Today we’ve updated the Google search experience for BlackBerry 6.0 WebKit enabled devices. We’ve added a number of enhanced search features integrated throughout the homepage and search result pages, making searching faster and easier on www.google.com, especially on touch-enabled Blackberry devices.
Left: Improved homepage with autocomplete and search history as you type.
Right: See more information with search options and enhanced results.
Enter searches faster: Save time by using autocomplete and search history queries that appear beneath the search box as you type.
Web search: Find what you're searching for fast. Comprehensive results pages let you see relevant websites, images, videos, news, real-time results and more. Simply click on the arrow button ‘>>’ to the left of the top search box for more refinement options.
Image search: Swipe through image results quickly and easily on touch enabled devices. Start by selecting ‘Images’ at the top of www.google.com, then enter a search. From there, click on any image to view a larger size.
Local search: Find restaurants, shops and other popular business categories with a single tap. Start by selecting ‘Places’ at the top of www.google.com, then click on an icon from the Places homepage.
These features and more are available on most RIM OS 6.0+ devices with WebKit browsers like the BlackBerry Torch and BlackBerry Bold 9780, and can be accessed in 20 languages across 70 countries.
To try out the new features, go to www.google.com in your mobile browser. We recommend that you bookmark Google Search to your phone’s home screen, so that Google search is just one click away.
Over the last month, more than 7,700 Googlers helped serve their communities across 400 different projects as part of GoogleServe, an employee-driven initiative organized almost entirely by volunteers. Through partnerships with nonprofits, schools and local governments, Googlers from 119 cities in 36 countries helped communities in need with projects ranging from educating youth about online bullying to cleaning up local rivers and parks.
GoogleServe began in 2008 and has become an annual company tradition. Giving back to our communities not only revitalizes and strengthens our connections with the cities and towns in which we live and work, it also brings us closer together as a global team. Each year the event has grown in size and scope and this year’s GoogleServe was our largest yet. Here’s a sampling of some of the projects we participated in this time around:
We fixed up bikes with Free Ride in Pittsburgh, which will be donated to local nonprofits and residents.
At the Punjabi Bagh Central Market area in West Delhi, we cleaned and removed old, decayed posters with the help of “Lets do it Delhi,” an organization which has taken up the initiative to minimise abuse of public property.
We provided one-on-one consultations with high potential, low income women starting their own businesses with the Women’s Initiative for Self Employment in San Francisco.
We ran a bookmaking workshop for elementary school children with 826LA in Venice, CA.
While GoogleServe is an annual celebration of community service, employees donate both time and money to organizations and causes throughout the year. You can find opportunities to serve your local community at All For Good.
Here are some photos of our team in action:
Posted by Seth Marbin, GoogleServe Global Director
A new version of the Google Apps Directory Sync tool is now available for download. This release includes the following enhancements:
- Performance improvements: overall sync is between 7x - 14x faster - ‘Suppressed Domain’ feature for User Profiles - Multiple LDAP attributes support for ‘givenName’ and ‘familyName’ attributes - Throttling of requests for ‘serverbusy’ errors in Profile and Contact sync - Suspend limit provision for UserSync - Option to flush out cache from config-manager UI
Editions included: Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government
After Google Search and Google Maps, it's time for Google Calendar to switch to a Google+ interface. The new design is a lot cleaner, even if no important feature was removed. "Quick add" is now available if you click the arrow next to the "Create button" (not very intuitive), "Print" and "Refresh" are now buttons instead of links, the month view below the "Create" button can be collapsed, "Save" and "Discard" buttons are only displayed at the top of the page.
"Right now, the changes are just cosmetic and have not affected the way Calendar works. You can choose to turn off the new look by clicking the gear icon and choosing Use the classic look (you can turn it back on by going to the gear icon and choosing Try the new look)," explains Google. Obviously, at some point, Google Calendar will integrate with Google+ and we'll see even more changes.
The latest design refresh updated not only Google's homepage, but also search results pages. Google uses a new color scheme for the sidebar, adds grayscale icons next to the specialized search engines, replaces the standard search button with a label-less blue button, uses a smaller Google logo and adds a gray background color to the header.
Google says it has "muted the color of the tools and reserved the use of bolder colors to highlight key action buttons, tools and filters". Unfortunately, the change made the sidebar icons less useful and the search box too prominent. The new header could pave the way to a search results page that uses "infinite scrolling" instead of pagination.
We’ve released two security enhancements to Gmail that help protect you from phishing attempts.
- Going forward, email address will be visible next to the display name for senders that aren’t in your Contacts list. - We now scan messages and alert you if the sender may have spoofed a Gmail address.
Release track: Rapid*
Editions included: Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education
Languages included: All languages supported by Gmail
Gmail added a lot of new features lately. The People Widget, announced one month ago, should be available to everyone. The widget shows information about the people you're communicating with: profile photos, occupation, recent Buzz messages, recent email and documents shared with you, calendar availability and more.
If you already use Rapportive, you need to disable the extension to see the People Widget. You can also disable the People Widget from the settings page. Rapportive has more data sources than Gmail's widget: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Google Profiles, so you may find it more useful.
