Helping the victims of Tropical Storm Ketsana

Last weekend, Tropical Storm Ketsana (local name "Ondoy") pounded Manila and nearby areas of the Philippines with a month's worth of rain in just a few hours, resulting in floods that covered 80% of the city with as much as 20 feet of water. The typhoon left in its wake nearly 300 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.<br /><br />We're very saddened by the losses the Filipino people have sustained during this calamity. To help you stay up to date on the disaster and contribute to the relief efforts, we've put up a <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/typhoon-ondoy.html">Help for Typhoon Ondoy Victims in the Philippines page</a> that contains the latest news from local media outlets, lists of verified donation sites and emergency hotlines, and a volunteer-maintained map of persons needing rescue.<br /><br />Filipinos have been <a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ondoy&search_type=&aq=f">posting videos of the flooding and its aftermath</a> on YouTube. You can also visualize the overflows along main rivers and bays in Google Earth with <a href="http://www.google.com/landing/kmz/Kestana_Cyclone_TayTay.kmz">this kmz file</a>. <br /><br />If you're familiar with Google Maps and would like to get involved in the effort to map <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=114275963314561391621.000474bb18f93804bc564&ll=14.597372,121.131821&spn=0.038955,0.063944&z=14">missing persons</a>, <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=114275963314561391621.000474b14dc5c675ed8b5&z=10">relief centers</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=114275963314561391621.000474b16c00c055bb4d7&z=8">road conditions</a>, you can email the volunteer team at typhoonondoy@googlegroups.com. We will continue to update the page with the latest information and imagery, and keep your eye on the <a href="http://www.google-latlong.blogspot.com/">Lat Long blog</a> for updates about disaster relief efforts.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Therese Lim, Google Southeast Asia Team</span>

Helping the victims of Tropical Storm Ketsana

Last weekend, Tropical Storm Ketsana (local name "Ondoy") pounded Manila and nearby areas of the Philippines with a month's worth of rain in just a few hours, resulting in floods that covered 80% of t…

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Empowering users to map their worlds

<span id="pj__" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In countries like India, great maps and comprehensive local data are hard to come by. And traditional mapping approaches are stretched to the limit in such environments, where infrastructure and local businesses are evolving at a furious pace.<br /><br />This need inspired us in Google India to design and build <a href="http://mapmaker.google.com/" id="pj__6" target="_blank">Google Map Maker</a>, which enables users everywhere over to create rich, deep maps and fresh local data. People can mark their favorite spots in their cities and hometowns, add features such as roads, parks, and buildings, tag small businesses to help users find them, and collaborate to map neighborhoods of interest. This product is motivated by the spirit of information democracy, where people can create information that are moderated and consumed by their peers.<br /><br />Today, we are bringing home this innovation by launching Google Map Maker in India, which has already been deployed in <a title="57 other countries" target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/launched.html" id="s548">57 other countries</a>.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DjoXsot4Xao&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DjoXsot4Xao&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /></span><span id="uszo1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We hope Google Map Maker will result in rich local data which will benefit Google users both on the web and on mobile. The creation of base maps where there were previously none will encourage many mashups, mapplets and other cool applications that make use of this data. We're also excited to see Google Map Maker create a new breed of local map experts who bring their passion for their neighborhoods and communities into the online world, adding <span id="dtpw" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to</span> local commerce, tourism and investment.<br /><br />I will leave you with a map of IIT Bombay, the alma mater to many of us in Google India. When I spent a few hours mapping IIT Bombay -- the place I lived in, the school I went to, and the streets I played on, it turned out to be a surprisingly satisfying experience that reconnected me to a place that is home to many of my memories. We hope you will find the Google Map Maker experience as fun and fulfilling as we do.</span><span id="pj__" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPF-igSAvUcbxEj2oqKWKMUsVAMzixWozjj3Aj4VafTPd1fBEs1D8cjqfH_D_JwNfKHE6zaonV-w6GEULSzdijn6y4APYqDl6Nuc2C8xZPm4Fe-8E20tdWE6tmy1IDPR7G0SYNmAUDYLys/s1600-h/IIT.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239577004463933522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPF-igSAvUcbxEj2oqKWKMUsVAMzixWozjj3Aj4VafTPd1fBEs1D8cjqfH_D_JwNfKHE6zaonV-w6GEULSzdijn6y4APYqDl6Nuc2C8xZPm4Fe-8E20tdWE6tmy1IDPR7G0SYNmAUDYLys/s320/IIT.gif" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><span id="pj__" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Lalitesh Katragadda, Software Engineer and creator, Google Map Maker</span></span>

Empowering users to map their worlds

In countries like India, great maps and comprehensive local data are hard to come by. And traditional mapping approaches are stretched to the limit in such environments, where infrastructure and local…

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Google in Tamil

The global nature of <a title="our mission" href="http://www.google.com/corporate/" id="yu3:">our mission</a> is reflected in the phrases the "world's information" and "universally accessible." To this end, you may have recently read about our <a title="40-language initiative" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/hitting-40-languages.html" id="v_23">40-language initiative</a> and <a title="the story" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-in-your-language.html" id="x.2b">the story</a> of a community coming together to develop Google search in the <a title="Maori language" href="http://www.google.co.nz/" id="wlp2">Maori language</a>.<br /><br />Following on this theme, we'd like to highlight a few new products that enable a better online experience for Tamil speakers around the world.<br /><br />First, we just <a title="announced" href="http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-news-now-in-tamil.html" id="hiur">released</a> <span id="qxqj" style="font-size:100%;"><a id="de0f14" href="http://news.google.co.in/news?ned=ta_in" title="http://news.google.co.in/news?ned=ta_in" target="_blank">Google News in Tamil</a>. Like other Google News editions, we gather stories from the various Tamil news sources on the web and present an automatically- generated summary with links to the most important stories in each section.<br /><br />We recognize that it can sometimes be hard to enter Tamil text with existing keyboards. Our transliteration technology enables the conversion from English text to phonetically equivalent text in Indian languages. For example, using transliteration, you could type "vanakkam" and we would convert it to Tamil script as வணக்கம். We have embedded this technology in several Google products to make it easier to enter text in Tamil.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.co.in/intl/ta/">Google search in Tamil</a> enables users to start typing in English and automatically get query suggestions in Tamil. If you wanted to enter the query "ponniyin selvan" in Tamil, just start typing it in English - e.g. "ponni" and we will show the Tamil suggestions:<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNeMyLPTsyWGgkEwcZRtoMYcp9Y1pdEzD8WtOAIEfBmNvyJZI6K-B0QuOyBNG9viMJHmp1Bz_IiU-xGNxImvR15PAWv8YT53F0M07SICxqThua6vur83VF_uROuD0Ldty8rNs-lJyIZCu9/s1600-h/Tamil_ponni.GIF"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234078225168628818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNeMyLPTsyWGgkEwcZRtoMYcp9Y1pdEzD8WtOAIEfBmNvyJZI6K-B0QuOyBNG9viMJHmp1Bz_IiU-xGNxImvR15PAWv8YT53F0M07SICxqThua6vur83VF_uROuD0Ldty8rNs-lJyIZCu9/s320/Tamil_ponni.GIF" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><span id="de0f25"><br /><a href="http://blogger.com/indic/ta" id="now1">Tamil transliteration in Blogger</a> is designed for bloggers publishing content in Tamil when using the English keyboard for text entry. It's our hope that this will make Tamil content more popular and more easily available online.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx" title="http://www.orkut.com/Scrapbook.aspx" target="_blank">Tamil transliteration in orkut</a> makes it easier to communicate with friends and family by exchanging scraps in Tamil.<br /><br />We hope that each of these products will help to bring the benefits of the Internet to the millions of Tamil speakers in India and elsewhere.<br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Vinodh Kumar R and Naren Manappa, Software Engineers</span></span>

Google in Tamil

The global nature of our mission is reflected in the phrases the "world's information" and "universally accessible." To this end, you may have recently read about our 40-language initiative and the st…

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Responding to the earthquake in China

