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Read news fast with Google Fast Flip
September 14, 2009
One problem with reading news online today is that browsing can be really slow. A media-rich page loads dozens of files and can take as much as 10 seconds to load over broadband, which can be frustrating. What we need instead is a way to flip through articles really fast without unnatural delays, just as we can in print. The flow should feel seamless and let you rapidly flip forward to the content you like, without the constant wait for things to load. Imagine taking 10 seconds to turn the page of a print magazine!
Today we're adding a new experiment to
Google Labs
: Google Fast Flip, accessible at
fastflip.googlelabs.com
. Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized.
To build Google Fast Flip, we partnered with three dozen top publishers, including the
New York Times
, the
Atlantic
, the
Washington Post
,
Salon
,
Fast Company
,
ProPublica
and
Newsweek
. These partners will share the revenue earned from contextually relevant ads. This gives publishers an opportunity to introduce new readers to their content. It also tests our theory that being able to read articles faster means people will read more of them, driving more ad revenue to publishers.
The publishing industry faces many challenges today, and there is no magic bullet. However, we believe that encouraging readers to read more news is a necessary part of the solution. We think Fast Flip could be one way to help, and we're looking to find other ways to help as well in the near future.
We've also made a mobile version of Fast Flip with
tactile page flipping
for Android-powered devices and the iPhone, so you can browse on the go. This is accessible at the same address.
Go to Google Labs and give Fast Flip a spin. If you have suggestions to make the service better, please
let us know
. We'll keep working on new ways to improve your news-reading experience. Happy flipping!
Posted by Krishna Bharat, Distinguished Researcher, Google News
Make History with the National September 11th Memorial & Museum
September 10, 2009
The anniversary of September 11th evokes difficult memories here in New York and all over the world. The events of the day left an indelible mark on many New Yorkers, including me. The offices of my startup were at
30 West Broadway
, right next door to 7 World Trade Center, so I was downtown that morning. I saw the planes hit and then watched, shocked, from the West Side Highway as the towers fell. It was a terrible day for all who were there, an impossible day for those who lost friends and loved ones and a shared experience of loss and grief for New York and the world.
Today I'm proud that Google is part of the launch of
Make History
, a website created by the
National September 11th Memorial & Museum
in partnership with design firm
Local Projects
. Make History is a participatory archive that invites people to share their experiences of 9/11 and its aftermath in an effort to preserve the memories of that time. The Museum has created a collaborative storytelling tool that makes innovative use of Street View through the
Google Maps API
. The Make History site allows people to place and then share their photos and videos in geographical context, collectively piecing together the history that was witnessed, one photo and video at a time.
To participate, simply go to the
site
and click "Add Your Story." You'll be asked to write about your experience of 9/11 and share your photos and videos, and then to place them at the spot where they were captured.
To power the Make History website, the Museum is using
App Engine
and leveraging the power of cloud computing. By taking advantage of the scalability of Google's infrastructure, the Museum can focus on building great applications and telling important stories — not on how many servers they will need.
The developer community that uses our tools and APIs is a source of inspiration for all of us at Google who work on platforms, partnerships and developer outreach — and
Make History
is a powerful example of why we all do what we do. This September 11th, as we sit with our memories of the day, we're honored to have been able to help enable the creation of such a significant and deeply moving archive.
Posted by Jill Szuchmacher, New Business Development
Now S-U-P-E-R-sized!
September 9, 2009
Search
, that is. For us, search has always been our focus. And, starting today, you'll notice on our homepage and on our search results pages, our search box is growing in size. Although this is a very simple idea and an even simpler change, we're excited about it — because it symbolizes our focus on search and because it makes our clean, minimalist homepage even easier and more fun to use. The new, larger Google search box features larger text when you type so you can see your query more clearly. It also uses a larger text size for the suggestions below the search box, making it easier to select one of the possible refinements. Over the past 11 years, we've made a number of
changes to our homepage
. Some are small and some are large. In this case, it's a small change that makes search more prominent.
Google has always been first and foremost about search, and we're committed to building and powering the best search on the web — now available through a supersized search box.
Before and after on Windows XP, running Google Chrome. Click on the image for a larger view.
Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience
Five million students going back to school are "going Google"
September 8, 2009
(Cross-posted on the
Google Students Blog
)
It's always tough to bid farewell to summer and hit the books again, but for a few million students this back-to-school season, things are looking up. As of this fall, over five million students at thousands of schools in more than 145 countries have "
gone Google
" and are actively using
Google Apps Education Edition
on campus. Since this time last year the number of students using Google Apps on campus has increased by 400%. Because more schools sign up for Apps everyday, we wanted to celebrate the start of the 2009 school year by launching a
new site
that shows off some of these schools, provides product tips and tricks, introduces a community discussion forum and more.
A snapshot of some of the thousands of schools "going Google" this fall. Every location in green indicates Apps users
.
