Where on Earth is Santa?

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Melissa Crounse, Chief Elf</span><br /><br />As you know, every Christmas Eve Santa Claus gets busy on his tricked-out sleigh, soaring around the globe to deliver presents to (presumably deserving) children the world over. This year, even if you don't have a reindeer team of your own, you can use the <a href="http://earth.google.com/santa/">Google Earth Santa Tracker</a> (That's <a href="http://earth.google.com/santa/">earth.google.com/santa</a>.) Follow along on every step of Santa's travels with Donner, Blitzen, and of course Rudolph, in all their 3-D satellite glory. And to all a good flight -- er, night!

Where on Earth is Santa?

Posted by Melissa Crounse, Chief Elf As you know, every Christmas Eve Santa Claus gets busy on his tricked-out sleigh, soaring around the gl...

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Blogger's new bag of tricks

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Lexi Baugher, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Blogger has always been the easiest-to-use blogging software around, but it just got <i>way</i> more powerful. We've added a bunch of new features, which you can check out in the <a href="http://www2.blogger.com/">new version</a>:<br /><ul><li>You can <a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=43708">add stuff to your blog</a> (cute cat photos, lists, feeds) without needing to know HTML.</li><li>You can also make a <a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=43709">completely unique template</a> that has just the color scheme you want, without knowing any CSS.<br /></li><li>Don't want your mom to read your thoughts? Make a <a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42673">private blog</a>. </li><li><a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=44498&topic=10275">Label</a> your posts, to group related ones together. </li><li>Use one of our new templates. </li><li>You can now sign in to Blogger using your <a href="http://www.google.com/accounts">Google Account</a>.</li></ul>Naturally, this is still a work in progress, and more exciting features are in the pipeline. Try it out and send <a href="http://www.blogger.com/problem.g" title="your feedback">your feedback</a>!

Blogger's new bag of tricks

Posted by Lexi Baugher, Software Engineer Blogger has always been the easiest-to-use blogging software around, but it just got way more pow...

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Happy Holidays with Google Desktop 4.5

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Mendel Chuang, Product Marketing Manager</span><br /><br />Since the debut of the new transparent Sidebar in <a href="http://desktop.google.com/">Google Desktop 4.5</a>, we've been working to make it widely available outside of the English-speaking world. We're finally done, and now you can get it in any of 28 languages. And just in time for the holidays, we've added several <a href="http://desktop.google.com/plugins/c/sidebar/holiday.html">holiday themed gadgets</a>. More details are available on the <a href="http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/2006/12/holiday-gadgets.html">Google Desktop Blog</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7609/900/1600/929561/Desktop_xmastree.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7609/900/320/152187/Desktop_xmastree.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>

Happy Holidays with Google Desktop 4.5

Posted by Mendel Chuang, Product Marketing Manager Since the debut of the new transparent Sidebar in Google Desktop 4.5 , we've been wor...

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Accessible Search: Answers to common questions

<span class="byline-author">Posted by T.V. Raman, Research Scientist</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From time to time, our own <a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/raman/">T.V. Raman</a> shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful. - Ed.</span><br /><br />Since we launched <a href="http://labs.google.com/accessible">Google Accessible Search</a> in July, we have received lots of feedback along with many questions. I'll briefly summarize these with answers.<br /><br /><b>Q: Does Accessible Search filter out inaccessible content?</b><br />A: No. First of all, "accessible" is a very subjective measure; what's more, queries can vary widely with respect to how accessible the results are. As an example, if you are looking for information such as weather forecasts or reference material, like the definition of an unfamiliar term, the set will often consists of both accessible and inaccessible content. In these cases, Google Accessible Search promotes those results that have been measured to be more accessible. On the other hand, if the particular query is about videogames, the chances are fairly high that a majority of the best results for that query will be visually busy pages. So in the final analysis, we <span style="font-weight: bold;">do not</span> filter content in Google Accessible Search; we pick the best results exactly as we do with regular Google search, and then re-order the top results by their level of accessibility.<br /><br /><b>Q: The result set looks identical to regular search. Is this intentional?</b><br />A: The operational word in the above question is <span style="font-style: italic;">looks</span>. Google Accessible Search does not in any way change the look and feel of Google search results. What it does is re-order results based on how accessible they are.<br /><br /><b>Q: How has Google enhanced navigating its search results?</b><br />A: Since Google Accessible Search launched, many people have sent feedback about the results page (both Google Accessible and regular search) being difficult to navigate with screenreaders. In response, we have updated the results pages in both cases to have section headers that can be used in conjunction with screenreader hotkeys to quickly skim through the page. Thus, once Google has responded to your search query, use your access technology's "move by section" keys to move between the section that displays sponsored ads and the individual results.<br /><br /><b>Q: How can I perform more complex searches?</b><br />A: Notice that <a href="http://labs.google.com/accessible"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> http://labs.google.com/accessible</span></a> has a link to <a href="http://labs.google.com/accessible/advanced_search.html">Advanced Search</a> in addition to the simple text box. Use this link to focus your search on documents in a specific language. The resulting search will continue to use Google Accessible Search for ordering the results.<br /><br /><b>Q: How can I compare regular search with Google Accessible?</b><br />A: Google Accessible Search is an experiment, and to be an effective experiment, people need to be able to easily compare the results obtained by using regular Google search versus Google Accessible. Notice that the top of the results page contains a pair of radio buttons labeled "Web Search" and "Accessible Search." You can easily repeat your search by pressing the appropriate radio button and clicking on the "submit" button.<br /><br /><b>Q: How can I make my site rank higher in Accessible Search?</b><br />A: Use our <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769">Webmaster Guidelines</a> as a starting point. Once you've fully addressed these, I'd suggest reviewing your content to see how well it degrades gracefully. In addition to viewing the page in text-only mode (as the Guidelines suggest), also try the following additional checks:<br />- browse your site on a monochrome display;<br />- use your site without a mouse.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update: </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Corrected to note that we *do not* filter Accessible Search content. </span>

