Hey—we've moved. Visit
The Keyword
for all the latest news and stories from Google
Official Blog
Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google culture
It's about time
April 13, 2006
Posted by Carl Sjogreen, Product Manager
We're all busy people. Whether it's work or play, school or family, every day is filled with stuff that takes time. Keeping track of schedules isn't easy, and frankly we haven't been too happy with the tools available. So we invite you to try
Google Calendar
-- a tool that simplifies keeping track of events, special occasions, and appointments -- whether they’re on your own agenda or on the calendars of contacts who opt to share their schedules with you.
First, we tried to make it
fast and easy
. You can add events just by clicking and entering one line of simple event information. No muss, no fuss, no cumbersome forms to fill out. And it’s integrated with
Gmail
so you can add events mentioned in messages to your calendar with just one click.
Second, we wanted to make sure you could use it to see all the events in your world. It’s drop-dead simple to see calendars from your friends and family, or calendars you find with the built-in calendar search tool, right next to your own calendar. You can choose to share as much or as little of your own calendar, too.
Third, we focused on helping events come alive. You can turn any event on your calendar into an invitation just by adding the email addresses of your guests. They can see and respond to your invitation, whether or not they use Google Calendar themselves. Event reminders by email and text message to your mobile phone help you remember what’s on your agenda.
Finally, we kept it open. Google Calendar supports the
iCal standard
so it cooperates with many other calendar applications, enabling you to easily get event data in and out. Also, webmasters can add customized Google Calendar event
reminder buttons
to their pages, letting visitors quickly add copies of events to their calendars.
We thought it was about time to let you take a look.
Day off for Dennis
April 10, 2006
Posted by Rupert van Millingen, Google UK
From time to time, we like to reflect the world we live in through the logo designs on our home page. These
Google 'doodles'
are designed exclusively by the original Doodler,
Dennis Hwang
. Here in the UK, we wanted to let Dennis have the day off and give someone local the chance to get their artwork in front of millions. After a successful
pilot competition
in 2005, we're pleased to tell you that our 2006 "Doodle 4 Google - My Britain" competition is now open and accepting doodles from pupils ages 4-18 in all schools across the UK.
A panel of experts will judge, narrowing the submissions down to a Top 30 and the public will vote for their favorites. The winning doodle will be hosted on the
Google.co.uk
home page for a day, and also bag the artist a trip for four to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. To get your (again, UK) school involved, please check out
Doodle 4 Google - My Britain
.
This year's Anita Borg Scholarship winners
April 7, 2006
Posted by April Yu and Jennifer Bostrom, University Programs
It's that time of year when we happily announce the winners of the
2006 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship
. We're awarding 19 $10,000 scholarships to these outstanding young women -- graduate and undergraduate students who are completing degrees in computer science and related fields -- with our
congratulations
:
Brianna Bethel, University of Colorado - Boulder
G. Ayorkor Mills - Tettey, Carnegie Mellon University
Gillian Rachael Hayes, Georgia Institute of Technology
Himabindu Pucha, Purdue University
Karen Fullam, University of Texas at Austin
Kristen Walcott, University of Virginia
Kristina Chodorow, New York University
Laura Rouse, Georgia Institute of Technology
Marta Magdalena Luczynska, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Megan Olsen, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Michele Banko, University of Washington
Neven Abou Gazala, University of Pittsburgh
Parisa Michelle Tabriz, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Rebecca Nancy Nesson, Harvard University
Shana Kay Watters, University of Minnesota
Sharmishtaa Seshamani, Johns Hopkins University
Soumi Sinha, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Tracy Westeyn, Georgia Institute of Technology
Vinithra Varadharajan, Carnegie Mellon University
And we also recognize these 28 highly qualified finalists, who will receive $1,000 awards from us:
Alicia Avelon Permell, Michigan Tech University
Anagha Mudigonda, Polytechnic University New York
Anna Tikhonova, University of California, Davis
Annie (Hsin-Wen) Liu, University of Washington
Ashima Kapur, Carnegie Mellon University
Cindy Rubio Gonzalez, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Delphine Nain, Georgia Institute of Technology
Divya Arora, Princeton University
Emily Grace Christiansen, University of Minnesota-Morris
Emily Shen, Stanford University
Erika Chin, University of Virginia
Eva Mok, University of California, Berkeley
Evelyn Mintarno, Stanford University
Gina Upperman, Rice University
Hayley Nicole Iben, University of California, Berkeley
Jiayue He, Princeton University
Jing Chen, University of Pennsylvania
Laureen Lam, San Jose State University
Lingyun Zhang, University of California, San Diego
Lu Xiao, Pennsylvania State University
Meeta Sharma Gupta, Harvard University
Moushumi Sharmin, Marquette University
Neha Rungta, Brigham Young University
Rachel Weinstein, Stanford University
Sunny Consolvo, University of Washington
Tanya Lee Ann Crenshaw, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Valerie Hajdik, Texas A&M University
Xiaonan Zhao, Northwestern University
Out of the Wi-Fi wilderness
April 6, 2006
Posted by Chris Sacca, Special Initiatives
In Wi-Fi terms, I can go just 19 steps from my front door and still get coverage. The nearest coffee shop seems within reach -- but signal strength-wise, there's not enough power to pick it up. And the signal definitely isn't strong enough to get to the restaurant kitty-corner from my place. Frankly, my home Wi-Fi connection works just enough to let me use it in the middle of oncoming traffic (especially dangerous considering that I live on a
Muni
line). As soon as I take that 20th step, I either lose signal altogether, or have to pay some crazy amount of dough to jump onto the Internet at a paid hotspot.
