AdSense Publisher ID (or sign in if you're already a Google Affiliate Network publisher). 
  2. Once approved, review the promotions available and click the "Apply Now" link for each one that you wish to promote.
  3. Tracking links will be available in your Google Affiliate Network account by viewing the Home tab on March 19th. You can also search for "March Exclusive" links in the Links tab on March 23rd.
Need help applying or want more information? Review the Publisher Beginner's guide.

When can I post these promotions on my site?
All promotions will be available starting midnight Central Time on March 23rd, and all will expire at midnight Central Time on March 26th. Please remember that you may not post any of these exclusive promotions until March 23rd.

For additional questions, check out the Help Center or contact us.

Posted by Jamie Ross, Affiliate Network Strategist
URL: http://googleaffiliatenetwork-blog.blogspot.com/2012/03/get-ready-for-spring-with-google.html

[G] Star and label messages before you send them

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:55 AM PDT

Official Gmail Blog: Star and label messages before you send them

Posted by Craig Prince, Software Engineer

Have you ever sent an important email that you wanted to follow up on, but a couple days later realized you hadn't? Starting today, you can organize your messages before sending them by starring them or adding a label, making it easy to keep track of your sent messages.

When composing a new message, you can assign labels or star it by using the labels drop-down menu. As you'd expect, recipients of messages organized this way won't see your labels or stars.



URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/star-and-label-messages-before-you-send.html

[G] YouTube now local in Chile through YouTube.cl

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:55 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTube now local in Chile through YouTube.cl

Latin America is a melting pot, full of talented and witty people, and Chile is no exception. Traditionally known as a country of poets and wine, Chile is also home to many people coming to YouTube to entertain and be entertained. For that and so many other reasons, we're very excited that now Chile joins the nations with a local version of YouTube.



Chile joins the group of 40 countries around the world with a local version of YouTube, the fifth in Latin America with Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.



Having a hometown version of the site makes finding and sharing local channels easier through charts and trending videos, and it also makes discovering new videos more relevant for Chileans on the local version. It also gives more visibility to local channels as Chileans subscribe and favorite new videos.



Because of its geography, Chile has varied cultures and customs, and we hope you enjoy seeing how they connect through YouTube. Some examples we've seen already are the work of Puntaje Nacional, a channel that prepares students to get into college, or the ironic humor of Soy Germán.



We're looking forward to see the rich content that will be discovered and shared through YouTube Chile, and hope you enjoy it too. We'll soon see how YouTube Chile takes flavor and color, like its world-renowned wines the local team is celebrating with right now!



Alejandra Bonati, communications and public affairs manager, Google Chile, recently watched "Aumento de nivel del río San Jose en costanera de Arica."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/tQIgSvg2gSU/youtube-now-local-in-chile-through.html

[G] Announcing AdWords campaign limits increase

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 03:18 PM PDT

Inside AdWords: Announcing AdWords campaign limits increase

Last year we increased the limits for all advertisers to 500 campaigns and 3 million keywords per AdWords account. Today, in response to feedback from many of our advertisers, we are pleased to announce yet another AdWords campaign limit increase.

It is now possible to have 10,000 campaigns (includes active and paused campaigns) per account. With this change, it is now possible to easily manage and monitor more campaigns in a single place.

AdWords Editor, the AdWords API, and all other AdWords services are compatible with the new limits.

A full list of all account limits, including creative and ad extension limits, is available in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Katie Miller, Inside AdWords crew
URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2012/03/announcing-adwords-campaign-limits.html

[G] Gephi: how 3 years of Google Summer of Code made us great

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 03:18 PM PDT

Google Open Source Blog: Gephi: how 3 years of Google Summer of Code made us great







Networks are everywhere: email systems, financial transaction systems and gene-protein interaction networks are just a few examples. Gephi began as a university student project four years ago and has quickly become an open source software leader in the visualization and analysis of large networks. It is an important contribution to the ecosystem of tools used by researchers and big data analysts to explore and extract value from the deluge of relational data and disseminate a better understanding for people to think about a "connected" world.



Gephi is a "Photoshop" for such data: designed to make data navigation and manipulation easy, it covers the entire process from data importing to aesthetics refinements and communication. Users interact with the visualization and manipulate structures, shapes and colors to reveal the properties of complex and messy data. The goal is to help data analysts make hypotheses and intuitively discover patterns or errors in large data collections.



Our success was made much faster thanks to the Google Summer of Code. The timing of our acceptance into our first Google Summer of Code in 2009 was perfect: we were at the point where we could make the project really open in the way our infrastructure could scale code, and our human organization was ready to welcome contributors. Participating in the program gave us a boost of fame helping us promote the project and created an international community for Gephi.



We met many people and learned a lot, but this is the most important lesson to share: though students are paid stipends for their work during the program, money should not be the first incentive. To encourage students to stick with the project, we talk with each of them to find their deeper motivations in working on Gephi and try and develop a win-win situation. And it works! Many of the students continue to contribute to the project for at least a few months after the end of the Google Summer of Code program, and others have gone on to become members of our team.



