Increasing transparency and choice with ads on search and Gmail

Donal Trung 3:51 PM Add Comment
Our advertising system is designed to show the right ad to the right person at the right time. Because ads should be just as useful as any other information on the web, we try to make them as relevant as possible for you. Over the coming weeks, we’re making improvements to provide greater transparency and choice regarding the ads you see on Google search and Gmail. Soon, you’ll be able to learn more about these ads by clicking the "Why these ads" link next to ads on Google search results and Gmail.

“Why these ads” gives you transparency
The perfect search ad answers your query and gets you what you’re looking for quickly. When you click the “Why these ads” link, you’ll find information about why you’re seeing a particular ad and how it’s personalized for you. If you’re searching for a local restaurant while you’re on vacation in Hawaii, you would see ads for restaurants that are nearby, rather than restaurants in your hometown. Or if you’re researching flat-panel televisions, and performing a series of similar searches in quick succession, you could see ads based on the query that you just entered, or based on a few recent and related queries within a single browser session. By considering the language you’re using, your geographic location and various other indications, we’re able to show you the best ads possible. We’ve been showing ads in this way for years as a way to help you quickly find what you're looking for.

Ads Preferences Manager gives you choice

You can also go to the Ads Preferences Manager to make changes that improve the ads that you're seeing, including blocking specific advertisers you’re not interested in or turning off ads personalization entirely (of course, you can change your mind at any time). Here’s a video from our lead software engineer, Diane Tang, with more background:



We regularly experiment with new ways to improve our ads to make them more relevant and to help marketers grow their businesses. When we run these experiments, we’ll continue to explain why the ads are showing when you click the “Why these ads” link.

As we’ve done with display ads, we’re committed to giving you notice and control over the ads that you see. We’re always working to deliver the perfect ad, and we know that it’s important to have a choice about the kinds of ads that are shown to you. If you don’t wish to see personalized ads, the choice is yours.

To find out more, visit the Inside AdWords blog and the Help Center.

Life in a Day now available on YouTube

Donal Trung 1:10 PM Add Comment
On July 24, 2010, thousands of people around the world recorded videos of their lives to take part in Life in a Day, a cinematic experiment to document a single day on earth. From more than 4,500 hours of footage recorded and uploaded to YouTube, Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald and executive producer Ridley Scott created a 90-minute feature film that offers an entertaining, surprising and moving view of life on earth.

After a theatrical release in countries around the world including appearances at the Sundance, Berlin, SXSW and Sydney film festivals, Life in a Day is finally coming home to YouTube—in its entirety, for free.

Starting today you can watch Life in a Day on YouTube, available with subtitles in 25 languages. So if you haven’t seen it yet or want to relive the experience that The Times of London considers “a thrilling piece of cinema” and the Washington Post called “a profound achievement,” now’s your chance.



If you’d like to own Life in a Day, a DVD is also available. You can find more details about this, and the whole project, on the film’s official YouTube channel.



(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

Share your thoughts with us and win a G1. Sniper 2!

Donal Trung 11:40 PM Add Comment

competition

Fancy walking away with a top-of-line Z68 gaming motherboard? well, today might just be your lucky day. In an attempt to get close and personal with our loyal customers, we’ve just launched a simple questionnaire on the GIGABYTE website. Of course as a tempter, all entrants will have their names added to a prize draw where one lucky winner will receive a G1.Sniper 2, a gamers dream motherboard replete with discrete Creative Audio and an advanced Bigfoot networking.

Interested? Sure you are. All you have to do is hope along to our Facebook page, give us a ‘like’ and move on to the questionnaire itself.

Click the icon below to get started. icon-go

You can also visit the GIGABYTE Motherboard Facebook page (check the icon on the left side).

4862

You can learn more about the G1.Sniper 2 motherboard here.

Happy hollowing!

Donal Trung 9:22 PM Add Comment
When I was a little kid, Halloween seemed like the most grown-up holiday of all. For one thrilling night of the year, I got to stay up late trick-or-treating, watch scary movies with my friends, and wield sharp and pointy objects (safety first, of course!) while carving a macabre face into a pumpkin.

Now that I'm older, my perspective on Halloween has shifted a bit. It’s now the holiday that most celebrates a childlike sense of wonder and amazement. Ordinary people and places are temporarily transformed into creepy and whimsical versions of their former selves: a zombie rises with the aid of corn syrup and some red food coloring, your everyday home becomes a haunted house with eerie lights and a spooky soundtrack, and a pumpkin—an otherwise plain-looking squash—is a grinning ghoul, with the help of only a candle, a knife and some elbow grease.



To celebrate Halloween this year, the doodle team wanted to capture that fascinating transformation that takes place when carving a pumpkin. Instead of picking up a few pumpkins from the grocery store, however, we decided to work on six giant pumpkins, specially delivered from nearby Half Moon Bay (some weighing well over 1,000 pounds). What you see is a timelapse video of the approximately eight hours we spent carving in the middle of our Mountain View, Calif. campus.

