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Google blogging in 2010
December 31, 2010
On the last day of 2010, it’s time for us to reflect on the past year of Google blogging. This year, we published 454 posts (including this one) on the Official Google Blog—7 percent more than 2009. Those posts had an astonishing number of readers: 24,768,052 unique visitors stopped by this year, more than 70 percent more than last year. (The huge increase is mostly due to this year’s April Fools' post, which benefited from a link in a
prominent location
; more on that below.) People come to the blog from all around the world; the top countries sending visitors in 2010 were the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Germany, but readers came from dozens of other places as well.
The top posts this year run the gamut from policy changes to product arrivals:
A different kind of company name
- 10,604,183 unique pageviews, more than 30 percent of the year’s total. Our April Fools' Day post about changing our company name to “Topeka” had a crazy-high number of pageviews, in large part because there was a link to our humble blog on Google’s homepage that day. That’s a lot of eyes!
A new approach to China
- 924,335. We post about our new approach to business in China; we will no longer censor search results on Google.cn.
Introducing Google Chrome OS
- 653,803. This post introducing our open source operating system was published in July 2009 (and was the top post of 2009), but continued to draw readers this year. (This month, we
launched a pilot program
for Chrome OS notebooks.)
Think big with a gig: our experimental fiber network
- 483,399. We announce our plan to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.
Update on Google Wave
- 469,164. We share the news that we don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product.
Introducing Google Places
- 341,136. The Local Business Center (the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google) becomes Google Places.
Announcing Google TV: TV meets web. Web meets TV
- 314,991. At Google I/O, we unveil a new experience for television that combines your familiar TV with the freedom and power of the Internet.
Our new search index: Caffeine
- 271,393. Our new indexing system provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and is the largest collection of web content we‘ve offered.
A new approach to China: an update
- 228,591. In March, we stop censoring our search services on Google.cn, redirecting users from there to Google.com.hk for uncensored search in simplified Chinese. (Later, we
introduce a landing page
for Chinese users that links to Google.com.hk.)
Introducing Nexus S, with Gingerbread
- 220,482. We introduce Gingerbread, the latest version of the Android platform, and Nexus S, the next Android device from the Nexus line of mobile products.
Other popular posts included
Google’s new look
, the
ability to change the background image on your Google homepage
,
Google Instant
, a
playable PAC-MAN doodle
,
the ability to call phones from Gmail
and—oh, that—
cars that drive themselves
.
In 2010, we kept up with our
search
and
apps
series, and introduced a few new ones: about
small businesses using Google’s products
,
updates from YouTube
,
great Google stories from users
and a
bunch of new “Search On” videos
. We also shared our
thoughts
on the
future
of
display
advertising
. We had fun with
giant photo collages
and
other wall art
, got into the
spirit
of
the
World
Cup
and shared a
new kind of musical experience
built for the modern browser. We shared imagery of
Haiti after the January earthquake
and the
Gulf of Mexico after the oil spill
. We also talked about how Google Earth played a role in the
discovery of a rare hominid ancestor
in South Africa, celebrated
quite
a
few
milestones
, and gave you a glimpse of the
bzzz-iest Googlers on campus
at the Hiveplex.
In December, we revamped our
blog directory
so you can more easily find the exact place to get the news you’re looking for; you can sort by category, language or region. We revamped our
Twitter directory
too, and added new directories for our
Facebook pages
and
YouTube channels
.
Speaking of Twitter, this was our second year of tweeting officially on @
google
. We crossed the 2,000-tweet mark earlier this month and now have more than 2.6 million followers. Our Twitter family grew by leaps and bounds as well—you can now follow Google on
more than 100 Twitter accounts
posting news of all kinds, from API updates for developers to product news in countries around the world. Twitter was also our biggest referrer to this blog in 2010 (excluding Google search, Google properties such as
google.com/places
and Feedburner)—followed closely by Facebook.
As always, we’re grateful to all of our readers for keeping up with us over the year, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more news in 2011!
Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor
Battle of the Demos: Musical Holiday Edition
December 24, 2010
Nothing brings out holiday spirit like caroling around town or sharing a good time with friends. But when you combine both of those fun activities with Google technology, Weezer, Greyson Chance, and Demo Slam, you get
Battle of the Demos: Musical Holiday Edition
.
