[G] Happy birthday from 20,000 leagues under the sea

Official Google Blog: Happy birthday from 20,000 leagues under the sea

It wasn’t very difficult for something to spark my imagination when I was a child—whether it was a pile of leaves or a couch of stackable cushions, just about anything could jump-start my creativity. My first encounter with Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, however, sent my imagination into hyper drive.

I first found the novel while browsing through a random aisle in my local library. The cover was dark, murky and a little worn—but it was the most spectacular thing I’d ever seen. A pair of old-fashioned divers drag their feet over the ocean floor, watching a school of fish drift by. They don’t seem to notice the twisting silhouette of a monster inching toward them.

The cover alone pulled me in, but I didn’t want to spoil all of the possible story lines by actually reading the book. Looking back, I realize that what fascinated me most was the unknown: a creative spark and the imaginative exploration that followed. Since then, I’ve become more familiar with his work and still believe that exploration is the essence of Verne’s novels. His stories pull the readers into a world filled with infinite potential—be it in the clouds, on land or under the sea.

Today’s doodle, celebrating Verne’s 183rd birthday, tries to capture that sense of adventure and exploration. Using CSS3 (and with help from our resident tech wizards Marcin Wichary and Kris Hom), the doodle enables anyone to navigate the Nautilus down (nearly) 20,000 leagues with the simple pull of a lever. And for those using devices with built-in accelerometers and the latest versions of Google Chrome or Firefox, it’s even simpler—just tilt your device in the direction you want to explore and the Nautilus will follow.

So voyage below (and above) the waves to see what you can discover... just make sure to keep an eye out for the giant squid.

Posted by Jennifer Hom, Google Doodler

URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-birthday-from-20000-leagues-under.html

[G] Live Stream: Think Mobile event for mobile marketers

Official Google Mobile Blog: Live Stream: Think Mobile event for mobile marketers

Looking to reach out to your customers on mobile? Join us for our live streamed discussion on February 10th, 1:05pm EST with Mary Meeker, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, Google’s Dennis Woodside, SVP of Americas Operations, and Jason Spero, Head of Americas Mobile Advertising on the future of mobile and mobile marketing. To learn more about the event and live stream, please visit the Google Mobile Ads blog.

Posted by Suzanne Mumford, Google Mobile Ads Marketing Team

URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/02/live-stream-think-mobile-event-for.html

[G] Priority Inbox in Gmail for mobile

Official Google Mobile Blog: Priority Inbox in Gmail for mobile

If you’ve ever cursed a phone’s tiny screen as utterly inadequate for sifting through an overflowing inbox you’ll be pleased to hear that the Gmail mobile web app now supports Priority Inbox. Priority Inbox helps combat information overload by automatically identifying your important messages so you can focus on those first. Until today it was only available on the desktop and on Android devices.

Now, once you set up Priority Inbox in the desktop version of Gmail, you’ll see Priority Inbox sections when you visit gmail.com from your phone’s browser and click on the ‘Menu’ screen. You’ll also see importance markers in your inbox, so you can quickly identify which messages are important.



This feature is available for most mobile browsers that support HTML5, such as devices running Android 1.5+ and iOS 3+. Currently, you can’t set up Priority Inbox or mark messages as important or unimportant from here. If you have suggestions or want to learn more, visit our Help Center and forum.

Posted by Nathan Bullock, Software Engineer

URL: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/02/priority-inbox-in-gmail-for-mobile.html

[G] Simian: Mac OS X package deployment via App Engine

Official Google Mac Blog: Simian: Mac OS X package deployment via App Engine

Administration of software packages on the Mac platform can often be daunting. Google’s Mac Operations and Security teams evaluated several solutions for OS X package deployment, but unfortunately none of them met all of our required features. We decided to build our own solution to do the following:

• Deploy new or updated software by targeting a single Mac or tens of thousands.
• Push security patches, whether the Mac is on an internal network/VPN or not.
• Force mandatory installation of some packages, while allowing others to be optional.
• Tightly manage Apple-provided updates.
• Scale without deploying and maintaining additional server infrastructure.
• Obtain reports on all of this and the fleet overall.

Today we are open-sourcing Simian, our solution to enterprise-class Mac OS X package deployment. Simian uses App Engine-based hosting to scale with the needs of your growing enterprise, and a Munki-based client which will continue to evolve through the outstanding work of Greg Neagle and the Munki community. We hope this to be the first of many announcements in sharing Google's unique IT approach with the larger community.

