Map your way to greener travel

<span class="byline-author">Posted by John Hanke, Director, Google Maps & Earth</span><br /><br />Summer is almost here and the Googleplex is buzzing with travel plans. (Hey, even geeks have to play sometime.) We looked at all the great Maps mashup sites out there and thought, why shouldn't we have some fun too? So we started working on a Maps mashup that would highlight some fun summer activities that also respect the environment. The result is our <a href="http://maps.google.com/green/">Summer of Green travel mashup site</a>. We've teamed with <a href="http://www.earthday.net/">Earth Day Network</a> to highlight some planet-friendly travel tips for top U.S. travel destinations as well as how to use Google Maps in your daily routine to find and support green activities.<br /><br />Did you know you could go <a href="http://maps.google.com/green/gg_interior_lv.html">kayaking in Las Vegas</a>? Or rent a <a href="http://maps.google.com/green/gg_interior_la.html">hybrid limo service in LA</a>? Or stay at a <a href="http://maps.google.com/green/gg_interior_orl.html">Disney hotel in Orlando that recycles its water</a>? These are a just few of the stops documented in our video-enhanced Google Maps mashup.<br /><br />Hope you enjoy these and maybe even find some fun -- and green -- destinations for your summer trips.

Map your way to greener travel

Posted by John Hanke, Director, Google Maps & Earth Summer is almost here and the Googleplex is buzzing with travel plans. (Hey, even ge...

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On the map Down Under

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Julian Sonego, Marketing Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand</span><br /><br />Google Australia has officially come out of beta--we've recently launched our new Australian operation. While Google has had a presence Down Under since late 2002, we have only recently moved into our new digs, which have water views that are the envy of Googlers worldwide.<br /><br />This new Googleplex in Sydney gives us the opportunity to scale our operation to support a growing band of users, advertisers, and partners. We have also invested heavily in local engineering talent, underscoring Google's commitment to Australia and willingness to set up shop wherever there's talent.<br /><br />To coincide with the grand opening of the office, the team recently released street maps for <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=australia&ll=-25.641526,134.033203&spn=25.50741,46.845703">Australia</a> and <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=new+zealand&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ll=-40.900557,174.885971&spn=20.06978,52.294922">New Zealand</a> so web developers can get a jump start on <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/maps">integrating Down Under maps into their sites</a>.<br /><br />If you're interested in becoming an Aussie Googler, take a look <a href="http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/jobs/index.html">here</a>. Who wouldn't want to join this team?<br /><br /><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/google_AU_team-730285.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/google_AU_team-716421.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a>

On the map Down Under

Posted by Julian Sonego, Marketing Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand Google Australia has officially come out of beta--we've rec...

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Picture this: Picasa for Linux

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager</span><br /><br />Let's say you happily use Linux, but you sometimes find yourself wishing you had access to interesting new apps that launch for Windows but not Linux. And maybe, like a lot of us, you have a lot of photos stored on your personal machine, and you've read about or even tried Google's photo organizer, <a href="http://picasa.google.com/linux">Picasa</a>. But using it means switching to Windows, even temporarily. (We know--thanks but no thanks.) <br /> <br />Well, we've got you covered, because today we're launching Picasa for Linux on Google Labs. It incorporates nearly all the features of the current Windows version of Picasa, providing you with the tools you need to easily find, edit, and share the photos on your computer. And because it runs on a carefully tested version of <a href="http://winehq.org/">Wine</a>, Picasa avoids the slowing effects of an OS emulation or a virtual machine. <br /><br />Have fun with it--and <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Picasa-for-Linux">tell us what you think</a>.

Picture this: Picasa for Linux

Posted by Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager Let's say you happily use Linux, but you sometimes find yourself wishing you had ac...

