healthy4u

It's a wonderful town

Posted by Craig Nevill-Manning, Engineering Director I suspect that when people think of New York, they think of Wall Street finance, Broadway shows, fashion, TV news. Probably "innovative software development" doesn't spring to mind. But hidden away in a Times Square high-rise, more than 80 software engineers are coding up some exciting Google products. If we told you *everything* we're working on, it'd spoil the surprise (hint: keep an eye on <a href="http://labs.google.com/">Google Labs</a>). Recently, we've launched <a href="http://www.google.com/googleblog/2005/04/just-facts-fast.html">Google Q&A</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/googleblog/2005/04/from-lost-to-found.html">My Search History</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/help/features.html#definitions">Web Definitions</a>, and <a href="http://local.google.com/">Local Search</a>, including the <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/">UK version</a> earlier this week. In fact generally we focus on the next generation of Google's crawling and indexing technology. We've got hard-core statisticians pondering how to measure search quality more accurately, and a slightly nutty project that we think might revolutionize the way that we organize and search structured information. It's not all work, work, work, though. We have a large three-story atrium, so it's axiomatic that we have several radio-controlled blimps - some with cameras - and a gyroscopically-stabilized four-rotor helicopter that can definitely take folks by surprise. And although breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided (we seem to have lost the ability to forage for ourselves) and two on-site masseuses (Manhattan can be a little intense), it's nice to get off site from time to time. Which means a trip to the Empire State Building, of course. We've taken a group photo of the team standing on our 19th floor terrace from the observation deck of the ESB -- we calculated that this requires an effective focal length of 3000mm, which is just right for an astronomical telescope and a digital SLR. <img alt="wonderful_town.jpg" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/media/wonderful_town.jpg" /> So we're a little geeky for New York City, but it is supposed to be a melting pot, isn't it? And we're right next to <a href="http://www.bryantpark.org/amenities/wireless.php">Bryant Park</a>, home of one of the world's first free public 802.11b networks, which we sponsor. Somehow that seems appropriate for a bunch of hackers trying to organize the world's information. It almost goes without saying that we're hiring like mad, what with our insatiable appetite for great software architects and coders. If the Bright Lights of the Big City are blinking at you, check out our <a href="http://www.google.com/jobs/newyork.html">New York jobs</a>.

It's a wonderful town

Posted by Craig Nevill-Manning, Engineering Director I suspect that when people think of New York, they think of Wall Street finance, Broadw...

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From lost to found

From lost to found

Posted by Avni Shah, My Search History team How many times have you used Google to find an obscure funny website or fun facts about "Th...

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Google does Grimsby, Gateshead and Glasgow

Posted by Richard Boardman, Usability Analyst Sometimes it's hard being a Brit in Silicon Valley. Have you tried to find a decent pint, authentic fish and chips or well-made bowler hats in northern California lately? (Okay, the last one isn't a priority.) There's also that feeling of being left out when new technology gets launched in the U.S. before it reaches the rest of the world. Take <a href="http://local.google.com">Google Local</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.com">Google Maps</a>, for example - innovative local business search and beautiful interactive maps. However, as per the barrage of emails I got from mates back home: New Orleans, Anchorage and Beverly Hills are all very well, but what about London, Cardiff, and Belfast? I guess my colleagues got tired of my moaning, so I'm delighted to introduce <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/">Google Local UK</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/">Google Maps UK</a>. The Google UK office and a few of us homesick Brits in California have been helping out with the development. Engineer: Why are the streets in the UK such a mess? Me: Sadly, the ancient Britons, Romans and Vikings had a different idea of urban planning than do we moderns. Product Manager: Manchester's not that important, is it? Me: It is if you're a Mancunian! (So watch it, lad.) Give it a go: your <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/local?q=fish+and+chips&near=Plymouth">fish and chips in Plymouth</a>, <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/local?q=theatres&near=Piccadilly+Circus">theatres near Piccadilly Circus</a>, and <a href="http://local.google.co.uk/local?q=haggis&near=Inverness">haggis in Inverness</a> await. P.S. We Brits also love our text messaging, so all this info (and more) can be found on the go by texting your (UK) queries via <a href="http://sms.google.co.uk/">Google SMS</a>.

Google does Grimsby, Gateshead and Glasgow

Posted by Richard Boardman, Usability Analyst Sometimes it's hard being a Brit in Silicon Valley. Have you tried to find a decent pint, ...

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Bird view

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog team Okay, we know we're always saying that this product and that product are cool, but seriously: <a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a> are cool. And in the few weeks since we added <a href="http://www.keyhole.com/">Keyhole</a> satellite imagery, we've enjoyed watching netizens inventing ingenious ways to play with Maps, and thought we'd share a few of our favorites. We'll begin with a sampling of our favorite views. The <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1600+Pennsylvania+Avenue,Washington+DC&t=k&amp;hl=en">Photoshopped White House roof</a> is soooo last week, but the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.151264,-110.825057&spn=0,0&amp;t=k">airplane graveyard</a> may never get old. We're impressed by <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=bunker+hill,IL&ll=39.014329,-89.979132&amp;spn=0.004462,0.003749&t=k&amp;hl=en">Dave's work</a> -- but even more so by <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.081682205200195,-97.14098453521729&spn=0.034117698669433594,0.034332275390625&amp;t=k&hl=en">Luecke's</a>. And of course, people are always finding a few <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67190,00.html">surprises</a>. But the real jewels are the various Google Maps collections. This is <a href="http://perljam.net/notes/interesting-google-satellite-maps/">a nice aggregation</a> of views, and the <a href="http://www.shreddies.org/gmaps/">Google Sightseeing blog</a> might eventually be even better. This guy's <a href="http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/%20">marriage of Google Maps and Craig's List real estate ads</a> had our engineers saying "Wow." Speaking of engineers, our own Nelson Minar came up with <a href="http://www.google.com/googleblog/googlemaps-locations.jpg">this visualization</a> of where people did the most Maps searching on April 6th. And on the high art front, the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/memorymap">Memory Mappers</a> are creating nothing less than a new literary form. Cool. P.S. Go <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.346233,-71.097894&amp;spn=0.004517,0.007596&t=k&amp;hl=en">Sox</a>!

Bird view

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog team Okay, we know we're always saying that this product and that product are cool, but seriously:...

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