Google - Private Blog

About the Google Education Summit

2007-10-27T23:34:00.000-07:00

Since the dot-com bust in 2000, many colleges and universities nationwide have seen a decline (oftentimes quite dramatic) in computer science program enrollments. Many factors have been cited as possible causes including economic troubles in the high-tech sector, job off-shoring, the perceived image of computer science, and the growing complexity of programming. Recently, there's been a more critical examination of this crisis in computing, and stakeholders have proposed many targeted programs and curriculum changes to help stem the tide of students choosing not to pursue computing as a discipline.

In this vein, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has recently launched the CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH) program aimed at transforming undergraduate computing education. NSF has taken a multi-pronged approach, including what it describes as "community-building efforts that bring stakeholders together to discuss the challenges and opportunities inherent in transforming undergraduate computing education." (Read more...)

Wildfire relief donations

2007-10-27T23:30:00.000-07:00

Nearly one million people have been displaced by the devastating wildfires in Southern California. The Red Cross and Salvation Army are actively helping the victims of this disaster. If you'd like to contribute to their efforts, you can make a donation via our "Support Wildfire Relief" page.

One year mark for Google Apps Education Edition

2007-10-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

It's been one year since we unveiled Google Apps Education Edition and we've seen great progress in that time. Thousands of educational institutions on six continents now use Google Apps, and we have hundreds of thousands of active users. We want to thank our customers for providing feedback and having an open dialogue with us. Based on feedback from lots of folks, we have rolled in more than 40 product and feature updates in this first year, including:

Increased inbox storage
Mail migration and routing
New Google Docs UI
Shared documents and presentation features
Customizable start pages
Shared address book
Web-based multi-user chat
IMAP for Gmail (coming soon)

(Read more...)

API, gadgets, and tabs, oh my!

2007-10-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

Today, we're pleased to let you know about two new updates from Google Finance. First, we're releasing a new Google Finance tab on iGoogle. This new tab is a dashboard of financial gadgets which enable you to add, customize and share your Google Finance experience. But here's what's extra cool about these gadgets -- they now have communication skills and can "talk" to each other. When you make an update in one gadget, it automatically syncs with the other gadgets in the tab. (Read more...)

Google Tip of the Day gadget

2007-10-27T23:20:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about working at Google is the breadth and depth of ideas that people come up with. Our development process is primarily bottom-up and driven by the enthusiasm of those same people, so these ideas are frequently translated into new products, services and features. A side effect is that these improvements are sometimes launched at such a pace that even Googlers have a hard time keeping up, and some of the best aspects can be lost in the shuffle. (Read more...)

Free IMAP for Gmail

2007-10-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Plenty of devices you use every day can take advantage of IMAP, a technology that lets you keep all your email in sync automatically as you read and sort it. Your smart phone most likely supports it, as does your PDA, laptop, desktop computer, etc. To learn more about IMAP, please have a look at the Gmail Blog, (Read more...)

Southern California fire maps

2007-10-27T23:11:00.000-07:00

The devastating wildfires in Southern California have burned more than 373,000 acres of land; 350,000 homes have been evacuated. Lots of people have pulled together to make maps with information about the fires, including the burn zones, evacuation alerts, evacuation centers, safe areas, and closed roads. Here's a list of some of the most widely-used fire maps that our Google Maps team is aware of. We hope everyone is safe and that relief comes soon.

San Diego County Fires - KPBS is updating this map every 5 to 15 minutes with the latest information on the spread of the fire. It appears to be one of the most up-to-date and includes lots of information about evacuation alerts and evacuation centers. It also shows burn zones drawn on the map. (Read more...)

Spotlight on Seattle

2007-10-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

Our Seattle/Kirkland engineering office just celebrated its third birthday! And like our friends in New York who recently commemorated an anniversary, we too had a very special cake to mark the occasion, as you can see here.

