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World Cup search trends: the final countdown
July 10, 2010
In the past two weeks of World Cup action, 16 teams have been narrowed down to just two—Spain and the Netherlands—who will face off in the World Cup final tomorrow. For both countries, there are high stakes: not only are the two sides contending for the title of best football team in the world, but this will be the first-ever Cup win for either team and Spain is in the finals for the first time. We took another look at the search data to see what people have been interested in during the round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals.
Some matches, of course, were more interesting to people than others—whether they were eagerly anticipated or just more nail-biting during play. Brazil, chosen as the champion in many an office pool, lost to the Netherlands in a quarterfinal upset. Perhaps it’s indicative of people’s disappointment in that match that
Felipe Melo
, who
gave up an own goal
and then was shown a red card in the 73rd minute with his country down 2-1, was
more searched-for
than
Robinho
, who made Brazil’s one goal in the match. Another favored South American team, Argentina, also lost in the quarterfinals, to Germany. It’s interesting to note that searches for that team’s two biggest names,
Lionel Messi
and coach Diego Maradona, have spiked in popularity with each match—and the player was usually more interesting to people than the coach. But over time—and after Messi’s skills failed to carry his team to the semis—
Maradona overtook Messi in search volume
. Clearly, his fate as Argentina coach in the future is more up for debate than Messi’s career (after all, the latter has a comfy year-round spot on FC Barcelona).
Controversy
continued to be
a major driver of search traffic. On June 27, Argentina’s first goal in their victorious match against Mexico, a
Carlos Tévez
header, was widely considered offsides (and therefore should have been disallowed). That same day, Germany beat England 4-1, although many say it should have been 4-2 thanks to a
Frank Lampard
goal that just barely made it into the net but wasn’t counted. Both of these calls brought the issue of
instant replay
to the forefront in an already controversial tournament.
Perhaps the most surprisingly exciting game was the quarterfinal match between Uruguay and Ghana. Ghana had several shots on goal in the last minutes of extra time, with the game tied 1-1. Uruguay’s
Luis Suárez
saved his team from a near-certain loss with a handball that earned him a red card (and
increased search traffic
). Uruguay went on to win in penalty kicks, and became the only South American country to make the semifinals. Searches for [penalty kick]
were at their highest
on the day of this game—they had also spiked on June 26, when USA’s
Landon Donovan
scored on a penalty kick against Ghana, and on June 29, the day of another quarterfinal match (between Japan and Paraguay) that also ended in penalty kicks.
Many fans, eager for semifinal predictions, turned to an unlikely source: a
“psychic” octopus
in a German zoo. Paul the octopus had successfully predicted the winner of each of his home country’s matches by selecting a tasty mussel from either side of a box marked by both teams’ flags. The day before Germany faced Spain in the semifinals, he chose the Spanish mussel—and searches for [
octopus
] skyrocketed. (Incidentally, he has
picked Spain to win
against the Netherlands on Sunday.) Searches were also high for
Carles Puyol
, the Spanish defender whose header won the match against Germany. Historically, he’s been one of the
least searched-for Spaniards
—and he continues to be behind stars like
David Villa
and
Fernando Torres
—but search volume for him in July is already
more than five times
as high as in June.
Villa still dominates search traffic amongst the Spanish players, and no wonder: he’s scored five of his team’s seven goals in the tournament and is a contender for the
Golden Boot
. Searches for Dutch players are a
bit more distributed
than for Spanish ones.
Arjen Robben
, who started the tournament in the spotlight in part due to injury, still has the most search volume overall, but
Wesley Sneijder
has caught up as the tournament’s gone on. Searches for him were higher than for Robben on June 19, when he scored his first goal in the tournament against Japan, and on July 2, when he scored both goals in the match against favored Brazil. Now Sneijder, like Villa, has five goals in six matches and is a front-runner for the Golden Boot. Clearly he’s been a surprise factor in this World Cup for many, including searchers!
For me—well, I’ve got
cava
in my fridge and my fingers are crossed for Paul’s prediction to come true. But whomever you’re rooting for, have fun watching
La Furia Roja
and the
Oranje
fight for the Cup on Sunday!
Posted by Emily Wood, Editor, Google blog team
Growing our appetite for geeky girl dinners
July 7, 2010
(Cross-posted from the
European Public Policy Blog
)
We’re always looking for opportunities to partner up with organizations that promote diversity and encourage women to excel in technology.
Girl Geek Dinners
is a world-wide initiative that does exactly that—it helps build communities of women who have a passion and interest in science, technology and other traditionally male-dominated fields by hosting social events around the world.
We recently sponsored the
Amsterdam Girl Geek Dinner
and I attended the event with my colleague Noha, who, like me, is a software engineer for Google in Zurich. At the dinner, we had the opportunity to meet and mingle with other women in the tech community and talk about what it’s like being a woman in the field of computer science. The keynote speaker at the event was renowned mathematician
Ionica Smeets
and I can’t imagine a woman more inspiring.