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Kai-Fu Lee, President, Google Greater China<br /></span><br />One week ago, an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck in Sichuan. Everyone in China was shocked and then heartbroken as reported deaths climbed from 10,000 to 20,000 to more than 32,000 people. The death toll is still rising, and the number of injured and missing is many times greater.<br /><br />But the Chinese people have faced this disaster with resilience, compassion, and courage. There have been non-stop airlifts, blood donations, and rescue missions. One bold executive drove hundreds of miles in his jeep, started digging, and saved several lives. Taxi drivers stopped carrying passengers and drove to affected areas to help. One hundred thousand brave soldiers risked (and some gave) their lives to look for every possible survivor. Here in Beijing more than a thousand families have volunteered to adopt children who have lost their parents. Everyone is eager to help -- and that includes Googlers.<br /><br />Within hours of the earthquake, our China-based teams pulled together to use Google's resources and technology to help. At the request of the government, we obtained new satellite images of Sichuan province (<a id="f_t_9" href="http://mw2.google.com/mw-earth-vectordb/china_earthquake/china_earthquake_cn.kml"><span id="f_t_10">Earth KML</span></a>) to help them better focus their recovery efforts. We developed and launched a <a id="f_t_14" href="http://www.google.cn/qinren">“lost loved one” search</a> based on our Custom Search Engine (CSE). To populate the CSE index, hundreds of Googlers worked around the clock looking through published tables, hospital records, news reports, and community sites. We tuned our Chinese <a href="http://news.google.cn/news?q=%E6%B1%B6%E5%B7%9D%E5%9C%B0%E9%9C%87&hl=zh-CN&ned=ccn&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=in"><span id="f_t_20">news search</span></a><span id="f_t_25">, <a href="http://video.google.cn/videosearch?q=%E6%B1%B6%E5%B7%9D+%E5%9C%B0%E9%9C%87&so=1">video search</a></span><span id="f_t_30">, <a href="http://images.google.cn/images?q=%E6%B1%B6%E5%B7%9D%E5%9C%B0%E9%9C%87&hl=zh-CN&ned=ccn&sa=N&tab=bi">image search</a></span><span id="f_t_35">, <a href="http://blogsearch.google.cn/blogsearch?q=%E6%B1%B6%E5%B7%9D%E5%9C%B0%E9%9C%87&hl=zh-CN&ned=ccn&tab=vb">blog search</a></span>, and <a id="f_t_39" href="http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=%E5%9C%B0%E9%9C%87&btnG=Google+%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta=&aq=f"><span id="f_t_40">oneboxes</span></a>. We also partnered to build <a id="f_t_44" href="http://laiba.tianya.cn/laiba/Community?cmm=281">community sites</a>, and launched both <a id="f_t_49" href="http://www.google.cn/">homepage promotions</a> and a <a id="f_t_54" href="http://ditu.google.cn/earthquake">map-based information page</a>. Google China has an extremely dedicated and passionate team and I am deeply honored to work alongside them.<br /><br />In addition to these efforts here in China, Googlers worldwide have also made substantial financial donations to the relief operations. As a company, we’ve committed $2 million for disaster relief and rebuilding, in addition to donating a large advertising budget for donation ads and public service announcements to aid organizations throughout the world.<br /><br />We have also created a <a href="http://www.google.com/chinaearthquake">Google</a><a id="f_t_65" href="http://www.google.com/chinaearthquake"> Checkout donations page</a> so you can easily donate to <a id="f_t_70" href="http://www.mercycorps.org/chinaearthquake/">Mercy Corps</a>, which works with the <a id="f_t_75" href="http://www.fupin.org.cn/en/index.asp">China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation</a>, or the <a id="f_t_80" href="http://tsinghuafoundation.org/earthquake08/">Tsinghua Foundation</a>, which works with the <a id="f_t_85" href="http://202.108.59.10/english/index.htm">Red Cross Society of China</a>. Both organizations have assured us that all of the proceeds will go directly to earthquake relief.<br /><br />Our efforts are but one piece of a giant effort now underway, bringing together the governments, private companies, NGOs and countless heroic individuals -– all striving to address this disaster as quickly and comprehensively as we can.<br /><br />Please pray for the victims of the earthquake. May the injured rest and recover. May the survivors be resilient. May all of us learn from the Chinese people to turn our anxiety into courage, misery into compassion, and sorrow into love.

Responding to the earthquake in China

Posted by Kai-Fu Lee, President, Google Greater ChinaOne week ago, an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck in Sichuan. Everyone in China was shocked and then heartbroken as reported deaths climbed from …

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Building the Indic web

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Naren Manappa, Software Engineer, and Melchi Sundararaj, Member of Technical Team</span><br /><br />We have come a long way from our <a title="first Indic transliteration release" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/now-you-can-blog-in-hindi.html" id="kb.v">first Indic transliteration release</a> to our current support for transliteration in 5 languages -- Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu -- for a broader set of Google products. We are also happy to release our very first <a title="English to Hindi translation service" href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?langpair=en%7Chi" id="v92_">English to Hindi translation service</a>. Read on to understand how you can use these services to create, communicate and search in your language, and more.<br /><ul><li>Type in your language easily on our <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a title="Google Indic Transliteration Labs page" href="http://www.google.co.in/transliterate/indic" id="vsjs">Indic Transliteration Labs page</a>.</li><li>Add the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.google.com/ig/modules/indic_transliteration.xml">transliteration gadget</a> to your iGoogle page.</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnEqYte5nIY-IuQMiMN2A9Gv8wViWBNTSUTAsVWUBRzzdFT-Dem-2Ql-7pqW_iE0Aulw00nshr9Ag3_onvcm_VF8tBTlXV7rCsdzgj6wmceRIjCoDNaeR6uJEnRdyxIExOOuI1ohkaMhS/s1600-h/Indic1.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197320745484496514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnEqYte5nIY-IuQMiMN2A9Gv8wViWBNTSUTAsVWUBRzzdFT-Dem-2Ql-7pqW_iE0Aulw00nshr9Ag3_onvcm_VF8tBTlXV7rCsdzgj6wmceRIjCoDNaeR6uJEnRdyxIExOOuI1ohkaMhS/s320/Indic1.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a></div><ul><li> Express your views and create more content: <a title="Blogger" href="http://www.blogger.com/indic/hi" id="oy3z">Blogger</a>.</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoej7yLGsbfdcRWBi1kQPc-G_VVb8pbENQnzLglvhuZeq6ouK0YQIClJiyQS9dSYWgmyyWUdEoIDR23__7Jdf22Cr479dx5OuZOJrXopo9BJo_hYmYNM8cX8xjr0uEaorGwEDPND5xg5-i/s1600-h/Indic2.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197323090536640146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoej7yLGsbfdcRWBi1kQPc-G_VVb8pbENQnzLglvhuZeq6ouK0YQIClJiyQS9dSYWgmyyWUdEoIDR23__7Jdf22Cr479dx5OuZOJrXopo9BJo_hYmYNM8cX8xjr0uEaorGwEDPND5xg5-i/s320/Indic2.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><ul><li> Scrap your friends in your language: <a title="orkut" href="http://www.orkut.com/scrapbook.aspx" id="q4ef">orkut</a>.</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEJ0qgdz8-fc70StIxAraKlzWHbTczDpbWcY2d0YQgqAJtf6M3lfOQuK0hYIYivyFx1BjKfvpFzUhQykzIrh6NpuoQ6o78ZkBALGTrHHR4_yJmwthMBUVu8DvA3YHi0-f0buZlV9d2YqEs/s1600-h/Indic3.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197323434134023842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEJ0qgdz8-fc70StIxAraKlzWHbTczDpbWcY2d0YQgqAJtf6M3lfOQuK0hYIYivyFx1BjKfvpFzUhQykzIrh6NpuoQ6o78ZkBALGTrHHR4_yJmwthMBUVu8DvA3YHi0-f0buZlV9d2YqEs/s320/Indic3.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><ul><li> Find information: <a title="Google Suggest" href="http://www.google.co.in/hi" id="m0nc">Google Suggest</a> in your language.</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmDEKe4lWFpXR6OvdrvwFBHO7uJJWuUbkwy-o9Vjwr2Tv6MehhUhdCKT6G7ldxles3f2HhxMIoxSQP0k9ysnnwqOJDTkv1D3us8L_FUuOr2mCUZ4fMNE2DMyIeBrqVzh1VXjS04-7Qn__0/s1600-h/Indic4.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197323820681080498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmDEKe4lWFpXR6OvdrvwFBHO7uJJWuUbkwy-o9Vjwr2Tv6MehhUhdCKT6G7ldxles3f2HhxMIoxSQP0k9ysnnwqOJDTkv1D3us8L_FUuOr2mCUZ4fMNE2DMyIeBrqVzh1VXjS04-7Qn__0/s320/Indic4.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"> You can now also try out our brand new <a title="English to Hindi translation" href="http://www.google.com/translate_t?langpair=en%7Chi" id="js74">English to Hindi translation</a> service, and the <a title="translated search" href="http://www.google.com/translate_s" id="wcru">translated search</a> <span id="jv8x0">feature that lets you query</span> in Hindi, obtain search results for the translated query in English, and then see the Hindi translations of these results.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi0k44iIRLr6dOMHHU8CFWsC5JsndynGHdgdBOA7PMcrmY1xB96vjCrzAY_1PR3pXQKythZ8RfcDRw2mQKxw6sgUzv9VhxX3Eqc_-1nzyQ-GtgS-qgenwyuhciUHyrVM109JzB1cQHpuu9/s1600-h/Indic5.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197324220113039042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi0k44iIRLr6dOMHHU8CFWsC5JsndynGHdgdBOA7PMcrmY1xB96vjCrzAY_1PR3pXQKythZ8RfcDRw2mQKxw6sgUzv9VhxX3Eqc_-1nzyQ-GtgS-qgenwyuhciUHyrVM109JzB1cQHpuu9/s320/Indic5.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"> For more information on all of these, read <a title="our press release" href="http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/press/pressrel/20080505_googletranslate_hindi.html" id="ytl0">our press release</a>.<br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>