The action bar is displayed at the top of the page even when you scroll down, so you can quickly archive a conversation, label it or read the next conversation without scrolling to the bottom of the page or using keyboard shortcuts. A similar feature is available in Gmail's app for Android.
As you can see in the screenshot above, Gmail now shows additional information next to the sender's name to help you protect against email spoofing. When you receive a message from some who isn't in your address book, Gmail will show the email address next to the name. If a website sends an email on behalf of someone, Gmail adds "via domain.com" next to the email address so that you know that the message wasn't sent directly. Gmail uses email authentication to verify the source of the messages you receive, but this data was only used to detect spam and phishing. Now Gmail also shows a warning which informs you that "this message may not have sent" from the email address that appears in the "from" header.
Google Contacts learned a thing or two about structured addresses and it now allows users to separately list the street name, the city, state and postal code. Google tries to split the address automatically, but the results aren't great all the time. Just click "details" next to the address and a new pane lets you edit address fields:
Picasa Web Albums offers more free storage if you are a Google+ user. According to Picasa Web's help center, "photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage". If you upload photos from Google+, they're automatically resized to 2048 pixels on their longest edge, so they don't use the 1 GB of free storage that's available in Picasa Web Albums.
Most people can't use Google+ because it's invitation-only, so the current rules still apply to them: only the photos up to 800 x 800 won't count towards their free storage quota.
Like Google Buzz, Google+ uses Picasa Web Albums to store photos. You can upload photos from the Google+ interface and even automatically upload the photos taken with your Android phone. Google+ lets you add captions and name tags to your photos, rotate them and apply different filters using the built-in image editor. Now your friends can tag your photos and you'll receive a notification when someone tags you in a photo. The downside is that "tagging a person in one of your photos in Picasa Web Albums or Google+ will share the album with the person tagged".
The following features are now available to these domains: - No new features
The following features are intended for release to these domains on July 6: - Limits warnings in Spreadsheets. Warnings will be shown when a user approaches the spreadsheet limits. - Embed Google Docs videos in Google Sites.
Release track: Scheduled*
Editions included: Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education
A page from the Google+ help center explains the purpose of the new Google navigation bar:
The Google+ bar, which appears at the top of Google products, is your connection to Google+. You can share what's on your mind, view your Google+ notifications, access your profile, or jump to a variety of other Google products. For instance, to get to Google+, all you have to do is click +[your first name].
When you're signed in and look at the Google+ bar, you'll see your full name or email address displayed with a photo or avatar next to it. This helps you identify which account you're currently signed in to. You can sign in to multiple accounts at once and switch between them using the Google+ bar.
One of the most interesting feature of the bar is notifications:
When you receive a notification, the notification area in the Google+ bar will turn red and show the number of new notifications. If you click the notification area in the Google+ bar, you’ll see a summary of your recent notifications. When you click a notification, a preview of the event that generated the notification will appear in the drop-down menu. You can take action on each notification right from the notifications menu, like commenting on a post or adding someone to a circle.
The navigation bar has been morphed into the Google+ bar and it should be more useful. Maybe at some point the bar will include notifications for Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs and other Google services.
Google wants to differentiate from Facebook by offering a lot of ways to export your data. Google Takeout is a feature that's included in Google+, but it's also available as a standalone service. You can use it to export your contacts, Google Buzz messages, Picasa Web photos and Profile data with one click.
"Google Takeout lets you take your data out of multiple Google products in one fell swoop. Moreover, you’ll find that all your data is in portable and open formats‚ so it's easy to import to other services quickly," mentions the Data Liberation blog.
I've downloaded my data in a huge ZIP archive that included all my Buzz posts saved as HTML files, VCF files for my Gmail groups and the first 100 photos from each of my Picasa Web album. What's the point of downloading the first 100 photos?
Google Labs has a new useful tool for developers: Swiffy. The application allows you to convert Flash SWF files to HTML5, so you can use any supported modern browser to load the content, even if the browser happens to be Mobile Safari. "Swiffy currently supports a subset of SWF 8 and ActionScript 2.0, and the output works in all Webkit browsers such as Chrome and Mobile Safari."
Google's gallery includes two ads and two simple games that look pretty well when converted to HTML5, especially when you're using Chrome.
Swiffy uses some SVG features that are only available in WebKit browsers, so that's the reason why you can only use it in Chrome and Safari. Android's browser for smartphones doesn't support SVG and it's likely that the Android 3 implementation doesn't support the required features.
"A SWF file is converted in two phases: the Swiffy compiler (which you can use on this website) processes the SWF file and generates a JSON file. A client-side JavaScript runtime loads that JSON file and renders it using HTML, SVG and CSS. Swiffy supports many common SWF features such as vector graphics, embedded fonts, images and timeline animation. Basic ActionScript 2.0 code is also supported, but don't expect to convert your favorite Flash game yet. In general, Swiffy supports most of the features in Flash 5, so exporting your file as a Flash 5 will give the best results," explains Google.
Unfortunately, the code generated by Google is difficult to edit, so you still have to go back to the original Flash file. Adobe has its own tool for converting FLA files to HTML5.