For more information, please visit our Simian project page, join the discussion list, and download the code. For more information about Munki, please visit its project page.

By John Randolph and Justin McWilliams, Google Corporate Platforms Engineering Team

(Cross-posted from the Google Open Source blog.)

URL: http://googlemac.blogspot.com/2011/01/simian-mac-os-x-package-deployment-via.html

[G] Take your photos with you anywhere

Google Photos Blog: Take your photos with you anywhere

Posted by Tammy McLeod, Software engineer

Picasa Web for mobile lets you view and share your photos, browse photos from people you follow, or search public photos from our Picasa Web community. All on the go. Until now, there was a limit to how many photos you could view, but that limit has lifted and you can view all your photos right from your phone. Browse multiple pages of albums and photos by clicking Next and Prev. Just visit https://picasaweb.google.com from the browser on your smartphone and enjoy photos anywhere.

We'd love to hear what you think. Please share your feedback in our forum.

URL: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2011/02/take-your-photos-with-you-anywhere.html

[G] Priority Inbox in Gmail for mobile

Official Gmail Blog: Priority Inbox in Gmail for mobile

Posted by Nathan Bullock, Software Engineer

(Cross-posted from the Mobile blog)

If you’ve ever cursed a phone’s tiny screen as utterly inadequate for sifting through an overflowing inbox you’ll be pleased to hear that the Gmail mobile web app now supports Priority Inbox. Priority Inbox helps combat information overload by automatically identifying your important messages so you can focus on those first. Until today it was only available on the desktop and Android devices.

Now, once you set up Priority Inbox in the desktop version of Gmail, you’ll see Priority Inbox sections when you visit gmail.com from your phone’s browser and click on the ‘Menu’ screen. You’ll also see importance markers in your inbox, so you can quickly identify which messages are important.


This feature is available for most mobile browsers that support HTML5, such as devices running Android 1.5+ and iOS 3+. If you have suggestions or want to learn more, visit our Help Center and forum.

URL: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/priority-inbox-in-gmail-for-mobile.html

[G] Register for Google I/O 2011

Official Google Blog: Register for Google I/O 2011

We’ve been counting down the days until Google I/O 2011 and hope that you have been, too. With 91 days, 22 hours and 45 minutes to go, we’re excited to announce that registration is now open at www.google.com/io. Our largest annual developer conference will take place on May 10-11, 2011 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif.

The focus of I/O 2011 will be all about the cloud, and feature the latest Google products and technologies including Android, Google Chrome, App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and Google APIs. There will be many opportunities to meet members of Google’s engineering teams and take deep dives into the technologies with more than 100 technical sessions, roundtables and more. The Developer Sandbox, which we introduced at I/O 2009, will be back, featuring developers from more than 100 companies to demo their apps, share their experiences and exchange ideas.

If you liked our HTML5 countdown, stay tuned for more surprises. We’ll keep you posted on the latest developments for Google I/O 2011 at the website, on Twitter (@Googleio) and Google Buzz. Get your tickets early—last year we sold out in record time!

Registration opens with an Early Bird rate of $450, which applies through April 16 ($550 after April 16). Faculty and students can register at the discounted Academia rate of $150, which will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Learn more and register today at www.google.com/io.

We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco!

Posted by Vic Gundotra, VP Engineering

URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/register-for-google-io-2011.html

[G] Mobile now! Helping businesses succeed in the mobile era

Official Google Blog: Mobile now! Helping businesses succeed in the mobile era

(Cross-posted on the Mobile Ads Blog)

By the end of 2011, an estimated one billion people around the world will be connected to the mobile web and 50% of all Americans will own a smartphone. Because of the explosion of web-enabled mobile devices, mobile usage is now on a hockey-stick trajectory: searches on smartphones and tablets have increased by 4x in the last year, and the world of mobile apps continues to engage mobile users—125 years’ worth of Angry Birds are played every day!

For people everywhere, the mobile era has begun.