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Building the Indic web

Posted by Naren Manappa, Software Engineer, and Melchi Sundararaj, Member of Technical TeamWe have come a long way from our first Indic transliteration release to our current support for transliterat…

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Add your business to Local Search in India

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Ravi Yadavilli, Geo Content Operations Manager, and Alok Goel, Product Manager</span><br /><br />- Do you own a restaurant in Delhi and wish more people knew about your delicacies?<br />- Are you an insurance agent seeking new clientele?<br />- Would you like more tourists for your travel agency in Goa?<br />- Are you a custom apparel merchandiser in Bangalore seeking to expand your customer base?<br /><br />Every day several lakhs of people search the Internet seeking firms like yours. It will help you to be listed in <a title="Google local search" href="http://local.google.co.in/" id="v8il">Google local search</a>. It's really simple to add your business, and it's free. Call us at 1-800-419-4444 (in India only, for your Indian-based business), SMS "register" to 09900800000<span>,</span> or just <a href="http://www.google.co.in/local/add">add your listing</a>.<br /><br />Spending a few minutes on this can make all the difference to your business - why not do it now?

Add your business to Local Search in India

Posted by Ravi Yadavilli, Geo Content Operations Manager, and Alok Goel, Product Manager- Do you own a restaurant in Delhi and wish more people knew about your delicacies?- Are you an insurance agent …

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What's India searching for online?

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Tarkeshwar Thakur, Software Engineer and Alok Goel, Product Manager</span><br /><br />In December 2007, for the first time in India, we released a list of most popular and fast rising searches, i.e. the Google Zeitgeist. But you don't need to wait till this December to know what was popular this year; we've just unveiled Google Trends and Google Hot Trends on <a href="http://labs.google.co.in">Google India Labs</a>, giving you a chance to find out what India is searching for on Google by the hour.<br /><br />What's on our collective mind as we search for information? What's interesting to people right now? Hot Trends will tell you. At a glance, you'll see the huge variety of topics capturing our attention, from current events to sports to political issues to the latest Bollywood gossip. Hot Trends aren't the search terms people look for most often; those are pretty predictable, like [weather] or [games]. Instead, the Hot Trends algorithm analyzes millions of searches to find those that show an unusual and fairly sudden increase in popularity. The outcome is the Hot Trends list. Hot Trends is updated throughout the day, so check back often.<br /><br />For example, the #1 Hot Trends result on January 9, 2008, was <a href="http://www.google.co.in/trends/hottrends?q=*&sa=X&date=2008-1-9" target="_blank">'tata new car'</a> because of the auto expo going on then. The associated web results and associated news search results give you more context and insight into why people were searching for 'tata new car'. You can see these results by changing the date range on the top left hand corner of the Hot Trends page. As you can see, <a href="http://www.google.co.in/trends/hottrends?q=*&sa=X&date=2008-1-9" target="_blank">'tata new car'</a> has a Hot Trend status of 'spicy' -- a measure of its popularity.<br /><br />Together with Hot Trends, we also launched Google Trends for India. You can view search patterns and interest in their favorite topics. You can compare the popularity of multiple queries (e.g. different Bollywood stars) and see which cities and states search for them the most.<br /><br />Looking ahead to what 'Valentines Day' might mean to us, keep checking out Hot Trends and Trends for insights into the mind of India

What's India searching for online?

Posted by Tarkeshwar Thakur, Software Engineer and Alok Goel, Product ManagerIn December 2007, for the first time in India, we released a list of most popular and fast rising searches, i.e. the Google…

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Google India Women in Engineering Award 2008

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Manoj Varghese, Human Resources Director, India</span><br /><br />Diversity at Google means having a workforce that reflects the diversity of our customers' perspectives, ideas and cultures -- one that thinks and acts inclusively, and fundamentally values people's similarities and differences. As part of our ongoing commitment to encourage women to excel in computing and technology, the India team has taken our first steps: in December we launched the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/jobs/womeninengineering/index.html">Google India "Women in Engineering Award"</a> to recognize women in the field of computer science and engineering.<br /><br />In its inception year, we have extended this award to recognized engineering schools across India; it is open to any woman student in computer science engineering who meets the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/jobs/womeninengineering/award/criteria.html">application criteria</a>. This initiative has been received positively, as has been indicated by the inundating queries and subsequent applications. The last date for applying is <span style="font-weight: bold;">January 31st</span> and we are looking forward to hearing from even more <a href="https://services.google.com/inquiry/womeninengineering">applicants</a>.<br /><br />After our panel reviews all applications, the winners will be announced in a little more than a month, on February 29th. The winners will be invited to visit the Google engineering office in Bangalore during first week of March for a conclave comprising of keynotes, panel discussions, tech talks, breakouts and an award ceremony.<br /><br />We hope this award will encourage students to take up computer science engineering as their study, and perhaps <a href="http://www.google.co.in/jobs/womeninengineering/award/photos.html">inspire</a> some of you to take this up as a career too.

Google India Women in Engineering Award 2008

Posted by Manoj Varghese, Human Resources Director, IndiaDiversity at Google means having a workforce that reflects the diversity of our customers' perspectives, ideas and cultures -- one that thinks …

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Crossing team and global boundaries