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Attention all Pearl Jam fans

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Eva Ho, Product Marketing Manager, Google Video</span><br /><br />Pearl Jam's new music video <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6187666924357770983">"Life Wasted"</a> is now on Google Video for free! Be sure to check it out now, as free streaming and download is available only until June 1.<br /><br />And in line with the band's experimental personality, Pearl Jam released the "Life Wasted" video under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons "some rights reserved" copyright license</a>. What does all that legal gibberish mean to you? It means that you can download the video for free, share it with your friends, and even post it on your own site--provided you give the band credit and don't use it for commercial purposes. It's yet another example of Pearl Jam putting its fans first.<br /><br />[UPDATE 05/25: The free streaming-and-download period was originally scheduled to end on May 24; due to popular demand, we're extending it until June 1.]

Attention all Pearl Jam fans

Posted by Eva Ho, Product Marketing Manager, Google Video Pearl Jam's new music video "Life Wasted" is now on Google Video fo...

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Never browse outdated posts again

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Dave Weissman, Software Engineer, Google Blog Search</span><br /><br />Today we launched a new feature on <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/">Google Blog Search</a> that lets you narrow your search by date. Using this feature, you can track blog posts on your favorite topics according to when those items were posted. We've also incorporated some improvements in search quality that should make your blog-search experience even better.<br /><br />Ever since Google Blog Search launched, we've noticed that the universe of blogs has truly exploded--our index is doubling every six months. Perhaps even more striking, though, is that there's no one region in the world that leads the growth of blogs. Self-publishing clearly has global appeal, and blogging makes it easy for everyone on the web to share their voices and connect. True, there continues to be blog spam (and we continue to fight it), but our blog search reveals the great range and quality of ideas and writing out there. <br /><br />Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

Never browse outdated posts again

Posted by Dave Weissman, Software Engineer, Google Blog Search Today we launched a new feature on Google Blog Search that lets you narrow y...

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Google's "20 percent time" in action

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Alex K., Technical Solutions Engineer, Partner Solutions Organization</span><br /><br />I love what I do (I work for Google's Partner Solutions Organization, writing internal programs and tools to help better manage our partner relationships--check out our <a href="http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/topic.py?dep_id=1089&loc_id=1100">job listings</a>), but Google's "20 percent time" recently came in handy. The 20 percent time is a well-known part of our <a href="http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about.html"> philosophy</a> here, enabling engineers to spend one day a week working on projects that aren't necessarily in our job descriptions. You can use the time to develop something new, or if you see something that's broken, you can use the time to fix it. And this is how I recently worked up a new feature for <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/">Google Reader</a>.<br /><br />I really like the keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, and they work in Reader too. But when using Reader, I found myself wanting to skip whole sections of stories, and I was wearing out my "N" key (which moves the browser down one item). There are buttons on the screen to scroll up and down a whole page at a time, but I thought it would be nice to have a keyboard shortcut too. I could have hacked something together with Greasemonkey or a Firefox extension, but that would've only helped me and the three other people who read my blog.<br /><br />So I fired off an email to the Reader team, hoping that they'd be able to add a keyboard shortcut. The team got back to me right away, and they told me how easy it would be to add the shortcut myself. They were right--it was easy, because the internal documentation was good and the code was really easy to work with. Once my change had been reviewed, it went live.<br /><br />And I have to admit--every time I use the new shortcut ("shift" and "N"), I get a little thrill at how easily I was able to get my idea implemented.<br />Hope you enjoy it too.

Google's "20 percent time" in action

Posted by Alex K., Technical Solutions Engineer, Partner Solutions Organization I love what I do (I work for Google's Partner Solutions ...

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Ready, AIIM, Search

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Head of Products, Google Enterprise</span><br /><br />Innovation shouldn't come at the expense of simplicity. That's the message this week as search takes center stage at the <a href="http://www.aiimexpo.com/aiimexpo2006/v42/index.cvn">AIIM Expo</a> in Philadelphia, where Google VP and GM Dave Girouard will deliver a keynote on how consumer expectations drive innovation in technology, and Google partners will demonstrate how search is changing the face of enterprise applications. <br /><br />Check out the <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/">new partner announcements and conference details</a> and see why more than 4,000 customers rely on Google enterprise search technology.

Ready, AIIM, Search

Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Head of Products, Google Enterprise Innovation shouldn't come at the expense of simplicity. That's the ...

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