This winter season,
Weezer
and
Greyson Chance
stepped to into the
Demo Slam
arena to show the world their most creative tech demos. We know they can both sing, but who will win in a battle of technology?
Spending his Christmas home in Oklahoma City, Greyson Chance figured he could combine Google Local Search and caroling to spread some musical cheer around town:
Weezer is known for their adoring fans (well, at least one adoring fan authoring this post). Check out this slam that gets the whole crowd involved:
Head over to
demoslam.com
to vote and help decide whether a voice search performed by 3,000 people or crooning through the streets of Oklahoma City will reign supreme.
Posted by Laura Melahn, Weezer Fan Club and Amanda Kelly, Greyson Chance Cheer Squad
Dashing through the snow... with NORAD and Google
December 23, 2010
(Cross-posted from the
Lat Long Blog
)
Every Christmas Eve, children all over the world ask themselves—and their parents—questions about Santa’s magical journey.
How does Santa visit so many children in one night? Will he eat the cookies I left out? How does he fit all those presents into his sleigh?
These childhood mysteries are part of what makes the Santa tradition so special.
There’s one timeless question that we’re proud to say we can help answer:
Where in the world is Santa at this very moment?
Thanks in part to recent advances in warp-speed GPS technology and some very clever elves (elveneering?)
NORAD Tracks Santa
is once again prepped and ready to go.
Starting tomorrow, December 24 at 2:00am EST, visit
www.noradsanta.org
to follow Santa as he journeys around the world delivering presents to children in more than 200 countries and territories. There are a few different ways to find the jolly old man in his unmistakable red suit over the course of the day, so feel free to track him using any of the following methods:
See Santa on a Google Map:
On your home computer or laptop, visit
www.noradsanta.org
and choose your preferred language. You’ll see a large Google Map on the page displaying Santa’s current location and his next stop. Click the video icons to watch
“Santa Cam” videos
, and click the gift icons to learn more about each city.
Watch Santa fly with the Google Earth Plug-in:
From
www.noradsanta.org
, click on the link
Track Santa in Google Earth
. You'll see Santa steering his sleigh right on the webpage. If you don't have the Google Earth plug-in, you can get ready by
downloading
it ahead of time.
Follow Santa on your phone:
Track Santa from your mobile phone by opening
Google Maps for mobile
and searching for [santa]. Or, visit
m.noradsanta.org
on your phone’s browser.
Subscribe to his YouTube channel:
Santa’s home on YouTube is at
http://www.youtube.com/noradtrackssanta
. That’s where you can find videos from his journey throughout the night.
Get real-time information about Santa’s location:
Use Google’s
Realtime Search
to get updates from social networks, news and micro-blogs like Twitter at
@noradsanta
, and keep up with news about his journey on this
Facebook page
.
For any techie questions you might have, we’ve also put together some helpful
tips and tricks
about all the cool ways you can experience Santa’s journey. Now that you know how to follow Saint Nick on Christmas Eve, it’s our tradition to tell the story of how this all started...
NORAD
(North American Aerospace Defence Command)
first began to track Santa
in 1955 when a misprinted advertisement in a Sears & Roebuck catalogue mistakenly led callers expecting a Santa-hotline to the NORAD commander-in-chief's telephone. Embracing the spirit of the season, NORAD used its satellite and radar capabilities to offer callers sleigh-location updates, and has
tracked Santa's whereabouts
on Christmas Eve ever since. Then in 2004, Google started tracking Santa on Google Earth as a 20% project, which in 2007 grew into a partnership with NORAD, adding the mapping technology of
Google Maps
and
Google Earth
to the NORAD experience. Over the years, other Google teams have also joined in the holiday fun (
YouTube
, Google Voice’s
www.SendACallFromSanta.com
and
Google SketchUp
).
As we approach this year’s Christmas Eve adventure, Santa was able to take a break from the preparations to visit the New York Stock Exchange this past Monday. His helpful elves kept everything at the North Pole on schedule while folks from Google and NORAD attended the Closing Bell ceremony, and stood alongside Santa from Macy’s going over last minute details about tomorrow’s big ride.
