Google Reader learns to share

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Mihai Parparita, Software Engineer, Google Reader team</span><br /><br />Mom always taught us to share and now we know why: it's fun. <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/">Google Reader</a>, which keeps track of websites you like to read regularly, just added the ability to share what you like to read with your friends.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/Reader_share-718906.gif"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/Reader_share-717650.gif" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br />You can send a link to your starred items in Reader, and you can even put a clip on your blog with recent items from your reading list. For instance, I mark all of the interesting posts that I find as "linkblog." Then my friends can subscribe to <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/14548369432350969777/label/linkblog">my "linkblog" label</a> -- even if they don't use Google Reader -- and visitors to <a href="http://persistent.info/">my blog</a> can see it in the sidebar.<br /><br />Some other shared lists we've come across:<br /><ul><li> List of <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/10949413115399023739/label/officialgoogleblogs">Official Google Blogs</a> (U.S. only)</li><li> Jason's <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/10963671381103576324/label/hipsters">"hipsters"</a> list</li><li> Chris's <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fmassless.org%2F%3Farea%3DAbout">recent activity</a></li><li> Justin's <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/15266497075340511149/label/thought-leaders">"thought leaders"</a> list</li></ul>To get started with sharing, just click the <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/">"Share" link in Reader</a> or see the <a href="http://www.google.com/help/faq_reader.html#sharing">help section</a>.

Google Reader learns to share

Posted by Mihai Parparita, Software Engineer, Google Reader team Mom always taught us to share and now we know why: it's fun. Google Rea...

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Expanding girls' horizons

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Ellen Spertus, Software Engineer & Associate Professor of Computer Science, Mills College</span><br /><br />Recently I was one of several Googlers who volunteered at the Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics conference at <a href="http://www.mills.edu">Mills</a>, where I also teach. This annual event provides career panels and hands-on workshops to encourage middle-school girls to keep studying science and mathematics as they enter high school. I led a workshop, "How to Build a Computer," in which the students learned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_arithmetic">binary arithmetic</a> and built a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_adder#Half_adder">half-adder</a>.<br /><br />I don't know who had more fun, the girls or the volunteers! Google is a sponsor of the national <a href="http://expandingyourhorizons.org/">Expanding Your Horizons Network</a>, whose workshops have reached over 625,000 girls.<br /><br /><div class="photo-caption"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/mathgirls-735381.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/mathgirls-749018.jpg" /></a><br />Photo by Barton Friedland</div>

Expanding girls' horizons

Posted by Ellen Spertus, Software Engineer & Associate Professor of Computer Science, Mills College Recently I was one of several Google...

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Mac Gmail Notifier update

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Greg Miller, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />It's high time for us to release a small update for our <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/notifier/index.html">Gmail Notifier for Mac</a> (OS X). We've added a few things of our own and got some ideas from users too. Some of the changes are:<br /><ul><li>it's a universal binary, so it will run natively on PowerPC and Intel Macs;</li></ul><ul><li>it will notify you when a new version is available and automatically upgrade itself; and...drum roll, please...</li></ul><ul><li>it has new icons (we know it's what you've asked for!).</li></ul>Also, as many of you know, the Gmail Notifier <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/extras-for-your-mac-gmail-notifier.html">supports plug-ins</a>, and one of our users wrote a cool plug-in called <a href="http://wafflesoftware.net/gmailgrowl/google/">Gmail+Growl</a> that displays visual <a href="http://www.growl.info/">Growl</a> notifications when new mail arrives. Very cool and worth checking out. So download the Mac Gmail Notifier once again, and we'll take care of the rest.

Mac Gmail Notifier update

Posted by Greg Miller, Software Engineer It's high time for us to release a small update for our Gmail Notifier for Mac (OS X). We'...

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Spring is the season for love (and data)

<span class="byline-author">Posted by AC Narendran & Katie Jacobs Stanton, Google Finance team</span><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Tennyson%2C_1st_Baron_Tennyson">Alfred, Lord Tennyson</a> wrote, "In the Spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." In the spring at Google, a geek's fancy turns to thoughts of ... charts and data. So to mark this vernal equinox, we introduce to you <a href="http://finance.google.com">Google Finance</a>.<br /><br />It all started as a small project led by a few engineers in Bangalore and later joined by more engineers and finance enthusiasts in Mountain View and New York . We have different backgrounds, work in different time zones, and, at the start of this project, had never met in person. But we shared the same goal: to improve the search experience for financial information. We hope Google Finance lives up to that aim by offering a fresh perspective on company-related searches. To begin with, you no longer have to remember a ticker or mutual fund symbol. Just search for a company or mutual fund by name and you'll quickly see all the relevant information.<br /><br />But perhaps Google Finance's most important innovations take place after you've found the company in question. You'll find interactive charts that enable you to zoom through different time periods, headlines mapped right on the charts and are based on Google News, which means you're seeing unbiased and relevant results from more than 4,500 English-language news sources. And you'll get <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=2991">insightful comments</a> from <a href="http://battellemedia.com/">bloggers</a> about public and private companies, plus Discussion Groups moderated by enthusiastic community advocates, which should foster some quality exchanges about the companies you care about.<br /><br />Google Finance is an early-stage beta product. We hope to expand and improve this service over time, and your feedback will be a big part of that. So <a href="http://www.google.com/support/finance">do let us know</a> what you think.