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Reza Behforooz, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />In my first month at Google, I complained to a friend on the Gmail team about a couple of small things that I disliked about Gmail. I expected him to point me to the bug database. But he told me to fix it myself, pointing me to a document on how to bring up the Gmail development environment on my workstation. The next day my code was reviewed by Gmail engineers, and then I submitted it. A week later, my change was live. I was amazed by the freedom to work across teams, the ability to check in code to another project, the trust in engineers to work on the right thing, and the excitement and speed of getting things done for our users. Engineers across our offices (and across projects) have access to the same code; I didn't have to ask for anyone's permission to work on this.<br /><br />Since then, I've done my best to use my <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/enhanced-searching-with-firefox.html">20% time</a> on other projects. A few weeks ago, I noticed that our engineering team in India had launched an on-screen keyboard for <a href="http://labs.google.co.in/indic.html">several Indic languages on Labs</a>. I speak Farsi, and thought it would be useful to make one for myself and ham-zaboonam (that's Farsi for 'people who speak my language'). After launching <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/10/put-yourself-on-map.html">my latest </a><a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/10/put-yourself-on-map.html" blog="" post="">project</a> for Google Maps, I emailed M. T. Raghunath, the engineer in India who built out the keyboard Gadgets, to learn how I could make one for Farsi. He had already worked with several language experts to create keyboards in 14 Indic languages and had recently included right-to-left support for <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=urdu+on-screen+keyboard&root=%2Fig&dpos=top&url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/urdu_keyboard.xml">Urdu</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=arabic+on-screen+keyboard&root=%2Fig&dpos=top&start=7&url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/arabic_keyboard.xml">Arabic</a>, which he created with the help of Googlers from our Hyderabad office. He was excited and pointed me to the code. After a week of iteration, you too can now use the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/farsi_keyboard.xml">Farsi Gadget</a>.<br /><br />Google has <a href="http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about.html&about=locations&src=engusjobs">many engineering offices</a> around the world; I currently work in <a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=720+4th+Avenue,+Kirkland,+WA+%28Seattle+Engineering+Office%29&ie=UTF8&ll=47.678623,-122.196293&spn=0.036523,0.06197&z=14&iwloc=addr&om=1">Seattle</a> and M. T. works in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Vittal+Mallya+Road,+Bangalore,+Bangalore,+Karnataka+India&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.388698,58.798828&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=0,12.971119,77.597310&ll=12.971104,77.597294&spn=0.053614,0.057421&z=14&om=1">Bangalore</a>. We have a lot more engineers than a few years ago when I made the changes to Gmail, but I'm happy to relive the same magic I shared with the Gmail team with a Googler across the globe. By the way, <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/kashmiri_keyboard.xml">a Kashmiri Gadget is also available</a>, thanks to help from Sarwat Nisa, a Hyderabad-based Googler.

Crossing team and global boundaries

Posted by Reza Behforooz, Software EngineerIn my first month at Google, I complained to a friend on the Gmail team about a couple of small things that I disliked about Gmail. I expected him to point m…

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Two more reasons to type in Hindi

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Aditya Kulkarni and Balaji Gopalan, Software Engineers</span><br /><br />As some of you have already noticed, we've combined Google Suggest with our <a href="http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic" target="_blank"> Indic transliteration</a> technology to give you a new way to search the web in Hindi.<br /><br />You can type your queries using a regular English keyboard, and we'll show you suggestions and completions of your query in phonetically equivalent Hindi. This means that you can type "amit" and see Hindi suggestions like "अमिताभ" and "अमिताभ बच्चन". Once you're happy with one of the suggestions, you can click it to get search results in Hindi. Try this out on the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/hi" id="g7cn" title="Google India Hindi home page">Google India Hindi homepage</a> and explore all the Hindi content available on the web.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijl9CMi0dNO6hQ2xuTp1x5-JHSfpFSJ4ZoFHMZeHwO5orNJ-rWROHKm8pRtfxVfniQ3V94uCHo1xWissEixCL_Ot5fS9MswcQRD9B2_khSiCPmN-tWezCDyJZztQLi4RJzGQigyFa3cuOd/s1600-h/Indic+transliteration.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5119773342768820322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijl9CMi0dNO6hQ2xuTp1x5-JHSfpFSJ4ZoFHMZeHwO5orNJ-rWROHKm8pRtfxVfniQ3V94uCHo1xWissEixCL_Ot5fS9MswcQRD9B2_khSiCPmN-tWezCDyJZztQLi4RJzGQigyFa3cuOd/s320/Indic+transliteration.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br />Quite a lot of people have also asked for a Googley way to scrap your friends on orkut in Hindi. You can now type in Hindi the same way you do in <a href="http://www.blogger.com/hindi">Blogger</a> and on the <a href="http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic"> Google India Labs</a> page. If you have selected "Hindi" in the "languages i speak" field in your <a href="http://www.orkut.com/EditSummary.aspx">orkut profile</a>, you'll see the "Type in Hindi" checkbox on the scrap pages. Just check the box to start scrapping in your favorite tongue.<br /><br />We're eager to hear your <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/google-india-labs/" target="_blank">feedback and suggestions</a>, so please <a href="mailto:indialabs+indictransliteration@google.com"> let us know</a> what you think. Don't forget to visit the <a href="http://labs.google.co.in/" target="_blank">Google India Labs</a> page to see what we've been working on.

Two more reasons to type in Hindi

Posted by Aditya Kulkarni and Balaji Gopalan, Software EngineersAs some of you have already noticed, we've combined Google Suggest with our Indic transliteration technology to give you a new way to s…

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Google Labs India

<span class="byline-author">Posted by M T Raghunath and Gokul Nath Babu Manoharan, Software Engineers</span><br /><br />Keeping up with the spirit and celebrations of India's 60th year of Independence, we present to you a new platform that showcases our favourite ideas for Indian users: <a title="http://labs.google.co.in/" href="http://labs.google.co.in/" target="_blank">Google India Labs</a>. Enthusiastic bloggers noted our initial announcement on 15th August; now here's the full story.<br /><br />Though 60 years young, India has a history dating back to the dawn of civilization. The incredible diversity of this great nation is the kind of challenge Google loves. And in line with our mission of making information universally accessible, we're now offering an easier way to search in 14 Indian and South Asian languages. You don't need a special keyboard or software; all you need is a web browser, a mouse, and a Unicode font for your language. So whether you speak অসমীয়া (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/assamese_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/assamese_keyboard.xml">Assamese</a>), বাংলা (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/bengali_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/bengali_keyboard.xml">Bengali</a>), ગુજરાતી (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/gujarati_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/gujarati_keyboard.xml">Gujarati</a>), हिंदी (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/hindi_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/hindi_keyboard.xml">Hindi</a>), ಕನ್ನಡ (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/kannada_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/kannada_keyboard.xml">Kannada</a>), മലയാളം (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/malayalam_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/malayalam_keyboard.xml">Malayalam</a>), मराठी (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/marathi_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/marathi_keyboard.xml">Marathi</a>), नेपाली (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/nepali_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/nepali_keyboard.xml">Nepali</a>), ଓଡ଼ିଆ (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/oriya_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/oriya_keyboard.xml">Oriya</a>), ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/punjabi_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/punjabi_keyboard.xml">Punjabi</a>), संस्कृतम् (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/sanskrit_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/sanskrit_keyboard.xml">Sanskrit</a>), සිංහල (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/sinhala_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/sinhala_keyboard.xml">Sinhala</a>), தமிழ் (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/tamil_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/tamil_keyboard.xml">Tamil</a>), or తెలుగు (<a title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/telugu_keyboard.xml" href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/telugu_keyboard.xml">Telugu</a>), we can help you find content on the web in your language. To get started, add one or more of these <a title="http://labs.google.co.in/indic.html" href="http://labs.google.co.in/indic.html" target="_blank">iGoogle gadgets</a> to your personalized iGoogle home page. You can use these gadgets to compose queries, and ask Google to search the vast Internet in your very own language.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33FcrggjfN2H7z9-B1R51HbWe3h_nPCSiUIAcbhJx-A1antUAqIqMXHCd2u34OfI9pXgSpvmySLAbPpb4Tql5rni5XWHfpNWXXnZUrKa1ZhDANQ617EBfLUoUjMNK-JVBZ1b8JP0aWydZ/s1600-h/INDIA_languages.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5099693467938359378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33FcrggjfN2H7z9-B1R51HbWe3h_nPCSiUIAcbhJx-A1antUAqIqMXHCd2u34OfI9pXgSpvmySLAbPpb4Tql5rni5XWHfpNWXXnZUrKa1ZhDANQ617EBfLUoUjMNK-JVBZ1b8JP0aWydZ/s320/INDIA_languages.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you're interested in writing in Hindi, we have brought out the transliteration feature from <a title="http://www.blogger.com/hindi" href="http://www.blogger.com/hindi" target="_blank">Blogger </a>into an independent product of its own: <a title="http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/" href="http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/" target="_blank">Google Indic Transliteration</a>. This tool will let you type in Hindi, using an English keyboard. Type out words phonetically, and let Google convert them into the correct Hindi word. For example, type "Bharat" to see "भारत". You'll soon discover that our sophisticated transliteration technology makes it<a title="http://big.corp.google.com/~anupama/wahwah/transliteration-729266.bmp" href="http://big.corp.google.com/%7Eanupama/wahwah/transliteration-729266.bmp"> </a>really easy to compose in Hindi. Our algorithm might get the occasional word wrong, but it is always willing to learn. You can teach it by clicking on the wrong word and correcting it. This is also available as an <a id="ki:6" title="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=en&url=indic_transliteration.xml iGoogle Gadget" href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=en&url=indic_transliteration.xml">iGoogle Gadget</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYygRGmyP6OJbUNZTtXhdpPU-TSHJhmOj9nuId1pZI4IhTdb8K870Q6vzOKF14WhWHrZ1kiajcjycuReWTFNxiWVdQ_jSSH-ZdQZ4KnAsQslfDPVbkkE0SfiYIMFVn4km7UBaAVRwAPbB/s1600-h/INDIA-snippet.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5099694674824169570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYygRGmyP6OJbUNZTtXhdpPU-TSHJhmOj9nuId1pZI4IhTdb8K870Q6vzOKF14WhWHrZ1kiajcjycuReWTFNxiWVdQ_jSSH-ZdQZ4KnAsQslfDPVbkkE0SfiYIMFVn4km7UBaAVRwAPbB/s320/INDIA-snippet.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /></div><br />We've really enjoyed bringing these products to you, and we're <a title="mailto:indialabs@google.com" href="mailto:indialabs@google.com" target="_blank">eager to hear from you</a>. There is a new <a title="http://groups.google.com/group/google-india-labs/" href="http://groups.google.com/group/google-india-labs/" target="_blank">user community</a> for discussion around our new technologies, and we'll keep adding new things to our Labs page, so please visit us often.

