Staying Alert

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Naga Sridhar Kataru, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />If you track information on a batch of discrete topics all the time like I do, managing your inbox is no day at the beach. Monitoring a number of mailing lists for interesting news on, say, [<a href="http://www.google.com/alerts?t=8&q=harry+potter">harry potter</a>] or [<a href="http://www.google.com/alerts?t=8&q=sony+aibo">sony aibo</a>] or [<a href="http://www.google.com/alerts?t=8&q=housing+bubble">housing bubble</a>] without actually subscribing to what could be hundreds of mailing lists is a daunting task. (And remember, <a href="http://groups.google.com/">Google Groups</a> also encompasses Usenet groups - even more messages to scan!) There hasn't been an easy way to achieve this in Google Groups except for periodically searching for a given topic to see if there are any new and interesting posts.<br /><br />Some of us thought it would be cool to offer a feature that does this work for us. Whenever we start thinking like this, it's usually followed by a new product - and that has led to our latest Alerts offering, a beta version of <a href="http://www.google.com/alerts">Google Groups Alerts</a>. It monitors the top 50 most recent Google Groups search results that relate to keywords you're interested in. Any new articles posted that match your criteria will be emailed to you, just like Google News alerts. The ideal candidates for Groups Alerts are those that might be discussed in multiple discussion groups. Give it a try and see if you don't save time - and stay current. <link: style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" feedback="" url=""></link:>

Staying Alert

Posted by Naga Sridhar Kataru, Software Engineer If you track information on a batch of discrete topics all the time like I do, managing you...

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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 Manager You may have seen our Local and Maps products that help you find businesses and maps ...

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Thanks for playing

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Matthew Vosburgh, Google Video Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Google Video searches a rapidly growing database of network TV shows and uploaded material. We show text and picture info for everything, which is great when you want to know how often they mention <a href="http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=title%3A+seinfeld+cereal">cereal</a> or <a href="http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=title%3Aseinfeld+superman">Superman</a> on <span style="font-style: italic;">Seinfeld</span>, for instance. For some material, you can also play the actual video. That's how I know that this guy Eric has <a href="http://video.google.com/videopreviewbig?q=cat+barking+playable%3Atrue">a cool ca</a><a href="http://video.google.com/videopreviewbig?q=cat+barking+playable%3Atrue">t</a>.<br /><br />Because lots of people have asked for a way to just find the results with playable video, I've added two radio buttons below the search box on <a href="http://video.google.com/">Google Video</a>. To get the stuff you can actually play, click on "playable video" before you search.

Thanks for playing

Posted by Matthew Vosburgh, Google Video Software Engineer Google Video searches a rapidly growing database of network TV shows and uploaded...

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Demoing SMS

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Maurice Sidi, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Since joining Google as an intern a few months ago, I’ve enjoyed over 300 Google meals, done over 20 loads of laundry, and actually launched something. My <a href="http://www.google.com/sms/demo.html">interactive demo for Google SMS</a> lets you send SMS queries from your computer to Google and preview the results you’d actually get on your phone. You can use Google SMS to look up local business listings, weather conditions, movie showtimes, stock quotes, and more, using <a href="http://www.google.com/sms/faq.html#using6">any major U.S. or UK carrier</a>. Give it a try.<br /><br />p.s. Congrats to my colleagues for getting <a href="http://sms.google.com/">Google SMS out of Labs</a>!

Demoing SMS

Posted by Maurice Sidi, Software Engineer Since joining Google as an intern a few months ago, I’ve enjoyed over 300 Google meals, done over ...

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Home on the numrange

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Tom Stocky, Product Marketing Manager</span><br /><br />More than once I've wanted to search for something that involved a range of numbers - and I just discovered that I can. It turns out you can use two periods (no spaces) to have your search include multiple numbers that form a range. For example, if you wanted to search for inventions of the late 19th century, you could use <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=inventions+1850..1899">inventions 1850..1899</a>. I discovered <a href="http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html#numrange"> this feature</a> when I was trying to track down the hottest recorded temperature on Earth. I knew it happened in Death Valley, but couldn't remember what it was. I found it by searching for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=%5Bdeath+valley+130..140+degrees">death valley 130..140 degrees</a>.

Home on the numrange

Posted by Tom Stocky, Product Marketing Manager More than once I've wanted to search for something that involved a range of numbers - an...

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Tchotchkes cubed

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/Tchotchke_cube-783793.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/Tchotchke_cube-782702.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog Team</span><br /><br />Every time I pass this cube I wonder why my own work space looks so lame.

Tchotchkes cubed

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog Team Every time I pass this cube I wonder why my own work space looks so lame.

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The platypus of the Internet

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Justin Voskuhl, Tech Lead</span><br /><br />It’s surprising what natural selection will produce – for instance, a platypus. How could something with such a seemingly discombobulated set of attributes be fit for survival in the hostile natural world? I had a similar reaction when I first heard about the <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/xul/">XUL programming language</a>, used to create the Firefox browser and the plethora of extensions that the Internet ecosystem is creating around it. Strange concept, using JavaScript, which is used to write code that works *in* a browser, to create the browser *itself*. As with the platypus, it’s not until we saw XUL in action that we realized how well suited for survival this product of Internet evolution is.<br /><br />Not that long ago, the Google Firefox Toolbar team met for the first time - and now we've built the <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/">Google Toolbar for Firefox</a> in 10 languages for three operating systems (Windows, Mac and Linux). Self-congratulatory urges aside, we marvel at how well-suited this platypus was to our task. For a small team that had never worked together, or used XUL, to create a product quickly that works across languages and platforms from a single ~250K download - that's good stuff, if you ask me.<br /><br />In the interest of brevity (already compromised by how long I've gone on), we also tip our hats to the folks at the <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/">Mozilla Foundation</a> for making it so easy for us to look good. ;-)

The platypus of the Internet

Posted by Justin Voskuhl, Tech Lead It’s surprising what natural selection will produce – for instance, a platypus. How could something with...

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