We recognize this long-term investment by promoting their work, like André Panisson who released a plug-in in 2010, which connects Gephi to a graph stream and visualizes it in real-time. André made this amazing video of the Egyptian Revolution on Twitter, when he monitored the hashtag #jan25. More recently, Martin Škurla presented his work at FOSDEM 2012 and talked about his plug-in which connects Gephi to the graph database Neo4j. He started his project during the Google Summer of Code 2010 and continued his work until the release. We really appreciated the effort, so the Gephi Consortium and Neo Technologies Inc. paid his expenses to attend the conference. Finally, I must talk about Eduardo Ramos, who we rejected as a student two years ago for Google Summer of Code but who was so motivated that he decided to contribute to Gephi anyway, becoming one of the project leaders, a Google Summer of Code mentor... and a friend!



To learn more about Gephi, watch our madness screencast and view our previous Google Summer of Code projects here. Want to apply for Gephi? Join us on the forum.



By Sébastien Heymann, co-founder of the Gephi project and Google Summer of Code administrator


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleOpenSourceBlog/~3/hGTJXjcNJyc/gephi-how-3-years-of-google-summer-of.html

[G] Seeing familiar faces on YouTube through Google+

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 03:18 PM PDT

YouTube Blog: Seeing familiar faces on YouTube through Google+

As you surf through YouTube's decorative vegetable carvings, wingsuit flying videos and Hindi lessons, you might start to notice some familiar names and faces. That's because today we're adding a feature that lets you sign up for a new YouTube channel using your existing Google+ profile. You can now use your Google+ profile name and photo on a new YouTube channel, giving you one consistent identity across platforms when uploading videos, sharing, commenting and other public activities.



Today's update gives the more than 100 million of you on Google+, who are already able to watch YouTube in Hangouts and share videos with your Circles, another way to bring the best of Google+ directly into your YouTube experience.



Here's what you'll see if you sign up for a new YouTube channel and you already have a Google+ profile. If you want this to be your channel name and photo, just click OK, "I'm ready to continue."







If you want to create a YouTube channel that's different from your Google+ profile (e.g. "KatnissForPresident"), click "Create a username," and you'll have the option to create a YouTube channel as usual. It looks like this:







This is currently available on the English version of YouTube and we're looking to roll it out across languages in coming months. Also, if you already have a YouTube channel and want to connect it to your Google+ profile—stay tuned. We'll be following feedback on this update and hope to add more features that bring the best of Google+ into YouTube.



Trevor O'Brien, product manager, recently watched "Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/llW9OZjkwJ4/seeing-familiar-faces-on-youtube.html

[G] AdSense crawler error redesign

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 11:16 AM PDT

Inside AdSense: AdSense crawler error redesign


As we explained in a previous post, there are many ways publishers can optimize their site for AdSense. One of the most overlooked is ensuring that our AdSense crawler can accurately crawl your site so that your ads are as relevant and useful as possible.



Today we're making this task easier for you with our latest redesign of the crawler access page which you'll find on the Account Settings page of your AdSense account.



We redesigned the page with three objectives in mind:


  1. Provide accurate and actionable information about your crawler errors.

  2. Organize and display the information in a more readable way.

  3. Provide clear and concise steps to help you fix the errors.







We've accomplished the goals above by:


  • Keeping the information that pertains to you and removing everything else.

  • Incorporating expandable sections so information isn't overbearing and indigestible.

  • Adding a new column which shows how many failed crawl requests occurred over a period of time.  This gives you an idea of the magnitude of the error.

  • Adding a new 'How to fix' column specifically designed to help you solve the error.



This AdSense redesign is merely a first step toward empowering you with the most accurate and relevant information. This in turn allows for better decision making which can lead to more effective AdSense optimizations, and as a result, increased revenue.



Posted by Nurzhan Bakibayev - Software Engineer



URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/tuAm/~3/6S0EQlwDg9A/adsense-crawler-error-redesign.html

[G] Anne Rice On Man-Wolves, "White Collar," and Why Her Immortals Would Never Go to High School

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 07:11 AM PDT

Inside Google Books: Anne Rice On Man-Wolves, "White Collar," and Why Her Immortals Would Never Go to High School

Posted by Anne Bartholomew, Merchandising Manager, Books on Google Play

Anne Rice laid the foundations in so many ways for authors writing paranormal fiction today, and much of her early work still stands out for me as the turn-to books when it comes to creatures of the night. The Wolf Gift is no exception, and it does, as the Wall Street Journal noted, bring "vintage Anne Rice" to mind as it grapples with a "gothic, violent, gory, metaphysical" voyage into the supernatural. Watch our full Q&A with her (also available on our our YouTube channel.)



Some of the best moments from the talk included her reflections on today's popular paranormalists. Anne noted that she enjoys how writers today are "domesticating" vampires, and realizes it's a path her own vampires would never have taken. She also reveals her inspiration for the houses in her books. She built The Wolf Gift's opulent Nideck Point estate "block by block, floorboard by floorboard" with memories of the wonderful houses she's lived in, and with her admiration for great fictional houses in mind (like Rochester's in Jane Eyre and Miss Havisham's in Great Expectations).


We live-streamed our Q&A for fans outside of Google, many of whom submitted questions online for us to share with Anne in the course of the interview. I'd like to extend a big thanks for fans' participation and enthusiasm--your questions sparked some great discussion and we enjoyed how the event was so interactive.

Please stay tuned for more author events from Google Play and AtGoogleTalks!

Buy a digital copy of The Wolf Gift on the Google Play Store, to read on your tablet, phone, eReader or anywhere on the web:  
URL: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2012/03/anne-rice-on-man-wolves-white-collar.html
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