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Posted by Tomas Gunnarsson, Google Desktop Software Engineer Three months ago, I came up with an idea that makes it easier for users to find...

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Posted by Jeff Martin, Product Marketing Manager I was sitting at the breakfast table this morning, drinking a cup of coffee while I looked out at the snow. It was pretty much like any other winter morning, except — it wasn’t. When I went to sleep last night, I was employed by a small start-up called @Last Software. This morning, although I’m going to the same office, sitting at the same desk, and seeing the same people, I’m going to work as a Google employee. (Here’s the <a href="http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=1439">official announcement</a>.) As I sipped my coffee, I thought of a fellow I met on the last day of Macworld in January. It was six minutes before the end of the show when he walked into our booth. He had never seen <a href="http://www.sketchup.com">SketchUp</a> before. I started to give him a demo to give him an idea of what the software can do and how it works. Two or three minutes in, he interrupted me. “Can I buy a copy of SketchUp now?” I said sure. Then: “How about two?” No problem, I said. It’s often like that. People see SketchUp and they love it. Now that we’re part of Google, how many of those ah-ha moments will happen every day? Already we’ve had hundreds of users create 3D content in SketchUp and place their models in <a href="http://earth.google.com">Google Earth</a>. (A <a href="http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=408">free plug-in</a> enables you to do this.) What will that virtual world look like when tens of thousands of users are doing the same? Our little company was founded six years ago with the grand vision of bringing 3D to everyone; now that goal is truly within reach. No second cup of coffee for me — contemplating the possibilities is exciting enough. Sketchup already has a plug in that allows you to export 3D models into Google Earth. If you've got Google Earth (you do, right?), then check out a few 3D examples (these are KMZ files): <a href="http://download.sketchup.com/downloads/downloads/plugins/google/LadyLiberty.kmz">Statue of Liberty</a> <a href="http://download.sketchup.com/downloads/downloads/plugins/google/SketchUpWH.kmz">SketchUp headquarters</a> <a href="http://download.sketchup.com/downloads/downloads/plugins/google/GoogleCampus.kmz">Google Mountain View campus</a> It costs $495, but we’d like everyone to have a SketchUp experience, so you can download a free 8-hour trial version <a href="http://www.sketchup.com/?id=76">here</a>.

A new home for @Last Software

Posted by Jeff Martin, Product Marketing Manager I was sitting at the breakfast table this morning, drinking a cup of coffee while I looked ...

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Mars attracts

Posted by Chikai Ohazama, Google Earth team We here on Earth have long held a fascination with the planet Mars. From Percival Lowell's <a href="http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=lowell+mars&btnG=Search">sketches</a> of its surface, to the countless <a href="http://books.google.com/books?q=mars&btnG=Search+Books">books</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=movies+about+mars&btnG=Search">movies</a> that revolve around it, we've spent millenia studying and day-dreaming about our nearest neighbor in the solar system. In that tradition, NASA researchers Noel Gorelick and Michael Weiss-Malik from Arizona State University worked with us to combine Google Maps technology with some of the most detailed scientific maps of Mars ever made. In commemoration of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Lowell">Lowell's birthday</a>, we're pleased to bring you <a href="http://www.google.com/mars/">Google Mars</a>. Explore the red planet in three different ways: an elevation map shows color-coded peaks and valleys, a visible-imagery map shows what your eyes would actually see, and an infrared-imagery map shows the detail your eyes would miss. We hope you enjoy your trip to Mars.

Mars attracts

Posted by Chikai Ohazama, Google Earth team We here on Earth have long held a fascination with the planet Mars. From Percival Lowell's s...

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Pug-speak

Posted by Nickey, Canine Division Unlike <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/06/yoshkas-weekend-amble.html">some others</a>, I may be a small dog, but size is just a state of mind: My Google job is as important as anyone else's. After my morning nap at the office, I go out on hall monitor duty. This involves watching everyone who walks by our cube and getting some nice massages from passers-by. Some of the Googlers even know my language. For example, <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/execs.html#jonathan">Jonathan Rosenberg</a> is fluent in Pug, and loves to converse with me whenever we run into each other. And I get to play with plenty of dogs here: labs, doxies, tollers, and even some fellow pugs. Then there are occasional runs to the nearby <a href="http://www.ci.mtnview.ca.us/citydepts/cs/parks.htm#dog">Shoreline Dog Park</a>. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/NICKEY_credit-708823.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/NICKEY_credit-703729.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a> Between the two, Google is my favorite place to be. Just as Google engineers get 20% of their time for their own projects, I have mine: at least a day a week I'm the resident court jester. It's not very hard to entertain Googlers -- everyone seems to get a kick out of me. If I had a nickel for every time someone laughed or smiled at me, I'd be running the company. And then I'd put bins of biscuits in each Google <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/man-vs-mini-kitchen.html">mini-kitchen</a>.