Spring is the season for love (and data)

Posted by AC Narendran & Katie Jacobs Stanton, Google Finance team Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote, "In the Spring, a young man's ...

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Judge tells DoJ "No" on search queries

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel</span><br /><br />Google will not have to hand over any user's search queries to the government. That's what a federal judge ruled today when he decided to drastically limit a subpoena issued to Google by the Department of Justice. (You can read the entire ruling <a href="http://www.google.com/press/images/ruling_20060317.pdf">here</a> and the government's original subpoena <a href="http://www.google.com/press/images/subpoena_20060317.pdf">here</a>.)<br /><br />The government's original request demanded billions of URLs and two month's worth of users' search queries. Google resisted the subpoena, prompting the judge's order today. In addition to excluding search queries from the subpoena, Judge James Ware also required the government to limit its demand for URLs to 50,000. We will fully comply with the judge's order.<br /><br />This is a clear victory for our users and for our company, and Judge Ware's decision regarding search queries is especially important. While privacy was not the most significant legal issue in this case (because the government wasn't asking for personally identifiable information), privacy was perhaps the most significant to our users. As we noted in our briefing to the court, we believe that if the government was permitted to require Google to hand over search queries, that could have undermined confidence that our users have in our ability to keep their information private. Because we resisted the subpoena, the Department of Justice will not receive any search queries and only a small fraction of the URLs it originally requested.<br /><br />We will always be subject to government subpoenas, but the fact that the judge sent a clear message about privacy is reassuring. What his ruling means is that neither the government nor anyone else has carte blanche when demanding data from Internet companies. When a party resists an overbroad subpoena, our legal process can be an effective check on such demands and be a protector of our users.

Judge tells DoJ "No" on search queries

Posted by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel Google will not have to hand over any user's search queries to the government. That...

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Courtside seats, without the court... or the seat

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Qi Ke, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Starting today you can get up-to-the-minute sports scores and schedules using <a href="http://www.google.com/sms/demo.html">Google SMS</a> on your mobile device. Just text message a school or team name to 46645 (GOOGL). "Why?" you ask? Because:<br /><br /><ol><li>The big game is on tonight, and while your cable was cut 3 weeks ago, you've still got a recliner couch and a pair of battle-worn, nacho cheese-stained text messaging thumbs </li><li>Your newly purchased tickets make the nosebleeds feel like a fireside chat, and you lent your binoculars to your ornithologist cousin </li><li>You recently secured a new job, and you need to look like you're preoccupied with important business at all times </li><li>The love of your life dragged you to the ballet on game day, and made you leave your 60-inch liquid crystal TV at home </li><li>It's time for your family reunion (and the playoffs) again, and you don't have the heart to tell your relatives that you majored in basket... weaving </li><li>The restraining order filed against you by multiple <span class="st" id="st" name="st">sports</span> professionals mandates that you find a way to "look but not touch" </li><li>When it comes to your personal sports soundtrack, you prefer the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_frog">Crazy Frog</a> to the National Anthem </li><li>You've developed an allergic reaction to commercial time-outs (or even commercials, for that matter) </li><li>It's triple over time, and your too-cute-to-say-no nephew wants pizza from a restaurant six blocks from the stadium </li><li>The <a title="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBig_Dance" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dance" target="_blank">BIG DANCE</a>!<br /></li></ol>

Courtside seats, without the court... or the seat

Posted by Qi Ke, Software Engineer Starting today you can get up-to-the-minute sports scores and schedules using Google SMS on your mobile...

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Stay in Ctrl Ctrl

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Tomas Gunnarsson, Google Desktop Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Three months ago, I came up with an idea that makes it easier for users to find what they're looking for: a search box in the middle of the desktop. It's very accessible -- all you have to do is press your Ctrl key twice. After some experimentation, people are telling us they like it and use it. That's why we're adding it to <a href="http://desktop.google.com">Google Desktop</a> (coming out of beta today). Give the <a href="http://desktop.google.com/features.html#quicksearch">Quick Search Box</a> a try. We hope you find it handy.

Stay in Ctrl Ctrl

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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