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Google Notebook goes multi-lingual
March 29, 2007
Posted by Xiangtian Dai, Software Engineer
I can read English. If you're reading this blog post, you probably can too. But if you're like me—someone who is not one of the
300 or 400 million
native English speakers in a world of more than
6 billion
people—you might be more comfortable on using your own language for personal activities. I know I am, and I can still remember the days 16 years ago when my dad and I were tweaking the home PC-XT to make a database application work in Chinese instead of in English. Now being a software engineer myself working in this great company whose products are used by people around the world, I would almost feel guilty if my product doesn't speak in the same language as you do.
Fortunately, my feeling of guilt is coming to an end. When we released the
Google Notebook
in its shiny, fresh new look, we also made it speak 17 other languages besides English. We have German, Polish, Turkish—to name a few—and of course Chinese. Admittedly, there is still a long way to go for us to reach everyone in the world in all the thousands of languages. Rest assured, though, that just because your language isn't one of the first doesn't mean that we have forgotten you.
In case you haven't heard about it before,
Google Notebook
lets you conveniently collect, organize and share information while searching and browsing the web. If you've tried it already, I urge you to try again, as its new interface is much smoother to use than it was—and I'm not saying that just because I'm looking at it in Chinese.
How do you know you're getting the best care possible?
March 28, 2007
Posted by Adam Bosworth, Vice President
When I talk to people using Google to search for information about their health questions and how well search answers these questions, I hear several common concerns. I want to list them and discuss our thoughts about them.
How do I know if the information is trustworthy and reliable?
There is a lot of material out there about drugs, diseases, procedures and treatments. How do you know what is trustworthy and what isn’t? Search is great at finding us places with relevant information, but it is hard to know which links are reliable and which are less so.
Honestly, this is a hard problem. At Google, we have tried, as I said in an earlier post, to enlist the help of the health community to help us know which links contain medically reliable information, sift these reliable links so that they tend to show up relatively earlier in the search results, and then let you decide which groups in the health community you trust. If you go to Google and type in [Lipitor], for example, and then you click on the “For patients” link and look carefully, you’ll see that the search results often include at the bottom the word “Labeled By,” followed by words like NLM and HON. NLM stands for the National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library, and HON stands for Health on the Net Foundation, an organization which is in the business of certifying web sites with health content that is reliable. These are organizations that have marked the part of the web that this link in the search results points to as medically reliable. It seems that we at Google may not have done a great job of making this clear enough. Unfortunately, many of you either don’t notice these words when you’re searching about health questions at Google or have no idea what they mean. Clearly, we can do better at making this kind of labeling noticeable and your ideas on how we could make it clear to you that a site is medically reliable or trustworthy would be greatly appreciated as we think this through.
Am I getting the best standard of care?
There is, actually, a lot of information out there about generally accepted medical guidelines for care. For most diseases, the medical literature lists the medically agreed-upon standard of treatment, rules to follow, and guidelines for which tests to administer and the best course of treatment - although it is hard to pull together from the various medical organizations and texts as it is constantly evolving. Experts determine which drugs make sense based upon a patient’s condition, other conditions and drugs, age, gender, weight, and so on. There are of course always cases where doctors need to make exceptions to these rules about which drug to administer due to side effects and/or prescribe an alternative drug due to the patient’s specific medical history. The point is that there are guidelines to help doctors with these decisions. However, this information isn’t really accessible to those of you who aren’t health professionals.
Speaking, I think, both for those of us at Google and most of you, given our specific condition or conditions and medicines, just knowing what the guidelines and generally accepted standard of care is for us specifically would be hugely helpful in knowing what to discuss with our doctors and what to research further. Today, even if we can figure out which sites upon which to rely, it is hard to find this out. We don’t know where to start. Our treatment scares us, or our drugs have worrying side effects, or we’re just frightened that we’re not getting the treatment we should be getting.
Honestly, this information can even help our doctors sometimes. They are over-worked and often pressed for time and it cannot ever hurt to double check. Sometimes they didn’t get accurate or complete information from us. While most drug-to-drug and drug-to-condition interactions are known to our doctors, they do change and the doctor might miss a new one or not know about all your drugs because we forgot to tell your doctor about one. The statistics show that mistakes happen. In fact at some point in a patient’s life, the odds of them being treated in a way which doesn’t follow the guidelines and rules is about 45%. There are estimates that somewhere between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die every year from a preventable medical error at a hospital — or about 150 to 300 preventable inpatient death a day. And approximately 770,000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals from an adverse drug event. There are roughly 5,000 preventable medical errors a day taking place at doctor’s offices.