Accessible Search: Answers to common questions

Posted by T.V. Raman, Research Scientist From time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as...

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Mapping Europe

<span class="byline-author">Posted by John Hanke, Director, Google Earth & Maps</span><br /><br />As part of our ongoing effort to connect people to information about the world -- or perhaps le monde, die welt, el mundo -- around them, I'm pleased to tell you about the addition of a new team to Google. Today we acquired <a href="http://www.Endoxon.com">Endoxon</a>, an Internet mapping solutions company based in Lucerne, Switzerland.<br /><br />The Endoxon team has demonstrated passion and innovation in online mapping and has developed compelling technology that will enhance our Google geo products worldwide. We're also excited about having a dedicated team in Europe that can bring a distinctively European focus to our Maps products in those markets.

Mapping Europe

Posted by John Hanke, Director, Google Earth & Maps As part of our ongoing effort to connect people to information about the world -- or...

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Your easiest holiday task

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Costin Manolache, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />We <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/get-your-people-talking.html">launched</a> <a href="http://google.com/a">Google Apps for Your Domain</a> at the end of August, and since then we've been getting great feedback from people all over. Organizations from Thailand, Argentina, and even our neighbors in Palo Alto have set up private-label Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, and spiffy customizable start pages for their custom domains. We think it's especially cool that thousands of students are able to connect better with their classmates -- and their schools' IT directors no longer need to wring their hands over spam and clogged inboxes.<br /><br />"Hey, wait, Costin," you say. "That's great for them, but our organization doesn't have a custom domain."<br /><br />Well, I'm excited to let you know that we've made signing up for Google Apps for Your Domain much easier for those of you that don't yet have your own domain. We've partnered with <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp">GoDaddy.com</a> and <a href="http://www.enom.com/">eNom</a>, two leading domain registration services, to offer domains for $10 per year. And I like the fact that we're including private registration to protect your personal information.<br /><br />Now you've got one-stop shopping for all the services currently on the Google Apps for Your Domain platform -- just find a domain, buy it, and get started. We'll do all the behind-the-scenes configuration work for you. For now this is available for .com, .net,.org, .biz, and .info domains, but we're working on bringing it elsewhere soon. We're also constantly working to introduce more cool new features to this service, so be sure to check back for updates.

Your easiest holiday task

Posted by Costin Manolache, Software Engineer We launched Google Apps for Your Domain at the end of August, and since then we've been ...

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Holiday goodies from Picasa Web Albums

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Adrian Graham, Product Manager, Picasa<br /></span><br /><br />What’s a holiday without the memorable (and embarrassing) photos? The holidays are almost here, which (at least if you’re in my family) means babies chewing on presents, the dog dressed in a ridiculous reindeer costume, and someone (cough, Uncle Charlie) passed out after too much eggnog. Although I think about this now and wince in advance, I know that I’m going to want to capture these moments and more importantly, share them with the rest of my family and friends. That’s why I’m excited about the new features we’ve added to Picasa Web Albums, just in time for the holidays.<br /><br />Print ordering is my favorite—it’s something you have told us you've wanted since we first launched. Now, when you or anyone else views photos in <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com">Picasa Web Albums</a>, there’s an option to order prints directly from the site. We currently offer prints and products from Shutterfly and PhotoWorks, but we’ll be adding more soon. <br /><br />Other new features include video upload for easy sharing (it’s just like with photos—select them in Picasa and click the “Web Album” button) and searching tools. Now you can search over your own captions, album titles, and album descriptions, and you can even search for photos in your friends’ public albums. Digging up that picture of me trying to figure out which end of the holiday turkey is "up" should be easier than ever. <br /><br />So <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/tester/SampleAlbum/photo#5008248582488977682">check out these new features</a> before all the festivities start. And however you celebrate the holidays this year, I hope you’ll take lots of pictures.

Holiday goodies from Picasa Web Albums

Posted by Adrian Graham, Product Manager, Picasa What’s a holiday without the memorable (and embarrassing) photos? The holidays are almost h...

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