Yet most businesses haven’t adapted their online strategies—advertising, webpage design, commerce—to mobile. The opportunity for these businesses is huge and we want everyone to be able to take part. On February 10, we’re hosting an event at our New York office called “ThinkMobile”: Mary Meeker, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, and our own Dennis Woodside, SVP, Americas Operations and Jason Spero, Head of Mobile, Americas, will explore some of the most significant trends in mobile and explain why it’s “not too late for businesses to still be early” in this space. We invite you to livestream these talks at 1pm ET/10am PT this Thursday on desktop, or—for the first time from a Google event in the U.S.—on both Android and iOS mobile devices as well. In other words, you can Think Mobile....on mobile!

Right now, advertisers engaging on mobile are increasing brand awareness, purchase intent and sales with effective mobile search and display campaigns. Mobile developers and publishers are supporting very profitable businesses with advertising revenue. And consumers are benefiting from relevant and useful ads on their mobile devices.

To help all businesses take advantage of the opportunities that mobile advertising presents, we’re focusing on three core principles with our mobile ads business:

• Seamless: We’re bringing the best characteristics of desktop advertising to mobile devices. We want to help marketers and developers extend the benefits of their desktop advertising to people on mobile devices, while effectively managing their campaigns and ad space across many channels.
  
  
• Inclusive: It’s clear that mobile is about more than just one device, one type of ad format or one style of ad campaign. Our ad solutions span across search, text, display, video, commerce and more, on a wide variety of devices, and enable businesses and consumers to connect in newly relevant and useful ways.

• Made for mobile: Mobile devices have unique characteristics like location awareness and touch screens (and the ability to make phone calls!) that make it easy for people to engage with information conveniently, and create unique opportunities for businesses as well. Our ad solutions are built to help marketers, developers and publishers take advantage of these mobile-specific characteristics.

The power of constant connectivity on mobile is a thrilling new reality, and has already transformed the way people engage with information, businesses and certainly with each other. We’re just now scratching the surface of what’s possible on mobile. This is an exciting time, and there’s much more to come.

Posted by Karim Temsamani, Global Head of Mobile

URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/mobile-now-helping-businesses-succeed.html

[G] Woodcraft.com hammers home a 34% increase in search revenue with Google Commerce Search

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Woodcraft.com hammers home a 34% increase in search revenue with Google Commerce Search

Editor’s note: Woodcraft Supply is one of the nation’s oldest and largest suppliers of quality woodworking tools and supplies, offering more than 20,000 products through its retail stores, catalog, and website. We’ve invited today’s guest blogger, Nancy Miller, VP of Internet Sales and Development for Woodcraft Supply, to talk about how Google has helped her increase search revenue and transform Woodcraft’s online store. To learn more about her experience, read the Woodcraft.com case study.


At Woodcraft, we strive to provide the best experience for our customers, which means helping them find the right tool for the project. To this end, our retail stores are staffed with knowledgeable woodworkers. Online, we need a powerful search engine.

Prior to our switch to Google Commerce Search, Woodcraft had been using another popular third-party search solution - but we just weren’t seeing the same level of satisfaction on our website as we were in our stores. Visitors to our site often couldn’t find the products they were looking for, and our support team fielded a lot of complaints. Our customers were frustrated and our conversions suffered so we decided to make a change.

After thorough research, we picked Google to host our e-commerce search; their service provided better results, improved rankings, and an intuitive administrator interface. Google Commerce Search is simpler to maintain and much more effective than our old solution - even before customization. In fact, during our testing period we moved half of our traffic to Google Commerce Search and left the remainder on our existing solution – and with Google our conversions from search were 27.7 percent higher and our search revenues were up 34 percent!

Beyond providing a multifaceted search experience with better results, and increasing our online sales, Google Commerce Search has made our customers and employees much happier with our website. The complaints have virtually disappeared, giving us more time to focus on our passion: woodworking.



Above: Nancy Miller, Kyle Crabtree, Chris Brown, Matt Hall, Steve Markle, September Fleming, and Daniel Pennock with their latest woodworking project.

Posted by Nancy Miller, Woodcraft Supply

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/02/woodcraftcom-hammers-home-34-increase.html

[G] Going Google: A Guide for Schools and Universities

Official Google Enterprise Blog: Going Google: A Guide for Schools and Universities

We talk a lot about “going Google”, and with more schools and universities – like Ann Arbor Public Schools, Bryant University, Bucknell University, Henry Ford Community College, NYU, Oklahoma State University, and Southern Oregon University – migrating to Google Apps for Education every day, we want to help make it as easy (and fun) as possible to make the move.