To support Hangouts, we built an all-new standards-based cloud video conferencing platform. This platform combines high quality, low latency, and strong security with the ease of use of a web application. Through the efficiency of this new platform, we're able to deliver a leading video conferencing experience at Google scale.
A few noteworthy technical points: * Fully browser-based/cloud-based * Client-server: leverages the power of Google's infrastructure * Designed for low latency (< 100 ms) and high performance (multicore + hardware acceleration) * Standards-based: XMPP, Jingle, RTP, ICE, STUN, SRTP * Fully encrypted (HTTPS + SRTP)
Hangouts require the same plugin that's currently used for voice and video chat, it's limited to 10 participants and doesn't work on mobile devices yet. Another interesting thing is that "hangouts are created by one person, but everyone in the hangout shares the ability to invite others. Each hangout has a specific URL. That URL can be shared as a link to invite others." You can also use Hangout to watch a YouTube video with your friends.
Hangout looks like a great Google Talk feature and I don't see why it shouldn't be added to Gmail and to Google Apps. Video conferencing could make Google Apps a lot more useful.
After many weeks of testing, Google finally updated the homepage and search results pages. The changes aren't so radical, but they're still significant: there's a black navigation bar, two updated buttons for "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky", while the corporate links are moved to the bottom of the page.
Google says that this is just a small step from a redesign that will affect many other services. "The new Google experience that we've begun working toward is founded on three key design principles: focus, elasticity and effortlessness. (...) With the design changes in the coming weeks and months, we're bringing forward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way. Even simple changes, like using bolder colors for actionable buttons or hiding navigation buttons until they're actually needed, can help you better focus on only what you need at the moment."
The new navigation bar seems to draw unnecessary attention and some find it distracting, so it's not clear how it helps you "better focus on only what you need at the moment". Google's black bar is used in Google+, so it's likely that it will include other social features in the future.
Google also says that new design is flexible so that it can be used in the desktop interface, the smartphone interface, the tablet interface and even the interface for smart TVs. "The new design will soon allow you to seamlessly transition from one device to another and have a consistent visual experience." At the moment, I'm seeing a new mobile interface that doesn't have too much in common with the desktop interface:
While the interface continues to be simple and utilitarian, Google wants to use HTML5, WebGL and other new technologies to make Google's apps more powerful and better looking. "Our design philosophy is to combine power with simplicity. We want to keep our look simple and clean, but behind the seemingly simple design, use new technologies like HTML5, WebGL and the latest, fastest browsers to make sure you have all the power of the web behind you," explains Google.
Google promises to improve the user interface in Gmail in the coming months, but I think that many other apps will be redesigned and the main goal is to integrate with Google+. If you want a preview of Google's new interfaces, take a look at the Google+ project. Here's, for example, the new Google Maps design:
It's interesting to see that Google Maps added the label-less blue button from Google+, but Google Search still uses the regular button.
We are temporarily suspending AIM functionality for our Chat product while we wait for needed system updates on the part of of AIM's creator, AOL. During this period, you won't be able to invite your AIM buddies to join your Chat list, nor will you be able to chat with the AIM buddies that you had on your Chat list. We apologize for any inconveniences caused by the temporary suspension of this feature.
We are in direct communication with AOL and they have informed as that they are actively working on these needed updates. Once AOL has finished updating their system, we will reinstate AIM functionality for our Chat product. We appreciate your patience in the interim.
Release track: Rapid & Scheduled
Editions included: Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education
*Please note the list of products currently included on the Rapid and Scheduled Release tracks here.
Starting today, you might begin noticing that things look a little different across Google products. We’re working on a project to bring you a new and improved Google experience, and over the next few months, you’ll continue to see more updates to our look and feel. Even our classic homepage is getting a bit of a makeover:
New Google homepage with a smaller logo and links moved to the top and bottom edges of the browser for a cleaner look
The way people use and experience the web is evolving, and our goal is to give you a more seamless and consistent online experience—one that works no matter which Google product you’re using or what device you’re using it on. The new Google experience that we’ve begun working toward is founded on three key design principles: focus, elasticity and effortlessness.
Focus: Whether you’re searching, emailing or looking for a map, the only thing you should be concerned about is getting what you want. Our job is to provide the tools and features that will get you there quickly and easily. With the design changes in the coming weeks and months, we’re bringing forward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way. Even simple changes, like using bolder colors for actionable buttons or hiding navigation buttons until they’re actually needed, can help you better focus on only what you need at the moment.
Elasticity: In the early days, there was pretty much just one way to use Google: on a desktop computer with an average-sized monitor. Over a decade later, all it takes is a look around one’s home or office at the various mobile devices, tablets, high-resolution monitors and TVs to see a plethora of ways to access the web. The new design will soon allow you to seamlessly transition from one device to another and have a consistent visual experience. We aim to bring you this flexibility without sacrificing style or usefulness.
Effortlessness: Our design philosophy is to combine power with simplicity. We want to keep our look simple and clean, but behind the seemingly simple design, use new technologies like HTML5, WebGL and the latest, fastest browsers to make sure you have all the power of the web behind you.