Googlers got into the Halloween spirit as well—you can see their costumed cameos if you have a quick eye. Many thanks to Slavic Soul Party! and composer Matt Moran for providing a fitting soundtrack for our Halloween hijinks.

For an inside look at how we set up the shoot, watch our behind-the-scenes video:



From all of us at Google, take care, be safe and have fun this Halloween!

A prima ballerina vs. some very angry birds: this year’s Halloween search trends

Donal Trung 12:32 PM Add Comment
The pumpkins are carved, the spiderwebs are hanging,
Kids and their pets are door-to-door banging,
Witches on their brooms and owls on their perches,
Let’s take a look at some Halloween searches.


Halloween searches are some of our favorite trends to look at all year. Using Insights for Search and some internal data, we took a peek at which costumes and candies are on top in the United States.

This year seems to be about the battle of the birds. Searches for [angry birds costume], based on the game phenomenon that has so many of us addicted, have been steadily rising in 2011, and we’re seeing 10 times more search volume this year than last. But as of mid-October, the Angry Birds were overtaken in search by [black swan costume]. The Darren Aronofsky ballet drama seems poised to be the most popular costume idea by All Hallows Eve, with related searches for everything from [black tutu] to [black corset]. Some are even looking to be the alter ego [white swan].


Meanwhile, search data doesn’t seem to show that anyone is too anxious to be the object of the Angry Birds’ rage—at least not independently from their sworn enemies. Although [angry birds costume] is one of the top 10 fastest-rising searches related to [pig costume] over the last 90 days, another three are focused on a much sweeter piglet, the cartoon favorite Olivia.


Birds aside, this year’s fastest rising costumes in the U.S. overall are inspired by a variety of sources from pop culture over the past year, including TV shows—[pan am], [wilfred]—movies—[smurfette], [tron], [captain america]—pop music—[nicki minaj]—and more [monster high].

In fact, we may have a battle of the pop goddesses on our hands as well as a battle of the birds. During 2009 and 2010, homegrown Lady Gagas were trick-or-treating throughout the country, but while Lady Gaga still rules the music charts, she’s a far less popular costume choice this year than in 2010:


And although overall in 2011 [lady gaga costume] leads [nicki minaj costume] in search volume, right now they’re neck and neck:


We’d be lying if we weren’t hoping that at least a few Minaj fans out there choose to pay tribute to her by dressing up as uberfans eight-year-old Sophia Grace and her cousin, the two little girls who blew away YouTube viewers with their performance of “Super Bass.”

Speaking of YouTube, Halloween doesn’t fall on a Friday this year, but that’s not stopping people from dressing up as Rebecca Black:


Even if you don’t want dress up as a YouTube star, YouTube can still help you create your Halloween costume. Head on over to the YouTube Blog for video tutorials and other inspiration.

Lest you think Halloween is just for humans, take a look at the huge amount of searches for [dog costume]. In terms of get-ups actually intended for canines, ewoks and dinosaurs are the fastest-rising related searches. But two of the top five rising searches in 2011 related to [dog costume] are a little quirkier: at least a few people out there may dress up as the eponymous character from FX’s “Wilfred” show, about a dog, and a man who sees the dog as a man dressed in a dog suit. Kinda meta.


Turning from costumes to the other traditions of this holiday, searches for [haunted house] and [pumpkin patch] are both spiking right now, but there seems to be greater interest in spooky thrills than in finding that perfect pumpkin to carve. Maybe spiderwebs and peeled-grape eyeballs are a less scary proposition than running into the [great pumpkin] (from the classic movie which, incidentally, celebrates its 45th birthday this Halloween).


Everyone has a sweet tooth this time of year, but [candy corn] is remains the undisputed king of people’s cravings. In the last 30 days, search volume is nearly twice as high for [candy corn] than for other candy choices:


Per capita, Alabama is searching the most for [candy corn] this year. Here are the states that searched the most for a few other Halloween sugar staples (and some newcomer treats):
  • Candy apples - Rhode Island
  • Gummy worms - Wisconsin
  • Kosher candy - New York
  • Sugar free candy - Kentucky
  • Gluten free candy - Oregon
  • Candy bars - Utah
  • Organic candy - Colorado
When trick or treating, there’s always that one house that insists on making Halloween healthy—but luckily for us, those are few and far between. Over the last 30 days, there is almost two and a half times more search volume for [candy] than for [apples]. The classic game of bobbing for apples, however, it still going strong, spiking dependably every October.

Whether you’re dressing up as an elegant avian ballerina or a brightly-colored roly-poly bird in a slingshot, we hope you have a spootakular Halloween!



