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Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google culture
More spring cleaning
September 28, 2012
Technology offers so many opportunities to help improve users’ lives. This means it is really important to focus or we end up doing too much with too little impact. So today we’re winding down a bunch more features—bringing the total to nearly 60 since we started our “spring” clean
last fall
.
AdSense for Feeds
was designed to help publishers earn revenue from their content by placing ads on their RSS feeds. Starting October 2, we’ll begin to retire this feature—and on December 3 we’ll close it. Publishers can continue to use FeedBurner URLs powered by Google, so they won’t need to redirect subscribers to different URLs. For more information visit the
AdSense Help Center
.
Classic Plus
is a Google Search feature that lets people upload or select images to use as a background on Google.com. Users won’t be able to upload new pictures starting from October 16, and we'll turn the service off in November 2012. You'll continue to have access to any images you've uploaded.
Google storage
in Picasa and Drive will be consolidated over the next few months, so users will have five GB of free storage across both services. If you’re paying for storage, your free storage will now be counted towards your total. So if you buy a 100GB plan, it will give you 100GB of
total
storage instead of adding to what you already had. We believe this approach will make it much easier for users. For both free and paid storage, people at or near their current storage limits will have the same amount of storage after this change.
Spreadsheet Gadgets
were designed to allow people to add customized features to Google Spreadsheets. But most popular gadgets have now been added directly into
charts in spreadsheets
. So we will slowly start turning off Gadgets in Spreadsheets next year.
Starting on October 15, we'll stop issuing and displaying
Google News Badges
, as well as showing
Recommended Sections
. People can still tailor their Google News experience by adding custom sections or adjusting the frequency with which news sources appear.
We've
merged
Insights for Search
into a revamped
Google Trends
. You can now see search trends and compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties in a single place:
google.com/trends
. We will no longer support Trends for Websites, which allowed people to compare traffic to and audiences of different websites.
Places Directory
was an Android app that helped people find nearby places of interest. We've removed the app from Google Play and are taking down the Places Directory site because users can find everything in Google Maps for Mobile, which offers a much better user experience.
We introduced
+1 Reports in Webmaster Tools
to help publishers measure +1 activity on their pages. Given that webmasters now use
Social Reports
in
Google Analytics
to get a wider view of social activity (including +1’s), we'll be discontinuing the stand-alone +1 Reports on November 14. Measuring social media remains a priority for Google Analytics, so stay tuned for future improvements.
We want people to have a beautifully simple experience when using Google. These changes will enable us to focus better so that we can do more to help improve the products that millions of people use multiple times a day.
Posted by Yossi Matias, Senior Engineering Director
More renewable energy for our data centers
September 26, 2012
We announced our
commitment to carbon neutrality
back in 2007, and since then we’ve been finding ways to
power our operations
with as much renewable energy as possible. In our latest step toward this end, we just signed an agreement with the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) to green the energy supply to our
Oklahoma data center
with 48 MW of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project in Oklahoma, which is expected to come online later this year.
We’ve been working with GRDA, our local utility, to procure additional renewable energy since we “plugged in” our data center in 2011, and in February of 2012, GRDA approached us about purchasing power from Canadian Hills. In conjunction with the electricity GRDA already supplies Google to operate its data center, Google will pay GRDA a premium to purchase renewable energy generated by Canadian Hills. This brings the total amount of renewable energy for which Google has contracted to over 260 MW.
This agreement is a milestone for GRDA because it’s their first-ever wind energy project. It’s also a milestone for Google because it’s a little different from the previous Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)
we’ve signed
, where we agreed to buy the energy directly from the developer who built the wind farm. This agreement, by contrast, marks the first time we’ve partnered with a utility provider to increase the amount of renewable energy powering one of our data centers.
Although both options can make sense depending on the circumstances, we’re excited about this collaboration because it makes the most of our respective strengths: utilities like GRDA are best positioned to integrate renewable energy into their generation mix and to deliver power; we’re a growing company with a corporate mandate to use clean energy for our operations in a scalable way. We’ve been working closely with all of our utility partners to find ways to source renewables directly, and we look forward to working with other suppliers to deliver clean energy to our data centers.
Posted by Gary Demasi, Director, Global Infrastructure team
Dive into the Great Barrier Reef with the first underwater panoramas in Google Maps
September 25, 2012
Today we’re adding the very first underwater panoramic images to Google Maps, the next step in our quest to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world. With these vibrant and stunning photos you don’t have to be a scuba diver—or even know how to swim—to explore and experience six of the ocean’s most incredible living coral reefs. Now, anyone can become the next virtual Jacques Cousteau and dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.
