Happy birthday, Google Talk!

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Lewis Lin, Product Marketing Manager, Google Talk</span><br /><br />A year ago today, we launched <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/google-gets-to-talking.html">Google Talk</a>. On the days leading up to launch, we spent long summer nights fueled by <a href="http://rezab.com/">Reza's</a> eclectic play list. Thankfully, Google Talk didn't have <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/music">Music Trends</a> back then. The team listened to everything from 2Pac to Ludacris to Biggie. <br /><br />We want to thank all the users who have submitted product feedback. We'd also like to thank the millions of users who are using the Google Talk network – either through the <a href="http://www.google.com/talk/">Google Talk client</a>, <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/chat.html">Gmail chat</a>, or <a href="http://www.google.com/talk/otherclients.html">other supported clients</a>. Our users love the chat integration within Gmail, and we're planning to make it easier to chat with your buddies through other Google services.<br /><br />Want to send us a birthday message? Leave us a <a href="http://www.google.com/talk/whatsnew.html">voicemail</a> at talkbirthday@gmail.com.<br /><br />MEEP.

Happy birthday, Google Talk!

Posted by Lewis Lin, Product Marketing Manager, Google Talk A year ago today, we launched Google Talk . On the days leading up to launch, we...

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Finding the wealth in your library (and everyone else's)

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Bruno Fonseca, Google Brazil</span><br /><br />As a student and then as a researcher, I used to haunt libraries in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I spent time looking for the books I needed, but also happened to find gems by chance, as I scanned the shelves I walked by. Fun as it was to find an unexpected treasure, I always knew that much remained hidden. Large libraries are way too big to just walk around and browse, even for an enthusiastic teenager.<br /><br />Today, we're launching the Library Catalog Search feature in Google Book Search, designed to help casual readers and bookworms everywhere find gems in the libraries around the world. Queries on <a href="http://books.google.com">Google Book Search</a> will automatically include results from library catalogs when appropriate. Each result includes a "Find Libraries" link to help readers find libraries that hold the book -- ideally a library nearby, or if need be, a library far away. For example, after reading <a href="http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0486203948&id=kWoJ8mEEJ0wC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=fads+and+fallacies&sig=9yb3NrszgTXTEgxmgkh6bJu4LbM">Martin Gardner's book <i>Fads and Fallacies</i></a>, I wanted to follow up on <a href="http://books.google.com/books?q=immanuel+velikovsky">Immanuel Velikovsky's books</a> about scientific explanations for biblical miracles. Clicking on the "Find Libraries" link for Velikovsky's <a href="http://worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/475631&referer=brief_results"><i>Worlds in Collision</i></a>, I found that a copy was available in the University of Sao Paulo library. <br /><br />This is true of many types of books in countries all over the world -- my colleagues in Google's Zurich office tell me about being able to find <a href="http://books.google.com/books?q=Harry+Potter+chamber+of+secrets&as_libcat=1&sa=X&oi=libcat&ct=more-results"><i>Harry Potter and the Chambers of Secrets</i></a> for their nephews and nieces. In many cases, it's even possible to click through to the local library and reserve the book.<br /><br />For this feature, we have worked with more than 15 library union catalogs that have information about libraries from more than 30 countries, as well as with our colleagues working on <a href="http://scholar.google.com">Google Scholar</a> (which includes a similar feature just for scholarly books).<br /><br />We would like to acknowledge and fete our partners who have collected information about the wealth in world's libraries with amazing thoroughness and care. And we're looking to work with union catalogs in other parts of the world so it can be just as easy for library patrons elsewhere to learn what their libraries have waiting for them.<br /><br />If you're a library patron and can't find the books you're looking for, ask your local library to participate in this program. If you are a librarian at a union catalog and would like to work with us to help users find books in your collections, please <a href="mailto:scholar-library@google.com">contact us</a>.<br /><br />Here's hoping readers worldwide will use this to discover and explore the wonderful collections in the world's libraries.

Finding the wealth in your library (and everyone else's)

Posted by Bruno Fonseca, Google Brazil As a student and then as a researcher, I used to haunt libraries in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I spent t...

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Calendar and Notifier for the Mac

<span class="byline-author">Posted by David Oster, Software Engineer-Mac Clients</span><br /><br />Creating a better user experience for <a href="http://calendar.google.com/">Google Calendar</a> on a Mac was my first project at Google. So I'm excited to tell you that Google Calendar now works great in Safari, and we've just launched a major Mac-only upgrade for the Gmail Notifier.<br /><br />The <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/notifier/">Google Notifier</a> for the Mac has:<br /><ul><li>Notifications for upcoming events and unread mail<br /></li><li>Built-in pop up notifications </li><li>Custom sounds </li><li>As always, great new icons</li></ul>So start keeping track of your life with <a href="http://calendar.google.com/">Google Calendar</a> and the <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/notifier/">Google Notifier</a>.<br /><br />By the way, since we put this out there last Friday, we've already received a lot of feedback, which we've used to fix some bugs. So keep the comments coming! We want to make the Google Notifier even better.

Calendar and Notifier for the Mac

Posted by David Oster, Software Engineer-Mac Clients Creating a better user experience for Google Calendar on a Mac was my first project a...