(Cross-posted on the Inside Search Blog)

Tap Fish 2 By Gameview Studios

Donal Trung 6:46 AM Add Comment
For all the fish lovers.Own your aquarium,decorate it and place some fish in it.Then comes the fun part .....i.e.you can breed and cross breed fish ,isnt that awesome?With lots of backgrounds and great graphics this app is a wonderful free game .By the way whats clownfish+blowfish= ?
Compatibility- iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Awesomeness rating-8.4/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tap-fish-2/id443891725?mt=8

Wunderlist HD By 6 Wunderkinder

Donal Trung 6:39 AM Add Comment
Wunderlist is a to-do list making app. The app allows you to view and modify your list on windows,mac,android platforms,all you need is a wunderlist id.You also get notifications regarding pending tasks and can rate your tasks with respect to importance.
Compatibility-iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later 
Awesomeness rating-7.6/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wunderlist-hd/id420670429?mt=8

SoundTracking By Schematic Labs

Donal Trung 6:33 AM Add Comment
SoundTracking is an easy, fun and expressive way to share the soundtrack to your life. Whether you’re out with friends at a restaurant, walking outdoors with your headphones on, or just hanging out with the radio on, the SoundTracking app allows you to share your special music moments as they happen. With a few taps of your phone, share a playable song snippet, photo and location all in one SoundTrack.(description as on itunes)
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.1/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/soundtracking/id414323798?mt=8
 

Songkick Concerts By Songkick

Donal Trung 6:29 AM Add Comment
For all the people who love attending concerts and also for those who like to track where their favourite band is performing next .This app creates a personalized calender based on your favourite band and location by scanning your music library .Also get alerts when new concerts are announced ,venue map,ticket info etc.The only downside is that it may also list your not so fav bands ,so you have to manually delete their info on the calender.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
Awesomeness rating-9/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/songkick-concerts/id438690886?mt=8

Socialcam Video Camera By Justin.tv

Donal Trung 6:22 AM Add Comment
For capturing and sharing videos and pics. It has lots of video filters to try from and boasts of features like unlimited in-app storage and facebook,twitter,youtube etc integration.Also videos are stored in cloud storage and you are notified when your friends upload any vids .Awesome app!!!
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.1 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.7/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/socialcam-video-camera/id421228047?mt=8

LinkedIn By LinkedIn Corporation

Donal Trung 6:16 AM Add Comment
Linked-in ,the professional network on your device .The interface is slick with almost no technical snags.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomenss rating-8.5/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/linkedin/id288429040?mt=8

Viva Los GIGABYTE Blog: Portuguese Tech Daily launched

Donal Trung 3:39 AM Add Comment

SpanishBlog

Today we are delighted to announce that a Portuguese language version of our beloved GIGABYTE Tech Daily blog has been launched. If you’re more apt to enjoy your motherboard musings in português, then be sure to check out Muno GIGABYTE at http://mundogigabyte.blogspot.com

Instagram By Burbn, Inc.

Donal Trung 10:56 PM Add Comment
Instagram is the ultimate photo editing and sharing app .With lots of special effects to touch-up your pics and integration with facebook this app is a must have for photography lovers.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
Awesomeness rating-8.9/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instagram/id389801252?mt=8

foursquare By foursquare

Donal Trung 10:52 PM Add Comment
Foursquare is a social networking app in which you can do almost anything .Keep up with friends,chat ,locate your friends,get inside tips and unlock discounts and rewards just for foursquare users.,share pictures and what not!!!.Its the ultimate social networking app.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.8/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foursquare/id306934924?mt=8

eBay By eBay Inc.

Donal Trung 10:45 PM Add Comment
Ebay ,the shopper's paradise app .After many fixes this app has finally become kind of perfect.All features included.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-9/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ebay/id282614216?mt=8

Dropbox By Dropbox

Donal Trung 10:40 PM Add Comment
Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website! TIP-Before downloading check if the crashing problem is fixed.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later
Awesomeness rating-7.1/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8
 

Beaver's Revenge™ By Twisted Games

Donal Trung 10:34 PM Add Comment
Beaver's revenge is your angry birds with beavers and woodcutters .The graphics and gameplay are pretty good.There are 3 different world and 6 unique animals to throw.
Compatibility-iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Awesomeness rating-6.8/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beavers-revenge/id456103831?mt=8


Hero's Way By Lakoo

Donal Trung 10:30 PM Add Comment
Amazingly this game is free.Its an action game in which you control three japanese anime like characters at once.And as you progress through the various levels you have to slay lots of monsters and ghouls using over 300 items,weapons and spells.The graphics and gameplay are awesome.Try it atleast.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
Awesomeness rating-8.8/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/heros-way/id451955533?mt=8
 