Get up close and personal with sea turtles at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef
Starting today, you can use Google Maps to find a
sea turtle swimming among a school of fish
,
follow a manta ray
and
experience the reef at sunset
—just as I did on my first dive in the Great Barrier Reef last year. You can also find out much more about this reef via the
World Wonders Project
, a website that brings modern and ancient world heritage sites online.
At Apo Island, a volcanic island and marine reserve in the Philippines, you can see an
ancient boulder coral
, which may be several hundred years old. And in the middle of the Pacific, in Hawaii, you can
join snorkelers in Oahu’s Hanauma Bay
and drift over the vast coral reef at Maui's
Molokini crater
.
We’re partnering with
The Catlin Seaview Survey
, a major scientific study of the world’s reefs, to make these amazing images available to millions of people through the Street View feature of Google Maps. The Catlin Seaview Survey used a specially designed underwater camera, the
SVII
, to capture these photos.
The Catlin Seaview Survey team on location on the Great Barrier Reef, encountering a manta ray
Whether you’re a marine biologist, an avid scuba diver or a landlocked landlubber, we encourage you to dive in and explore the ocean with Google Maps. Check out our
complete underwater collection
, featuring a
Google+ underwater Hangout
from the Great Barrier Reef. And you can always explore more imagery from around the world by visiting
maps.google.com/streetview
.
Explore more underwater images
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Earth (and snorkeling enthusiast)
(Cross-posted on the
Lat Long blog
)
Celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship with the new Google for Entrepreneurs
September 24, 2012
Startups and entrepreneurs have the power to build technologies and creative solutions that transform the world and move us forward. Innovation is happening everywhere: There are approximately
400 million entrepreneurs across 54 countries
, and 69 million early-stage entrepreneurs offering new products and services. As Google turns 14 this month, we’re celebrating this creative spirit and officially launching
Google for Entrepreneurs
, the umbrella for our several dozen programs and partnerships around the world that support startups and entrepreneurs.
Our focus is threefold:
Partnerships with strong organizations that serve entrepreneurs in local communities
Google-led programs to bring our teams and our tools directly to entrepreneurs
Placing relevant Google tools in the hands of startups as they are getting off the ground and ready to scale
We’re already on a roll, with current projects ranging from support for the
annual journey of entrepreneurship
through India by train, to partnering with a number of accelerator and incubator programs around the world, like
iHub
in Kenya and
Le Camping
in France. And, this week, we’re rolling out our newest partnership: teaming up with
Women 2.0
to bring their Founder Friday events to more cities. These events bring together current and aspiring female entrepreneurs once a month to connect with mentors and one another to build community. We’re partnering to launch Founder Fridays in Detroit, New Orleans, Sao Paulo and Moscow over the next year.
To celebrate both our birthday and the spirit of entrepreneurship that’s helped get us where we are today, we are hosting our first annual Google for Entrepreneurs Week, which will bring together more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and Googlers around the world. We kicked off over the weekend with a
Startup Weekend
event hosted at the Google Ventures Startup Lab in Mountain View, Calif., where Bay Area entrepreneurs came together to create their own startups in 54 hours. Over the course of the next week, Googlers in 28 cities across 13 countries will be hosting an event in their communities to bring their passion and expertise to local entrepreneurs. We’re teaming with a number of partners to make this happen, including the
Idea Village
in New Orleans,
Communitech
in Waterloo,
Tetuan Valley
in Wroclaw, the
Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship
in Johannesburg and the
Council Bluffs Chamber of Commerce in Iowa
.
For more on these existing programs and to stay connected on upcoming events, visit google.com/entrepreneurs and
follow us on G+
.
Posted by Mary Grove, Head of Global Entrepreneurship Outreach
Google News turns 10
September 22, 2012
Google News launched on September 22, 2002—exactly a decade ago.
Inspired by the widespread interest in news after the September 11 attacks, we invested in technology to help people search and browse news relevant to them. Google News broke new ground in news aggregation by gathering links in real time, grouping articles by story and ranking stories based on the editorial opinions of publishers worldwide. Linking to a diverse set of sources for any given story enabled readers to easily access different perspectives and genres of content. By featuring opposing viewpoints in the same display block, people were encouraged to hear arguments on both sides of an issue and gain a more balanced perspective.
In the last ten years, Google News has grown to 72 editions in 30 languages, and now draws from more than 50,000 news sources. The technology also powers Google’s news search. Together, they connect 1 billion unique users a week to news content.