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Google Labs India

Posted by M T Raghunath and Gokul Nath Babu Manoharan, Software EngineersKeeping up with the spirit and celebrations of India's 60th year of Independence, we present to you a new platform that showcas…

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Namaste India!

<span class="byline-author">Posted by M T Raghunath and Gokul Nath Babu Manoharan, Software Engineers</span><br /><br />Happy 60th birthday, India! We can't wait to celebrate, but we're going to wait a few days for the formal unwrapping of our gift to Indian users. Check back and we'll have news shortly.

Namaste India!

Posted by M T Raghunath and Gokul Nath Babu Manoharan, Software EngineersHappy 60th birthday, India! We can't wait to celebrate, but we're going to wait a few days for the formal unwrapping of our gif…

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YouTube in 9 more domains

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sakina Arsiwala, International Manager, YouTube</span><br /><br />The YouTube community began life speaking English, but thanks to the uniquely expressive medium of video, today there is a global village of content makers and viewers. With a noteworthy number of YouTube visitors now coming from outside the U.S., it's high time we go multilingual.<br /><br />Today at a Google press event in Paris, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are announcing the launch of nine new domains in <a href="http://www.youtube.com.br/">Brazil</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.fr/">France</a>, <a href="http://it.youtube.com/">Italy</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.jp/">Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.nl/">the Netherlands</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.pl/">Poland</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.es/">Spain</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.ie/">Ireland</a>, and the <a href="http://www.youtube.co.uk/">UK</a>.<br /><br />In response to many requests, each new site is fully translated and localized for each country including content (Featured Videos, Director Videos, Promotions), as well as the interfaces, search, user support, and such community features as video ratings, sharing, and content flagging. And these new localized versions are built using Google search technology, so you can quickly find more of what you want to see. Perhaps best of all, you can continue to use <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">youtube.com</a>, or move to one of these localized sites -- and switch seamlessly between the two. Happy creating, viewing and sharing!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update:</span> Removed link to user content.

YouTube in 9 more domains

Posted by Sakina Arsiwala, International Manager, YouTubeThe YouTube community began life speaking English, but thanks to the uniquely expressive medium of video, today there is a global village of co…

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Google News in Hindi

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Vinodh Kumar R, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Millions of Hindi speakers across India and the rest of the world have a reason to cheer: Google News is now available in <a href="http://news.google.com/news?ned=hi_in">Hindi</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a> gathers news stories from the various Hindi news sources on the web and presents a ranked one-page summary with all the links to your favourite news sources in the various sections. One of the interesting challenges we faced in this edition was the fact that not all our Hindi news sources are in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8">UTF-8 format</a>. Though we strongly back and urge the adoption of the <a href="http://www.unicode.org/">Unicode</a>-based UTF-8 standard by all Indian language websites, we didn't want to deprive our readers from reaching content on some of their favourite news sources which are not yet there. So we internally translate this information to the UTF-8 standard and do all the processing necessary to provide links to these sites. We hope that this edition will enable the huge Hindi-speaking Internet population to easily reach all of your favourite news content across the web, and also help news publishers to connect to their audience better.<br /><br />We at the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/jobs/sw-bangalore.html">Google Bangalore</a> office are pleased to launch our first Indian language edition of Google News -- and we will certainly be following up with more Indian languages in the future. On a personal note, this launch also marks the completion of a fun-filled and exciting first year for me at Google.<br /><br />And now I'm off to tell my beloved family members and friends all the great news --or should I say Google News?

Google News in Hindi

Posted by Vinodh Kumar R, Software EngineerMillions of Hindi speakers across India and the rest of the world have a reason to cheer: Google News is now available in Hindi.Google News gathers news stor…

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This year's India Code Jam

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Posted by Arvind Jain, Google Bangalore</span><br /><br />On April 6 and 7, Google India celebrated the coding community in Southeast Asia by hosting the second <a href="http://www.google.com/indiacodejam/">Code Jam</a> competition. At nearly 15,000 entrants, this year’s registrations topped last year’s. The annual software coding fest consists of two online rounds, in which participants competed to solve three coding problems more quickly and accurately than their competitors. The top 50, who came from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Singapore (and included one female finalist, by the way), were invited to compete in the onsite finals. (We made a <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6756821813540907008">video</a> about the finals.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/India_Codejam-728590.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/India_Codejam-714389.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Though it was incredibly close, last year's winner, Ardian Kristanto Poernomo, from Indonesia, snagged the grand prize once again. Abishek Kumarasubramanian from Chennai, India was less than 3/100ths of a point behind him.<br /><br />The two-day event also featured of team building activities and Google engineering presentations. We’re especially delighted that over half of the finalists expressed their interest in working for Google. And if you’re one of those, go <a href="http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/jobs/index.html">here</a>.

This year's India Code Jam

Posted by Posted by Arvind Jain, Google BangaloreOn April 6 and 7, Google India celebrated the coding community in Southeast Asia by hosting the second Code Jam competition. At nearly 15,000 entrants,…

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Testimony: The Internet in China

