Now there's Google Finance for Canada-update

Oops. We hit the button too soon. (Read more...)

Robots Exclusion Protocol: now with even more flexibility

This is the third and last in the series of blog posts about the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP). In the first post, Dan Crow introduced robots.txt and the robots META tags, giving an overview of when to use them. In the second post, Dan Crow shared some examples of what you can do with the REP. Today, he will introduce two new features that we have recently added to the protocol. (Read more...)

Computer science resources for academics

Google has a long history of involvement with universities, and we're excited to share some recent news on that front with you. At the main Google campus this week we're hosting the Google Faculty Summit, which involves universities all over participating in discussions about what we're up to in research-land as well as computer science education - something very near and dear to us. (Read more...)

What Eric Schmidt did this summer

In case you're thinking summer is the time to slow down, that's not always true around here. Our CEO has been (Read more...)

Earth to the Enterprise

With more than 200 million downloads and counting, Google Earth is known around the world. Less well-known is our Google Earth Enterprise which companies, organizations and government agencies use to view their global data and imagery. (Read more...)

Like making videos? Love Gmail?

A couple weeks back, some of us on the Gmail team were talking about how simple it's become to connect with people around the world through email. And we got to thinking: (Read more...)

Calling all SketchUp fans

It's a great pleasure to announce the launch of the Official Google SketchUp Blog. Fast-breaking news, tips and tricks, user stories and just the right amount of office intrigue await anyone who pays us a visit. Also, sexy mustache contests. (Read more...)

Our commitment to open broadband platforms

For several years now, many Googlers have been working to identify the obstacles that prevent the Internet from being available to everyone on the planet. It strikes us as unfair that some people should enjoy such abundant access to this rich resource while billions of others aren't so lucky. Though the technology exists today to provide access on a global scale, often we have learned technology isn't the problem. In this context, we have worked hard to advance a set of principles that will make Internet access for all a priority. (Read more...)

Your Campus in 3D winners announced

The results are in for the winners of the Build Your Campus in 3D Competition, which we announced in January. The judges chose 7 teams from among the dozens who submitted more than 4,000 buildings from colleges and universities all over North America. And the winning school teams who will be joining us in Mountain View are: (Read more...)

Opening up Google Print Ads

Even with the growth of online news sites, Americans still read newspapers. Over the course of a typical week, nearly 3 out of 4 adults (115 million) in the top 50 markets read a copy of a daily or Sunday newspaper.* That's why thousands of businesses (Read more...)

Hosted site search for businesses

Businesses spend a lot of effort and energy creating and promoting great websites for their products and services, but quality search is often missing. As a result, businesspeople often ask us why they can't use Google to power search on their sites.

Today we've released Custom Search Business Edition (CSBE) to do just that. CSBE is a hosted site search solution that provides Google-quality results for your website. It's fast, relevant, reliable, and flexible, so that users can quickly find what they're looking for through search results customized and integrated into your business website. (Read more...)

Cookies: expiring sooner to improve privacy

We are committed to an ongoing process to improve our privacy practices, and have recently taken a closer look at the question of cookie privacy. How long should a web site "remember" cookie information in its logs after a user's visit? And when should a cookie expire on your computer? Cookie privacy is both a server and a client issue.

On the server side, we recently announced that we will anonymize our search server logs — including IP addresses and cookie ID numbers — after 18 months. (Read more...)

Nonprofits mix it up with Google Apps

Tonight there held a social mixer co-hosted by Google and the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), a nationwide membership organization of several thousand nonprofit technology professionals who want to help nonprofits use technology more effectively.

Not only did the event offer DJ Hey Man! -- Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Executive Director of the Craigslist Foundation -- the opportunity to show off his skills as a DJ, but it brought together nearly 150 members of nonprofits to hear such speakers as Katrin Verclas of NTEN, and Ami Dar of Idealist.org, plus (Read more...)

Search your blog world

What happens when you put together a popular blogging platform, a customizable search experience and a flexible search API? You get a Search Box widget for Blogger, built using the AJAX Search API, and powered by a Linked Custom Search Engine (CSE).

Configure this widget on your Blogger blog and you can immediately search not just your blog posts, (Read more...)

Overview of our accessible services

From time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful. - Ed.

We provide a wide variety of services that are mostly accessed with a web browser. People visit Google from a large number of browsers and platforms; in addition, we also understand that every user is special and may have special needs. Accessibility at Google is about making sure that our services work well for all our users -- independent of your needs and abilities at any given time. (Read more...)

Bloggin' down under

To our international friends, Australia can have a rep for Crocodile Dundee jokes, poisonous animals and meat pies with mushy peas. What you'll find when you visit the new (ish) Google Australia Blog are the real reasons why Google has made a significant investment in Australia. And right now there's a post explaining the special doodle that was on the Google Australia homepage for NAIDOC Week. (Read more...)

Welcome, Postini team

We launched Google Apps so that it would be easier for employees to communicate and share information while reducing the hassles and costs associated with enterprise software. Companies are responding: every day, more than 1,000 small businesses sign up for Google Apps.

Larger enterprises, however, face a challenge: though they want to deliver simple, useful hosted applications to their employees, they're also required to support complex business rules, information security mandates, and an array of legal and corporate compliance issues. In effect, many businesses use legacy systems not because they are the best for their users, but because they are able to support complex business rules. This isn't a tradeoff that any business should have to make. (Read more...)

Ever more books to read

From time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful.

As a book lover, I couldn't have been more excited by the advent of electronic books in the early 90s. And with the rise of the Internet, the possibility of being able to discover books online was really exciting. (Read more...)

All aboard

We're pleased to announce that we have acquired GrandCentral Communications, a company that provides services for managing your voice communications. GrandCentral is an innovative service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web. We think GrandCentral's technology fits well into Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between our users. (Read more...)

Google and health care

In a world of 24/7 news cycles, a summer weekend can bring considerable -- and unanticipated -- excitement. Take for example the reaction we've just seen to an item on our new health advertising blog. Frankly, we were surprised by the pickup, but perhaps we shouldn't have been. We've been proponents of corporate blogging for some time, despite the significant communication challenges that obviously arise from having many voices from all parts of our company speak publicly through blog posts. (Read more...)