This is the home of many great products, including Google Talk, Google Pack, Sitemaps, Site Optimizer, and Google Toolbar for Firefox. If we do say so ourselves, we have also made major contributions to the core search engine, Google Maps, Google's advertising technology, Video Search and Video Ads. There's all kinds of work going on in Google Seattle/Kirkland, and we're always looking for great people to help us out. So to celebrate our birthday, we're excited to announce that we just opened a Fremont office (just north of downtown) as the latest addition to our family of Seattle-area locations. (Read more...)

Helping law enforcement to combat online child exploitation

2007-10-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

To support law enforcement work in combating Internet-related crimes against children, last week we participated in the 6th Annual Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) National Conference in San Jose, California. Each year, the ICAC National Conference brings together hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement investigators, forensic experts and prosecutors to participate in workshops and lectures that provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to investigate and prosecute online crimes against children. (Read more...)

Helpful suggestions around the globe

2007-10-19T00:58:00.000-07:00

In addition to constantly improving our search algorithms to provide the best answer to your queries, we also look for ways to help when you don't know what exactly to type into the search box to get to the perfect result. When you are looking for information on a specific topic, we offer query suggestions on the search results page that you can click on to find information faster. Sometimes, the suggestions enable you to quickly narrow down the search. Sometimes, we present interesting related concepts that encourage you to explore further. (Read more...)

Latest content ID tool for YouTube

2007-10-19T00:25:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, we announced the initial development of a highly complicated technology platform -- content identification tools for YouTube. Today, we are pleased to launch, in beta form, YouTube Video Identification.

Video Identification is the next step in a long list of content policies and tools that we have provided copyright owners so that they can more easily identify their content and manage how it is made available on YouTube. (Read more...)

Today is Blog Action Day

2007-10-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

Around Google we know firsthand the value that small changes, aggregated on a large scale, can bring to people everywhere. It's how our search engine and advertising system work: every click counts. Similar thinking — local action, global impact — is what made Cyan Ta'eed, her husband Collis Ta'eed, and Leo Babauta create Blog Action Day, a worldwide initiative to get blogs posting about a common cause: the environment. As Cyan has said of bloggers and readers around the world, "If they all make a very small change it could be very effective, and a small step but an important step" on the road to addressing climate change and other environmental challenges. (Read more...)

China in real time

2007-10-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, the Chinese stock markets have grown at a breathtaking pace. Not surprisingly, investors have demanded more access to data and information about Chinese stocks, particularly in real time. Google Finance has heard the clamor, and we're pleased to be able to improve our service for the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges by providing pricing data in real time. So if you're interested in Yunnan Copper, Bank of China, or you just want to search around, enjoy the additional data on Google Finance. (Read more...)

Our Corporate Equality effort

2007-10-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

Googlers care deeply about creating a workplace that affords equal treatment for all our staff, and while we do it regardless of any accolades we think our efforts might bring, recognition from outside organizations does mean a lot to us. Which is why we're really pleased about our strong performance in the U.S. Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equality Index for the second year in a row. It's particularly exciting given that this is a time of rapid growth for our population of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees (whose group name is, naturally, Gayglers) around the world. (Read more...)

Two more reasons to type in Hindi

2007-10-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

As some of you have already noticed, we've combined Google Suggest with our Indic transliteration technology to give you a new way to search the web in Hindi.

You can type your queries using a regular English keyboard, and we'll show you suggestions and completions of your query in phonetically equivalent Hindi. This means that you can type "amit" and see Hindi suggestions like "अमिताभ" and "अमिताभ बच्चन". Once you're happy with one of the suggestions, you can click it to get search results in Hindi. Try this out on the Google India Hindi homepage and explore all the Hindi content available on the web. (Read more...)

Google Search Appliance takes five

2007-10-11T04:37:00.000-07:00

Around here, we love celebrating birthdays, including those of our products. And so it was just about five years ago that the idea for the Google Search Appliance was born. It was simple: make search inside of businesses as easy and effective as searching on Google.com.