When you visit the site, you'll also find an interactive map packed with interesting trivia. For example, in addition to the 70,000 students using Apps at Temple University, their 5,000 staff and faculty were given a choice between Gmail and alternative vendor, and over 90% chose to go Google. Or when Kent State first deployed, they saw more than 700 students migrating each hour. And a single admin at Montana State successfully deployed over 30,000 accounts in less than 90 days. Or as we learned in the
recent webinar
from another school on the map — Notre Dame — they saved $1.5 million by switching to Apps. You can hear their full story in this video:
We hope more schools will continue to go Google and bring Apps to their campuses in an effort to improve communication and collaboration while cutting costs and resources. In the meantime, check out
our site
and find out what Apps has done for other schools and what Apps can do for your school — and if you're already a part of the movement,
add yourself to the map
!
Posted by Miriam Schneider and Jason Cook, Google Apps Education Edition team
Hood to Coast 2009
September 4, 2009
This past Monday, when my co-workers asked me what I did over the weekend, I casually mentioned that I ran a 197 mile race. Thankfully,
Hood to Coast
is a relay, so I finished with my legs intact after journeying from
Mount Hood
to Seaside, Oregon with 11 other Googlers.
Team Google One was comprised of Googlers from the AdSense, AdWords and engineering groups. We competed against more than 1,000 other teams, including blazing fast running shoe companies and other tech companies.
We kicked off the first leg near the top of Mount Hood at 6:45 pm last Friday, as our first runner barreled down 4,000 feet of elevation. During the relay, each team member ran three legs, varying in distance from three to eight miles. At exchanges, the current runner handed off a snap bracelet baton and cheered on his swiftly departing teammate. When not running, we wolfed down PB&J's, and slept in the vans or in massive congregations of sleeping bags along the road.
We started with the sun setting over dramatic gray-blue mountains and ran through the night as reflective vests became fireflies flickering down country roads. We finished at 2:25 pm Saturday afternoon in 19 hours and 40 minutes on the beach where a funk band was laying down some grooves. The time earned us eighth place overall and second place in the corporate division, according to the still
unofficial results
(PDF).
In addition to medals, we walked away with sore legs, cross-office friendships and some great stories.
Team Google One pauses for a moment as we prepare to descend Mount Hood
Posted by Matt Kane, Associate, Consumer Operations
Helping create responsible digital citizens
September 4, 2009
With more and more kids going online, whether to connect over social networking sites, mingle in chat rooms or play games, it's become increasingly important for families, schools and service providers to work together to ensure that the younger generation understands their responsibilities while they explore the virtual world.
A few weeks ago, Google participated in the
21st Annual Crimes Against Children Conference
in Dallas, where over 3,500 members of law enforcement, child advocacy groups, the tech industry and the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(NCMEC) convened to share ideas, discuss strategies and explore new technologies designed to combat the many and varied forms of crimes against children. We had the opportunity to describe some of the positive steps Google is taking to
educate and safeguard minors
who use our products and services, as well as the unique ways we support the individuals on our staff who do child exploitation-related work.
According to a recent NCMEC study in patterns and trends in online child victimization, the past few years have seen a 6% increase in reports of kids providing images and videos of themselves when asked by online acquaintances; sending naked photos of themselves through text messages ("sexting"); and cyber-bullying. This new trend underscores the need to
educate
our younger users, their families and teachers on ways to create and enjoy safe online experiences.
We're doing our part by working with child safety organizations and law enforcement around the globe to spread positive messages about life online. For example, in mid-September, we're launching a global training program on YouTube to help teens teach other teens about these issues. This is just one step among many that we're taking to help create a generation of responsible digital citizens.
Posted by Alice Wu, Policy Specialist, YouTube
Google Domestic Trends: tracking economic sectors
September 3, 2009
Today, we're really pleased to launch
Google Domestic Trends
on Google Finance.
Google Domestic Trends tracks Google search traffic across specific sectors of the economy. The changes in the search volume of a given sector on google.com may provide useful economic insight. We've created 23 indexes that track the major economic sectors, such as retail, auto and unemployment.
For example, the
Google Luxuries Index
tracks queries like [jewelry], [rings], [diamond], [ring], [jewelers], [tiffany] and so forth. As you can see from the screenshot below, this index has seasonal spikes in December — however, in the last two years there has been a pronounced decrease as the recession made consumers wary of spending on luxury items.
The
Auto-Buyers Index
is also interesting, especially the dramatic 40% increase correlated with the launch of the Cash for Clunkers program in the U.S.:
These charts let you easily compare actual stocks and market indexes to Google Trends. And the data for these indexes are available for download — so you can use it with your own models.
Read more about this on the
Google Finance Blog
, and be sure to check out the
Google Research Blog
for info on Hal's research on using Google Trends data to predict economic activities.
Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist and Ayan Mandal, Product Manager Google Finance
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