Constant revision and improvement is part of our overarching philosophy. For example, last year we introduced an updated look and feel to our search results, and if you compare the original Google homepage to today’s version, you’ll see that a makeover every so often can certainly be refreshing:
Original Google homepage in 1997
Starting today and over the course of the next few months, look for a series of design improvements across all our products, including Google Search, Google Maps and Gmail.
Posted by Chris Wiggins, Creative Director, Digital
Starting July 2, 2011, RIM will be deprecating support for BES 4.1.6 and 4.1.7. Google Apps will stop supporting these BES versions starting July 2, 2011. Google Apps Connector for BES 3.x will still be supported for BES 5.x. We strongly urge customers to upgrade to BES version 5.x and version 3.x of the Connector. You can download latest version of the Google Apps Connector from https://tools.google.com/dlpage/appsconnector
Editions included: Google Apps for Business, Government and Education
Google revealed some details about the project that will make Google more social. It's called Google+ and it's an extension of the existing Google Profiles and Buzz, with many new features that make sharing more useful. Google's plan to compete with Facebook is to bring "the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions" to the Web.
Google+ means "Google + You", so it's all about your friends, your photos and videos, your interests and your conversations. The service introduces circles, a way to group your friends and share content with the right people. "Today's online services turn friendship into fast food—wrapping everyone in 'friend' paper — and sharing really suffers. From close family to foodies, we found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So we did the only thing that made sense: we brought Circles to software. Just make a circle, add your people, and share what's new."
To help you share content with your "circles" of friends, Google added an app called Sparks that shows interesting new Web pages related to your interests. It's like a feed reader that has a list of tags instead of subscriptions, so it's much easier to set up. "The web, of course, is filled with great content — from timely articles to vibrant photos to funny videos. And great content can lead to great conversations. We noticed, however, that it's still too hard to find and share the things we care about— not without lots of work, and lots of noise. So, we built an online sharing engine called Sparks. Thanks to Google's web expertise, Sparks delivers a feed of highly contagious content from across the Internet. On any topic you want, in over 40 languages. Simply add your interests, and you'll always have something to watch, read and share."
Google+ also comes with an online video conferencing tool called Hangouts. It's just like Google Talk, except that you can add multiple people and they can join the "chat room" without being invited. "With Google+ we wanted to make on-screen gatherings fun, fluid and serendipitous, so we created Hangouts. By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you're free, and spend time with your Circles," explains Google.
Google's social networks is also available on your mobile phone using a dedicated Android app and an upcoming iPhone app. The mobile experience is all about location, photos and conversations. You can add your location to all your posts, share the photos from your phone's camera album immediately after they're created and chat with your friends using Huddle.
Google+ requires an invitation, but you can't get one right now. "We're testing with a small number of people, but it won't be long before the Google+ project is ready for everyone," explains Google.
The black navigation bar that's tested right now in Google's search results pages is all about Google+. Here's how the navigation bar will look:
After years of missingthe valueof social networking, Google tries to catch up with Facebook and show that it can still create amazing products. Google+ will be the first tab from Google's homepage and it will get a lot of exposure, but not many people associate Google with social products. Google will probably have to redesign many of its services and make Google+ a central part of the Google experience, which means that Google will change a lot in the coming months.
Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, we connect with others every single day.
Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools.
In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.
We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project:
+Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter most Not all relationships are created equal. So in life we share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss. The problem is that today’s online services turn friendship into fast food—wrapping everyone in “friend” paper—and sharing really suffers:
It’s sloppy. We only want to connect with certain people at certain times, but online we hear from everyone all the time.
It’s scary. Every online conversation (with over 100 “friends”) is a public performance, so we often share less because of stage fright.
It’s insensitive. We all define “friend” and “family” differently—in our own way, on our own terms—but we lose this nuance online.
In light of these shortcomings we asked ourselves, “What do people actually do?” And we didn’t have to search far for the answer. People in fact share selectively all the time—with their circles.
From close family to foodies, we found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So we did the only thing that made sense: we brought Circles to software. Just make a circle, add your people, and share what’s new—just like any other day:
+Sparks: strike up a conversation, about pretty much anything Healthy obsessions inspire sharing, and we’ve all got one (or two, or three...). Maybe it’s muscle cars, or comic books, or fashion, but the attraction is always the same: it comes up in conversation, we immediately jump in, and we share back and forth with other fans. Often for hours. The trick is getting things started, and getting over that initial hump. Fortunately, the web is the ultimate icebreaker.
The web, of course, is filled with great content—from timely articles to vibrant photos to funny videos. And great content can lead to great conversations. We noticed, however, that it’s still too hard to find and share the things we care about—not without lots of work, and lots of noise. So, we built an online sharing engine called Sparks.
Thanks to Google’s web expertise, Sparks delivers a feed of highly contagious content from across the Internet. On any topic you want, in over 40 languages. Simply add your interests, and you’ll always have something to watch, read and share—with just the right circle of friends:
+Hangouts: stop by and say hello, face-to-face-to-face Whether it's inside a pub or on a front porch, human beings have always enjoyed hanging out. And why not? It's how we unwind, recharge, and spend unscheduled time with old and new friends alike. Hanging out is deceptively simple though, and the nuance gets lost online.