The Google Search Appliance has matured quite a bit since then. We started with intranet web servers, added security and more than 220 different file types, and found hundreds of partners and thousands of customers. Now, we're embarking on a new phase: bringing universal search into the enterprise in order to break down the information silos that have developed around business networks and information. (Read more...)

Reach out and message someone

2007-10-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder: living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it's more difficult to keep track of everyone when they're running around at warp speed. That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Jaiku, a company that's been hard at work developing useful and innovative applications for staying in touch with the people you care about most -- regardless of whether you're at a computer or on a mobile phone. (Read more...)

AdSense goes straight to video -- units, that is

2007-10-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, website publishers realize that getting people to visit your website is only half of the equation. Growing your audience is important, but keeping your audience engaged and staying on your site longer is just as important, if not more so. This is why we're excited to let you know about video units on Google AdSense. Video units enable AdSense publishers to display videos from several YouTube content partners. The video units are ad-supported, and the ads are relevant to both the video and the site content, as well as unobtrusive. AdSense publishers and YouTube content partners will receive a share of the ad revenue, so video units enable both groups to earn incremental revenue. (Read more...)

Let a thousand servers bloom

2007-10-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

Just as people are social animals, computers are social machines—the more, the merrier. Twenty or thirty years ago, large, centralized mainframes sat alone in sheltered bunkers in computer science departments and government offices alike, choking for hours on mere megabytes of data. Even with recent advances in server technology, large, centralized machines are still struggling to cope with today’s modern computational challenges, which now involve terabytes of data and processing requirements well beyond a single CPU (or two, or four, or eight). One computer just won’t hack it; these days, to support a new paradigm of massively parallel systems architecture, we need to break the machine out of its bunker and give it some friends. (Read more...)

More types of gadgets for iGoogle

2007-10-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

Google Desktop lets you not only search your computer easily, but you can also personalize your desktop. From cultivating a virtual potted plant, to reading the latest news and checking the weather forecast, you can customize your desktop with a variety of gadgets and a sidebar. Some of you have asked if you can also put gadgets on iGoogle homepages next to your other gadgets. And starting today, the answer is yes. (Read more...)

3 short weeks

2007-10-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago today was the official close of Google's acquisition of Postini -- and what a three weeks it's been. "Official close" meant that integration work could legally begin, and so the Google Apps team and Postini team have been burning the midnight oil to get our services integrated. Now, Google Apps customers, Postini customers and everyone else can see the results.

Postini security and compliance capabilities are officially part of Google Apps Premier Edition. Google Apps customers get these services for free. Postini customers get an extended trial period for Apps. New customers can choose their entry point: Apps (including Postini security and compliance) or any of the standalone Postini services. (Read more...)

Got a blog? Help a student.

2007-10-04T04:28:00.000-07:00

When it comes to philanthropy, everyone’s got something different to give – some people have money, others have time, and bloggers have devoted readers. The creative folks at DonorsChoose have a few ideas about how bloggers can help students and teachers.

In case you’re not familiar with DonorsChoose, it’s a site where teachers post needs they have for their classrooms, and donors fund those projects directly. If you’ve got a blog, a website, or even an email account, you can help by creating what’s called a challenge. Just pick some of your favorite projects and challenge your family, friends, and readers to fund them. If you’ve got a Blogger account, it’s easy to add your challenge to your blog in just a few clicks. (Read more...)

International Cleanup Weekend: Think globally, clean locally

2007-10-04T04:24:00.000-07:00

On October 13th and 14th, Googlers and many people around the world will head out to clean up local parks, beaches, trails and other places close to home. We'll be planning our cleanups using Google Maps and sharing our plans with friends and families, along with an invitation to help. So far, Googlers have sent in almost 100 cleanup maps and proposed plans, and have invited more than 900 of their personal contacts to help. (Read more...)

