It's nice to share

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager</span><br /><br />Many of you must be wondering, “Whatever happened to 2Web Technologies?" Um - no? Anybody? Well, if you're wondering, we joined Google's New York City office last year to come up with a solution to a problem we understood all too well: how to quickly and easily share information in real time. Spreadsheets were a clear target. They can have real power, but there are equally real drawbacks to collaborating and sharing them. This fact led our little team to explore making spreadsheet software, and the spreadsheets themselves, available on the web. And now, Google Spreadsheets is available as a limited test on <a href="http://labs.google.com">Google Labs</a>. Even when it was only partly developed, we used Google Spreadsheets (alpha!) to manage our task lists, our feature lists, our bandwidth estimates, our storage estimates, even our complex team event voting ;). We now know the true meaning of "share."<br /><br />Now when I say “share,” I don’t mean “send group email,” and I certainly don't mean "time-share". (That’s actually the root of the problem we are trying to solve: multiple out-of-sync versions that are email attachments.) I <span style="font-style: italic;">do</span> mean “use and update the same spreadsheet.” When I use Google Spreadsheets to organize events with the other parents at my kids' school, we’ll be looking at the same details at the same time. If I change the agenda of next Friday’s teacher’s meeting, the other parents will see that change immediately. When my brother-in-law’s bike club uses Google Spreadsheets to track rides, they’ll be in sync -- and if I change the time of next week's ride, the other riders may actually show up.<br /><br />So don’t be surprised if you are soon invited by someone to share a spreadsheet. (We're rolling this out as a <a href="http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/try_out.html">limited test</a>.) Your kid's sports coach, your aunt in Omaha trying to organize a major family reunion, your friend who promised to compile a list of all your favorite hiking trails (and now wants you to help), or your project team which now has a way to keep tasks and status in one place for all to see.

It's nice to share

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager Many of you must be wondering, “Whatever happened to 2Web Technologies?" Um - no? Anybody?...

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Acumen Fund’s 2006 Fellows

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen Fund</span><br /><br />Recently I <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/looking-for-few-good-acumen-fund.html">wrote</a> about the new Acumen Fund Fellows Program, with a call for applicants. We were overwhelmed by the response: Some <a href="http://www.acumenfundblog.org/2006/03/03/overwhelming-response-from-potential-fellows/">600 candidates from 52 countries</a> applied for the opportunity to spend a year with <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org">Acumen Fund,</a> first for training at our New York office and then working to support an <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org/Work/">investment</a> in the field. The applicant pool demonstrates the powerful desire among the next generation of leaders to merge financial and analytical skills and business experience with the social, political and environmental needs of our world.<br /><br />After an intense three-month selection process, we are extremely pleased to announce our eight <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org/documents/AcumenFundFellows2006.pdf">2006 Fellows</a>, who hail from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />• Jocelyn Wyatt</span> (U.S.) Previously India Country Director for Scojo Foundation<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">• Nadaa Taiyab </span>(Sri Lanka) Former World Bank Consultant in Indonesia<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">• Keely Stevenson</span> (U.S.) Created first online community for social entrepreneurs, Social Edge for the Skoll Foundation<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">• Fabrice Ndjodo</span> (Cameroon) Former investment analyst with International Finance Corporation<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">• David Lehr </span>(U.S.) Reuters Digital Vision Fellow, Stanford University<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">• Adrien Couton</span> (France) Senior Associate at McKinsey & Company<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">• Eric Berkowitz </span>(U.S.) Founder of management consulting firm ESB Partners<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">• Ayeleen Ajanee</span> (Pakistan) Previously with Unilever, Pakistan<br /><br />Our goal in creating the <a href="http://www.acumenfund.org/About/documents/AcumenFundFellowsOverview.pdf">Fellows Program</a> was to build an “entrepreneurial bench” of talented individuals for the social enterprise sector. Key to our ability in attracting and selecting these Fellows was the strong involvement of the Acumen Fund community. The support we’ve received from <a href="http://www.google.org">Google.org</a> has been invaluable in launching the Fellows program, as well as in building our management capacity worldwide and in fueling new investments.<br /><br />Again, we are delighted to be announcing this cohort of extraordinary individuals, who will be starting with us in September. Over the next few weeks, we will be posting more information on each Fellow on the <a href="http://www.acumenfundblog.org/">Acumen Fund blog</a>, as well as updates from each with observations and insights as they begin their work this fall. We hope to see the Fellows program serve as a model for developing leaders with the skills and moral imagination to build solutions from the perspective of the poor.

Acumen Fund’s 2006 Fellows

Posted by Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen Fund Recently I wrote about the new Acumen Fund Fellows Program, with a call for applicants. We...

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Reply by chat

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Mike Sego, Gmail Engineer</span><br /><br />I love how when I reply to a message in Gmail, the message I compose gets grouped into the same conversation. Seriously -- of all the ways Gmail works, this tops the list for me. Having to look in separate places to find sent vs. received messages just feels so antiquated. Gmail keeps my <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6559 ">conversations</a> in context, and whether I'm looking back one day or several months later, I get a full view of exactly what we discussed. <br /><br />But sometimes I want to reply to an email message, but I notice the sender is online and available for chat. Wouldn't it be nice if chat replies get grouped with the conversation just like email? Now they do: At the bottom of any message sent by someone on your buddy list, right next to where you'd click to "Reply" or "Forward," there's a link to "<a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=34539 ">Reply by chat</a>" if the sender is online. This will open a chat window, and the chat history will be saved to the same conversation. Nice.

Reply by chat

Posted by Mike Sego, Gmail Engineer I love how when I reply to a message in Gmail, the message I compose gets grouped into the same conversa...

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Mark this for future reference

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Jenny Zhang, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Ever forget to return to a website you bookmarked? If you’re like me, the answer is "definitely." For those of us with more than a few neglected bookmarks, the enhanced search box in the newest Google Toolbar beta can help you rediscover them. Now when you start typing in the Toolbar's search box, relevant bookmarks that you’ve saved with the Toolbar will display in the list of suggestions.<br /><br />And since bookmark negligence seems to be a worldwide phenomenon, the Google Toolbar beta for Internet Explorer is now available in 16 additional languages: UK English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Russian. So don't let your bookmarks fade away – install the <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/T4/#utm_source=en_US&utm_medium=et&utm_campaign=en_US-et-gblog">Toolbar beta</a> for IE today.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Update:</span> </span>Last sentence now specifies that Google Toolbar 4 is currently for Internet Explorer only.

Mark this for future reference

Posted by Jenny Zhang, Software Engineer Ever forget to return to a website you bookmarked? If you’re like me, the answer is "definitel...

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Two more Gmail languages

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Shanjian Li, Gmail Engineer</span><br /><br />We've just <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_whatsnew.html">launched</a> Arabic and Hebrew language interfaces for Gmail, as well as <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=40283">several new features</a> that will improve the Gmail experience for the people using those interfaces. (You can change the Gmail language interface on the Settings page in your account.)<br /><br />This was my first project at Google, and I ended up learning a lot about Arabic and Hebrew by talking to native speakers. I'm really pleased to have worked on a launch that will help some of these folks use Gmail and make it available to even more users (we now offer <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=17091&query=languages&topic=0&type=f">40 different language interfaces</a>).

Two more Gmail languages

Posted by Shanjian Li, Gmail Engineer We've just launched Arabic and Hebrew language interfaces for Gmail, as well as several new featu...

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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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