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Google’s coming to Austin for SXSW
March 11, 2010
Like many of you out there, we’re gearing up for the
SXSW Interactive Festival
, which starts tomorrow, March 12 in Austin, TX. In just a few short hours, dozens of Googlers and YouTubers will be descending on Austin for a packed weekend of panels, demos and parties. Of course, we’ve also got a few fun things up our sleeve:
Representatives from Google and YouTube will be speaking on
more than 20 panels
on a variety of subjects, including open source, mobile, real-time communication and user experience design.
At the Google booth, we’ll be doing
demos
on a wide range of products, including Google Maps, Blogger, Wave, Reader and YouTube, and sessions on building apps for App Engine, extensions on Chrome and accessibility APIs and hacks for Android.
On Sunday, our all-day
Hackathon
will give you the chance to get your hands dirty and build applications using a variety of Google technologies. At the end of the day, we’ll award prizes, including Android phones, for the best apps.
We’re sponsoring the festival’s first
Mothers’ Room
, where nursing moms can go for comfort and privacy.
Finally, we’ll be seeing you at as many parties as we can go to at one time, including
Bikehugger’s Mobile Social
, where representatives from the Google Maps team will be handing out schwag and dishing dirt on how they
built bike directions
, the
Blogger/Reader party
, where you’ll have a chance to chat with members of those teams about
new
features
, and (last but not least) the
SXSW Film Closing/Music Opening
, co-sponsored by YouTube and VH1.
You can read more about all of the Google happenings on our
SXSW website
, and follow
@googlesxsw
on Twitter for last-minute updates and news from Austin. We can’t wait to hit the ground running (or biking), and we look forward to seeing you there!
Posted by Emily Wood, Editor, Google Blog and Twitter team
Express yourself with the Blogger Template Designer
March 11, 2010
In Blogger’s
more than 10 years
, we’ve learned that blogging is a powerful way for people to express themselves. More than 350,000 words are written on Blogger every minute of every day and over the years we’ve added
a bunch of features
to ensure that writing those words is as easy, fun and rewarding as possible. Today, we’re happy to announce the launch of the
Blogger Template Designer
on
Blogger in Draft
, our experimental playground where you can try out the latest features Blogger has to offer. Instead of creating a lot of new templates that will grow stale over time, we decided to go beyond static templates and reinvent the whole process of designing your blog, making it even easier to express yourself online.
The Blogger Template Designer is our big first step in improving not just our template designs, but all the ways that you can customize the look and layout of your blog. If you try out the Blogger Template Designer, you’ll find:
Fifteen new professional templates to start from (and more on their way)
Custom blog layouts with one, two and three columns
Hundreds of free professional background images from
iStockphoto
, the leading microstock image marketplace
Customizable colors, fonts and more
Check out this video for a peek at what you can do with the Blogger Template Designer:
For more info, check out our post on the
Blogger in draft blog
. Give the Blogger Template Designer a
test drive
, and then
let us know
what you think!
Posted by Pete Hopkins, Tech Lead, Blogger
Now playing: Apps Script for Google Docs
March 10, 2010
The Google Apps team here in New York City is a hotbed of movie fanatics. But while planning a recent movie night, we realized we spend too much time organizing our events and not enough time discussing, debating and watching movies.
To take the hard work out of planning, we turned to
Google Apps Script
, which lets you write short programs that automatically perform simple actions within a spreadsheet. For example, our Movie Night script figures out which movies are playing close by and invites everyone to vote on what they’d most like to see.
Google Apps Script has been available to businesses, schools and other organizations using Google Apps since
January
, and today we’re excited to bring it to everyone who uses Google spreadsheets. Apps Script can be helpful for all kinds of things, from customized party invites to sending out holiday letters — in fact Apps Script can be especially helpful for those repetitive, time consuming tasks.
To help you find useful scripts, we’ve also launched a public gallery where you can check out our Movie Night script and browse other available scripts. If you’re feeling adventurous, try your hand at writing your own script and submit it to the gallery for others to use. To see the gallery or install a script in your spreadsheet, click on “Insert” and select “Script.”