YouTube and Checkout for the non-profit world

2007-10-04T04:12:00.000-07:00

Ever since YouTube first launched, people and organizations have been using it to broadcast their causes and engage supporters around the issues they care about. In that spirit, today YouTube unveiled its Non-Profit Program at the Clinton Global Initiative to help non-profit organizations more easily connect with the world's largest online video community. In the past few years, online video has emerged as a key tool for grassroots organizing on the Internet -- a short, simple video can demonstrate the impact and the needs of an organization in a uniquely compelling fashion. This program will enable non-profits to create dedicated YouTube channels for themselves, making it even easier for people to find, watch, and engage with the organization's video content. The initial participants are 13 organizations including the American Cancer Society, Friends of the Earth, and YouthNoise. (Read more...)

A new caffeine-free way to stay alert

2007-09-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

Since new videos are constantly appearing all over the web, it's difficult to keep tabs on all of them. But now Google Alerts will make it easy for you to add video to your other Alerts: News, Web, Blog and Groups.

Video Alerts enables you to specify any topics or queries of interest so we can deliver interesting and relevant videos on a daily, weekly, or as-it-happens basis (your choice) to you via email. (Read more...)

It's all about today

2007-09-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

A lot of us love video games, and everyone here has their favorite from the latest generation of consoles. We have a game room in our building that happens to have all three of the latest systems: Artem loves Microsoft's Xbox 360, Niv can't part with Sony's Playstation 3, and Corey is hopelessly addicted to the Nintendo Wii. After some serious work organizing the world's information, we like to kick back with a round of Wii Tennis or a trip to Rapture. The problem is that there's only one TV in the game room, and of course only one system can be played at a time. In true Googley fashion, we look to data to decide which console gets first dibs. (Read more...)

Pour on the pedal power

2007-09-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

You may already know that we're working to reduce our impact on the environment in a number of ways. We opt for locally-grown food whenever possible in all of our cafes. We've covered our roofs with solar panels. We offer a rebate on our employees' fuel-efficient car purchases. When it comes to getting people to the office, we offer round-trip shuttle service to our Bay Area Googlers, as well as incentives for creative commuting, from walking to biking and even to kayaking (depending, of course, on where the office is).

Over at Google.org, the RechargeIT project is collecting data on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in an effort to accelerate commercial adoption of the cars as well as vehicle to grid technology. To the same end, we just issued a $10 million request for investment proposals to encourage companies and individuals to develop sustainable transportation solutions. (Read more...)

iGoogle tackles the Rugby World Cup

2007-09-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Salut! You may have heard by now that France (relieved after our recent win over Namibia) is currently hosting the sixth Rugby World Cup, which is a gathering of the best rugby teams from around the world competing for the coveted Ellis Cup. You Yanks should imagine the Super Bowl, but held only once every four years, with 20 teams from around the globe -- and without padding or helmets!

Four years ago, when England won the last Rugby World Cup, we French Rooster fans began planning for the next global matchup. Meanwhile, our French superstar Sébastien Chabal -- otherwise known as The French Beast, The Anesthetist, Attila or the Caveman -- has grown longer hair, a longer beard and bigger muscles. (Read more...)

Our feature presentation

2007-09-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

In April we announced that we were working to bring presentations to Google Docs. (Astute readers may recall learning about this even earlier, which caused a bit of excitement around here.) And today we're unveiling the new Google Docs presentations feature and invite you to try it at documents.google.com. Maybe more than any other type of document, presentations are created to be shared. But assembling slide decks by emailing them around is as frustrating as it is time-consuming. The new presentations feature of Google Docs helps you to easily organize, share, present, and collaborate on presentations, using only a web browser. (Read more...)

We've officially acquired Postini

2007-09-14T00:47:00.000-07:00

As of today, Postini becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Google, and we couldn’t be happier about it. (Here's the FAQ.) Since July 9, when we announced the agreement to acquire Postini, plenty of businesses have told us how much they respect Postini and how the acquisition makes sense for customers of both companies.(Read more...)

Fly me to the moon

2007-09-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go into space and orbit the Earth. Two years later, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space (she orbited the earth 48 times -- take that, Yuri). By the end of the decade, the Apollo teams, rising to President Kennedy's challenge, made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first human beings to walk on the Moon.