So it seems that it would really help to let people know. It is tricky, however. Everybody’s condition is unique. It isn’t possible to just play doctor and tell you exactly what your treatment should be and why. Even doctors have a hard time with this because of the incredible and ever changing complexity of modern medicine. What is the best way to help people searching for answers to their health questions to know the right standard of care they should be receiving, what treatments or classes of medicines they should be researching, and what procedures might be indicated?
Who is the best doctor or institution for you?
Isn’t it strange that you can find out a lot about a restaurant on the web or about a movie, but not about a doctor? In fact you usually don’t even know who to go to and just accept whoever your general practitioner recommends? You clearly don’t just eat at restaurants other restaurants recommend, even though you might take it into account. Now admittedly there is a difference here. When it comes to food, you know what you like and the worst that can happen is you don’t like it. But when it comes to your health you may not know what is best, and you can’t necessarily tell if we’re getting the best possible care. Still, here is a common situation: You’ve been diagnosed. Your primary care physician and you have discussed it and it is clear that you need a specialist and your doctor has referred you to one, but you’re wondering how you know who is the best out there for you. How do you know whether they cover your insurance? How do you find them? Today, often you just take your doctor’s referral.
Normally there are lots of doctors who could treat or diagnose you. And in point of fact there is a lot of information about doctors floating around in the ether. Where they went to school is known. Whether they are board certified is known. What is their specialty is known. CMS (Medicare) and insurance companies actually know how many procedures of various types most doctors regularly perform. And this turns out to matter. There is an excellent book out called
Complications
by Atul Gawande
discussing a lot of these matters, but in particular the book notes that practice really does make perfect.
But how do you know who is well seasoned? Do you always judge who to take care of you by how long they’ve been in practice? What does “best” really mean? This is a hard question. Mortality rates, for example, may not be a good indicator. Some specialists only treat the patients that others can’t handle, and so, naturally, even though they are the best in the world, their rates might not be the best. Sometimes your choice may be dictated by other considerations. If there are two possible specialists, one is a man and the other is a woman, then sometimes people care about that.
It isn’t clear how we can best help. We don’t want to inadvertently steer you away from a brilliant doctor just because his or her mortality rate appears too high. What do you think, and what would you like to see made available on the web when you are searching for doctors?
Summary
At the end of the day, all these questions are about how you find the information you need. They are deceptively simple. If they were about restaurants, they would be trivial. But they are actually matters of life and death in the extreme and quality of life in the common case. In short, they matter profoundly.
I’d like to say that we have all the answers. But we don’t. Mostly, at the moment, what we have is questions and
we’d love to hear from you
.
Update:
New contact link.
Google Pack cures the PC blues
March 27, 2007
Posted by Jesse Savage, Product Manager
Google Pack makes it easy to setup and protect your PC, and now we've added two new applications to make your PC even safer: Symantec's Norton Security Scan, which detects and removes viruses, and PC Tools' Spyware Doctor Starter Edition, a top-rated anti-spyware utility. Both are free and include automatic protection updates with no paid subscription required.
We've also substantially updated our screensaver. Now you can turn your computer into a digital picture frame that displays pictures from photo feeds—continuously updated streams of photos from the web. Many of your favorite photo-sharing sites support them already, so it's easy to keep in touch with your friends and family this way.
We think you'll enjoy the improvements, so call in the Google haz-mat crew to spiff up your PC.
Get the Google Pack for your PC today
.
Walking, Talking, Searching, Finding.
March 27, 2007
Posted by Yael Shacham, Product Manager, Mobile Team
For the last few weeks, some of our users have been test-driving our new mobile search and providing us with feedback so we can make it better. Now, we've actually been using your feedback to improve our mobile search since 2001. But the steps we've taken recently have everyone here pretty excited, as they increase the power of our search technology, helping you get the answers you need with minimal effort and distraction.