Whether you are just thinking about launching Apps, or you’re toasting to your first graduating class after four years in the cloud – it’s always a good idea to educate your users about the new ways they can teach and learn with Google Apps. With that in mind, we’ve created the new Guide to Going Google which provides tools and resources that help students, faculty, staff and alumni make the most of your transition. The guide outlines six steps to successfully going Google: technical deployment, outreach, training, getting the word out, going live, and staying up to date. We designed this guide to be helpful for everyone from a 4th grade teacher in a classroom that’s just learning about Google Apps, to a university CIO that’s been using Apps for years.

Of course, if you’re still evaluating hosted collaboration tools for your school, and want to understand why so many schools have already gone Google, take a minute to hear what CIOs at Kent State, Brandeis, North Carolina State and U.C. Riverside are saying about making the move to Apps:

P.S. For those schools who have already gone Google, we'd love to hear and see your creative approaches to making the transition successful. Maybe you brought your mascot the a faculty training like they did at Brown University; or had a special group of on-the-ground trainers like the Creek Squad. Maybe you did something bold like NC State who created a graffiti wall to mark the occasion of your launch. Let us know how you’ve gone Google, so we can help other schools can get inspired, too.

Posted by Dana Nguyen and Miriam Schneider, Apps for Education team

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/02/going-google-guide-for-schools-and.html

[G] A Google Docs documents list refresh

Official Google Enterprise Blog: A Google Docs documents list refresh

Files stored 100% on the web can be accessed from any computer or device and shared with co-workers with ease. Over the past year, many of you have been taking advantage of the ability to upload any file to Google Docs. With more files and a variety of file types in one place, organizing and quickly being able to find what you need becomes even more important. As a result, we’re happy to announce that, over the next couple of days, we’ll be rolling out a refresh to the documents list, aimed to make it easier to find, explore and share all your files. We’re also rolling out big improvements to our back-end systems to make your experience in the documents list faster and smoother.

Google Apps for Business customers who have the “Enable pre-release features” option selected in the control panel, and customers of all other editions will start seeing the new interface within a few days. Google Apps for Business customers without the “pre-release features” option selected won’t see this improvement for a few more weeks. More details can be found on the Google Docs blog.

Posted by Vijay Bangaru, Product Manager, Google Docs

URL: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-docs-documents-list-refresh.html

[G] Known Issue: More Socialize delivery problems

The FeedBurner Status Blog: Known Issue: More Socialize delivery problems

Issue: Posts being sent by the Socialize service to Twitter are not always being delivered due to authorization errors. We are investigating the issue.

Update (2:42pm PST 28-Jan): The issue has been resolved; posts should now be delivered normally to Twitter. If your posts are still not being delivered, please re-connect your Twitter account to your FeedBurner account by clicking "Add a Twitter account" in the Publicize tab, re-entering your Twitter username and password in the window that is opened, and clicking Save on the Publicize form after the window closes.

URL: http://feedburnerstatus.blogspot.com/2011/01/known-issue-more-socialize-delivery.html

[G] At 100, “The Great Communicator” lives on via YouTube

YouTube Blog: At 100, “The Great Communicator” lives on via YouTube

This Sunday marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, America’s 40th President. Although his Presidency ended 20 years ago, his legacy as a transformational politician has lived on, with Democrats and Republicans alike trying to adopt his mantle of change and openness.

President Reagan, widely referred to as “The Great Communicator,” is also a particularly interesting study of the President as Orator-in-Chief. It would have been interesting to witness President Reagan, a former actor and spokesman, campaign and govern during the YouTube-era. Many of his iconic speeches, such as his message to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (below), can be found on YouTube today.



To celebrate President Reagan’s 100th birthday the Ronald Reagan Foundation has created a host of retrospective videos paying tribute to the former President which will be featured on the YouTube homepage today. The first video, a tribute narrated by former Senator Fred Thompson, shows speech clips that showcase Reagan’s wit, storytelling abilities and impeccable timing.



For more information on the series of events surrounding Reagan’s 100th birthday celebrations, please visit the Reagan Centennial website.

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/zSnv2qhRn_4/at-100-great-communicator-lives-on-via.html

[G] Longer headlines for select ads on Google

Inside AdWords: Longer headlines for select ads on Google

We’re continually testing variations of our search results page to optimize performance for both you and our users. Similarly, you’re probably always trying to find ways to maximize each line of your ad to get your message across to users. To help, we’ll soon be making a change to certain ads that will allow you to display more information where it’s most likely to be noticed--in the headline.