Google shares a similar goal to Girl Geeks—we want to make it possible for everyone to pursue careers in technology, regardless of gender. And, in our presentation at the event, we outlined our numerous initiatives to promote and support diversity in technology. We have various
scholarship programs
to help students to pursue their interests, excel in their studies and become leaders. And to encourage more female computer scientists to attend and participate in research conferences around the world, we also offer
travel and conference grants
in the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. You can learn more about our diversity programs,
here
.
Posted by Alexandra Alecu, Software Engineer
Life in a Day
July 6, 2010
Every day, 6.7 billion people view the world through their own unique lens. Imagine if there was a way to collect all of these perspectives, to aggregate and mold them into the cohesive story of a single day on earth.
Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of “Life in a Day,” a historic cinematic experiment that will attempt to do just that: document one day, as seen through the eyes of people around the world. On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a snapshot of your life on camera. You can film the ordinary -- a sunrise, the commute to work, a neighborhood soccer match, or the extraordinary -- a baby’s first steps, your reaction to the passing of a loved one, or even a marriage.
Kevin Macdonald, the Oscar-winning director of films such as
The Last King of Scotland
,
Touching the Void
and
One Day in September
, will then edit the most compelling footage into a feature documentary film, to be executive-produced by Ridley Scott, the director behind films like
Gladiator
,
Black Hawk Down
,
Thelma & Louise
,
Blade Runner
and
Robin Hood
. LG Electronics is supporting "Life in a Day" as a key part of its long-standing "Life’s Good" campaign and to support the creation of quality online content that can be shared and enjoyed by all.
The film will premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and if your footage makes it into the final cut, you’ll be credited as a co-director and may be one of 20 contributors selected to attend the premiere.
Want to take part? Here’s what to do.
1. Visit the “Life in a Day” channel and learn more about the project. Be sure to read through the steps you need to take to participate and the guidelines for creating your video(s). Also check out some of the sample videos for inspirational ideas.
2. On July 24, capture your day on camera.
3. Upload your footage to the “Life in a Day” channel any time before July 31.
Regardless of whether your footage makes it into the final film, your video(s) will live on on the
“Life in a Day” channel
as a time capsule that will tell future generations what it was like to be alive on July 24, 2010.
Posted by Tim Partridge, Product Marketing Manager, watching "Life in a Day"
trailer
Follow Team HTC-Columbia on Google Maps
July 6, 2010
As a former professional cyclist, nothing beats the thrill of being in the peloton and racing towards the finish line. Although I’ve traded in my cycling career for life as a Googler, I’m still a fan and enjoy watching my former teammates and friends battle in races like the
Tour de France
, which started on Saturday. While the cyclists were preparing to tackle the pave of Arrenberg and the Cols in the Alps, I got to thinking about ways that we can bring that experience to the hundreds of millions of fans who will be following the Tour de France over the next few weeks. Google is home to
many other cycling enthusiasts
, so we got together to work on ways to build a My Tracks-based gadget that will allow all the other fans to follow the action like never before.
The
My Tracks application
for Android phones lets you record and share your own outdoor activities, and now
Team HTC-Columbia
will use a special version of the app with
SRM
to transmit their telemetry and location in real-time as they make their way through the 3,642 kilometers of the Tour de France. The nine riders (sadly, now eight, as Adam Hanson was injured on Sunday) on Team HTC-Columbia are carrying HTC Legend phones with
ANT+
that use My Tracks to capture their location along with their power, heart rate, cadence and speed. On
www.google.com/mytrackstour
, you’ll see a Google Map showing the team members’ location on the course and a detailed
telemetry
report. You can observe how Michael Rogers’ heart rate spikes as he attacks the climbs in the Alps on Stage 9, see how many watts Mark Cavendish puts out in the sprint on the famous sprinters’ stage into Bordeaux, and see just how fast riders climb the famous
Col du Tourmalet
.
From the image above, you can see how Maxime Monfort took the lead during Stage 2 between Bruxelles and Spa yesterday. Right now, the riders are racing in Stage 3, which takes them across the border into France and you can follow all the latest action on
our website
or directly on
your own iGoogle page
.
The team also built a map gadget that is available for you to embed on your own website or blog. We’re also publishing an API that any web developer or broadcaster can use to build their own custom application or use to enhance the live television coverage. I'm excited about the potential for web developers and broadcasters to make use of the API and data in creative ways to help all the Tour de France followers (myself included!) get even closer to the action.
This project was the work of many Googlers in their 20% time, and as cycling fans ourselves, we’re happy to be able to share it with the world. We hope you enjoy this unique way of following Team HTC-Columbia over the next few weeks.
Posted by Dylan Casey, Product Manager
Google Apps highlights – 7/2/2010
July 2, 2010
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “
Google Apps highlights
" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
In the last couple of weeks, we added a set of new features to help you handle various file types more efficiently in Google Docs and Gmail, and new capabilities to help large complex organizations manage Google Apps. We also have some exciting news about new customers in the education sector.
Google Voice available for more users
Last week we were happy to open up
Google Voice for everyone in the U.S.
Now millions more people can get a phone number that rings all their phones, voicemail that works like email, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more. Google Voice isn’t ready for businesses and schools quite yet, but we’re exploring additional functionality for organizations.