Santa with NORAD, Google and members of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation (that’s me, the tall guy in the back row clapping)
So don’t forget to visit
www.noradsanta.org
tomorrow morning starting at 2:00am EST when Santa embarks on his flight. From all of us here at Google, happy holidays and here’s to a very happy New Year!
Posted by Brian McClendon, Original Google Engineering Elf
Investing in New York
December 22, 2010
Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000—a scrappy, highly-caffeinated sales “team.” After moving to a larger office in Times Square, in 2006 we relocated to our current home in Chelsea, at
111 Eighth Avenue
—a former Port Authority building. In June of 2008, we took additional space in the Chelsea Market building at 75 Ninth Avenue. Now we have more than 2,000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering—and we’re
hiring across the board
.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve closed a deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue (also known as 76 Ninth Avenue). As part of the deal, we’ve retained Taconic Management Company to continue the leasing oversight services and management of the building on our behalf, providing the same level of customer service the building’s tenants have come to expect. We believe that this is a great real estate investment in a thriving neighborhood and a fantastic city.
Like the city, our New York office is a melting pot of cultures and ideas—it’s home to Googlers from more than 35 countries who speak more than 40 languages. They live in the five boroughs and spread across the tri-state area. We’re excited to continue to
build our presence
there.
Posted by David Radcliffe, VP Real Estate and Workplace Services
Trip report: Google and YouTube in Pakistan 2010
December 21, 2010
Earlier this month, a team from Google and YouTube went to Pakistan to explore business and content opportunities, following up on Google’s
Clinton Global Initiative commitment to Pakistan
and to sponsor and participate in Pakistan’s first
International Youth Conference and Festival
. It’s hard to imagine a country more at the nexus of geo-politics today than Pakistan, and our team learned a lot about the state of the Pakistani technology, media and non-profit sectors.
Internet connectivity in Pakistan is quite low—estimates put penetration at around 10%—but opportunities for growth are evident. For one thing, broadband costs are quite cheap compared to other parts of the world—around $13/month. Smartphone usage is also on the rise, and there are a growing number of Pakistani developers who are creating mobile applications for sale both in Pakistan and abroad. Around 60% of Pakistanis have a mobile phone, and their average bill is around $3/month. Not surprisingly, SMS is one of the primary means of communication in Pakistan.
One of the keys to bringing more Pakistanis online is the amount of local Pakistani content available on the Internet. There are some great examples so far: for instance,
Coke Studio
, a “fusion” music project sponsored by Coke that features popular Pakistani musicians, grew so popular on YouTube last summer that it was the 11th-most viewed
channel
on the site. Dozens of news organizations have begun to use YouTube as a global distribution platform as well, reaching not only Pakistanis online but the diaspora abroad. The Pakistani media is young and voracious—it was just eight years ago that the government opened up the airwaves to allow non-state media channels to exist, and in that short time the media has grown to become an important player in the public discourse in Pakistan, despite occasional crackdowns from authorities. Citizen media has also played an increasingly big role in Pakistan: for example many Pakistanis used cellphone cameras to document the devastation wrought by
the floods
in Pakistan last summer.
Google.org granted $1 million to Pakistani
flood relief
in September, localized crisis response tools, and launched a
flood relief landing page
. On our trip we met with several non-profits who are doing incredible work to help the affected citizens get back on their feet. Our products, in particular
Google MapMaker
, proved to be of use to flood relief agencies for tracking development in the wake of the tragedy. Over countless cups of hot chai and mixed grilled barbecues, we heard stories of ordinary Pakistanis using Google technology to document the flood and connect with one another during the crisis.
Pakistan’s future no doubt lies with its youth—an incredible 62% of Pakistanis are under the age of 25. Perhaps the highlight of our trip was the International Youth Conference we participated in, which was run by an organization called
Khudi
. Khudi was founded by the dynamic
Maajid Nawaz
, a former extremist who changed his views towards moderate Islam and has since devoted his life to educating young people on freedom of expression and anti-extremism (Nawaz also
spoke at
Google Zeitgeist this year). It was inspiring to meet leaders like Nawaz who are committed to emboldening Pakistan’s younger generations to use the web to bring Pakistan to the rest of the world, and to give the rest of the world a more complete picture of Pakistan. In this way we saw an opportunity for technology to not only foster economic development, but also to break down borders in the region. We asked a few of the Pakistani leaders we met with to talk about Pakistan’s future, and here’s what they had to say.
