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Follow Santa live on Google Santa Tracker
December 24, 2012
The North Pole air traffic control elves have just notified us that Santa has taken off! For the next day, you can visit the
Google Santa Tracker
to see where Santa’s headed next and keep tabs on how many presents he’s delivered. You can also keep up with him on your smartphone and tablet with the
Android app
, in your browser with the the
Chrome extension
, and even in 3D with
Google Earth
and
Google Earth mobile
(look for it in the Tour Guide feature with the latest version of Google Earth).
And follow Google Maps on
Google+
,
Facebook
and
Twitter
to get up-to-the-minute details on Santa’s journey around the world.
Ho ho ho! Happy holidays everyone!
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Google Earth
Tips for getting the most from Google Maps on iPhone
December 20, 2012
We hope you’ve had a chance to try the new Google Maps app for iPhone (announced last week and available for download in the
Apple App Store
). The app is designed to be simple—just to work whenever you need it. Still, we have a few tips to make finding things with Google Maps even faster and easier. All the tips are collected on our
site
but here a few of my favorites:
Swipe to see more.
In Google Maps a wealth of information is often just a swipe away. Whether you’re looking at search results or directions, you can swipe the bottom info sheet left and right to see other options. To get more details on any of the results, swipe that info sheet upward (or just tap it—that works too). Even with the info sheet expanded, you can swipe to see those other results.
Place a pin.
Get more information about any location by just pressing and holding the map. The info sheet that pops up tells you the address, lets you save or share the place, and best of all, brings up...
Street View.
By far the easiest way to get to Street View is placing a pin. Tap the imagery preview on the info sheet to enter into Street View, then explore! I recommend the look-around feature (bottom left button) which changes what you’re looking at as you tilt and move your phone.
Want to learn more? See the rest of our tips on the
site
. And as you explore the app on your own, share your own tips using #googlemaps. Most of all, enjoy discovering your world.
Posted by Vicky Tait, Consumer Operations, Google Maps
Cloud computing enabling entrepreneurship in Africa
December 20, 2012
In 2007, 33-year-old Vuyile moved to Cape Town from rural South Africa in search of work. Unable to complete high school, he worked as a night shift security guard earning $500/month to support his family. During the rush hour commute from his home in Khayelitsha, Vuyile realized that he could earn extra income by selling prepaid mobile airtime vouchers to other commuters on the train.
In rural areas, it’s common to use prepaid vouchers to pay for basic services such as electricity, insurance and airtime for mobile phones. But it’s often difficult to distribute physical vouchers because of the risk of theft and fraud.
Nomanini
, a startup based in South Africa, built a device that enables local entrepreneurs like Vuyile to sell prepaid mobile services in their communities. The Lula (which means “easy” in colloquial Zulu), is a portable voucher sales terminal that is used on-the-go by people ranging from taxi drivers to street vendors. It generates and prints codes which people purchase to add minutes to their mobile phones.
Today, Vuyile sells vouchers on the train for cash payment, and earns a commission weekly. Since he started using the Lula, he’s seen his monthly income increase by 20 percent.
Vuyile prints a voucher from his Lula
Nomanini founders Vahid and Ali Monadjem wanted to make mobile services widely available in areas where they had been inaccessible, or where—in a region where the average person makes less than $200/month—people simply couldn’t afford them. By creating a low-cost and easy-to-use product, Nomanini could enable entrepreneurs in Africa to go to deep rural areas and create businesses for themselves.
In order to build a scalable and reliable backend system to keep the Lula running, Nomanini chose to run on
Google App Engine
. Their development team doesn’t have to spend time setting up their own servers and can instead run on the same infrastructure that powers Google’s own applications. They can focus on building their backend systems and easily deploy code to Google’s data centers. When Vuyile makes a sale, he presses a few buttons, App Engine processes the request, and the voucher prints in seconds.
Last month, 40,000 people bought airtime through the Lula, and Nomanini hopes to grow this number to 1 million per month next year. While platforms like App Engine are typically used to build web or smartphone apps, entrepreneurs like Vahid and Ali are finding innovative ways to leverage this technology by building their own devices and connecting them to App Engine. Vahid tells us: “We’re a uniquely born and bred African solution, and we have great potential to take this to the rest of Africa and wider emerging markets. We could not easily scale this fast without running on Google App Engine.”
To learn more about the technical implementation used by Nomanini, read their guest post on the
Google App Engine blog
.
Posted by Zafir Khan, Google App Engine
Explore Spain's Jewish heritage online
December 19, 2012
You can now discover Spain’s Jewish heritage on a new site powered by comprehensive and accurate Google Maps:
www.redjuderias.org/google
.
Using the Google Maps API,
Red de Juderías de España
has built a site where you can explore more than 500 landmarks that shed light on Spain’s Jewish population throughout history. By clicking on a landmark, you can get historical information, pictures or texts, and a 360º view of the location, thanks to Street View technology. You can also use the search panel on the top of the page to filter the locations by category, type, geographic zone or date.