Chop Chop Kicker By Gamerizon

Donal Trung 10:22 PM Add Comment
Chop chop kicker tests your brain hand co-ordination.Your selected character kicks a monster and sets it flying.On the way you have to collect coloured stones ,various power ups etc.The best part is that you have to make the path through the air on which your monster travels using the sketch pen you have and collecting the coloured stones adds to your sketch pen .There are lots of birds,mushrooms and carnivorous plants on the way which fling you firther in the air .The main objective is to travel as far as we can and get a respectable grade.A must have!!!
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Awesomeness rating-9/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chop-chop-kicker/id422062685?mt=8

Undead Attack Pinball HD - by Top Free Games: Mobjoy

Donal Trung 10:13 PM Add Comment
Undead attack is a new take on everybody's favourite pinball .Basically the pinball engine is a graveyard and zombies are popping out from many places .You have to hit them with the ball or gas them if they get too near the paddles.This game is just awesome with multiple game modes ,different engines and even different types of balls .Get this game ,its a must have.
Compatibility-iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Awesomeness rating-8.9/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/undead-attack-pinball-hd-by/id462024290?mt=8
 

Slam Dunk King By PikPok

Donal Trung 10:02 PM Add Comment
Slam dunk king is an awesome game where you can test your dunking capabilities .With great graphics,Time Attack, Arcade, and Sudden Death game modes and numerous power ups this app will keep you occupied for hours .
Compatibility-iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
Awesomeness rating-8.3/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slam-dunk-king/id443875901?mt=8

Google+ now available for Google Apps domains

Google+ now available for Google Apps domains

Donal Trung 11:07 AM Add Comment
Google Apps administrators can manually turn on Google+ for their organization. Once Google+ is turned on, users will need to sign up at google.com/+ to get started. For customers who use Google Apps for Business or the free version of Google Apps and who have chosen to automatically enable new services, Google+ will automatically become available to all of your users over the next several days.

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education*

Languages included:
Control Panel: All languages supported by the control panel
Google+: All languages supported by Google+

How to access what's new:
Follow these steps to roll out Google+ to your users.

Note: Google+ requires Picasa Web Albums for photo sharing and Google Talk for chat, so if these services are not enabled then Google+ will not automatically become available, even if your domain has chosen to automatically enable new services. The option to automatically enable new services is controlled in the Domain settings tab of the administrator control panel. More information about using Google+ with Google Apps is available in the Help Center.

*Education editions only: Google+ is available only for higher education institutions that are existing Google Apps for Education customers. If you don't see the Google+ service in your control panel (as described above), you'll need to apply for the service to have it added to your control panel.

For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/10/google-is-now-available-with-google.html
Help Center: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=1631857

New look on the way for Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Sites! Find out more at whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look

whatsnew.googleapps.com
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Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and...

Donal Trung 10:07 AM Add Comment
We think Google+ should get better every time you use it. It’s not enough to obsess over community feedback (which we do); we also need to surprise and delight you with constant improvements (which we also try and do). Today’s no different, so we’re rolling out four new features in four different areas.

What’s Hot on Google+: see what everyone’s talking about
Google+ users share and receive billions of items every day—on a wide range of topics, in nearly every country. Circles give you a personal lens on all this activity, helping you focus on updates from your family or your favorite celebrities. But sometimes you want to know what the world is so excited about. Whether it’s breaking news or beautiful photos, you just don’t want to miss anything. With this in mind, we’re launching “What’s Hot” on Google+, a new place to visit for interesting and unexpected content:



Google+ Ripples: watch how posts get shared
There’s something deeply satisfying about sharing on Google+, then watching the activity unfold. Comments pour in, notifications light up, friends share with friends (who share with their friends), and in no time at all there’s an entire community around your post. We want to help people re-live those conversations—both to rekindle that initial excitement, and to learn how posts flow across the network. That’s why we’re launching Google+ Ripples: a visualization tool for public shares and comments.

To get started, just find a public post that interests you, and select “View Ripples.” From there you can replay its activity, zoom in on certain events, identify top contributors and much more. Google+ Ripples is still experimental, so let us know how we can make it more informative and more awesome:



Google+ Creative Kit: have more fun with your photos
Nothing tells a story like the perfect picture, so it’s only natural to want to make yours really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking. Unfortunately, photo editing is too often a chore, requiring specialized software and lots of patience. We want to help everyone put their best photo forward, so today we’re introducing the Google+ Creative Kit, a fast and friendly way to make powerful edits to your photos.

Now you can add that vintage feel to your vacation photos. Or sharpen those snapshots from the family barbeque. Or add some text for added personality. With the Creative Kit, all you need is an idea:



Of course: we also think photo editing should be lots of fun. So we’ve added some limited-edition Halloween effects to the Creative Kit, and we’re inviting everyone on Google+ to join a ghoulish (and good-spirited) photo competition.