View more file types right in your browser
Gmail already lets you view .pdf, .ppt and .tiff attachments in your browser without downloading these files to your computer, and last week we added support for
viewing .doc and .docx files
. Just click the “View” link next to the attachment in Gmail to see the file.
On Monday we also added the ability to view .pdf, .ppt, .doc and .docx files that you have in Google Docs
on mobile devices
. From your iPhone, iPad or Android device, you can quickly flip from page to page and pan/zoom within a page.
Optical character recognition (OCR) in Google Docs
You were already able to upload and share images and PDF files with Google Docs, and last week we launched a feature that
converts images of text into editable text
. JPEG, GIF, PNG and PDF files can be uploaded as editable Google documents with this feature. Supported languages include English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, with more languages and character sets on their way.
Support for Google Apps customers with multiple domains
Until last Wednesday, Google Apps customers with users at more than one domain (like bob@domain1.com and sue@domain2.com) had to manage Google Apps separately for each domain. Last week we added the ability for customers to
administer two or more domains together
. This feature also makes it much easier for employees to share information through Google Docs, Calendar and Sites with their counterparts in different divisions. For example, Brady Corporation is using this feature to streamline the use and administration of Google Apps across 88 domains!
Google Apps Innovation in the first half of 2010
Businesses using Google Apps not only
save money
, but also their employees get access to new features and functionality at a much faster pace than with conventional business technologies. We've launched over 50 improvements to Google Apps in the last six months, and last week we hosted a webcast to recap noteworthy recent updates for businesses, including more powerful search in Gmail, next-generation editors in Google Docs, Google Wave, the Apps Marketplace and more. If you missed the webcast, you can
watch it on YouTube
.
Who’s gone Google?
We’re thrilled about the news from
Colorado and Iowa
, both of which have opened the doors to Google Apps for teachers and students at schools state-wide, right on the heels of
Oregon’s decision
to use Google Apps at their schools, too.
We also wanted to shine the spotlight on a couple other new customers:
Brown University
and
Imagination
, an 500-employee marketing and communications agency based in the U.K. You can watch their stories here:
I hope you're making the most of these new features, whether you're using Google Apps with friends, family, coworkers or classmates. For more details and updates from the Apps team, head on over to the
Google Apps Blog
.
Update
on 7/7/2010
: Corrected information about Imagination.
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
CS4HS: helping high school teachers reach their potential
July 2, 2010
Computer science is a tough field to teach, especially at the high school level. Not only do you need to persuade teenagers that coding isn’t too geeky to attempt, but since CS is a growing field, it’s hard for teachers to keep up with all the latest techniques and computing tools. To help teachers face these challenges, we’re funding a program called Computer Science for High School (
CS4HS
). CS4HS is a workshop for high school and middle school computer science teachers that introduces new and exciting concepts in computing and how to teach them. The ultimate goals are to “train the trainer,” develop a thriving community of high school CS teachers, and spread the word about the awe and beauty of computing.
This summer, we’re funding 20 workshops at colleges across the U.S. and will sponsor another 14 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. If each workshop in the U.S. has an average of 20 teachers in attendance, and each of them teaches 90 students in a year*, that means that the workshops have the potential to make a difference for 36,000 students—an important start.
We had the chance to attend a CS4HS workshop in our own backyard this week.
UC Berkeley’s CS4HS
highlighted hands-on skills that teachers can take directly back to the classroom. Twenty local math and CS teachers had a chance to share tips and best practices around teaching CS, and created a solid foundation for a community. One of the most popular sessions over the two days was a demo of
Scratch
, a popular programming language geared towards K-12 students that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music and art. Attendees also had the opportunity to form the Golden Gate chapter of the
Computer Science Teacher Association
(CSTA).
Although the summer workshops are just getting started, they're already making a difference for teachers. Emmanuel Onyeador, who teaches AP CS at Oakland Technical High School, told us: “CS4HS is the missing link—as computer science teachers, you find yourself isolated in your classroom. When I sit here I find that we’re all talking about the same issues and the same type of students. What I bring back to my classroom will make a big difference.”
You can view a list of all 20 U.S. CS4HS workshops and find more information about the program at
www.cs4hs.com
.
UC Berkeley CS4HS participant
s
*according to the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education
Posted by Mary Radomile, Education Program Manager
Finding soccer stats with the Google Search Appliance
July 1, 2010
For the past few weeks, many football fans have been living and breathing just one thing: the World Cup. When they’re not watching on the matches, many people have flocked to FIFA.com, the source for the latest info on players, standings and scores.
With all these people looking for the latest and greatest on their favorite sport, we’re pleased that FIFA has chosen the
Google Search Appliance
to power search on their website. With the GSA, FIFA.com can provide universal search across all types of content. Try searching for “Messi” from FIFA.com’s search box, and you’ll see all kinds of data: statistics, news results, images and videos—all pertaining to Messi.
For more on the Google Search Appliance and how FIFA is putting it to work, check out our post on the
Enterprise blog
.
Posted by Vijay Koduri, Product Marketing Manager, Enterprise Search
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