Great things can happen when you reach for the stars. That's why we're thrilled to be sponsoring the Lunar X-PRIZE, which will award a total of $30 million to teams competing around the world to land privately funded spacecraft on the Moon. (Read more...)

Australia readies itself for a Google election

2007-09-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

Looking from down under, the long U.S. election cycle ensures that there is no shortage of political headlines generated more than a year out from the actual Presidential election. Many of you may not realise that Australia is also readying itself to enter campaign mode. A federal election is anticipated to be held before the end of the year. You can be sure as the Australian parties get out on the hustings, babies will be kissed, doors knocked and hands vigorously shook -- but this election campaign is already a lot different to others, with digital media playing a new and important role.

Today, in Sydney, we announced the launch of a Google Australia election website, so that Australian voters can have an intimate look at the parties, candidates and election issues, all in one Google location. These services, spanning Search, Maps, News, video, Earth, Trends, and iGoogle, enable voters to organise, find and share Australian election information more easily than ever. (Read more...)

Get your cricket scores here

2007-09-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

With the start of the Twenty20 world championship, cricket fever is upon legions of enthusiasts. To make it easier for you to indulge your interest in a game John Fowles characterized as "chess made flesh," we've simplified your search for cricket scores. Just type [cricket] in a Google search box and you'll see a brief score of all the current cricket matches. A single click will also give you access to a detailed cricket score card. (Read more...)

A new Google.org RFP

2007-09-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

Today, Google.org has issued a request for proposals to the tune of $10 million in order to advance sustainable transportation solutions. We're inviting entrepreneurs and companies to show us their best ideas on how they can contribute to this important cause. We need catalytic investments to support technologies, products and services that are critical to accelerating plug-in vehicle commercialization. (Read more...)

Our plans for Code Jam

2007-09-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

What do you do if you've got a head full of good ideas, and nothing interesting to do with them? You might need a good dose of competitive programming. During a programming competition you contort your brain, trying desperately to figure out that tiny trick that will let your program run a thousand times faster, or searching for the elusive mathematical fact that will lead you to the solution. Then you tell your computer what to do, and watch it solve that torturous problem faster than you can blink. If you're like me, you eagerly participate in every coding competition that comes along. (Read more...)

Find a needle in a feedstack with Google Reader

2007-09-10T04:45:00.000-07:00

The fundamental problem with information is that there's too much of it, and this is probably why we all go to our trusted sources to learn what we really need to know. Your sources filter out the noise and present the most interesting bits to you in a useful way. For many of us, these sources include newspapers, magazines, and of course blogs. We built Google Reader as a way for you to see all of your online sources in one place. (Read more...)

Collect, share, and discover books

2007-09-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

Books often live a vibrant life offline, and through digitization Google Book Search tries to help them live an even more exciting life online through full text search. Today we're launching some new features that go beyond search so you can collect, share, and discover new books.

To start, you can create your own personal collection on Book Search, and use it to help find just the right book from your collection for any occasion. Other people can view your library, so you can share your collection as Bethany has done. Or take a look at some other interesting collections. (Read more...)

Speaking in more languages

2007-09-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

Many Google products (Google.com, Blogger, Google Earth, and others) currently support more than 170 languages, from Abhazian to Zulu. Translations into most of these languages are done by volunteers from around the world who are eager to help people view and search the web in their own native language. To facilitate how we go about getting these languages, we created a volunteer translation program: Google In Your Language. (Read more...)

Google Desktop for the Mac in 9 more languages

2007-09-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

In April we launched Google Desktop for the Mac to further our goal of delivering great products on the Mac and making them universally available on all platforms. A big thanks to all of you for using Desktop for the Mac, and for sharing your feedback. Today we're tackling the second part of that "universal" goal: now Google Desktop for the Mac is available in 9 more languages: Chinese Simplified and Traditional, Dutch, UK English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. There's more on this on the Desktop for Mac site. (Read more...)