Through the end of October, simply add some spook to your photos, and share them publicly on Google+ with the hashtag #gplushalloween. We’ll assemble a surprise panel of celebrities, and next Thursday, Nov 3, they’ll announce their favorites. In the meantime, you can see early submissions from community members below. After all: we take our fun very seriously. :-)

From left to right: Larry Page, Sergey Brin (top), Adrian Grenier (bottom), Britney Spears,

… Google Apps customers can now use Google+
You’ve been asking for it. I’ve been talking about it. And today we’re excited to make Google+ available to all Google Apps customers worldwide. Visit the Google Enterprise Blog for more details.

We think Google+ should get better every time you use it, and we hope it feels that way today. If ever it doesn’t, we hope you’ll let us know.

More local deals, personalized to your interests

Donal Trung 9:00 AM 3 Comments
There’s a universe of amazing daily deals out there, but it's hard to find them all in one place—and even harder to discover the ones that really matter to you.

We’re making improvements to Google Offers that help address this challenge. First, we’re delivering more amazing deals from a bunch of new categories including outdoor adventure sports, luxury experiences, family-friendly events, classes and more. We’re also introducing a personalization quiz to help you find just the deal you want, all in one place.

Google Offers subscribers in the San Francisco Bay Area will have access to these new deals, and the quiz is now available in all cities. We'll gradually roll out an expanded offers inventory to new cities in the months to come.



To make all this happen, we’ve partnered with the best deal providers in the industry including Dealfind, DoodleDeals, Gilt City, GolfNow, HomeRun, Juice in the City, kgbdeals, Mamapedia, Plum District, PopSugar Shop, ReachDeals, Active.com Schwaggle, TIPPR and zozi. Now, with one account you can easily purchase, manage and redeem all your offers in one place.

Visit Google Offers today to purchase this great deal from the leading luxury experience site Gilt City

Our new personalization quiz is a first step towards bringing you more relevant deals. You can tell us what categories you’re interested in and where you hang out so we can send you just the tailored offers that match your interests—all in one email. If you’re not the outdoorsy type or interested in cosmetic treatments, then we won’t send you deals for zipline adventures and laser hair removal. Don’t worry, if your interests change you can always update your preferences.

You can select what categories of deals you’d like to receive with the personalization quiz

You can subscribe to receive deals that match your interests and learn more about Google Offers at google.com/offers. If you’re a deal provider interested in partnering with Google Offers, please submit your application using this form.

Finally, thanks to The Dealmap team that recently joined Google. They definitely helped on this one and we’re looking forward to working with them to develop many new ideas in the months and years to come.



(Cross-posted on the Commerce Blog)

Deep Silver: "There is a clear technology gap"

Donal Trung 6:40 PM Add Comment

We recently wrote an article highlighting how much better the game play experience is on the PC vs consoles and showed a youtube video highlighting massive differences in quality from Xbox360 to PS3 to PC. I wanted to follow up that article and tell you what Risen 2’s brand manager Daniel Oberlerchner spoke out about recently. He thinks there is an obvious technology gap in different gaming platforms these days saying some studios are ignoring or cutting quality on PC platform to be able to provide a similar gaming experience across all platforms. 0021468

It is good to see an industry rep put a foot down and say they will stick to making the absolute max quality for every platform (hence if you want best gaming experience, PC platform is the way to go).

Here is a quote from Mr. Oberlerchner that can be found at Strategy Informer website

Some studios say they are going to have the same quality across all platforms, which is to say you take the weakest platform - the Xbox 360 - and you have the same crappy textures for the Playstation 3 and the PC.

We want to make sure everything is maxed out on every platform - for example on the Playstation 3, it is a bit better in terms of Aliasing, but then extra memory is going to be better on the Xbox 360 because the PS3 doesn't have direct memory - so it has to share everything.

PC gaming is and always will be way ahead of consoles. Ignoring this fact will make developers’ tech obsolete sooner rather than later.

From the desert to the sea: Google Voice Search experiments

Donal Trung 3:24 PM Add Comment
(Cross posted from the Google Australia Blog)

As an engineer I like to solve problems and I like to test stuff, the bigger the better. A couple of months ago I was intrigued by a challenge: Australians have the second highest smartphone penetration in the world (second only to Singapore) but we have one of the lowest usage rates of Google Voice Search. This had some of us scratching our heads, because Google Voice Search understands our Australian accents.

So we thought it would be fun to show Australians how well Google Voice Search works by conducting a series of experiments in remote Australian locations. I went to the middle of the South Australian desert with James, a fellow engineer. We found some of the hottest, reddest earth in the country to test a long distance voice search - 50 metres away from the phone! Here’s our adventure:



Meanwhile, our fellow Google engineers Noel and Alice went up north to the beautiful Great Barrier Reef, to test Google Voice Search underwater.



Now that you’ve seen what Google Voice Search can do, we hope these experiments will inspire you to try it yourself in a more everyday setting, and with your broadest Aussie accent!