Just think: when you walk into the pub or step onto your front porch, you're in fact signaling to everyone around, “Hey, I've got some time, so feel free to stop by." Further, it’s this unspoken understanding that puts people at ease, and encourages conversation. But today’s online communication tools (like instant messaging and video-calling) don’t understand this subtlety:
They’re annoying, for starters. You can ping everyone that’s “available,” but you’re bound to interrupt someone’s plans.
They’re also really awkward. When someone doesn't respond, you don't know if they’re just not there, or just not interested.
With Google+ we wanted to make on-screen gatherings fun, fluid and serendipitous, so we created Hangouts. By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you're free, and spend time with your Circles. Face-to-face-to-face:
+Mobile: share what’s around, right now, without any hassle These days a phone is the perfect sharing accessory: it's always with you, it's always online, and it's how we stay close with our closest friends. We didn’t want “just” a mobile experience, however, so with Google+ we focused on things (like GPS, cameras, and messaging) to make your pocket computer even more personal.
+Location, location, location In life, the places we visit shape conversations in lots of meaningful ways. If we call John from the airport, he’ll likely ask about our trip. Or if Jane texts from a nearby restaurant, we might join her for dessert. With Google+ you can add your location to every post. (Or not. It’s always up to you.)
+Instant Upload Getting photos off your phone is a huge pain, so most of us don't even bother. Of course pictures are meant to be shared, not stranded, so we created Instant Upload to help you never leave a photo behind. While you're snapping pictures, and with your permission, Google+ adds your photos to a private album in the cloud. This way they're always available across your devices—ready to share as you see fit.
+Messenger Coordinating with friends and family in real-time is really hard in real life. After all, everyone's on different schedules, in different places, and plans can change at any moment. Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they're not quite right for getting the gang together. So Google+ includes Messenger, a group messaging experience that lets everyone inside the circle know what's going on, right this second.
Starting today Google+ is available on Android Market and the mobile web, and it’s coming soon to the App Store.
+You: putting you first, all across Google That’s the Google+ project so far: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and mobile. We’re beginning in Field Trial, so you may find some rough edges, and the project is by invitation only. But online sharing needs a serious re-think, so it’s time we got started. There’s just one more thing—really the only thing: You.
You and over a billion others trust Google, and we don’t take this lightly. In fact we’ve focused on the user for over a decade: liberating data, working for an open Internet, and respecting people’s freedom to be who they want to be. We realize, however, that Google+ is a different kind of project, requiring a different kind of focus—on you. That’s why we’re giving you more ways to stay private or go public; more meaningful choices around your friends and your data; and more ways to let us know how we’re doing. All across Google.
When your invite arrives we hope you’ll join the project. But it’s entirely up to +You.
Update Sept 20: Made changes to reflect the new name for group messaging (Messenger).
Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President, Engineering
More than a thousand Googlers participated in Pride celebrations in a dozen cities to support equality and remember the sacrifices of those who have made life better for members of the LGBT* community today. While we celebrated the legalization of marriage equality in New York, the state where the gay rights movement in the United States began more than 40 years ago, our participation was especially global this year: we were at Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia for the first time and supported Pink Dot in Singapore. From San Francisco to Dublin to Tel Aviv to Boston, we stepped out in large numbers for Pride parades around the world in a colorful swirl of Gaygler and Android Pride t-shirts. As in years past, we featured a month-long easter egg in our search results worldwide to celebrate Pride, adding a rainbow next to the search box for a number of Pride-related queries including [lgbt], [marriage equality] and [pride 2011].
But it’s not just during Pride week that we celebrate and promote equality and diversity. We’ve partnered with various organizations and earlier this year employees contributed their stories to the It Gets Better project.
In addition to our external efforts, we’re also working from within. Recently, we extended domestic partner benefits in regions such as China and Hong Kong. Last year, Google adopted a policy promoting benefits equality through a gross-up on imputed taxes for health insurance. We provided the equivalent of the Family and Medical Leave Act for same-sex domestic partners and updated the definition of infertility. Happily, over the last year we’ve been approached by many organizations looking to do the same.
Gayglers around the globe created this video to increase awareness about the LGBT community at Google, and we're happy to share it with you today.
Posted by Cynthia Yeung, Strategic Partner Development Team
*LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender but, without letting the acronym get too unwieldy, is also intended to include people who identify as queer, asexual or intersex, amongst others.
At Google, we’re committed to using technology to solve one of the greatest challenges we face as a country: building a clean energy future. That’s why we’ve worked hard to be carbon neutral as a company, launched our renewable energy cheaper than coal initiative and have invested in several clean energy companies and projects around the world.
But what if we knew the value of innovation in clean energy technologies? How much could new technologies contribute to our economic growth, enhance our energy security or reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? Robust data can help us understand these important questions, and the role innovation in clean energy could play in addressing our future economic, security and climate challenges.