Pug-speak

Posted by Nickey, Canine Division Unlike some others , I may be a small dog, but size is just a state of mind: My Google job is as important...

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Writely so

Posted by Jen Mazzon, Google Writely Team For the last five months, I've been part of a Silicon Valley startup called Upstartle, which makes Writely, a collaborative word processor that runs in a web browser. Well, as of Monday, I'm happy to say that I, and the rest of the Writely team, are now <a href="http://www.writely.com">part of Google</a>. The other night, I was talking to my husband about how nervous I was to be starting work there. Truth be told, we've all been pretty overwhelmed for the past few weeks. What could our little team possibly do that's innovative enough? And he said, "Hello? You already did it!" It's true -- everyone told us it was crazy to try and give people a way to access their documents from anywhere -- not to mention share documents instantly, or collaborate online within their browsers. But that's exactly what we did. And since we launched the Writely beta in August 2005, many thousands of people have registered, and all of them came through word of mouth (and blog). To be clear, Writely is still in beta, and it's far from perfect. Upholding our great user experience means everything to us, so we're not accepting new registrations until we've moved Writely to Google's software architecture. If you're interested in giving us a try, we hope you'll <a href="http://www.writely.com">get on the waitlist</a> so we can let you know when you'll be able to try out Writely.

Writely so

Posted by Jen Mazzon, Google Writely Team For the last five months, I've been part of a Silicon Valley startup called Upstartle, which m...

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Update: Lane’s Gifts v. Google

Posted by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel You may remember that last February, Google was sued in Arkansas over what is commonly called click fraud. We’re very near a resolution in that case, so we thought we’d offer an update. We’ve been discussing the case with the plaintiffs for some time and have recently come to an agreement with them which we believe is a good outcome for everyone involved. As a result, Google and the plaintiffs are going to ask the judge to approve the settlement, which would resolve the case. Until the settlement is approved by the judge, it is not final. And the details are confidential, but will become public when it is formally filed for the judge’s consideration. However, we can share the major pieces of our proposed agreement. Google currently allows advertisers to apply for reimbursement for clicks they believe are invalid. They can do this for clicks that happen during the 60 days prior to notifying Google. Under the agreement with the plaintiffs, we are going to open up that window for all advertisers, regardless of when the questionable clicks occurred. For all eligible invalid clicks, we will offer credits which can be used to purchase new advertising with Google. We do not know how many will apply and receive credits, but under the agreement, the total amount of credits, plus attorneys fees, will not exceed $90 million. This agreement covers all advertisers who claim to have been charged but not reimbursed for invalid clicks dating from 2002 when we launched our “cost per click” advertising program through the date the settlement is approved by the judge. For the finance folks out there wondering how we’ll account for this, we can say that the attorneys’ fees (which will be determined by the judge) will be charged as an expense, most likely in the first quarter, once the amount is determined. The credits will be recorded as a reduction to revenue in periods in which they are redeemed. We have said for some time that we believe we manage the problem of invalid clicks very well. We have a large team of expert engineers and analysts devoted to it. By far, most invalid clicks are caught by our automatic filters and discarded *before* they reach an advertiser’s bill. And for the clicks that are not caught in advance, advertisers can notify Google and ask for reimbursement. We investigate those clicks, and if we determine they were invalid, we reimburse advertisers for them. We will continue to do that, and believe that this settlement is further proof of our willingness to work together with advertisers to reimburse invalid clicks. You can find more information on invalid clicks and how we manage them <a href="https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=35">here</a> or <a href="http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/03/about-invalid-clicks.html">here</a>. Update: Added second link to more information.

Update: Lane’s Gifts v. Google

Posted by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel You may remember that last February, Google was sued in Arkansas over what is commonly call...

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A real find

Posted by Ben Bunnell, Google Book Search team As a librarian and a Googler, I love the <a href="http://books.google.com/googlebooks/help.html#3">"</a><a href="http://books.google.com/googlebooks/help.html#3">Find it in a library</a><a href="http://books.google.com/googlebooks/help.html#3">"</a> links we've added to many -- but not yet all -- of the titles in <a href="http://www.google.com/books">Google Book Search</a>. While we work on getting these links rolled out for the rest of the books, at least one user has taken matters into his own hands: "Superpatron" Edward Vielmetti has written a <a href="http://vielmetti.typepad.com/superpatron/2006/02/inserting_libra.html">Greasemonkey script for Firefox</a> that enables him to see which books are available at his local library. Since Google Book Search is all about helping you discover and locate books you never knew existed, it's especially gratifying to see people like Ed embracing and extending this mission.

A real find

Posted by Ben Bunnell, Google Book Search team As a librarian and a Googler, I love the " Find it in a library " links we've ...

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