You can use Google Voice Search on Android phones by pressing the microphone button on the homescreen or downloading the app. You can also download the app for the iPhone here.

Posted by Mike Lawther, Software Engineer.
Temporary relocation of the ‘Manage this domain’ link for Administrators in Gmail

Temporary relocation of the ‘Manage this domain’ link for Administrators in Gmail

Donal Trung 2:40 PM Add Comment
Google Apps administrators have a link available in their Gmail inbox which allows them to easily access their administrator control panel. This link is an alternative to logging in at www.google.com/a/yourdomain.com where yourdomain.com is the name of the admin’s domain.

This ‘Manage this domain’ link is temporarily moving from its current location at the top right of the inbox, to the bottom right corner of the inbox, just underneath ‘Last account activity’. This relocation is related to the new look being rolled out to Google Apps services and we’ll provide more updates on its final location when available.

Release track:
Rapid*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

Languages included:
All languages supported by Gmail

How to access what's new:
In an administrator's Gmail inbox, scroll down and the 'Manage this domain' link is now located on the bottom right side.

For more information:
http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look
http://learn.googleapps.com/new-look

New look on the way for Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Sites! Find out more at whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look

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Let freedom (from servers) ring: EDUCAUSE 2011

Donal Trung 11:10 AM Add Comment
This time last year, we were tailgating with the USC marching band at the EDUCAUSE conference—an annual gathering of the higher-education IT community. Last week, with more than 15 million people now actively using Google Apps for Education, we ventured to Philadelphia for a few jam-packed days at EDUCAUSE 2011. Our time in the city of brotherly love included a booth with 30+ Googlers and a woodsy backdrop for our fireside chat series; meeting with hundreds of CIOs from universities using and considering Google Apps for Education; a party at the Academy of Natural Sciences; and of course liberty and the lifelong pursuit of the Philly cheesesteak. Here’s a glimpse:



The Campus Computing Project released its annual report at EDUCAUSE, too. This year’s survey named Google as the leading provider of outsourced cloud-based campus email services. According to the survey, 89 percent of higher education institutions are either already using or considering switching to cloud-based solutions. Of four-year colleges and universities (including community colleges) that have already moved to the cloud, more than 56 percent have gone Google—including 64 percent of public universities and 66 percent of private universities.

Last month we shared that 61 of US News and World Report’s top 100 Universities are using Google Apps for Education. That number’s now up to 62, and is still just a snapshot of the thousands of institutions using Apps on campus. Schools that have recently selected Apps for Education as their collaboration platform include Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin, Wellesley College, University of Amsterdam, Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of York and University of Bristol.

In addition to these new schools, we’re also bringing some new integrations to Apps:
  • OpenClass: Pearson has developed a free cloud-based Learning Management System that is tightly integrated with Google Apps and provides a new kind of learning environment that stimulates social learning. This is available in the Apps Marketplace
  • SlideRocket EDU: This presentation software integrated for cloud-based collaborative education enables you to unleash the creation, sharing and communication of ideas with an online application that connects with content in Google Apps for Education and is available on any device or browser. This is available in the Apps Marketplace.
  • Blackboard Bboogle: Last year, Northwestern University presented their popular Bboogle (Blackboard + Google) application at our EDUCAUSE booth. Bboogle has now been certified by Blackboard and is available to other universities as a Building Block through Blackboard’s Extensions website. Bboogle enables instructors to link Blackboard course sites directly to Google Docs, Calendars and Sites without requiring a second login. And by automatically setting permissions for editing, it helps encourage and facilitate collaborative instruction.
  • Desire2Learn: Users will soon be able to add widgets to Course Homepages that make it easy to view unread email messages in Gmail, keep track of upcoming events in Calendar, and submit assignments created in Docs.
If you weren’t able to join us in person at this year’s EDUCAUSE conference, you can check out some of our photos, and we’ll hope to see you next year.



Dino flirts with Bulldozer world record during LITS 2011

Donal Trung 11:38 PM Add Comment

23231611539l 

As we mentioned yesterday, Dino, one of our in-house Overclocking gurus, was in attendance last weekend at the London International Technology Show in the UK. While we knew that Dino had been turning on the style doing some live audience overclocking, what we didn’t know until a few hours ago is that, on Sunday he actually managed to get perilously close to some world records, hitting 8150MHz on LN2 using our GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7 board!

Validation

Ok, so the world record is slightly higher, but those guys had the pick of a big bunch CPU-wise, plus they were using Liquid Helium (theoretical low temp of -269 °C), not Liquid Nitrogen (-196 °C). Huge kudos to Dino for his efforts during a live public show. This puts Dino 9th in the world for CPU frequency ranking, 3rd for FX-81350 ranking. Outstanding work.

Validation URL here. HWBot page here.

GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7 board here.