Through Google.org, our energy team set out to answer some of these questions. Using McKinsey’s Low Carbon Economics Tool (LCET), we assessed the long-term economic impacts for the U.S. assuming breakthroughs were made in several different clean energy technologies, like wind, geothermal and electric vehicles. McKinsey’s LCET is a neutral, analytic set of interlinked models that estimates the potential economic and technology implications of various policy and technology assumptions.
The analysis is based on a model and includes assumptions and conclusions that Google.org developed, so it isn’t a prediction of the future. We’ve decided to make the analysis and associated data available everywhere because we believe it could provide a new perspective on the economic value of public and private investment in energy innovation. Here are just some of the most compelling findings:
Energy innovation pays off big: We compared “business as usual” (BAU) to scenarios with breakthroughs in clean energy technologies. On top of those, we layered a series of possible clean energy policies (more details in the report). We found that by 2030, when compared to BAU, breakthroughs could help the U.S.:
Grow GDP by over $155 billion/year ($244 billion in our Clean Policy scenario)
Create over 1.1 million new full-time jobs/year (1.9 million with Clean Policy)
Reduce household energy costs by over $942/year ($995 with Clean Policy)
Reduce U.S. oil consumption by over 1.1 billion barrels/year
Reduce U.S. total carbon emissions by 13% in 2030 (21% with Clean Policy)
Speed matters and delay is costly: Our model found a mere five year delay (2010-2015) in accelerating technology innovation led to $2.3-3.2 trillion in unrealized GDP, an aggregate 1.2-1.4 million net unrealized jobs and 8-28 more gigatons of potential GHG emissions by 2050.
Policy and innovation can enhance each other: Combining clean energy policies with technological breakthroughs increased the economic, security and pollution benefits for either innovation or policy alone. Take GHG emissions: the model showed that combining policy and innovation led to 59% GHG reductions by 2050 (vs. 2005 levels), while maintaining economic growth.
This analysis assumed that breakthroughs in clean energy happened and that policies were put in place, and then tried to understand the impact. The data here allows us to imagine a world in which the U.S. captures the potential benefits of some clean energy technologies: economic growth, job generation and a reduction in harmful emissions. We haven’t developed the roadmap, and getting there will take the right mix of policies, sustained investment in technological innovation by public and private institutions and mobilization of the private sector’s entrepreneurial energies. We hope this analysis encourages further discussion and debate on these important issues.
Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar, and Charles Baron, Google.org, Clean Energy Team
The Google Goggles team has worked with The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to “Goggles-enable” their permanent collection of paintings. You can use the Google Goggles app on your phone to take a photo of a painting from the collection and instantly access information about it from the Getty’s mobile-optimized website and the rest of the web. It's possible to fit only a small amount of information on the wall next to a painting but visitors with Goggles can now enjoy the full story online.
Google Goggles results and the Getty webpage for Portrait of the Sisters Bonaparte
The Google Goggles team has worked with The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to “Goggles-enable” their permanent collection of paintings. Now you can use the Google Goggles app on your phone to take a photo of any of the paintings in the Getty’s permanent collection and instantly access information about the work from both the Getty’s mobile-optimized webpage about the painting and from around the web. Instead of being limited to the amount of information that fits on the wall next to a painting, Getty museum staff can now share a fuller story that all visitors can enjoy online.
From your phone you can read and hear commentary from artists, curators, conservators or the works of art themselves, such as the anthropomorphic voice of the pig in the Adoration of the Magi. Snap a quick shot of the artwork and have an interactive experience with what is on the wall in front of you—all in in the palm of your hand (just remember to respect museum photography rules and to turn off your flash).
Google Goggles results and the Getty webpage for Portrait of the Sisters Bonaparte
If you want to take your art history lesson home with you, you can store a record of the art you captured by enabling Search History on your Android phone. In fact, anytime you stumble across a piece of art, whether it be a reproduction on a poster or a print in a book, you can take a photo with your phone and Goggles will recognize it and supply you with rich info.
Download Google Goggles for your Android or iOS device as part of the Google Search app, and give it a try if you stop by the Getty. You can also view the J. Paul Getty Museum collection online at http://www.getty.edu/art. For more information about the Getty-Goggles project, visit mobile.getty.edu/gettygoggles or scan the QR code below.
Google confirmed that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has began a review of Google's business practices after many companies complained that Google used its dominance in the search market unfairly. "Those companies said that Google's anticompetitive practices include using other companies' content without their permission, deceptive display of search results, manipulation of search results to favor Google's products, and buying up competitive threats to its dominance," informs the Wall Street Journal. "The widely trailed investigation is the most significant in Google's 12-year history, on a par with the lengthy Department of Justice probe into Microsoft, which led to tighter regulation and from which the technology giant's image has never fully recovered," writes the Guardian.
Google says that this review is similar to the European Commission review. Last year, the European Commission notified Google that it has received complaints from three companies who claim that Google imposes unfair penalties on competing sites and uses Universal Search as an opportunity to promote its own services. Google argues that it's not a monopoly in search as "the cost of switching to a different search engine is zero". Google also says that its results are "a type of mathematically-derived opinion" and that Google was built for consumers, not websites.
