Forget me not

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Avni Shah, Product Manager</span><br /><br />In recent years, my window shopping has moved to the web, and <a href="http://froogle.google.com">Froogle</a> has been there to help me shop smarter. But one thing Froogle couldn't fix was my lack of a short term memory. That's one reason we recently integrated Froogle with Personalized Search. Now you can view and manage your history of Froogle searches and the products you've looked at, just as you already can do with Web Search, Image Search, and News.<br /><br />Just <a href="http://www.google.com/psearch">sign up for Personalized Search</a> and make sure you're signed in to your Google Account when searching on Froogle. If you're like me, that means you'll never have to worry about forgetting <a href="http://www.google.com/froogle?q=darth+tater&groupby=n">Darth Tater</a>'s name - ever again.

Forget me not

Posted by Avni Shah, Product Manager In recent years, my window shopping has moved to the web, and Froogle has been there to help me shop s...

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Human Rights Caucus briefing

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, Senior Policy Counsel</span><br /><br />For today's Member Briefing of the U.S. <a href="http://lantos.house.gov/HoR/CA12/Human+Rights+Caucus/HRC+Hidden+Content/01-26-06+Human+Rights+and+the+Internet+PRC.htm">Congressional Human Rights Caucus</a> on "Human Rights and the Internet -- The People's Republic of China," we've submitted the following statement:<br /><br /><center><span style="font-weight: bold;">Congressional Human Rights Caucus Members’ Briefing<br />“Human Rights and the Internet – The People’s Republic of China”</span><br />Submission of Andrew McLaughlin, Google Inc.<br />February 1, 2006</center><br /><br />On behalf of Google, I would like to thank the Members of the Human Rights Caucus for inviting Google to participate in today’s Member Briefing on Human Rights and the Internet in China.<br /><br />Though previously scheduled commitments prevent me from appearing in person today, I reiterate Google’s offer to participate in a Member Briefing on another date, to brief Members individually, and to continue briefing staff on our activities in China.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />I. Google.cn in China</span><br /><br />The rationale for launching a domestic version of Google in China – a website subject to China’s local content restrictions – is that our service in China has not been very good, due in large measure to the extensive filtering performed by Chinese Internet service providers (ISPs). Google’s users in China struggle with a service that is often unavailable, or painfully slow. According to our measurements, Google.com appears to be unavailable around 10% of the time. Even when users can reach Google.com, the website is slow, and sometimes produces results that, when clicked on, stall out the user’s browser. The Google News service is almost never available; Google Images is available only half the time. <br /><br />These problems can only be solved by creating a local presence inside China. By launching Google.cn and making a major ongoing investment in people, infrastructure, and innovation within China, we intend to provide the greatest access to the greatest amount of information to the greatest number of Chinese Internet users. At the same time, the launch of Google.cn did not in any way alter the availability of the uncensored Chinese-language version of Google.com, which Google provides globally to all Internet users without restriction.<br /><br />In deciding how best to approach the Chinese – or any – market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interests of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions. Our strategy for doing business in China seeks to achieve that balance through improved disclosure, targeting of services, and local investment.<br /><br /> <blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">A. Improved Disclosure to Users of Google.cn.</span> In order to operate Google.cn as a website in China, Google is required to remove some sensitive information from our search results. These restrictions are imposed by Chinese laws, regulations, and policies. However, when we remove content from Google.cn, we disclose that fact to our users. This approach is similar in principle to the disclosures we provide when we have altered our search results to comply with local laws in France, Germany, and the United States. When a Chinese user gets search results from which one or more results has been filtered, the Google webpage includes an explicit notification – an indication that the search results are missing something that might otherwise be relevant. This is not, to be sure, a tremendous advance in transparency to users, but it is at least a meaningful step in the right direction.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;"> B. Targeting of Services on Google.cn.</span> Google.cn today includes three basic Google services (web search, image search, and Google News), together with a local business information and map service. Other products – such as Gmail and Blogger – that involve personal and confidential information will be introduced only when we are comfortable that we can provide them in a way that protects users’ expectations about that information. We are conscious of the reality that data is subject to the laws and regulations of the country in which it is stored, and we make decisions about where to locate our services with that reality squarely in mind.<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">C. Local Investment and Innovation.</span> Looking beyond the Google.cn launch, we will continue to make significant investments in research and development in China. We believe these investments – and the innovations that will result – will help us to better tailor our products to user demands and better demonstrate how the Internet can help advance key objectives supported by the Chinese government, such as building stronger, more efficient, and more equitable markets, promoting the rule of law, and bolstering the fight against corruption.</blockquote><br /><br /> While China has made great strides in the past decades, it remains in many ways closed. We are not happy about governmental restrictions on access to information, and we hope that over time everyone in the world will come to enjoy full access to information. Information and communication technology – including the Internet, email, instant messaging, weblogs, peer-to-peer applications, streaming audio and video, mobile telephony, SMS text messages, and so forth – 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. We believe that our continued engagement with China is the best (and perhaps only) way for Google to help bring the tremendous benefits of universal information access to all our users there.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">II. Next Steps</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Expanded Dialogue and Outreach.</span> For more than a year, Google has been actively engaged in discussion and debate about China with a wide range of individuals and organizations both inside and outside of China, including technologists, businesspeople, government officials, academic experts, writers, analysts, journalists, activists, and bloggers. We aim to expand these dialogues as our activities in China evolve, in order to improve our understanding, refine our approach, and operate with openness.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Voluntary Industry Action.</span> Google supports the idea of Internet industry action to define common principles to guide technology firms’ practices in countries that restrict access to information. Together with colleagues at other leading Internet companies, we are actively exploring the potential for Internet industry guidelines, not only for China but for all countries in which Internet content is subjected to governmental restrictions. Such guidelines might encompass, for example, disclosure to users, and reporting about governmental restrictions and the measures taken in response to them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Government-to-Government Dialogue.</span> In addition to common action by Internet companies, there is an important role for the United States government to address, in the context of its bilateral government-to-government relationships, the larger issues of free expression and open communication. For example, as a U.S.-based company that deals primarily in information, we have urged the United States government to treat censorship as a barrier to trade.<br /><br />On behalf of Google, I would like to thank the members of the Human Rights Caucus for their attention to these important and pressing issues.