This was the largest delegation of Googlers ever to visit Pakistan, and we’re looking forward to continued engagement in the region.
Posted by Steve Grove, Head of News & Politics, YouTube and John Lyman, Google.org
Some cool Android tips and tricks
December 21, 2010
Last week, I sent a note to my team with some of my favorite tips and apps for
Nexus S, which features Android 2.3, Gingerbread
. A lot of Googlers liked it, so we thought some of you might enjoy it as well. (Note: Many of the tips are specific to Android 2.3.)
Tips
Visual cue for scrolling
: When you are in a scrollable list (like your Gmail inbox) and you reach the end of the list it shows an orange hue—a visual cue that you can’t scroll anymore.
Notification bar icons (Wi-Fi, network coverage bars, etc.)
: Turn green when you have an uninhibited connection to Google, white when you don't. Hint: if you're in a hotel or airport using Wi-Fi, the bars won't turn green until you launch the browser and get past the captive portal.
Voice actions
: Tell your phone what to do by pressing the microphone icon next to the search box on the home screen, or long press the magnifying glass. You can tell it to send an email or text message (“send text to mom, see you for pizza at 7”), call someone ("call mom"), navigate somewhere (“navigate to pizza”), or listen to music ("listen to Mamma Mia").
Find things you’ve downloaded from your browser
: Your downloads are now neatly collected in a Downloads manager, which you can find in the apps drawer.
Turn a Gallery stack into a slideshow
: In Gallery, when you are looking at a stack of photos, put two fingers on the stack and spread them. The stack spreads out and the pictures flow from one finger to the other, a moving slideshow that lets you see all of the photos.
Walk, don’t drive:
Once you’ve gotten directions within Google Maps, click on the walking person icon to get walking directions.
Easy text copy/paste from a webpage
: To copy/paste from a webpage, long press some text, drag the handles around to select the text you want to copy, and press somewhere in the highlighted region. To paste, simply long press a text entry box and select paste. Gmail is a bit different: you need to go to Menu > More > Select Text.
Turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot
: Go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Tethering & Portable Hotspot. (You may have to pay extra for this feature.)
Look at Maps in 3D
: With the
latest release of Google Maps
, you can now look at 3D maps. Tilt the map by sliding two fingers vertically up/down the screen, and rotate it by placing two fingers on the map and sliding in a circular motion, e.g., from 12 and 6 o’clock to 3 and 9.
Cool shutdown effect
: When you put the phone to sleep, you’ll see an animation that resembles an old cathode tube TV turning off.
Keyboard tricks
Shift+Key to capitalize a word
: In Gingerbread (and supported hardware), you can Shift+Key to capitalize a letter instead of going to a separate all caps keyboard.
Auto-complete
: The space bar lights up when auto-complete can finish a word.
Quick replace
: Tap on any previously typed word, then tap on a suggestion to automatically replace it with the suggested word.
Easy access to special characters (like numbers, punctuation)
: Press and hold any key to go to the special character keyboard. You can also press and hold the "," key for an extensive punctuation keyboard.
Applications
Angry Birds
: Popular game that lets you knock down blocks by slingshotting birds.
Astro
: Awesome file explorer app. Browse and access the directories on your phone, and take full advantage of its capabilities. Great if you’re a power user.
Chrome to Phone
: This one is really useful for Chrome users. You can send anything you browse on your computer to your phone. So if you are heading out to a restaurant or party and look up directions on your computer, just click the “send to phone” button (requires Chrome to Phone extension) and that exact page will open on your phone. Same with virtually any webpage.
Flash
: Install from Android Market to watch Flash videos embedded throughout the web. Runs even better on Gingerbread.
Fruit Ninja
: A juicy action game that tests your ability to smash flying fruit. A fun time-killer on the bus or train.
FXCamera
: Popular photo sharing app with slick effects and filters.
Google Maps
: Use your device as a GPS navigation system with free turn-by-turn voice guidance, and take advantage of other Google Maps features like Street View, Latitude and Places.