"Search is much different than a utility. With you electricity provider, your telephone provider and your cable provider, there’s generally one cable coming into your home, and you have only one or two choices about which provider to pay for services. With the Internet, web services are only a click away. Google is like a GPS to the Internet – a helpful guide, but not necessary if you know where you're going," explains Google.
The cost of switching to a different search engine is certainly not zero. Google's brand is very powerful and for some people it's synonymous with search. It's also difficult to use another search engine that has a different interface, other features and doesn't know too much about you. Google is the default search engine in all important browsers, except Internet Explorer and Chrome, which doesn't have a default search engine.
Danny Sullivan says that Google's first real antitrust challenge started after announcing the intention to acquire DoubleClick, back in 2007. The likelihood of an antitrust suit made Google change its mind about the Yahoo search deal. Google barely managed to convince the FTC that it's OK to buy AdMob and the ITA acquisition has a lot of strings attached.
Google will continue to have a difficult time acquiring big companies and even startups, while the long list of investigations and lawsuits could slow Google down.
Gmail's Priority Inbox is an advanced version of the regular inbox, with customizable sections for power users. For some people, Priority Inbox looked intimidating, so that's probably the reason why Gmail tests a new version of the regular inbox that integrates Priority Inbox and three lightweight versions of the Priority Inbox.
"Try out all the new inbox styles to see what fits you best. You can always switch back if you change your mind," informs a Gmail promotional box. There are five inbox types: classic, important first, unread first, starred first and Priority Inbox. The three new inbox types could easily be obtained by customizing Priority Inbox, but it's much easier to switch between them. It's the first time when Google uses tabs in Gmail interface if you exclude Gmail's settings page.
Another day, another Google experiment. This time, Google tests a new design for the homepage that combines two experimental features that have already been used (the black navigation bar and the blue search button) with a new way to display the links to Google's corporate pages: at the bottom of the page.
Google has been testing a lot of UI changes for the homepage and the search results pages and it's obvious that some of them will be included in a new interface that will be released soon. Google does away with many traditional features (the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button could be removed from the homepage, the link to the cached version of a search result could be hidden, while snippet URLs could be replaced by the name of the site) and tries to emphasize the navigation bar, which is likely to include new social features.
We recently held an Innovation Workshop for the 2011 Google Science Communication Fellows, a group of early to mid-career PhD scientists chosen for their leadership in climate change research and communication. The Fellows spent three days together alongside Googlers and external experts at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. exploring the potential of information technology and social media to spur public engagement.
All 21 of the 2011 Fellows are experienced science communicators, trained in using traditional media to bridge the gap between complex science and the general public. This workshop was an opportunity for them to explore new media communications optimized for the age of the web; or, as as I like to say, learning how to “web” the gap between the science community and the larger world in the digital age. We organized the workshop around three themes:
Understanding the public. This session introduced trending tools— like search, Google Trends and Correlate—that can be used to gather data from search queries and online discussions. If you’re curious, watch Google user experience researcher, Dan Russel, give the Fellows a 101 on how people search, and what they’re looking for.
Documenting your science story. Here, the Fellows played around with Google Earth, Fusion Tables and YouTube to learn how to create interactive and engaging stories with science data, which could then be shared with a broad audience. For more on this, visit the Science Communications Fellows talks page on YouTube.
Joining the conversation. In this session, Googler Chris Messina, a developer advocate, took the Fellows on a journey into the social web, illustrating by examples the power of the crowd in shaping ideas and building understanding across diverse social networks. You can view Chris’s outstanding talk here.
Several external experts participated in the workshop as well, including Andy Revkin, Dot Earth blogger and senior fellow of environmental understanding at Pace University. Andy gave a thought-provoking keynote the first evening, which also included a self-composed ditty about the fossil age (look out Schoolhouse Rock!).
Armed with new knowledge on “webbing the gap,” the Fellows are now developing project proposals to put what they learned into practice. Proposal selections will be made later this summer. You can learn more about tools for science communication in the digital age and the innovation workshop at our site here. Stay tuned for future opportunities for participating in this program.
Our Transparency Report discloses the information that governments have asked for over the past six months. For our latest batch of data, covering July through December 2010, we wanted to improve the way we give you the information, so we’ve updated the look of the report and added more details.
We've highlighted some significant changes in the data and provided context about why those changes may have occurred during this reporting period. We’ve also made it easier for you to spot trends in the data yourself. For example, we’ve changed the format so you can now see data on a country-by-country basis. We’re also clearly disclosing the reasons why we’ve been asked to remove content—such as an allegation of defamation or hate speech.
For the first time, we’re also revealing the percentage of user data requests we’ve complied with in whole or in part. This gives you a better idea of how we’ve dealt with the requests we receive from government agencies—like local and federal police—for data about users of our services and products.
Our goal is to provide our users access to information and to protect the privacy of our users. Whenever we receive a request, we first check to make sure it meets both the letter and spirit of the law before complying. When possible, we notify affected users about requests for user data that may affect them. And, if we believe a request is overly broad, we will seek to narrow it.
We hope that our website improvements help you to see more clearly how the web is shaped by government influence and how Google responds to requests for information and removals.