Starting today, we're making our new mobile search openly available, so
everyone can take it for a spin
. The next time you visit Google.com on your phone, you'll see a link that will take you to a mobile search experience that's more tailored to your needs and enables you to:
Get the information you care about, right from your homepage.
Because it can be difficult to manage small screens and small keypads, and because mobile search is often more about seeking specific information than browsing for extended periods, we've made it possible to add the information you're interested in directly to the mobile homepage. Ranging from movie listings to stock-market updates to website feeds or news snippets, these gadgets can be added with a simple click. You can then reorder, replace, or modify your gadgets however you like.
Get the answer you want with an absolute minimum of clicks.
No one likes having to click on link after link to get the information they need. With our new mobile search UI, you'll never be more than a click or two away from the answer that you're after. One of the ways we've made this possible is to remember your recent search locations to serve relevant local results in subsequent searches—no need to retype the location every time; just select your location from the dropdown menu. Once you've entered a location, try searching for [movies] to see top movies playing in your area. Clicking on one of those movies directs you straight to the movie showtimes; one more click and you can even purchase tickets.
Get to the results that best fit what you're looking for.
We realize that when you're on the go, you usually just want an answer to your query, rather than everything and the kitchen sink. So we're continually refining our algorithm-based search to intelligently produce the results you want. You won't need to sift through both mobile and regular web results, or specify your search type—local, image, web, etc.—as our new search experience will offer you results based on the nature of the query itself. So if you search for [bbc] on your device, you'll get a link to the mobile-friendly BBC website. Search for [us post office], and you'll get listings for the branches that are closest to your set location, and so on. No extra stuff that gets between you and the information you need.
So break out your phones, head to Google.com, and give our new mobile search experience a whirl. And, of course, don't forget to
tell us what you think
.
Flying high with Google SMS
March 26, 2007
Posted by Deepak Sethi, Software Engineer, Mobile Team
Ever spent 15 minutes on the phone shouting answers at the automated airline attendant while rushing to the airport? How cool would it be to get real-time flight info just by sending a quick text message? Well, now you can, using
Google SMS
.
Simply text your flight number to 466453 (‘GOOGLE’ on most mobile devices), and the status information will be sent back to you. Or text a specific airline name, and Google will send back the main phone number to call.
Google SMS is available for flights departing or arriving in the U.S., and all of the information is provided by flightstats.com. And as always, it’s free. Give it a try, and
let us know what you think
.
The wisdom of orkut
March 26, 2007
Posted by Natalie Schwartz, orkut product team
Wish you could use the wisdom of crowds to help make decisions and get all your
questions answered? Well, starting today you can post polls and discover the
wisdom of
orkut
!
Now all you orkut users can create and post polls in any community that you are a member of. Just click a button in your favorite community, type in your question, and add pictures (if you like), and voila!—community members can
vote and leave comments on your question of choice.
Having trouble deciding where to go to spend your holiday weekend, who to vote for in the next election, or how to solve a tough brain teaser? Login to orkut and see what your orkut friends think! You might not see this right away in your favorite communities, but the feature will be rolling out to everyone soon.
Dog Day at Kirkland
March 23, 2007
Posted by Tiffany Timmons-Regan, Facilities Service Manager
A
big round of paws to our Kirkland, Washington, office for hosting the First Annual Dog Day today. The local landlord does not allow dogs in the co-tenant building, so we planned a special day and received approval for the first ever dog party in Kirkland. Eighteen Dooglers—ranging from the smallest a Shih Tzu named Cino and a Lhasa Apso named Pooh, to the largest, Ronin, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, and Squirt, a Bernese Mountain Dog—showed up to enjoy a day of activities and meeting other canine pals.
They celebrated the day with doggie massage and acupressure (woof, woof), were pampered by a mobile grooming team, experienced a dog whisperer, and survived a dog training lesson. Of course, we held a "Best in Show" contest to recognize the smallest dog, largest dog, and best trick. No AKC (American Kennel Club) rules here, just some minor Google-imposed rules.
Each Doogler received a welcome bag filled with their very own Google security badge, fresh organic treats, Bully Sticks, tennis ball, travel poop bag kit, emergency pet evacuation sign (for home), and flyers for area service providers (grooming, day camps, natural foods, etc). It was a great day for Kirkland Dooglers, and we look forward to another day for the dogs.
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