Human Rights Caucus briefing

Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, Senior Policy Counsel For today's Member Briefing of the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus on "H...

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Looking for a few good (Acumen Fund) Fellows

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen Fund</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />The <a href="http://www.google.org">Google Foundation</a> supports select organizations whose work addresses the challenge of global poverty in ways that are effective, sustainable, and scalable. From time to time we invite guest bloggers from grantee organizations to tell their story. This is the second in a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/acumen-visits-google.html">series</a> of posts from Acumen Fund. </span><br /><br />One of the lessons from <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org">Acumen Fund</a>’s work is that people are as great a need as financial capital in building <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org/Work/">market-driven solutions to poverty</a>. The world needs an "entrepreneurial bench” -- top talent with both the skills and the moral imagination to effect significant change. Which is why we're excited to announce the launch of the <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org/About/documents/AcumenFundFellowsOverview.pdf">Acumen Fund Fellows Program</a>. Our goal is to build a corps of leaders around the world with the imagination, skills and drive to add value to best-in-class organizations in both the social and private sectors.<br /><br />The one-year, experience-based program begins first in New York, where fellows will build business skills, meet extraordinary leaders and grow their leadership abilities. Each Fellow will then spend nine months with a specific <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org/Work/InvestmentApproach/">investment</a> in the field, with a concrete set of deliverables. The program will finish with a final month in New York to share experiences and focus on potential job opportunities.<br /><br />We are seeking extraordinary young professionals to make up our first cohort of Fellows. Applicants must <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org/About/documents/AcumenFundFellows2006.pdf">apply</a> by February 17. Fellows will be selected by mid-April, with the program beginning in September 2006.<br /><br />We're extremely excited by the opportunity to lift a new generation of leaders, and will keep you posted on our progress.

Looking for a few good (Acumen Fund) Fellows

Posted by Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen Fund The Google Foundation supports select organizations whose work addresses the challenge of ...

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No Nieuws is bad news

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Luuk van Dijk, Zurich Tech Team</span><br /><br />Last week, we launched 10 new versions of Google News. Now, <a href="http://news.google.nl">Google Nieuws</a> is available in Dutch for the Netherlands, and furthermore, news readers in Belgium can get country-specific news in either <a href="http://news.google.be/news?ned=nl_be">Dutch</a> or <a href="http://news.google.be/news?ned=fr_be">French</a>. We also released English-language versions of Google News with news targeted for <a href="http://news.google.ie">Ireland</a> and <a href="http://news.google.com/news?ned=en_za">South Africa</a>, and Spanish-language versions of Google News were released for <a href="http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_co">Colombia</a>, <a href="http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_cu">Cuba</a>, <a href="http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_pe">Peru</a>, <a href="http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_ve">Venezuela</a>, and <a href="http://news.google.com/news?ned=es_us">the U.S.</a><br /><br />We're proud of each new country, language, and feature we release, and Dutch engineers on the Google News team have been especially motivated by this launch: now we in Zurich and in Mountain View can finally keep up via Google News with what's happening at home. Even more important, since we're sworn to secrecy during much of pre-launch product development, we're relieved that we now can answer when friends and family ask what it is we actually work on.

No Nieuws is bad news

Posted by Luuk van Dijk, Zurich Tech Team Last week, we launched 10 new versions of Google News. Now, Google Nieuws is available in Dutch f...