Check out the
Google Docs blog
for more information about Apps Script, and to learn about writing your own scripts, visit the
Google Apps Developer Blog
.
Posted by Evin Levey, Product Manager, Google Apps
Finding awesome stuff online with Google Reader Play
March 10, 2010
I use Google Reader a lot — not only to stay on top of the news, but also to find interesting
blog
posts
and
articles
. I’m always telling my friends about Google Reader, and while some of them love it, others don’t want to take the time to set it up. For those of you who fall into this second category, we’re
announcing Google Reader Play
, a new product that makes the best stuff in Reader more accessible for everyone. Reader Play is a new way to browse interesting stuff on the web, customized to the topics you’re interested in, with no setup required.
Items in Reader Play are presented one at a time, and images and videos are automatically enlarged to maximize the viewing experience. We use the technology behind
Recommended Items
in Reader to populate Reader Play with the most interesting content on the web. While you don’t need a Google account to use Reader Play, your experience will be personalized if you sign in. As you browse, you can let us know which items you enjoy by clicking the "like" button, and we'll use that info to show you other content we think you’ll enjoy.
We think Reader Play is a fun way to browse interesting items online that you wouldn’t find otherwise. We designed it especially for people who don’t want to spend time curating their own set of feeds — but folks who already use Reader can easily use it to read their feeds as well. Just click the feed settings menu on any feed in Reader and select “View in Reader Play.” We’re launching Reader Play as an experiment in Google Labs so that we can test it out, get feedback from you and then improve it as quickly as possible. Visit
google.com/reader/play
to give it a try, and
let us know
what you think!
Posted by Garrett Wu, Software Engineer
The Internet in America: A YouTube Interview with the FCC
March 10, 2010
(Cross-posted from the
YouTube Blog
)
If you're reading this, then you're probably on the Internet — via your laptop, your mobile phone or other handheld device, or maybe even through your television. But in 2010, millions of Americans still do not have access to the wealth of information made available on the Web. Even though the Internet was
invented in the U.S.
over 20 years ago, many Americans lag behind in both access to the Internet and speed of connections, which is why the Federal Communications Commission (or the FCC, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. communications industry) is launching its much-anticipated National Broadband Plan next Tuesday, to lay out its strategy for connecting all Americans to fast, affordable high-speed Internet.
After this plan is announced, you have the opportunity to interview FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in the second of a series of in-person YouTube interviews with government leaders. (Our first, with
U.S. President Barack Obama
, took place last month.) Go to
CitizenTube
today to submit your video or text question via Google Moderator, and vote on your favorites; we'll bring a selection of the top-voted questions to Chairman Genachowski in our interview next Tuesday, March 16. The deadline for submission is Sunday night, March 14, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
To help structure our conversation with the Chairman, we've broken the interview down into seven topics. To learn more about what the FCC is doing in each area, click on the links for each topic below. Then submit your question on
CitizenTube
under one of the topic headings.
Access and Affordability
Mobile and Wireless
Security and Privacy
Digital Economy
Internet in Schools
Open Internet/Network Neutrality
Others (learn more at
Broadband.gov
)
Access to the Internet has transformed almost every aspect of our economy and society. This is your chance to press the FCC on how the National Broadband Plan will work, and ask your questions about improving the Internet in America. We're looking forward to seeing your questions and hearing what the Chairman has to say.
Posted by Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, YouTube
YouTube calling: Now serving ads on the YouTube mobile site
March 10, 2010
(Cross-posted with the
YouTube Biz Blog
)
Mobile phones are rapidly becoming essential tools for surfing the web, connecting with friends, and sharing and watching video online, and we're seeing these effects at YouTube. The YouTube mobile site is more popular than ever: site traffic grew by over 160% in 2009, and now millions of people all over the world are streaming tens of millions of videos every day on their mobile phones. The mobile space moves fast, so we've been working hard to roll out
new features
and
functionality
quickly, especially as more and more people adopt YouTube-capable phones.