Instant Heart Rate
: Measure your heart rate using your camera.
Phoneanlyzr
: Track your phone usage: who you text most, call most, average call length distribution, etc.
RemoteDroid
: Control your computer from your phone. Gives you a mobile wireless mouse and keyboard. Great if you’re using your computer for music or movies.
Shazam
: Identifies virtually any song you are listening to.
SoundHound
: Record a snippet of a song and get it identified instantly. You can even hum (if you can carry a tune!).
Tango
: A free, high-quality video call app that works on both 3G and Wi-Fi. If your device has a front facing camera (e.g., Nexus S), you will love this app.
YouTube
: New UI. Plus, portrait-mode player, and view comments and drop-down box video information
Posted by Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Product Management
Latest from the Lab
December 21, 2010
Over the last couple of weeks, lots of apps have debuted on
Google Labs
, a laboratory where our more adventurous users can try our experimental products and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them. Teams at Google are gearing up to deliver more and more cool innovations to users, and this month alone, we’ve launched six new products on Google Labs. Here are the highlights of our recent releases.
App Inventor for Android
App Inventor for Android
makes it easier for people to access the capabilities of their Android phones and create apps for their personal use. Until now, it was only available to a group of people who requested and received invitations. Last week, we
announced
that App Inventor (beta) is now available to anyone with a Google account. Visit the
App Inventor
homepage to get set up and start building your own Android app—and be sure to share your App Inventor story on the
App Inventor user forum
!
Body Browser
Body Browser
is a demo app that allows you to visualize complex 3D graphics of the human body. It works in the latest beta version of
Google Chrome
and uses WebGL, a new standard that enables 3D experiences in the web browser without any plug-ins. Using Body Browser, you can explore different layers of human anatomy by moving the slider to rotate and zoom in on parts you are interested in. Not sure where something is? Try the search box. You can also share the exact scene you’re viewing by copying and pasting the corresponding URL.
DataWiki
DataWiki
is a wiki for structured data, extending the idea of a normal
wiki
to make it easy to create, edit, share and visualize structured data, and to interlink data formats to make them more understandable and useful. The project is inspired by the need to create customized data formats for
crisis response
, for example to quickly create a
person-finder
application after an earthquake, or share Internet and cellular phone
connectivity maps
from an affected area. DataWiki operates as a
REST
ful web-service, is built on AppEngine and is completely open source.
Google Books Ngram Viewer
Google Books Ngram Viewer
graphs and compares the historical usage of phrases based on the datasets comprised of more than 500 billion words and their associated volumes over time in about 5.2 million books. Last week, we released this visualization tool along with freely-downloadable phrase frequency
datasets
to help humanities research. You can find interesting example queries (e.g.,
“tofu” vs. “hot dog”
) and more information about the effort in our
blog post
.
Google Earth Engine
Google Earth Engine
, which we
announced
at the U.N. Climate Change Conference Cancun earlier this month, is a technology platform that enables scientists to do global-scale observation and measurement of changes in the earth's environment. It provides an unprecedented amount of satellite imagery and data online for the first time, as well as our extensive computing infrastructure—the Google “cloud”—to analyze the imagery. We’re excited about the initial use of Google Earth Engine to support efforts to stop global deforestation, but the platform can be used for a wide range of applications, from mapping water resources to ecosystem services. It’s part of our broader effort at Google to
build a more sustainable future
.
Google Shared Spaces
Google Shared Spaces
is an easy way for you to share mini-collaborative applications, like scheduling tools or games, with your friends or colleagues. By creating a Shared Space, you can share a gadget with whomever you want by simply sending the URL. Once your friends join the Shared Space, you can collaborate with them in real-time on the gadget, and you can chat with them, too. This product is built on some of the
technology used in Google Wave
.
Those experimental products have been developed by many teams across Google. Some products were born in 20% time, and some were built by start-up-like teams inside the company. But all of these products were created by passionate, small teams just because they cared about them so much.
You can find more Labs products on
googlelabs.com
. Please play with them and give us feedback. And stay tuned for experiments coming in the future.
Posted by Riku Inoue, Product Manager, Google Labs
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