Supporting GrandCentral's Project CARE

2007-08-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

For homeless people and others in need, not having a stable phone number can be crippling: you need one to follow up on medical appointments, keep in touch with friends and loved ones, and hear back from prospective employers. (Read more...)

Lights, camera, Gmail

2007-08-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Last month, we invited you to join the Gmail collaborative video, pull out your video cameras and help us imagine how an email message travels around the world. Two Rubik's cubes, a few jaunts in a bottle, beautiful sand animation, and one dog's trip to the Southernmost point of the continental US later, we'd received more than 1,100 fantastic clips from Gmail fans from more than 65 countries. (Read more...)

Google Web Toolkit: Towards a better web

2007-08-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

We're very pleased to tell you that the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is no longer in beta as of today's release of GWT 1.4. For Java developers who have used GWT to create high-end web applications over the last year, this may not seem all that surprising. But if you haven't yet heard the story behind GWT, this seems like the perfect time (Read more...)

First year of Google WiFi

2007-08-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

Our Mountain View WiFi network just celebrated its first anniversary, and we thought you'd appreciate a few data points. The network's 400+ mesh routers cover about 12 square miles and 25,000 homes to serve approximately 15,000 unique users each week month. Since the beginning of 2007, traffic has grown almost 10 percent each month, and the network now handles over 300 gigabytes of data each day, sent to over 100 distinct types of WiFi devices. Virtually the entire city has been taking advantage of the network, with 95 percent of the mesh routers being used on any given day. (Read more...)

The view from the Sky

2007-08-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Sally Ride, Ph.D., former astronaut says,

It's true: astronauts have a great view! When I was orbiting Earth in the space shuttle, I had the unbelievable experience of being able to float over to a window and look back down at our planet, then off into space at the stars. Absolutely spectacular!

These days my feet are closer to the ground, and my mission doesn't involve circling the Earth. I run a science education company, Sally Ride Science, that creates entertaining science materials for elementary and middle school students and classrooms, so I'm always looking for cool tools that can engage kids and help them learn more about our world. (Read more...)

An update on Google Video feedback

2007-08-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

When your friends and well-intentioned acquaintances tell you that you've made a mistake, it's good to listen. So we'd like to say thank you to everyone who wrote to let us know that we had made a mistake in the case of Google Video's Download to Own/Rent Refund Policy vs. Common Sense.

To recap: we decided to end the Google Video download to own/rent (DTO/DTR) program, and are now refocusing our Google Video engineering efforts. The week before last, we wrote to Google Video DTO/DTR program customers to let them know that videos they'd already bought would no longer be playable. (Read more...)

Google Labs India

2007-08-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

Keeping up with the spirit and celebrations of India's 60th year of Independence, we present to you a new platform that showcases our favourite ideas for Indian users: Google India Labs. Enthusiastic bloggers noted our initial announcement on 15th August; now here's the full story.

Though 60 years young, India has a history dating back to the dawn of civilization. The incredible diversity of this great nation is the kind of challenge Google loves. (Read more...)

Namaste India!

2007-08-15T21:44:00.001-07:00

Happy 60th birthday, India! We can't wait to celebrate, but we're going to wait a few days (Read more...)

Online ad-serving tests

2007-08-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

We're always experimenting and testing ways to deliver relevant and new kinds of ads, and as part of that, we recently started running a test of an ad serving technology that will help us understand online ad serving better, and allow us to experiment with some new approaches to privacy for third-party ad servers. The privacy features we'll test in these experiments follow some recently-announced policies, such as a shorter expiration date for the cookie set on your computer and anonymization of the logs data after 18 months. (Read more...)

A simple way to get more storage

2007-08-10T00:20:00.000-07:00

In the case of online storage, whether it's a picture, a video or an email, you should just, well, be able to store it without having to worry about whether you've got enough space in each particular product. That's why the Picasa team is pleased to tell you (Read more...)