Starting today and over the next few days, we’re changing the placement of the first description line for certain ads that appear above the search results on Google. For some ads where each line appears to be a distinct sentence and ends in the proper punctuation, description line 1 will be moved to the headline and separated by a hyphen. As a result, some top placement ads will have longer headlines. Here’s an example:

Before

(click for full-size image)

After

(click for full-size image)

We’ve found that the change results in higher clickthrough rates for ads that are shown with the longer headline, as well as other top ads that appear beside them. It also creates a better experience for users by highlighting more information in the ad.

While only some ads will be shown with the longer headline, you can increase your chances by ensuring that each line of your ad appears to be a distinct sentence and ends in the proper punctuation (e.g., a period or a question mark). Since this is a global change, punctuation will vary by country.

For more information, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/02/longer-headlines-for-select-ads-on.html

[G] Location extensions: putting your business on the map

Inside AdWords: Location extensions: putting your business on the map

When location extensions launched in AdWords in 2009, they allowed you to dynamically attach relevant business addresses to your ads. We’ve since experimented with different ways to integrate this information with a map.

Today, we’re introducing a way for your location extension-enabled ads to show directly on the map. We’ll be integrating information from ads with location extensions into the Place Search map on Google.com. On the map, your location will be marked with a distinctive blue pin.

(click for full size image)

With the new format, we expect potential customers to be able to find local businesses more easily. Rather than seeing multiple addresses and maps on the page, your customers can see all relevant, nearby locations in one place with quick links to get directions on Google Maps.

Your promoted business will appear in this new integrated format whenever we infer that a potential customer is looking for local information and your ad qualifies to appear above the search results.

For more information about location extensions, please visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/02/location-extensions-putting-your.html

[G] New regions and cities now available for targeting on AdWords

Inside AdWords: New regions and cities now available for targeting on AdWords

Starting today and over the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out city targeting in 17 additional countries to help you reach more customers in local markets with your AdWords campaigns. With this expansion, city targeting will now be available to AdWords advertisers in 34 countries. In addition, we’re also announcing the ability to target regions in Argentina.

The countries with new city and region targeting options in AdWords are (click to see the full list):

Argentina (region targeting only), Austria, Brazil, China (coming soon), Colombia, Czech Republic, Finland (coming soon), Hungary (coming soon), Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, Ukraine

click for full size image

Location targeting helps you tailor your ads towards specific markets, analyze your AdWords campaigns by market, and optimize your campaigns for higher return-on-investment. Now, you can go a level deeper and optimize the performance of your AdWords campaign at the city level. For example, let’s say you run a clothing company and have stores in several cities in Mexico. You conduct a campaign-level analysis and learn that you're getting more conversions from big cities such as Mexico City than rural areas. Here are a few steps that you can take to optimize your AdWords campaign:

1. Run an AdWords geographic report or Analytics report to determine where your users are located and where you’re getting your most valuable traffic.
2. Adjust your campaign setup:
• Run a campaign targeting the best-performing cities such as Mexico City, and increase the bids on the keywords in that campaign to maximize your ad impressions in those cities.
• Consider setting up a regionally- (or nationally-) targeted campaign with potentially lower bids on the same keywords to capture additional traffic from outside your top-performing cities at a lower cost.
3. Adjust bids accordingly to optimize for the highest campaign ROI.

We hope that with the expansion of city targeting, advertisers in more countries will be able to reach their local customers more effectively. Visit our Help Center to learn more about getting started with this feature.

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-regions-and-cities-now-available.html

[G] AdWords Policy updates and auditing plans for third parties

Inside AdWords: AdWords Policy updates and auditing plans for third parties

Accountability is a core principle of AdWords. In order to improve advertisers' experience, we’re making changes to AdWords policies so that advertisers working with third-party partners understand how AdWords is performing for them and know what to expect from third parties. We believe that focusing on what's best for the advertiser is ultimately the best long-term course for third parties working with AdWords.

In July and December 2010, we communicated a number of changes to the way third parties should provide reports and information about AdWords to their clients, including a disclosure document that should be shared by all third parties that have 80 percent of their advertisers spending less than $1,000 per month.