Scheduled Release track features update 10/25/11

Scheduled Release track features update 10/25/11

Donal Trung 7:57 PM Add Comment
The following features are now available to domains following the Scheduled Release track:
- no new features

The following features are intended for release to these domains on November 1st:
Calendar:
- Users using the latest version of Google Chrome browser will see an option to allow Google Calendar to be the default service when opening all web calendar links.

Docs:
- A preview will be available of the new version of presentations with faster collaboration and more features. Users can preview the new editor via the document list. Click on the gear icon and select ‘Document settings.’ Then, from the editing tab, check the box to “Create new presentations using the latest version of the presentation editor.”

Sites:
- Display charts directly in Google Sites. Once you select a spreadsheet, the editor picks existing charts from the spreadsheet to embed into a Site.

Release track:
Scheduled*

Editions included:
Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/10/fresh-start-for-google-presentations.html
http://www.google.com/support/sites/bin/answer.py?answer=1680639

New look on the way for Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Sites! Find out more at whatsnew.googleapps.com/new-look

whatsnew.googleapps.com
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Making Chrome even more app-ealing

Donal Trung 9:09 AM Add Comment

From sharing photos, to collaborating on documents, to enjoying online games, web apps make the web fun, useful and entertaining. Since the beginning, Chrome has been designed to allow apps to do more, faster. Today, changes in Chrome make it even easier to access your favorite apps and discover new favorites.

In the latest stable release of Chrome, we’ve completely redesigned the New Tab page. It’s more streamlined, so it’s easier to access and organize your apps in different sections on the page. Watch the video below for a quick tour.



To add more apps to your New Tab page, click the Chrome Web Store icon. The Web Store also has a new look:


Apps and extensions are now presented in a wall of images that’s updated every time you visit the store. We hope this will help you quickly scan the store and find interesting things to try out. In addition, apps and extensions are easier to install—just hover over an image on the grid and click “Add to Chrome.”


Getting additional information about an app or an extension is just a click away. When you click on an app, extension or theme, you’ll see a panel featuring screenshots, videos and other relevant information neatly organized into separate tabs. The store also includes a brand new reviews interface that links to the Google+ profile of each reviewer. (To protect your privacy, we made sure to anonymize any reviews that you previously submitted.)

Along with the new look, a bunch of new apps have joined the store. I’m personally excited about My Robot Nation™, an app that lets you design your own robot and bring it to life with a 3D printer. There are plenty of new games to play, including The Godfather: Five Families and Fieldrunners. And for those of you still looking for a Halloween costume, check out the brand-new eBay shopping app.

We have many more features on deck, and we’re looking forward to making the app experience in Chrome even better soon.



(Cross-posted from the Chrome Blog)
More data, more transparency around government requests

More data, more transparency around government requests

Donal Trung 7:57 AM Add Comment
How do governments affect access to information on the Internet? To help shed some light on that very question, last year we launched an online, interactive Transparency Report. All too often, policy that affects how information flows on the Internet is created in the absence of empirical data. But by showing traffic patterns and disruptions to our services, and by sharing how many government requests for content removal and user data we receive from around the world, we hope to offer up some metrics to contribute to a public conversation about the laws that influence how people communicate online.

Today we’re updating the Government Requests tool with numbers for requests that we received from January to June 2011. For the first time, we’re not only disclosing the number of requests for user data, but we’re showing the number of users or accounts that are specified in those requests too. We also recently released the raw data behind the requests. Interested developers and researchers can now take this data and revisualize it in different ways, or mash it up with information from other organizations to test and draw up new hypotheses about government behaviors online.

We believe that providing this level of detail highlights the need to modernize laws like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which regulates government access to user information and was written 25 years ago—long before the average person had ever heard of email. Yet at the end of the day, the information that we’re disclosing offers only a limited snapshot. We hope others join us in the effort to provide more transparency, so we’ll be better able to see the bigger picture of how regulatory environments affect the entire web.

Real Racing GTI By Firemint Pty Ltd

Donal Trung 1:41 AM Add Comment
Real racing gti is a very good racing game with no nonsense attached .Good graphics.The only downside is that the other Real Racing game are paid apps and they use this game for promotion .So its sponsored by volkswagen and has their cars only .But even then this game is worth the download.Try it.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 2.2 or later.
Awesomeness rating-6.8/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/real-racing-gti/id334366868?mt=8

RaOne By Indiagames Limited

Donal Trung 1:33 AM Add Comment
Ra one is an action game based on the Indian super-hero movie by the same name.You play the hero G.One and have to take on the army of the villain Ra One.There are lots of unlockable weapons and the graphics and gameplay are pretty awesome .There are 3 terrains to play in .This ones especially for Shahrukh Khan fans!!!
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/raone/id440488560?mt=8