Is black the new green?

2007-08-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

Reducing climate change by saving energy is an important effort we should all join, and that's why we're very glad to see the innovative thinking going into a variety of solutions. One idea, suggested by the site called "Blackle" (which is not related to Google, by the way, though the site does use our custom search engine), is to reduce energy used by monitors by providing search with a black background. (Read more...)

Google Checkout back-to-school offers

2007-08-09T03:11:00.000-07:00

Checkout stores are offering up to $20 in savings (Read more...)

Google search privacy: Plain and simple

2007-08-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

Cookies, IP addresses, logs -- all of these are important things to understand in the context of online privacy. We try to explain them in clear and simple language in our privacy policy and FAQ. But they're not always easy for non-techies to understand. Google is committed to being transparent about our privacy practices. We've been thinking about different ways to help people understand the technical aspects of online privacy, to improve transparency, and to empower you to make informed decisions about how you want to use our services. Today, we're launching our first experiment to explain basic privacy concepts via video on YouTube. (Read more...)

Finding fresh results

2007-08-09T03:02:00.000-07:00

We work hard to keep our search results as fresh as possible so that they reflect the most up to date content on the web. However, given the immense medium the Internet is, it's hard to find all those pages that have just come into existence and make them available when people come looking for the latest information on new topics, whether it's a highly anticipated cell phone launch, news about a popular celebrity or the latest political maneuvers. What makes providing the latest information harder is the small amount of time we have between the page creation and when we'd like to serve those results to you.

Despite these challenges, one thing should not be hard: finding the freshest results on the page. To make it easier for you to spot the newer pages among the search results, we are now going to tell you how long ago we've seen a page containing what we think you're looking for. (Read more...)

Joining OIN

2007-08-07T02:04:00.000-07:00

You'll often hear members of our open source team say, “Every time you use Google, you’re using Linux.” It’s absolutely true. Check a Google engineer’s workstation, and you’ll probably find it's running Linux. Do a search on Google.com, and a Linux server will return your results. Ever since Google got its start, Linux has given us the power and flexibility we need to serve millions of users around the world.

In turn, we feel a strong responsibility to the Linux community, and we’re always looking for creative ways to put our resources in the hands of Linux developers. That’s why today we became a licensee of the Open Invention Network (OIN), an innovative patent-sharing organization founded to create a legally protected environment for anyone who works with Linux. (Read more...)

Google Apps goes global

2007-08-01T00:32:00.000-07:00

Our mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Note that twice in this eleven-word mission statement, we mention that this is a global effort, not just a problem we're solving only for English-speaking users in the U.S. That global focus is critical, because fully 65% of Internet users around the world speak a language other than English. In fact, the Internet's top 10 languages still only account for around 85% of users -- and the remaining 15% represents almost 200 million people. (Read more...)

Google Finance in Canada - for real

2007-08-01T00:29:00.000-07:00

Though it was noted a bit earlier, now we're really pleased to introduce Google Finance Canada, a localized version of Google Finance tailored specifically, as you might guess, for Canadian investors. Canadians are the second largest group of Google Finance users, (Read more...)

Now there's Google Finance for Canada-update

2007-07-29T02:40:00.000-07:00

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

Robots Exclusion Protocol: now with even more flexibility

2007-07-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-26T22:14:00.001-07:00

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?

2007-07-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-12T11:37:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

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...)

1-800-GOOG-411: now with maps

2007-06-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

In case you hadn't heard, a few months back we launched 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) in the U.S. It's a free telephone service that lets you search for businesses by voice and get connected to those businesses for free. (Read more...)

Google Desktop now available for Linux

2007-06-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

Just a few months after Google Desktop became available for the Mac, I'm happy to tell you it's now available for Linux users too. Google Desktop for Linux makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google. Not only can you rediscover important documents that have been idling on your hard drive for years, but you can also search through emails saved in Gmail or other applications. All office files, including documents and slides created with OpenOffice.org can be easily found. Since some Linux users are program developers, Google Desktop was designed with the ability to search source codes and information contained in (Read more...)