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team</span><br /><br />At today's <a href="http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/afhear.htm">hearing before the Committee on International Relations</a> of the U.S. House of Representatives, we provided the following <a href="http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/109/sch021506.pdf">testimony</a>:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Testimony of Google Inc. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">before the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, and the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Committee on International Relations, United States House of Representatives </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">February 15, 2006 </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Elliot Schrage </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Vice President, Global Communications<br />and Public Affairs, Google Inc. </span><br /></div><br />My name is Elliot Schrage and I am the vice president for global communications and public affairs at Google. My role is to help shape and explain the decisions Google makes as a company in its efforts to provide global access to information as quickly, conveniently, usefully, and comprehensively as possible.<br /><br />I'm here today to answer any and all questions you might have about how we are attempting to do business in China. I certainly don't – my colleagues certainly don't – expect everyone to agree with our decision to launch a new service inside this challenging, complex, promising market. I hope my testimony will help explain how we came to our decision, what we're seeking to accomplish, and how we’re seeking to accomplish it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Introduction </span><br />At the outset, I want to acknowledge what I hope is obvious: Figuring out how to deal with China has been a difficult exercise for Google. The requirements of doing business in China include self-censorship – something that runs counter to Google’s most basic values and commitments as a company. Despite that, we made a decision to launch a new product for China – Google.cn – that respects the content restrictions imposed by Chinese laws and regulations. Understandably, many are puzzled or upset by our decision. But our decision was based on a judgment that Google.cn will make a meaningful – though imperfect – contribution to the overall expansion of access to information in China.<br /><br />Until a few weeks ago, Google has been serving Chinese Internet users the same way we serve all Internet users worldwide since the company was founded in 1999. Though we had no operations or employees in China, we were able to provide a Chinese-language version of Google.com that, thanks to the global nature of the Internet, could easily be reached by users inside China. In 2002, we started to learn that Google was sporadically unavailable to Chinese users. In the fall of that year, we awoke one morning to emails from Google users in China informing us that our service was completely unavailable. We faced a choice at that point: hold fast to our commitment to free speech (and risk a long-term cut-off from our Chinese users), or compromise our principles by entering the Chinese market directly and subjecting ourselves to Chinese laws and regulations. We stood by our principles, which turned out to be a good choice, as access to Google.com was largely restored within about two weeks.<br /><br />However, we soon discovered new problems. Many queries, especially politically sensitive queries, were not making it through to Google’s servers. And access became often slow and unreliable, meaning that our service in China was not something we felt proud of. Even though we weren’t doing any self-censorship, our results were being filtered anyway, and our service was being actively degraded on top of that. Indeed, at some times users were even being redirected to local Chinese search engines Nevertheless, we continued to offer our service from outside China while other Internet companies were entering China and building operations there.<br /><br />A bit more than a year ago, we decided to take a serious look at China and re-assess whether our approach there was the best strategy. We spent a lot of time talking to Chinese Internet experts and users, scholars and academics inside and outside China, respected “China hands,” human rights groups and activists, government officials, business leaders, as well as our own Chinese employees. From those discussions, we reached the conclusion that perhaps we had been taking the wrong path. Our search results were being filtered; our service was being crippled; our users were flocking to local Chinese alternatives; and, ultimately, Chinese Internet users had less access to information than they would have had.<br /><br />Let me dig a bit deeper into the analytic framework we developed for China. Google’s objective is to make the world’s information accessible to everyone, everywhere, all the time. It is a mission that expresses two fundamental commitments:<br /><br />(a) First, our business commitment to satisfy the <span style="font-weight: bold;">interests of users</span>, and by doing so to build a leading company in a highly competitive industry; and<br /><br />(b) Second, our policy conviction that <span style="font-weight: bold;">expanding access</span> to information to anyone who wants it will make our world a better, more informed, and freer place.<br /><br />Some governments impose restrictions that make our mission difficult to achieve, and this is what we have encountered in China. In such a situation, we have to add to the balance a third fundamental commitment:<br /><br />(c) Be responsive to <span style="font-weight: bold;">local conditions</span>.<br /><br />So with that framework in mind, we decided to try a different path, a path rooted in the very pragmatic calculation that we could provide more access to more information to more Chinese citizens more reliably by offering a new service – Google.cn – that, though subject to Chinese self-censorship requirements, would have some significant advantages. Above all, it would be faster and more reliable, and would provide more and better search results for all but a handful of politically sensitive subjects. We also developed several elements that distinguish our service in China, including:<br /><ul><li>Disclosure to users -- We will give notification to Chinese users whenever search results have been removed. </li><li>Protection of user privacy -- We will not maintain on Chinese soil any services, like email, that involve personal or confidential data. This means that we will not, for example, host Gmail or Blogger, our email and blogging tools, in China. </li><li>Continued availability of Google.com -- We will not terminate the availability of our unfiltered Chinese-language Google.com service. </li></ul>Many, if not most, of you here know that one of Google's corporate mantras is “Don't be evil.” Some of our critics – and even a few of our friends – think that phrase arrogant, or naïve or both. It's not. It's an admonition that reminds us to consider the moral and ethical implications of every single business decision we make.<br /><br />We believe that our current approach to China is consistent with this mantra. Our hope is that our mix of measures, though far from our ideal, would accomplish more for Chinese citizens’ access to information than the alternative. We don’t pretend that this is the single “right” answer to the dilemma faced by information companies in China, but rather a reasonable approach that seems likely to bring our users greater access to more information than any other search engine in China. And by serving our users better, we hope it will be good for our business, too, over the long run.<br /><br />To be clear, these are not easy, black-and-white issues. As our co-founder Sergey Brin has said, we understand and respect the perspective of people who disagree with our decision; indeed, we recognize that the opposing point of view is a reasonable one to hold. Nonetheless, in a situation where there are only imperfect options, we think we have made a reasonable choice. It’s a choice that has generated enormous attention – vastly more, indeed, than our earlier decisions not to cross the line of self-censorship. We hope that the ensuing dialogue will lead to productive collaboration among businesses and governments to further our shared aim of expanding access to information worldwide.<br /><br />We think we have made a reasonable decision, though we cannot be sure it will ultimately be proven to be the best one. With the announcement of our launch of Google.cn, we’ve begun a process that we hope will better serve our Chinese users. We also hope that we will be able to add new services, if circumstances permit. We are also aware that, for any number of reasons, this may not come to pass. Looking ahead, we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives I’ve outlined above, we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.<br /><br />In the remainder of my written testimony below, I set forth the situation in China as we see it, the debate over the options we confronted, the substance of what Google has decided to do there, the reasoning behind that decision, and some ideas for both industry and governmental actions that could make a useful contribution to the objective of expanding access to information in every corner of the globe.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Big Picture: The Internet is Transforming China<br /><br /></span>The backdrop to Google’s decision to launch Google.cn is the explosive growth of the Internet in China. To put it simply, the Internet is transforming China for the better. And the weight of the evidence suggests that the Internet is accelerating and deepening these positive trends, even in an imperfect environment.<br /><br />Viewed broadly, information and communication technology – including the Internet, email, instant messaging, web logs, bulletin boards, podcasts, peer-to-peer applications, streaming audio and video, mobile telephones, SMS text messages, MMS photo-sharing, and so on – has brought Chinese citizens a greater ability to read, discuss, publish and communicate about a wider range of topics, events, and issues than ever before.<br /><br />There are currently more than 105 million Internet users in China.<span style="font-weight: bold;">1</span> Nearly half of them have access to broadband connections – an increase of 41% since 2003.<span style="font-weight: bold;">2</span> Even so, Internet deployment in China is at a very early stage, reaching only about 8% of the population.<span style="font-weight: bold;">3</span> Among those under 24 years of age, more than 80% are Internet users.<span style="font-weight: bold;">4</span> By 2010, China will have more than 250 million Internet users.<span style="font-weight: bold;">5</span> And already, there are more than 350 million mobile phones, a number growing by roughly 57 million annually.<span style="font-weight: bold;">6</span><br /><br />A recent and well-respected study by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) documents some interesting, and perhaps surprising, findings about the views of Chinese Internet users:<span style="font-weight: bold;">7</span><br /><ul><li>Most Chinese Internet users believe that the Internet is changing politics in China. Internet users tend to agree that it will increase political transparency and expand discourse: 63% believe that citizens will learn more about politics by going online, 54% of users believe the Internet provides more opportunities for criticizing the government, and 45% believe that the Internet provides more opportunities to express political views.</li><li>Large majorities of Chinese believe that certain kinds of Internet content, including pornography and violence, should be controlled. However, only 7.6% believe that political content on the Internet should be controlled. </li><li>By a 10:1 margin, Chinese Internet users believe that the Internet will make the world a better, rather than worse, place. </li></ul>Based on its results, the CASS Internet Survey concludes that “the political impact of the Internet is more significant than it is in other countries. The impact can be seen not only in the relationship between government and citizens but also among people who share similar political interests. Thus, we can predict that as Internet becomes more popular in China, the impact on politics will be stronger.”<span style="font-weight: bold;">8</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Problem: Access to Google in China is Slow and Unreliable<br /><br /></span>Since 2000, Google has been offering a Chinese-language version of Google.com, designed to make Google just as easy, intuitive, and useful to Chinese-speaking users worldwide as it is for speakers of English. Within China, however, Google.com has proven to be both slow and unreliable. Indeed, Google’s users in China struggle with a service that is often unavailable. According to our measurements, Google.com appears to be unreachable around 10% of the time. Even when Chinese users can get to Google.com, the website is slow (sometimes painfully so, and nearly always slower than our local competitors), and sometimes produces results that, when clicked on, stall out the user’s browser. The net result is a bad user experience for those in China.<br /><br />The cause of the slowness and unreliability appears to be, in large measure, the extensive filtering performed by China’s licensed Internet Service Providers (ISPs). China’s laws, regulations, and policies against illegal information apply not only to the Internet content providers, but also to the ISPs. China has nine licensed international gateway data carriers, and many hundreds of smaller local ISPs. Each ISP is legally obligated to implement its own filtering mechanisms, leading to diverse and sometimes inconsistent outcomes across the network at any given moment. For example, some of Google’s services appear to be unavailable to Chinese users nearly always, including Google News, the Google cache (i.e., our service that maintains stored copies of web pages), and Blogspot (the site that hosts weblogs of Blogger customers). Other services, such as Google Image Search, can be reached about half the time. Still others, such as Google.com, Froogle, and Google Maps, are unavailable only around 10% of the time.