Mega Jump By Get Set Games

Donal Trung 1:23 AM Add Comment
Its a beautiful endless run game with really good graphics.You are a toad like cartoon creature on an adventure and on the way you have to collect coins,some fiery novae to fly through,coin magnets ,become a balloon etc.There are also some new characters to unlock using the collected coins and in all there are two worlds to play in.The gameplay is really addictive.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.3/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/mega-jump/id370398167?mt=8

Crime City By Funzio, Inc

Donal Trung 1:16 AM Add Comment
Crime city is a crime empire building game .You start being a small time mugger and have to grow through the ranks to become a top mob boss and crush your rivals to control more and more part of the city .This an ONLINE MULTIPLAYER GAME ONLY .The best thing is that you have to advance through the game by mugging other online co-players .Nice game with good detail level.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Awesomeness rating-7.5/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crime-city/id430907397?mt=8

Tango Video Calls By TangoMe, Inc.

Donal Trung 12:51 AM Add Comment
Tango lets you make free video calls over 3G or wi-fi to any person who has this app installed on his iDevice or pc. The best thing is that you can connect your device with other persons personal computer so its ok if your friend doesnt own an apple device.
Compatibility-iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.5/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/tango-video-calls/id372513032?mt=8

Wikipedia Mobile By Wikimedia Foundation

Donal Trung 12:44 AM Add Comment
Its wikipedia for your apple device .You know the rest.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.4/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/wikipedia-mobile/id324715238?mt=8

My Horse By NaturalMotion

Donal Trung 12:40 AM Add Comment
My horse is an awesome game in which raise your own horse by feeding, grooming and treating it. Not only this ,you also have to build a relationship with your horse by bonding over various activities ,training it well and participating in various competitions. Your friends and you can even help each other out by taking care of each other's horses. Really good graphics and captivating gameplay.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-9/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-horse/id421167112?mt=8

Nimbuzz - Free Video Calls & Messenger By Nimbuzz

Donal Trung 12:33 AM Add Comment
Nimbuzz is a famous video calls and messenger app .Features include free unlimited messaging ,HD quality video calling,message+video chat and you can also connect it with yahoo messanger,facebook,msn etc.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-8.6/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/nimbuzz-free-video-calls-messenger/id297574648?mt=8

PhotoFunia By Alexey Ivanov

Donal Trung 12:28 AM Add Comment
Photofunia is an interesting app that lets you integrate your self-pics or photos of your friends in different scenarios .For example you can fix your face in place of mona lisa's or in an art gallery where people are admiring you .Its a really fun thing to do with over 150 scenes to use.It also supports air print.Go try it!!
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7/10
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/photofunia/id321240709?mt=8

Bump By Bump Technologies LLC

Donal Trung 12:16 AM Add Comment
Bump is a free sharing and messaging app but with a style statement .Choose whatever you want to send to your pals device on bump then you and your friend just have to bump your hands together and viola!!-the file gets transferred may it be photos,apps or music .And once you have added friends inside bump you can also start sending them messages for free. The only downside with the sharing feature is that you and your friend must be in the same room but this is not the case with messaging(or what would have been the point of it all!!!).Great app.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.9/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bump/id305479724?mt=8

High Noon By Happylatte

Donal Trung 11:32 PM Add Comment
This is a MULTIPLAYER GAME ONLY. You have to duel against people online and then earn rewards by defeating them .Using these rewards you can further customize your character .Graphics are ok and the gameplay is pretty good .Worth a try.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Awesomeness rating-6.8/10
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/high-noon/id368173864?mt=8

Talking Zombie! By FIPLAB Ltd

Donal Trung 11:24 PM Add Comment
Initially i had decided not to post many 'talking ......' apps here but this ones a beauty .While there are many talking zombie apps out there this one stands out due its good graphics .The zombie repeats what you say,slap/puch him ,he farts,dances,pop his eyes out etc .This ones a good talk/repeat app. Also its FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY.
Compatibility-iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later.
Awesomeness rating-7.3/10
http://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/talking-zombie!/id468354532?mt=8
 


Entire GIGABYTE X79 Series Motherboards Revealed

Donal Trung 11:11 PM Add Comment

X79

Last week we gave you all a sneak preview of our forthcoming G1. Assassin 2 board on our facebook page, today we’ve just uploaded some more X79 series motherboard images. Aside from letting us engage with you in some blatant and gratuitous board-voyeurism, it’s also a cool way for us to introduce you to the whole GIGABYTE X79 family.

sG1-Assassin 2-U-2

sX79-UD7_UI_02

sX79_UD5_UI_02

X79-UD3_UI_1_s

Because we still have to be very respectful of Intel’s launch plans, all we can really say at this point is that all of these boards will Rock!..and of course that they will support Intel® Core™  processors for the 2011 socket…

Check out the full photo set on our Facebook page here. And remember to click ‘Like’ if you’re feeling the GIGABYTE love…