Toledo, Synagogue Santamaría la Blanca
Information is included on each landmark
This project is just one of our efforts to bring important cultural content online. This week, we worked with the Israel Antiquities Authority to
launch
the
Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
, an online collection of more than 5,000 scroll fragments, and last year we announced a
project
to digitize and make available the Yad Vashem Museum’s Holocaust archives. With the
Google Art Project
, people around the world can also view and explore more than 35,000 works of art in 180 museums.
Read more about this project on the
Europe Blog
. We hope this new site will inspire you to learn more about Spain’s Jewish history, and perhaps to visit these cities in person.
Posted by William Echikson, External Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Count down to Christmas Eve with Google Santa Tracker
December 18, 2012
While millions of people eagerly await Christmas Day, Santa and his elves are keeping busy at the
North Pole
. They’re preparing presents, tuning up the sleigh, feeding the reindeer and, of course, checking the list (twice!) before they take flight on their trip around the world.
While we’ve been tracking Santa since 2004 with Google Earth, this year a team of dedicated
Google Maps
engineers built a new route algorithm to chart Santa’s journey around the world on Christmas Eve. On his sleigh, arguably the fastest airborne vehicle in the world, Santa whips from city to city delivering presents to millions of homes. You’ll be able to follow him on Google Maps and Google Earth, and get his stats starting at 2:00 a.m. PST Christmas Eve at
google.com/santatracker
.
Simulating Santa's path across the world—see it live Dec 24
In addition, with some help from developer elves, we’ve built a few other tools to help you track Santa from wherever you may be. Add the new
Chrome extension
or download the
Android app
to keep up with Santa from your smartphone or tablet. And to get the latest updates on his trip, follow Google Maps on
Google+
,
Facebook
and
Twitter
.
Get a dashboard view of Santa's journey on Google Maps
The Google Santa Tracker will launch on December 24, but the countdown to the journey starts now! Visit
Santa’s Village
today to watch the countdown clock and join the elves and reindeer in their preparations. You can even ask
Santa to call a friend or family member
.
We hope you enjoy tracking Santa with us this year. And on behalf of everyone at Google—happy holidays!
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Google Earth
“In the beginning”...bringing the scrolls of Genesis and the Ten Commandments online
December 18, 2012
A little over a year ago, we
helped put online
five manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls—ancient documents that include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence. Written more than 2,000 years ago on pieces of parchment and papyrus, they were preserved by the hot, dry desert climate and the darkness of the caves in which they were hidden. The Scrolls are possibly the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century.
Today, we’re helping put more of these ancient treasures online. The Israel Antiquities Authority is launching the
Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
, an online collection of some 5,000 images of scroll fragments, at a quality never seen before. The texts include one of the earliest known copies of the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes the
Ten Commandments
; part of Chapter 1 of the
Book of Genesis
, which describes the creation of the world; and hundreds more 2,000-year-old texts, shedding light on the time when Jesus lived and preached, and on the history of Judaism.
The Ten Commandments. Photo by Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority
Part of the Book of Genesis. Photo by Shai Halevi, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority
Millions of users and scholars can discover and decipher details invisible to the naked eye, at 1215 dpi resolution. The site displays infrared and color images that are equal in quality to the Scrolls themselves. There’s a database containing information for about 900 of the manuscripts, as well as interactive content pages. We’re thrilled to have been able to help this project through hosting on Google Storage and App Engine, and use of Maps, YouTube and Google image technology.
This partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority is part of our ongoing work to bring important cultural and historical materials online, to make them accessible and help preserve them for future generations. Other examples include the
Yad Vashem Holocaust photo collection
,
Google Art Project
,
World Wonders
and the
Google Cultural Institute
.
We hope you enjoy visiting the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, or any of these other projects, and interacting with history.
Posted by Eyal Miller, New Business Development, and Yossi Matias, Head of Israel Research and Development Center
Get the whole family together over the holidays, from anywhere
December 18, 2012
‘Tis the season for tree trimming, gift giving, recipe sharing and catching up with loved ones over a cup of eggnog. For families that are spread out over cities or even countries, it can be a challenge to get everyone together during the holidays. This year, we’ve teamed up with the creators of
Wallace and Gromit
to add a little extra holiday magic to Google+ Hangouts with a custom invitation builder and a Holiday Effects app.
Click this link
to schedule your holiday family hangout and we’ll send all your invitations out with a custom Wallace and Gromit video. Since Hangouts let up to 10 people video chat at once, right from
Google+
or
Gmail
, you can invite the whole family to join—and maybe a few friends too.
Don’t forget to put on a Santa hat, reindeer antlers or even wear Gromit’s ears by adding the
Holiday Effects
app to your family hangout.
Happy holidays from the Google+ and Gmail teams!
Posted by Kevin Maguire, Product Marketing Manager
(Cross-posted on the
Gmail Blog
)
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