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TechnoServe comes to Google

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Posted by Bruce McNamer, President and CEO, TechnoServe.org</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The <a href="http://www.google.org">Google Foundation</a> supports select organizations whose work addresses the challenge of global poverty in ways that are effective, sustainable, and scalable. From time to time we invite guest bloggers from grantee organizations to tell their story. </span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.technoserve.org">TechnoServe</a> helps entrepreneurs in developing countries build successful small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that benefit the world’s poor. (<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4076888387511209325&q=technoserve&pl=true">Watch our video here</a>.) We provide a hand up, rather than a handout.<br /><br />Recently, I spent several hours with Googlers who wanted to know more about what TechnoServe is doing in West Africa. I couldn’t help but notice the great, positive energy among Google employees -- a sense that motivated, imaginative, smart people can change the world.<br /><br />TechnoServe’s engagement with Google involves using business to improve the lives of the world’s poor. SMEs are a major driver of sustained economic growth, creating a ripple effect that creates jobs, boosts incomes and leads to improved social services. But even though they can help reduce poverty, SMEs are precisely what the developing world lacks. These countries are home to many visionary entrepreneurs who are capable of launching and growing successful businesses. But they need help – to make sure their business ideas make sense, to plan and manage their enterprises, to find markets and financing, and to overcome technical challenges.<br /><br />That’s where TechnoServe comes in. Since its founding, we have helped to create or improve more than 1,200 businesses, benefiting millions of people in 23 countries. We identify entrepreneurial men and women and then guide them in planning, marketing, operating and expanding businesses that are likely to succeed and help the poor. We then leverage these lead entrepreneurs to replicate and/or scale up their businesses and grow competitive, self-sustaining industries. Where necessary, we also tackle constraints in the industries’ enabling environments. <br /><br />To complement all of this, we also run programs that promote a culture of entrepreneurship. One activity is business plan competitions, which help entrepreneurs turn good ideas into solid businesses. We have run these in Latin America and are now launching them in Africa. And that’s where the Google Foundation comes in: it’s helping us run a <a href="http://www.technoserve.org/news/Google102005.htm">business plan competition in Ghana</a> this year. All qualified entrants will come away with valuable business training. The winners will also receive vouchers for aftercare services to help them launch or expand their businesses, and 10 winners will also receive cash. <br /><br />We’re looking forward to having Googlers actively engaged in this project. Our two entrepreneurially-focused organizations have joined forces, which we believe will lead to sustainable solutions for poverty alleviation.

TechnoServe comes to Google

Posted by Posted by Bruce McNamer, President and CEO, TechnoServe.org The Google Foundation supports select organizations whose work addres...

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All buttoned up

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Othman Laraki, Product Manager, Google Toolbar team</span><br /><br />As the <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/T4/">Google Toolbar</a> has gotten more popular, the greatest source of ideas about new features has come from our users. The breadth and variety of these requests is so large that it's hard to satisfy everyone. But then we started noticing engineers on the team had cool hacks on their Toolbars for doing customized searches on our internal bugs database, corporate employee directory, etc... We were barely done asking ourselves whether it was possible to offer this capability in the <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/T4/">new Google Toolbar beta</a> when one of the engineers started designing a feature called Custom Buttons. Here are some of the coolest aspects of Custom Buttons and why I think they're a big deal:<br /><br />1) <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/apis/">Simple API</a>: The term API is almost a misnomer -- it literally takes seconds to make one of these. I just can't resist the urge to make a new one every time I run into new website. A couple of simple steps and voila - a new button's sitting on your Toolbar (check out the <a href="http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/buttons/apis/started.html">Getting Started Guide</a>).<br /><br />2) Flexibility: The simple inclusion of RSS & Atom feeds (and particularly allowing the update of toolbar button icons through feeds) has allowed for buttons like a weather button and a mood ring button.<br /><br />3) Accessibility: Most users don't even need to make buttons. It takes one click on our buttons gallery or on a website that offers them to install a button for your favorite sites. And the custom buttons we built to search our intranet showed us how valuable a customizable toolbar can be to organizations, so now there's an <a href="http://www.google.com/tools/toolbar/T4/enterprise/">enterprise version of Google Toolbar</a> that can be securely deployed across a company.<br /><br />And don't miss some of the other cool features for everyone: a greatly-improved search box for formulating better queries; a streamlined bookmarking interface; and Send-To, for posting or sending content via Gmail, Blogger or SMS.

All buttoned up

Posted by Othman Laraki, Product Manager, Google Toolbar team As the Google Toolbar has gotten more popular, the greatest source of ideas a...

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Picasa x 25

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sanne Su San Lim, Picasa Localization Lead</span><br /><br />You love taking photos. You love your photo collection on your computer. But your options have been limited if there's no easy-to-use photo software available in your language. So if you lived close to <a href="http://images.google.com/images?&q=Wieliczka">Wieliczka</a>, <a href="http://images.google.com/images?&q=Pulau+Seribu">Pulau Seribu</a> or <a href="http://images.google.com/images?&q=Wat+Phra+Kaeo"> Wat Phra Kaeo</a>, you were stuck with English-only.<br /><br />But no more! The team behind Picasa has now added 25 new interface languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Tagalog, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Catalan, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.<br /><br />All of these languages are one click away. Just <a href="http://picasa.google.com">download Picasa</a>, and it will automatically match your system's native language. If you wish to change your Picasa language, go to Tools > Options and use the pull-down menu on the "General" tab. (You'll need to close and re-open Picasa to see your new language selection take effect.)<br /><br />Shouldn't you be able to organize your photos no matter where you are and what language you speak? Of course.

Picasa x 25

Posted by Sanne Su San Lim, Picasa Localization Lead You love taking photos. You love your photo collection on your computer. But your optio...

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