The increased usage of high-end devices like the iPhone and Android is also making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers. So today, we're launching ads on the home, search and browse pages of the American and Japanese YouTube mobile websites (m.youtube.com from your mobile browser). This is a great way for advertisers to reach YouTube viewers across multiple platforms. In fact, at launch YouTube will immediately provide one of the largest audiences for a mobile ad campaign anywhere on the mobile web. And because YouTube mobile attracts early adopters, the site can deliver to advertisers a coveted demographic of tech savvy trendsetters. We've already seen some early campaigns run on YouTube's mobile site by advertisers like Sony (for the DVD release of "District 9") and Kia, both of whom were able to easily reach their target audience, no matter where they were looking for video.
Our
first tests
of YouTube mobile ads — with brands ranging from L'Oreal to Land Rover — showed strong results related to click-throughs, user experience and brand awareness, and we've learned a lot in the months since then. As a result, ads on the YouTube mobile website will be banner ads sold on a full-day basis (like with the YouTube homepage on the web), making a mobile buy an easy and valuable addition to any YouTube campaign. For example, today Mazda is running a homepage ad on YouTube.com, and extended their campaign to run ads on our mobile site as well.
If you're interested in learning more, reach out to your YouTube or Google sales rep, or visit
youtube.com/advertise
.
Posted by Taylor Cascino, Strategic Partner Development Manager
Biking directions added to Google Maps
March 10, 2010
Whenever I meet someone who finds out that I work on the directions team for Google Maps, the first question I'm asked is often "So when's Google Maps going to add biking directions?" We're big biking fans too, so we've been itching to give you a concrete answer. I don't want to keep the good news a secret any longer, so the answer is: right now!
Today we've added biking directions and extensive bike trail data to Google Maps for the U.S. My team has been keeping close tabs on all the
public support
for biking directions that’s been steadily coming in, but we knew that when we added the feature, we wanted to do it right: we wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes. So that's exactly what we've done.
Let's say you want to bike to work, or maybe you want to drive less and spend more time outdoors. Biking directions can help you find a convenient and efficient route that makes use of dedicated bike trails or lanes and avoids hills whenever possible. To find biking directions, select "Bicycling" from the drop-down menu when you do a directions search:
So, how does it work? Well, I'm based in Seattle, along with the rest of the biking directions team. The city is notoriously hilly, but also has some great trails and a strong cycling community. Let's say I'm trying to get from Golden Gardens to a friend's house in Montlake:
This route avoids hills (phew!) and puts me on the Burke-Gilman trail for most of the journey. When I need to get off the trail to cross town, biking directions makes sure to keep me on bike-friendly roads and avoid some of the city's busiest intersections. The time estimate for the route is based on a complex set of variables accounting for the type of road, terrain and turns over the course of my ride. If I decide that I want to stop at Woodland Park Zoo along the way, I can click on the blue path and drag it to my desired route — just like with driving directions — and we'll still customize the journey for cycling suitability. Over on the
Lat Long Blog
, you can read more about all the unique tweaks and calculations factored into our routing algorithm.
We've also added information about bike trails, lanes and recommended roads directly onto the map. This can help you get a better sense of your route, or let you find trails nearby for a recreational ride. When you're zoomed into a city, click on the "More" button at the top of the map to turn on the "Bicycling” layer. You'll see three types of lines appear on the map:
Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
Dashed green indicates roads that are designated as preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes
Thanks primarily to our partnership with the
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
, we now have more than 12,000 miles of trails included in biking directions and outlined directly on the map. We also have data on bike lanes and recommended streets for 150 cities across the country. We'll continue to add new trail information and encourage riders to send feedback (biking directions is in beta, after all) and route information for inclusion via the
“Report a Problem” tool
. When Map Maker is available in the U.S., all riders will be able to directly contribute their local knowledge about trails, bike lanes and suggested routes.
We know that many of you have been anxiously awaiting this feature, so head over to
http://maps.google.com/biking
to try it for yourself and then hop on your bike!
Posted by Shannon Guymon, Product Manager
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