Today we want to inform you that we’ve updated AdWords policies with a third-party policy section that includes above reporting and disclosure requirements. We’ve also clarified enforcement and non-compliance handling, as well as let advertisers know how to contact us if they have any complaints about third parties. See an overview of Google third-party programs.

We believe that most agencies, resellers and other third parties that sell AdWords already meet these policies and will need to make minimal or no changes to their systems. Proactive audits for selected third parties will start on April 1st 2011, although you are strongly encouraged to start complying with these requirements today. Note that we will continue to investigate any complaints and take appropriate actions.

For advertisers, we have updated the AdWords Help Center to provide information and links to applicable third party policies. Should you encounter a third party partner in violation of our policies, you can notify us via the AdWords Help Center “Contact Us” form here.

We hope this provides third parties and advertisers with clarity on the policies AdWords third party partners must adhere to, and offers sufficient information on Google third party requirements. We believe that these new requirements will ensure that every advertiser that works with a third party partner understands their value and has a great experience.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/02/adwords-policy-updates-and-auditing.html

[G] Learn about advertising on YouTube in a new online course

Inside AdWords: Learn about advertising on YouTube in a new online course

If you're interested in creating a stronger online brand presence or drawing a high volume of traffic to your site, YouTube can help you accomplish both by giving you access to the world's largest online video-streaming and -sharing community. YouTube can further enhance your current online advertising campaigns with millions of ad impressions and video ad streaming opportunities so that you can create the high-profile online presence that your website needs.

There are now a number of ways in which you can raise your profile as an advertiser using YouTube. During a live course on the Adwords Online Classroom (UK), you'll learn about the different methods of targeting YouTube and how to make the most out of any existing presence you may already have on YouTube.

This live course will be presented by a YouTube Specialist and is appropriate for all advertisers interested in growing their profile on YouTube. It will take place on Wednesday, February 2, 2011, from 3 pm to 4 pm GMT (7 am to 8 am PST).

If you’re interested, make sure to sign up now!

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/01/learn-about-advertising-on-youtube-in.html

[G] Check out our latest AdWords Home improvements

Inside AdWords: Check out our latest AdWords Home improvements

What do you want to see when you first log into your account? Many advertisers have told us that they want a quick snapshot of account performance and a summary of any important problems to address. However, the details vary quite a bit: Some advertisers want to quickly identify any keywords with bids below their first page bid estimates. Others might want to focus on campaign-level metrics before diving into keyword stats or use a graph to quickly identify any major fluctuations in performance. In short, customization is key!

With this in mind, we’ve recently introduced a new version of the AdWords Home tab. Just like before, the page features a summary of account alerts and a graph of account performance, but it allows for more extensive customization to help you monitor the parts of your account that matter to you.

(click for full-size image)

The modules on the Home tab are based on saved filters created on your Campaigns tab. This provides you with the flexibility to define exactly which metrics and sections of your account are important to review right when you log in. To get you started, we’ve added some default filters to populate your Home tab, but you can feel free to remove those and customize as much as you’d like! These same modules will appear on AdWords for Mobile, helping you keep tabs on your account while you’re on the go.

Visit our Help Center to learn more about these changes and how to make the most out of your Home tab. You can access it now by clicking “New version” on your existing Account Snapshot page (check back soon if you don’t see it right away), and let us know what you think!

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

URL: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/01/check-out-our-latest-adwords-home.html

[G] Contracts for Java

Google Open Source Blog: Contracts for Java

If you’ve ever spent hours debugging your Java code, today’s blog post is for you.

Often bugs that are frustratingly elusive and hard to track down appear simple or even trivial once you have found their cause (the fault). Why are those bugs hard to track down? One possibility is that the fault is in a completely different part of the program than its symptom (the failure).


Contracted code reveals failures much closer to their fault, leaving you with a far simpler problem to solve:

Traditionally, Java programmers enforced preconditions using explicit parameter validation code in public methods, and assertions in non-public methods. Likewise, they enforced invariants and postconditions using assertions. This approach is described in detail here. Since then, new features in Java 5 have enabled a more convenient and expressive implementation of contracts.

Contracts for Java is our new open source tool. Preconditions, postconditions, and invariants are added as Java boolean expressions inside annotations. By default these do nothing, but enabled via a JVM argument, they’re checked at runtime.