So when I'm out and about, how am I supposed to stay current on the filming of
M.C. Hammer's latest videos
in downtown San Francisco? Of course, I also need constant connectivity to keep tabs on the inventory of pirate supplies at
826 Valencia
. And without Wi-Fi, how else can I check in on
craigslist missed connections
in real time?
This is why I am especially excited to hear that the City and County of San Francisco
just chose the bid
from EarthLink and Google to offer
citywide Wi-Fi access
. If all goes well, construction will commence this year on a network that would provide it for free to virtually the entire city at speeds up to six times dial-up.
I can't wait for Wi-Fi everywhere. Who knows? Pretty soon I might even be able to wirelessly place an order with the
Tamale Lady
. But first, I need to dodge this streetcar bearing down on me -- yikes!
Update:
Revised first 3 sentences for clarity.
Toolbar v2 for Firefox fans
April 6, 2006
Posted by Justin Voskuhl, Software Engineer
Here in the Kirkland, we've had one of the rainiest winters in a long time, giving me extra time to work on the latest release of the Google Toolbar for Firefox. Today, we're happy to release the beta version of
Google Toolbar 2 for Firefox
. If you were wondering what we were doing with that extra time indoors, Toolbar for Firefox is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux -- and in 16 languages.
This new release includes feed integration with the
Google Personalized Homepage
and a number of other feed readers. We've made searching better by including previous queries, spelling corrections, and suggestions for popular choices. Gmail fans might appreciate having the mailto: links in Firefox open a compose window in Gmail -– no more copying and pasting email addresses. And to combat the ever-increasing threat of
phishing
, we've integrated the Safe Browsing extension into Toolbar to alert you when a page is trying to steal sensitive information. Check out everything in the new Toolbar
here
.
As a dedicated
Firefox
user, I think that the latest version enhances an already innovative browser. Meanwhile, you IE Toolbar 4 fans may notice that the feature sets aren't identical. That's because Firefox and IE users have different needs. Rest assured that we're working to get the most popular features in both versions.
Here's my new customized Firefox Toolbar, showing my Google Personalized Homepage (built from feeds I discovered using the feed feature). It also gives me history, popular queries, and query corrections in my search box, which I moved to the upper right with the new custom layout.
More feeds for speed
April 3, 2006
Posted by Adam Sah, Software Engineer
The personalized homepage has a
new directory
with more content and more ways to browse, search and add it to your Google homepage. A lot of content owners have been asking for ways to drive adoption of their feeds and
modules
. One option is the
"Add to Google" button
you can add to your website as a way to quickly connect fans to your content. Enjoy all the new stuff and as always,
feel free to discuss
.
Cupid's algorithms
April 1, 2006
Posted by Michael Krantz, Product Manager, Google Romance
Ever been on a date and wondered "What on Earth am I
doing
with this person?" Or perhaps you wished there was a way that you could instantly find your perfect match, and then go on a date during which everything just went right?
Wish no more:
Google Romance
, a beta product currently incubating in Google Labs, uses cutting-edge personal search algorithms to help you find your soulmate, then sponsors your first Contextual Date with said soulmate-to-be in exchange for showing you highly relevant advertising that just might help Cupid's arrow find its mark. Does it really work? Ask our internal beta testers -- if you can find them, that is. Not a single one has shown up for work in days.
So why not give
it
a try yourself? You've got true love to gain, and only your faith in psychographic and contextual advertising software to lose.
Labels
accessibility
41
acquisition
26
ads
131
Africa
19
Android
59
apps
419
April 1
4
Asia
39
books + book search
48
commerce
12
computing history
7
crisis response
33
culture
12
developers
120
diversity
35
doodles
68
education and research
144
entrepreneurs at Google
14
Europe
46
faster web
16
free expression
61
google.org
73
googleplus
50
googlers and culture
202
green
102
Latin America
18
maps and earth
194
mobile
125
online safety
19
open source
19
photos
39
policy and issues
139
politics
71
privacy
66
recruiting and hiring
32
scholarships
31
search
505
search quality
24
search trends
118
security
36
small business
31
user experience and usability
41
youtube and video
140
Archive
2016
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2004
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feed
Google
on
Follow @google
Follow
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Follow