<br /><br />Even when Google is reachable, the data indicates that we are almost always slower than our local competitors. Third-party measurements of latency (meaning the delay that a user experiences when trying to download a web page) suggest that the average total time to download a Google webpage is more than seven times slower than for Baidu, the leading Chinese search engine.<br /><br />Users trying to get to Google will have different experiences at different times of day, and from different points on the Chinese network. For example, access to Google appears to be speedier and more reliable in Beijing than in Shanghai, and generally better in the largest cities compared to smaller towns, suburbs, and villages.<br /><br />Based on our analysis of the available data, we believe that the filtering performed by the international gateway ISPs is far more disruptive to our services than that performed by smaller local ISPs. Because Google’s servers have, to date, been located exclusively outside China, all traffic to and from Google must traverse at least one of China’s international gateway ISPs. Accordingly, Google’s access problems can only be solved by creating a local presence inside China.<br /><br />Operating without a local presence, Google’s slowness and unreliability appears to have been a major – perhaps the major – factor behind our steadily declining market share. According to third-party estimates, Baidu has gone from 2.5% of the search market in 2003 to 46% in 2005, while Google has dropped to below 30% (and falling).<span style="font-weight: bold;">9</span> The statistics are even more dire among the college-age young, who use Baidu even more, and Google less, than their elders. Part of this has been due to improvements in Baidu’s services and a major marketing campaign (funded by the proceeds of its successful IPO in the US), but the leading cause seems to be the Chinese users’ annoyance at the persistent slowness and unreliability of Google.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Google’s Calibrated Approach<br /><br /></span>In light of the chronic access problems that have plagued Google in China, Google’s management set out more than a year ago to study and learn about China, to understand and assess our options, to debate their relative merits, and to make a decision that properly weighs both business and ethical considerations.<br /><br />There is no question that, as a matter of business, we want to be active in China. It is a huge, rapidly growing, and enormously important market, and our key competitors are already there. It would be disingenuous to say that we don't care about that because, of course, we do. We are a business with stockholders, and we want to prosper and grow in a highly competitive world.<br /><br />At the same time, acting ethically is a core value for our company, and an integral part of our business culture. Our slowness and unreliability has meant that Google is failing in its mission to make the world’s information accessible and useful to Chinese Internet users. Only a local presence would allow Google to resolve most, if not all, of the latency and access issues. But to have a local presence in China would require Google to get an Internet Content Provider license, triggering a set of regulatory requirements to filter and remove links to content that is considered illegal in China.<br /><br />So we were confronted with two basic options – [1] stay out of China, or [2] establish a local presence in China – either of which would entail some degree of inconsistency with our corporate mission. In assessing these options, we looked at three fundamental Google commitments:<br /><br />(a) Satisfy the <span style="font-weight: bold;">interests of users</span>,<br />(b) <span style="font-weight: bold;">Expand access</span> to information, and<br />(c) Be responsive to <span style="font-weight: bold;">local conditions</span>.<br /><br />The strongest argument for staying out of China is simply that Google should not cross the line of self-censorship, and should not be actively complicit in imposing any limits on access to information. To be clear, the persistence of severe access problems amid fierce competition from local alternatives suggests that the consequence of this approach would be the steady shrinking of Google’s market share ever closer to zero. Without meaningful access to Google, Chinese users would rely exclusively on Internet search engines that may lack Google’s fundamental commitment to maximizing access to information – and, of course, miss out on the many features, capabilities, and tools that only Google provides.<br /><br />On the other hand, we believe that even within the local legal and regulatory constraints that exist in China, a speedy, reliable Google.cn service will increase overall access to information for Chinese Internet users. We noted, for example, that the vast majority of Internet searches in China are for local Chinese content, such as local news, local businesses, weather, games and entertainment, travel information, blogs, and so forth. Even for political discussions, Chinese users are much more interested in local Chinese Internet sites and sources than from abroad. Indeed, for Google web search, we estimate that fewer than 2% of all search queries in China would result in pages from which search results would be unavailable due to filtering.<br /><br />Crucial to this analysis is the fact that our new Google.cn website is an <span style="font-weight: bold;">additional</span> service, <span style="font-weight: bold;">not a replacement</span> for Google.com in China. The Chinese-language Google.com will remain open, unfiltered and available to all Internet users worldwide.<br /><br />At the same time, the speed and technical excellence of Google.cn means that more information will be more easily searchable than ever before. Even with content restrictions, a fast and reliable Google.cn is more likely to expand Chinese users’ access to information.<br /><br />We also took steps that went beyond a simple mathematical calculus about expanding access to information. First, we recognize that users are also interested in transparency and honesty when information has been withheld. Second, users are concerned about the privacy, security, and confidentiality of their personal information. Finally, users want to have competition and choices, so that the market players have a strong incentive to improve their offerings over time.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Transparency.</span> Users have an interest in knowing when potentially relevant information has been removed from their search results. Google’s experience dealing with content restrictions in other countries provided some crucial insight as to how we might operate Google.cn in a way that would give modest but unprecedented disclosure to Chinese Internet users.<br /><br />Google has developed a consistent global policy and technical mechanism for handling content deemed illegal by a host government. Several of the countries in which we operate have laws that regulate content.In all of these countries, Google responds similarly. First, when we get a court order or legal notice in a foreign country where we operate, we remove the illegal content only from the relevant national version of the Google search engine (such as Google.fr for France). Second, we provide a clear notice to users on every search results page from which one or more links has been removed. The disclosure allows users to hold their legal systems accountable.<br /><br />This response allows Google to be respectful of local content restrictions while providing meaningful disclosure to users and strictly limiting the impact to the relevant Google website for that country. For China, this model provided some useful guidance for how we could handle content restrictions on Google.cn in way that would afford some disclosure when links have been removed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Privacy and Security.</span> Google is committed to protecting consumer privacy and confidentiality. Prior to the launch of Google.cn, Google conducted intensive reviews of each of our services to assess the implications of offering it directly in China. We are always conscious of the fact that data may be subject to the jurisdiction of the country where it is physically stored. With that in mind, we concluded that, at least initially, only a handful of search engine services would be hosted in China.<br /><br />We will not store data somewhere unless we are confident that we can meet our expectations for the privacy and security of users’ sensitive information. As a practical matter, meeting this user interest means that we have no plans to host Gmail, Blogger, and a range of other such services in China.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Competition and Choice.</span> Internet users in China, like people everywhere, want competition and choices in the marketplace. Without competition, companies have little incentive to improve their services, advance the state of the art, or take innovative risks. If Google were to stay out of China, it would remove powerful pressure on the local players in the search engine market to create ever-more-powerful tools for accessing and organizing information. Google’s withdrawal from China would cede the terrain to the local Internet portals that may not have the same commitment, or feel the competitive pressure, to innovate in the interests of their users.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Decision: What Google Is Doing in China </span><br /><br />The deliberative process and analysis outlined above led to the following decisions.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> (1) Launch Google.cn.</span><br />We have recently launched Google.cn, a version of Google’s search engine that we will filter in response to Chinese laws and regulations on illegal content. This website will supplement, and not replace, the existing, unfiltered Chinese-language interface on Google.com. That website will remain open and unfiltered for Chinese-speaking users worldwide.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> (2) Disclosure of Filtering</span><br />Google.cn presents to users a clear notification whenever links have been removed from our search results in response to local laws and regulations in China. We view this a step toward greater transparency that no other company has done before.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> (3) Limit Services </span><br />Google.cn today includes basic Google search services, together with a local business information and map service. Other products – such as Gmail and Blogger, our blog service – that involve personal and confidential information will be introduced only when we are comfortable that we can provide them in a way that protects the privacy and security of users’ information.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Next Steps: Voluntary Industry Action </span><br /><br />Google supports the idea of Internet industry action to define common principles to guide the practices of technology firms in countries that restrict access to information. Together with colleagues at other leading Internet companies, we are actively exploring the potential for guidelines that would apply for all countries in which Internet content is subjected to governmental restrictions. Such guidelines might encompass, for example, disclosure to users, protections for user data, and periodic reporting about governmental restrictions and the measures taken in response to them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Next Steps: U.S. Government Action<br /><br /></span>The United States government has a role to play in contributing to the global expansion of free expression. For example, the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative should continue to make censorship a central element of our bilateral and multilateral agendas.<br /><br />Moreover, the U.S. government should seek to bolster the global reach and impact of our Internet information industry by placing obstacles to its growth at the top of our trade agenda. At the risk of oversimplification, the U.S. should treat censorship as a barrier to trade, and raise that issue in appropriate fora.<br />________________________________<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1 </span>“China Online Search Market Survey Report,” China Network Information Center (CNNIC) (August 2005) (“CNNIC Search Engine Study”).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2</span> Guo Liang, “Surveying Internet Usage and Impact in Five Chinese Cities,” Research Center for Social Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (November 2005) (“the CASS Internet Survey”), at iii. The CASS Internet Survey is a statistically rigorous survey of Internet users in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Changsha.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3</span> Id.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4</span> Id., at iv.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5 </span>“15th Statistic Survey Report on the Internet Development in China,” China Network Information Center (CNNIC) (2005).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6</span> From statistics published by China’s Ministry of Information Industry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7 </span>CASS Internet Survey., at iv-ix, 93-100.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8</span> Id. at 100.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">9 </span>CNNIC Search Engine Study.