Posted by Matt Braithwaite, Transparency Engineering
Google Image Search has a nifty feature that was added a couple of months ago, but it's not so easy to find. If you restrict the results to a site and click "similar" next to one of the images, Google will only show similar images from that site. For example, if you search for [paris site:wikipedia.org] and click "similar" next to a photo of the Eiffel Tour, Google will show pictures of the Eiffel Tour and other similar monuments from Paris, but only if they are included in a Wikipedia page.
It's a great way to explore a site and group related images when it's difficult to type a precise query. The top results provided by the Similar Images feature are much better than the results for [monuments in Paris site:wikipedia.org], where you can find maps, flags, logos.
It's important to note that Google Image Search's site: operator no longer takes into account the URL of the image, so if a blog includes an image from Flickr, you'll still be able to find the image when you restrict the image results to the blog's domain or subdomain. "In the past, the [site:] operator filtered based on the image URL, not based on the URL of web pages linking to the images. Now, the operator will run your search over web sites that include images, no matter where the images themselves are hosted, which removes a lot of noise from your results and gives you more control over what you're searching for."
A while ago, I spotted a black navigation bar in a Google page and wondered if it's a bug or a new Google experiment. It turns out that it's yet another experiment.
At least three readers of this blog saw the black navigation bar on Google's homepage today.
YouTube also tests a black player, so the two experiments could be connected.
Update: A lot of people see the new design, so it's hard to say if it's a test or a gradual roll-out. If you clear Google's cookies, do you still see the black bar?
If you've installed Firefox 5 and noticed that Google Toolbar wasn't updated to support the new Firefox release, there's a simple way to enable the extension: install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter. "After installing the Add-on Compatibility Reporter, your incompatible extensions will become enabled for you to test whether they still work with the version of Firefox or Thunderbird that you're using." This should only be a temporary solution until Google Toolbar and other extensions update their compatibility list.
Firefox's faster release cycle, inspired by Google Chrome, has an important downside: extension developers need to update their extensions more frequently and update the list of Firefox versions that are supported. Mozilla alleviated this problem by automatically marking almost 4,000 extensions as compatible with Firefox 5, but Google Toolbar is not hosted by Mozilla and it's downloaded from Google's servers.
A few readers spotted a new YouTube player with a redesigned control bar that uses a black background. The current control bar doesn't stand out so that you can focus on the video you are watching.
A YouTube user says that he "would really appreciate a way to go back to the normal player, with its more obvious progress bar and less ugly/hyperactive popup controls". I really like the bigger pause button, but YouTube should also change the action buttons below the player to better integrate in the new design.
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
There’s no slowing down as we head into summer. In the last couple weeks, we made improvements to Google Sync for iOS devices, streamlined collaboration in Microsoft® Office files, added mobile display options for Google Sites and welcomed many big organizations, including the state of Wyoming, onto Google Apps.
Search all email from iOS devices, and more Google Sync brings your email, calendar and contacts to four popular phone platforms. Last Wednesday, we improved Google Sync for iOS devices in three ways. One, you can now search all of your Gmail from your iPhone or iPad, beyond just the messages stored on your phone. Two, you can accept, decline and edit calendar events from your device, and three, you can send email from a custom email address if you use Gmail’s “Send mail as” feature. This is useful if you like to manage email in Gmail, but want emails you sent to look like they’re coming from a school or business email address.
Paste images into Gmail messages As of Monday, if you use the latest version of Chrome, you can now paste images into Gmail’s compose window right from your clipboard. If you copy an image from the web or another email, it’s a cinch to paste it directly into a message.
Improvements to Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office With Google Cloud Connect, you can collaborate with others simultaneously through Google’s cloud in Word, Excel and PowerPoint files without sending attachments back and forth. People told us they wanted a faster way to open files with Google Cloud Connect so on Tuesday we streamlined that process. Now you can open native Office files saved in Google Docs right from Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Mobile rendering for Google Sites It’s important that you can be just as productive on your phone’s small screen as on a full computer display, so yesterday we made Google Sites work even better on mobile devices. You can now configure your sites to automatically render for smaller screens on Android and iOS devices, making the content much easier to read and navigate. In addition, you can also browse and search the sites that you manage through an interface that’s also been optimized for a mobile device’s smaller screen.
Who’s gone Google?
It’s been another bumper couple weeks with tens of thousands more organizations moving to Google Apps. This week, the State of Wyoming became the first to move all state government employees to Google Apps. Matt Mead, Governor of Wyoming, was on-hand for a “cable cutting” ceremony to celebrate the 10,000 user transition to the cloud, which was managed smoothly by deployment partner Tempus Nova.
In the private sector, all 8,400 employees at The McClatchy Company are “going Google” across the business’ 30 newspapers. The company is anticipating a stack of benefits from Google Apps, including standardization on a single email solution, simpler shared calendaring, improved collaboration even when mobile, significant cost savings and a level of service that they weren’t seeing from their historical provider, not to mention great employee enthusiasm for the IT group’s decision.
I hope these product updates and customer stories help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For more details and the latest news, check out the Google Apps Blog.
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