Ga-Ga for Gadgets

2007-06-28T03:43:00.000-07:00

When we designed iGoogle, our personalized homepage, we baked that recognition right in to the product by developing the Google Gadgets API. Google Gadgets are applications that developers can create and anyone can embed into their iGoogle homepage or their own website. In the year and a half since we launched Google Gadgets, we've seen a lot of growth in this program. The developer community has created thousands of gadgets, and the top gadgets get tens of millions of pageviews per week. This is great for our developers, as iGoogle gives the gadgets broad distribution, and it's great for our iGoogle users, as they benefit from a richer variety of options for their personalized homepage. There have been some really interesting gadgets created, from to-do lists to Zelda, from a pair of eyes that follow your mouse around the screen to an entire customer relationship management (CRM) application.

We've been hearing from a lot of gadget developers that they'd like to spend more time developing if they could, and we've been thinking about ways to help them do that. To that end, we're happy to announce Google Gadget Ventures, a new pilot program that will help (Read more...)

New advisory group on health

2007-06-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

Every day, people use Google to learn more about an illness, drug, or treatment, or simply to research a condition or diagnosis. We want to help users make more empowered and informed healthcare decisions, and have been steadily developing our ability to make our search results more medically relevant and more helpful to users.

Although we have some talented people here with extensive backgrounds in health policy and technology, this is an especially complex area. We often seek expertise from outside the company, and health is no exception. We have formed an advisory council, made up of healthcare experts (Read more...)

9,000 and counting

2007-06-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

This month, we passed the 9,000 mark for enterprise buyers of the Google Search Appliance and the Google Mini. That's a great beginning, but we want to reach out even farther, which is why we're embarking on a partnership with Ingram Micro, one of the largest global distributors of technology products in the world. Ingram has extensive reseller relationships that can help us deliver the power of (Read more...)

Put your photos on a map, and Picasa on your phone

2007-06-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

If you've ever seen a great picture and wondered where it was, wished you could visit that exact spot yourself, or found yourself itching to share a great photo with somebody -- but you were away from a computer, we've got two new features on Picasa Web Albums to help you out. First, we're excited to let you know about 'Map My Photos' -- it lets you show exactly where you took your favorite snapshots. (Read more...)

More organizing tools

2007-06-27T00:17:00.000-07:00

We collaborate using Google Docs & Spreadsheets so often at work that I now have more than 300 online documents. My project teams create shared documents and spreadsheets for everything: taking notes in meetings, planning product launches, analyzing usability studies, and much more. I also share docs with friends at work to plan baseball outings, and my fiancé and I are using a shared spreadsheet to help manage the guest list for our upcoming wedding. In other words, (Read more...)

Introducing Google Earth Outreach

2007-06-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

When Google Earth launched two years ago, it was fun to see that many people around the world used it to fly to their homes, navigate around their neighborhoods, and explore the planet. But when, in September 2005, it was used to rescue stranded victims in the aftermath of Katrina, we realized that Google Earth had the potential to be a significant tool beyond personal exploration. (Read more...)

Why we're buying DoubleClick

2007-06-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

In April we announced that we're buying DoubleClick, a leading company in the ad serving business. When we made this announcement, we gave some of our reasons. But because online advertising is complicated, (Read more...)

New dictionary translations

2007-06-25T23:36:00.000-07:00

Google's automatic translation is handy for getting translations of complete sentences, paragraphs, and documents. But when you need to translate a single word, a bilingual dictionary can be very useful because it gives you translations for the many possible meanings a word might have. With that in mind, we've added dictionary translations to Google Translate. Now, for example, Read more...

A smooth Apps move

2007-06-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

Today, it becomes a lot easier for organizations and schools to start using Google Apps email services without leaving any of their valuable email data behind. Our new self-service mail migration tools enables administrators using the Premier and Education Editions to easily copy existing mail from an IMAP server over to Read more...