Testimony: The Internet in China

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog teamAt today's hearing before the Committee on International Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives, we provided the following testimony:Testimony of Google…

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Google in China

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, senior policy counsel</span><br /><br />Google users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn't very good. <a href="http://www.google.com/">Google.com</a> appears to be down around 10% of the time. Even when users can reach it, the website is slow, and sometimes produces results that when clicked on, stall out the user's browser. Our <a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a> service is never available; <a href="http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&q=">Google Images</a> is accessible only half the time. At Google we work hard to create a great experience for our users, and the level of service we've been able to provide in China is not something we're proud of.<br /><br />This problem could only be resolved by creating a local presence, and this week we did so, by launching <a href="http://google.cn/">Google.cn</a>, our website for the People's Republic of China. In order to do so, we have agreed to remove certain sensitive information from our search results. We know that many people are upset about this decision, and frankly, we understand their point of view. This wasn't an easy choice, but in the end, we believe the course of action we've chosen will prove to be the right one.<br /><br />Launching a Google domain that restricts information in any way isn't a step we took lightly. For several years, we've debated whether entering the Chinese market at this point in history could be consistent with our mission and values. Our executives have spent a lot of time in recent months talking with many people, ranging from those who applaud the Chinese government for its embrace of a market economy and its lifting of 400 million people out of poverty to those who disagree with many of the Chinese government's policies, but who wish the best for China and its people. We ultimately reached our decision by asking ourselves which course would most effectively further Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. Or, put simply: how can we provide the greatest access to information to the greatest number of people?<br /><br />Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely. Whether our critics agree with our decision or not, due to the severe quality problems faced by users trying to access Google.com from within China, this is precisely the choice we believe we faced. By launching Google.cn and making a major ongoing investment in people and infrastructure within China, we intend to change that.<br /><br />No, we're not going to offer some Google products, such as <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/">Gmail</a> or <a href="http://www.blogger.com/home">Blogger</a>, on Google.cn until we're comfortable that we can do so in a manner that respects our users' interests in the privacy of their personal communications. And yes, Chinese regulations will require us to remove some sensitive information from our search results. When we do so, we'll disclose this to users, just as we already do in those rare instances where we alter results in order to comply with local laws in France, Germany and the U.S.<br /><br />Obviously, the situation in China is far different than it is in those other countries; while China has made great strides in the past decades, it remains in many ways closed. We aren't happy about what we had to do this week, and we hope that over time everyone in the world will come to enjoy full access to information. But how is that full access most likely to be achieved? We are convinced that the Internet, and its continued development through the efforts of companies like Google, will effectively contribute to openness and prosperity in the world. Our continued engagement with China is the best (perhaps only) way for Google to help bring the tremendous benefits of universal information access to all our users there.<br /><br />We're in this for the long haul. In the years to come, we'll be making significant and growing investments in China. Our launch of google.cn, though filtered, is a necessary first step toward achieving a productive presence in a rapidly changing country that will be one of the world's most important and dynamic for decades to come. To some people, a hard compromise may not feel as satisfying as a withdrawal on principle, but we believe it's the best way to work toward the results we all desire.

Google in China

Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, senior policy counselGoogle users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn't very good. Google.com appears to be down around 10% of the time. Even whe…

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Finding great ramen nearby

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Ken Tokusei, International Product Manager</span><br /><br />You may have seen our <a href="http://local.google.com/">Local</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.com/">Maps</a> products that help you find businesses and maps throughout the US, Canada and the UK. We've just added <a href="http://local.google.co.jp/">Local</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.co.jp/">Maps</a> services in Japan.<br /><br />You think Tokyo is expensive? Maybe, but you can still find a number of <a href="http://tinyurl.com/b5le9">venues serving a 1000-yen combo lunch near Shinjuku</a>.<br /><br />Of course, Local and Maps Japan are designed to work with Japanese language, but even if you don't know Japanese, I'm sure you can appreciate why we developed it with some particulars in mind for Japanese users. Many Japanese live and work around train stations, for example, and refer to neighborhoods defined by their proximity to them. So we made sure they can search for businesses easily and refer to location by station names. After all, no one wants to walk 10 miles from a station, just to grab a $10 lunch!

Finding great ramen nearby

Posted by Ken Tokusei, International Product ManagerYou may have seen our Local and Maps products that help you find businesses and maps throughout the US, Canada and the UK. We've just added Local an…

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Will code for pride of place

<span class="byline-author">Posted by </span>Krishna Bharat + Lalitesh Katragadda, Bangalore team<br /><br />Inside every Google engineer is a kid who loves solving problems. Wanting to celebrate that fervor, we just held our first India Code Jam to attract the best software coders in India and South Asia. The competition started in February with some 14,000 contestants in the first round. Several elimination rounds later, 50 finalists were flown to our R&D Center in Bangalore.<br /><br /><img alt="Will code for rupees" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/media/willcodeforrupees.jpg" /><br /><br />This hardy lot competed on their ability to think creatively, design expertly, and code correctly and efficiently - traits that dovetail with creating Google's search algorithms, products and infrastructure. On Saturday morning expectations were high. Brains went on overdrive. Two and a half hours later the dust settled. The top winner: Ardian K Poernomo, a computer science student from Singapore, who won Rs. 3,00,000 (US $7000). We don't know whether Ardian will want to join Google, but we do know a lot of coders had good geeky fun. If you missed the Jam but are Bangalore-bound, consider <a href="http://www.google.com/bangalore">joining us</a>.<br /><br /><br />Google Bangalore

Will code for pride of place

Posted by Krishna Bharat + Lalitesh Katragadda, Bangalore teamInside every Google engineer is a kid who loves solving problems. Wanting to celebrate that fervor, we just held our first India Code Jam …

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In the land of the googly

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Roy Gilbert, Google India</span><br /><br /><img alt="Google Hyderabad" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/media/google-hyderabad.jpg" /><br /><br />Who says things never leave beta at Google? Our Hyderabad office is formally opening today after a mere nine months. This is where we help AdWords clients run their campaigns. We also have a QA team to ensure Google product quality, and run all of the support functions for our operations throughout India. Like any other Google office, <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/culture.html">lava lamps and colored balls</a> abound; unlike other offices, we have Indian food for lunch every day. Perhaps most important, we have launched the first chapter of the International Google Cricket Club, where the preferred delivery is, naturally, a <a href="http://www.answers.com/googly">googly</a>. If you're in the area, we're always <a href="http://www.google.com/jobs/qa-hyderabad.html">looking</a> for more smart Googlers.

In the land of the googly

Posted by Roy Gilbert, Google IndiaWho says things never leave beta at Google? Our Hyderabad office is formally opening today after a mere nine months. This is where we help AdWords clients run their …

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