• @Requires, @Ensures, @ThrowEnsures and @Invariant specify contracts as Java boolean expressions
• Contracts are inherited from both interfaces and classes and can be selectively enabled at runtime

Contracts help you turn interface documentation into code. For example:

/**
* @param left a sorted list of elements
* @param right a sorted list of elements
* @return the contents of the two lists, merged, sorted
*/
List merge(List left, List right);

Could be expressed as:

@Requires({
"Collections.isSorted(left)",
"Collections.isSorted(right)"
})
@Ensures({
"Collections.containsSame(result, Lists.concatenate(left, right))",
"Collections.isSorted(result)"
})
List merge(List left, List right);

The interface is now precise and every class that implements it can be checked at runtime.

Contracts are a powerful language feature and can provide great benefit if used correctly. We recommend that newcomers find an expert to learn from or spend some time reading around the subject to pick up good habits and avoid bad ones.

One point that often surprises people is that contracts must not be used to validate data. Contracts exist to check for programmer error, not for user error or environment failures. Any difference between execution with and without runtime contract checking (apart from performance) is by definition a bug. Contracts must never have side effects.

Another important point is that by convention module interfaces in Java are total, that is, they are defined for all input. In the case of incorrect input, they promise that a particular exception will be thrown. This behavior remains part of each method’s implementation and cannot be moved to the contract.

Contracts for Java is based on Modern Jass by Johannes Rieken. Rather than being a full time project it was conceived and developed in the 20% time of two software engineers and then developed further through an internship. The internship report (PDF) goes into detail about the work done and the methodologies used.

Contracts for Java was inspired by Eiffel, a language invented by Bertrand Meyer, which has built in support for contracts.

By David Morgan, Andreas Leitner and Nhat Minh Le, Contracts for Java 20% Team

URL: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2011/02/contracts-for-java.html

[G] This week in search 2/4/2011

Official Google Blog: This week in search 2/4/2011

This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label "This week in search" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

This week it got just a bit faster to find the right things to buy and the right places to go, with a little help from Google—and your friends. Simply type a few characters and get Google Instant results in the “Shopping” view, and find recommendations from your friends with Hotpot in search results.

Instant results in the “Shopping” view
Now you can shop faster than ever and get the speed of Google Instant when comparing prices, looking for nearby stores and learning about products you want to buy. For example, if you’re searching for a cast iron skillet, we’ll start showing you relevant pans as you type [cast iro...]. Click “Shopping” in the left-hand panel and try searching for [sweater wrap shawl], [android phone] or anything else.

Now results will appear as you type in the “Shopping” view and in Google Product Search

Hotpot recommendations in search results
Earlier this week we added Hotpot recommendations to regular search results on Google. So now, if you’re looking for restaurants in San Francisco, you can simply search Google for [restaurants sf]. If a friend has rated a particular place, you might see her opinion right beneath the listing. We also expanded Hotpot to 38 new languages so people can share their favorite places around the world.

Hotpot recommendations from your friends now appear right in your usual search results

Whether you’re cooking at home or dining out, we hope this week’s updates help you find what you’re looking for just a little bit faster.

Posted by Johanna Wright, Director, Search Product Management

URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-week-in-search-242011.html

[G] This Week's Trends: The President, Egypt, and 90s Hip Hop

YouTube Blog: This Week's Trends: The President, Egypt, and 90s Hip Hop

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across recently:

• We used the questions you asked of the President of the United States to create some unique word art.
  
  
  
  
• We tracked the biggest trends the week before the big game .
  
  
  
  
• We curated powerful footage from the protests in Egypt.
  
  
  
  
• We saw how a music video from 1995 still sees a bump in views every single month.
  
  
  
  
• We looked at on-the-scene weather footage from a snowstorm across the United States and a category 5 cyclone on the coast of Australia.
  
  
  
  
• We tried to figure out how a group of young dance students near Portland got popular all the way in South Korea.
  
  
  
  
• And we continued to highlight each day's top videos including this one of a University of Iowa student whose speech to the State House of Representatives became one of the week's Most Shared clips:

Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/Trends



Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Taxista canta igual que Michael Jackson"

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/u46hvDluNOo/this-weeks-trends-president-egypt-and.html

[G] One million books scanned and returned to CIC university libraries

Inside Google Books: One million books scanned and returned to CIC university libraries

Posted by Kim Armstrong, Deputy Director, Center for Library Initiatives, Committee on Institutional Cooperation

Today we're celebrating an important milestone: Google has digitized one million books from member libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). The CIC is the consortium of the Big Ten member universities and the University of Chicago.