Google News today
As we have scaled the service internationally, we have added new features (
Local News
,
Personalization
,
Editors’ Picks
,
Spotlight
,
Authorship
,
Social Discussions
), evolved our
design
, embraced
mobile
and run ancillary experiments (
Fast Flip
,
Living Stories
,
Timeline
). In parallel, we have monitored our quality and challenged our engineers to improve the technology under the hood—increase freshness, group news better, rank stories more accurately, personalize with more insight and streamline the infrastructure.
Take a look back at the past decade in Google News through the top stories from each year and a few notable features that have launched in the interim:
It’s undeniable that the online news landscape has changed immensely. Smartphones and social networks have transformed how news is accessed and sourced, and shifted the relationship between readers and authors. Open journalism is the norm, and aggregation by humans and machines is an integral part of the ecosystem. New technologies such as
Hangouts on Air
have the potential to connect users, journalists and opinion makers and transform how stories are discussed.
Opportunities abound, and we are excited for where we can take this product in the next decade. While change is inevitable, one thing remains the same: our mission is to bring you the news you want, when you need it, from a diverse set of sources.
Posted by Krishna Bharat, Distinguished Scientist and Founder, Google News
(Cross-posted on the
Google News blog
)
Arts and entertainment take the stage at our most recent Big Tent
September 21, 2012
What happens when you bring together the head of the Metropolitan Opera, YouTube creators, Comedy Central and Justin Bieber’s manager to discuss the Internet’s impact on arts and culture?
In partnership with the
NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment
, our
Big Tent
in New York City, held this week, fostered a constructive and sometimes challenging conversation that saw more opportunities than challenges for artists through the Internet and technology.
While the speakers recognized the disruptive force of the Internet, they also saw the possibilities that technology creates for artists of all stripes to connect with audiences and tell stories in creative ways. As
Scooter Braun
, manager to artists including Justin Bieber, said, “I don’t think the music industry has changed as much as people think it has. It starts with music. All we have to do today is study interaction, which is the same thing we’ve always had to do.”
Many speakers saw the Internet as essential to their own creative endeavors. YouTube creators like
Michelle Phan
,
Issa Rae
and
Julia Nunes
all used online platforms to launch their careers.
Newsweek Daily Beast’s art and design critic
Blake Gopnik
, while seeing benefits to new cultural platforms like
Google Art Project
, reminded the audience of the importance of appreciating the space that contextualizes a work of art. His message of the communality and shared experience of viewing art live was one that resonated with speakers from the performing arts who stressed that the live experience could not be replicated or replaced by technology.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt made a surprise appearance and emphasized the power of mobile and new platforms to change the way we live. He highlighted how the Internet has led to an increase in content and lower costs of distribution. One of the accompanying challenges, he noted, is how, in this shift to abundant content and cheaper distribution, business models adapt to build audiences and deliver value.
The afternoon ended with drinks under a literal big tent, hosted by Cirque du Soleil, which launched
Movi.Kanti.Revo
—a new sensory Chrome experiment—to close out the day.
Each Big Tent gives us the opportunity to engage with our audience on the impact of the Internet and society. Our next event is on innovation and entrepreneurship in Seoul, South Korea. Keep up with us at
www.google.com/+googlebigtent
.
Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, Europe Middle East and Africa
Hanging out for Jewish-Arab dialogue in Israel
September 21, 2012
Despite the fact that Israeli Arab and Jewish youth live in the same country and even study at the same universities, they often grow up without meeting. When tensions rise in the region, this lack of mutual understanding can lead to stereotyping, hostility and even violence.
We believe the Internet can help break down these barriers. In honor of today’s 30th annual International Day of Peace, we’re partnering with the
Peres Center for Peace
, a non-profit organization founded by the President of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Shimon Peres
. The center promotes cooperation and peacebuilding between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel as well as between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Together, we’ll be holding a series of Hangouts on Google+ designed to enable dialogue between Israeli Arab and Jewish students. “Hanging Out for Peace” is a six-month project that will involve nearly 150 Israeli university students, women and men, with an equal number of Arabs and Jews. Students will be divided into mixed Jewish and Arab ‘circles’, matched with other students who study the same subject at university.
The circles will meet via Hangouts on Google+, led by instructors from the Peres Center, and will undertake online and offline projects related to the circle’s area of academic focus. After a series of Hangouts, the students will meet face to face, present the projects they’ve developed to the larger group of participants and discuss issues that arose during their work together.
The Internet provides a perfect platform for dialogue and cooperation. It can help overcome
physical barriers
and connect people from
different cultures
who have shared interests and common values. We’re excited to see how this project develops and hope that, in a small way, it will help foster coexistence and understanding between Israeli Jews and Arabs and, in the future, build bridges between other communities, too.
Posted by Doron Avni, Head of Policy, Israel
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