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I got 99 problems, but video distribution ain't one

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Jon Steinback, Product Marketing Manager</span><br /><br />A little more than 25 years ago, <a href="http://www.mtv.com">MTV</a> launched in northern New Jersey, where a few thousand people on one cable system were able to watch <a href="http://www.google.com/musics?lid=XUzNjtOBFUD&aid=A_jWgMk4atB&sid=HqLwIsYCSxN">"Video Killed the Radio Star."</a> My, how times have changed: with an entire collection of networks (including <a href="http://www.nick.com">Nickelodeon</a>, <a href="http://www.comedycentral.com">Comedy Central</a>, and <a href="http://www.vh1.com">VH1</a>), today MTV can be seen just about anywhere there is a TV.<br /><br />But these days, people aren't only getting video from their TV -- plenty are <a href="http://video.google.com">watching online</a>. And where do they watch this great content? Anywhere they can find it. That's why we've teamed up with MTV to make its quality content available to our vast network of <a href="http://adsense.google.com">AdSense</a> sites.<br /><br />So now when you visit places like <a href="http://www.babynames.com">BabyNames.com</a> and <a href="http://www.fan-sites.org">Fan-Sites.org</a>, you may see clips you can play from MTV, VH1, LOGO, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central - clips that these sites' visitors would be most interested in. If you're a site owner, stay tuned as we expand this program. And if you like video, go get your MTV. It's fresh, and it's free.

I got 99 problems, but video distribution ain't one

Posted by Jon Steinback, Product Marketing Manager A little more than 25 years ago, MTV launched in northern New Jersey, where a few thousa...

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How to move Ramses II

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sherif Iskander, Business Manager, Egypt</span><br /><br />As a teen in Cairo, I grew up knowing the area called Ramses Square. At that time the statue of Ramses II could be seen from miles away and was one of the city center's attractions. Over the years the king became surrounded by fly-overs, steel walkways and an underground station. <br /><br />It got to the point where you really had to know where the statue was to see it. A year ago scaffolding appeared around the statue and rumors abounded that the statue was suffering from the pollution and was being restored. The rumors turned out false -- the granite statue was going to be RELOCATED. What?! How?! Just getting the statue out of the labyrinth of bridges and walkways would be a feat of engineering.<br /><br />Turns out some smart engineers work for the transportation contractor: they used <a href="http://earth.google.com">Google Earth</a> to plan the route, made the decision to move the 3200+ year-old statue -- and will do so this Friday, August 25, 2006. Walkways, cables, fences and road dividers are being brought down to make way! Trials and tests have been done to ensure the roads can handle the load, and now Ramses II will embark on what is most probably his last journey. Seeing is believing, so I got together with the Earth team and came up with this <a href="http://services.google.com/earth/kmz/ramses_move.kmz">KML overlay showing the complete route of the journey</a> from downtown Cairo to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) out by the Pyramids.

How to move Ramses II

Posted by Sherif Iskander, Business Manager, Egypt As a teen in Cairo, I grew up knowing the area called Ramses Square. At that time the sta...

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Coalition against child pornography

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel</span><br /><br />Previously, I've <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/protecting-children-online.html">shared</a> with you Google's commitment to protecting children online. As part of these efforts, we've joined two recently-formed industry initiatives to combat child pornography and child exploitation on the Internet. No group can keep the Internet safe by itself. We're excited about the promise of collaborating with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and other companies to advance this important mission. <br /><br />Here's the <a href="http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2629">NCMEC release</a> announcing our participation in the Technology Coalition and the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography.

Coalition against child pornography

Posted by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel Previously, I've shared with you Google's commitment to protecting children online...

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Worldcon beckons

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Tom Galloway, Technical Writer</span><br /><br />In response to our attending the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/stardate-081706.html">Star Trek convention in Las Vegas</a> last week, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch <a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060815-211746">commented</a>, "Of course, going to WorldCon in LA (ahem, actually Anaheim in beautiful Orange County) later this month would be nice." <br /><br />Wouldn't it, though? After all, in addition to Scotty and Spock, many Googlers have been influenced by Isaac Asimov's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Calvin">Dr. Susan Calvin</a>, Robert Heinlein's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycroft_Holmes_%28computer%29">HOLMES-IV</a> (a.k.a. Mike/Mycroft/Michelle), Arthur C. Clarke's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL9000">HAL 9000</a>, and Douglas Adams' <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_the_paranoid_android">Marvin the Paranoid Android</a>, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy">Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy</a> itself, as well as many other science fiction characters, stories, and novels both classic and recent.<br /><br />So we are in fact throwing a party at this week's World Science Fiction Convention, <a href="http://www.laconiv.org">LACon IV</a> -- on Wednesday evening, in the main party area on the fifth floor of the Anaheim Hilton. Convention attendees are welcome to drop by to talk with Googlers from the Mountain View and Santa Monica offices and see some things that I'm sure <span style="font-style:italic;">Serenity</span>'s engineer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaylee_Frye"> Kaylee Frye</a> would consider worthy of a "Shiny!"<br /><br />If you think Google might be a good fit for you, stop by the party or head over to <a href="http://www.google.com/jobs">our jobs site.</a>

Worldcon beckons

Posted by Tom Galloway, Technical Writer In response to our attending the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas last week, Danny Sullivan of Se...

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