Each of these volumes has been scanned, translated from image to text with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and added to the Google Books index. Once digitized, the books are shipped back to our originating libraries to resume their journeys from bookshelves to backpacks.

While Google preserves library books in digital form, and makes them more accessible to more people as a result, it also sends participating libraries (at no cost to us) digital copies for our own archives or other non-commercial use. Accordingly, the CIC libraries are making hundreds of thousands of the recently digitized public domain volumes accessible through their partnership with the HathiTrust Digital Library.

We became Google's 16th Library Project partner in June 2007. Google Books has now partnered with more than 40 libraries and scanned more than 15 million books worldwide. Books that have only been available for use within the walls of our libraries have found new readers now that they are open to the world. Some examples of CIC titles available for reading include: An Unwritten Account of a Spy of Washington, published in 1892; The 1901 Pipe and Quid: An Essay on Tobacco; and The Sun: a familiar description of his phaenomena, published in 1885.

While we are pausing to celebrate this moment with Google today, we're not resting on our library laurels. We have a long way to go to digitize all of our books. In fact, CIC libraries have agreed to provide as many as 10 million volumes to this ambitious project, out of total collections approaching 85 million volumes. -- so this is just the beginning.

URL: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2011/02/one-million-books-scanned-and-returned.html

[G] Showtime’s “SHORT stories” recruits YouTube finest to make short films

YouTube Blog: Showtime’s “SHORT stories” recruits YouTube finest to make short films

For “SHORT stories,” Showtime contacted cutting-edge creators from across the Web and asked them to tell a tale in an innovative way. The series sports the work of some of YouTube’s top creators, so naturally we’re interested in learning a whole lot more about how “SHORT stories” came to be. Showtime's Trevor Noren tells us more.




1) What gave you the idea to use YouTube stars in this way?
YouTube has become a venue for animators and filmmakers to explore new ways to communicate a narrative. Whether it’s an established artist like Don Hertzfeldt or a talent the community has discovered, like Cyriak or Levni Yilmaz, YouTube has offered an opportunity for artists to experiment and find out what people respond to. That spirit of innovation seemed like a natural fit for our brand. Unique storytelling is the hallmark of what we do as a network: our shows challenge viewers with characters they haven’t seen before. “SHORT stories” is a way for us to bring our brand to a new audience while at the same time showing the work of these amazing artists to our subscribers.

2) What was the process of working with them?
Our mission statement to the artists was pretty simple: “Tell a story in a way people haven’t seen before.” We figured a directive that open-ended would create a huge range of results. They didn’t disappoint. Don Hertzfeldt made up a language. Michael Langan employed thousands of still images to show a run around his block. Cyriak used his hands to tell the story of evolution. Whether acquiring a film already in the works or commissioning something entirely new, we did not interfere with the artists’ creative process. The filmmaker explained what they planned to do and we let them run with it. As a result, we ended up with an incredibly diverse collection of films.

3) What have you learned about the YouTube community over the course of this project?
How much they embrace the bizarre. It doesn’t matter if they know exactly what the filmmaker is trying to say with their video. They recognize the dedication that goes into creating the piece and they recognize the personality and vision behind it. It’s really amazing and inspiring how open-minded the community is to new ideas.

4) Will you pursue more of these and if so, how are you finding the filmmakers?
“SHORT stories” will be ongoing. We’ve identified a few potential candidates. We’d like to keep who they are a surprise. That said, the YouTube community is already helping us identify potential filmmakers. Names pop up all the time in comments on the videos. Everyone from Czech great Jan Svankmajer to Mystery Guitar Man. The best way for us to find new talent is to watch and listen to the YouTube community.

5) What’s something no one would know about these videos by looking at them?
The sheer amount of time that went into the creation of some of the films. Inspired by a vintage nutcracker that looked like a fish, it took PES five years to find all of the objects that went into “The Deep.” For Michael Langan, stitching together all of the still images for “Dahlia” took one month for every minute of the film. “Pretty, Dead” by Jeff Scher consists of more than 3,000 individual drawings. The final products themselves are incredible, but when you really start to understand what went into creating them, it’s remarkable. 



Trevor Noren, Creative Director, Digital Content, Showtime, recently watched “Shameless Trailer and Behind the Scenes.”

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/jkVD6PlrTHs/showtimes-short-stories-recruits.html