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Universal search: The best answer is still the best answer

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience Back in 2001, Eric asked for a brainstorm of a few "splashy" ideas in search. A designer and product manager at the time, I made a few mockups -- one of which was for 'universal search.' It was a sample search results page for Britney Spears that, in addition to web results, also had news, images, and groups results right on the same page. Even then, we could see that people could easily become overwhelmed with the number of different search tools available on Google -- let alone those that would be created over the next few years. This proliferation of tools, while useful, has outgrown the old model of search. We want to help you find the very best answer, even if you don't know where to look. That mockup and early observations were the motivation behind the universal search effort we announced earlier today. And while that Britney Spears mockup was the start of Google's universal search vision, it was instantly obvious that this would be one of the biggest architectural, ranking, and interface challenges we would face at Google. Over several years, with the help of more than 100 people, we've built the infrastructure, search algorithms, and presentation mechanisms to provide what we see as just the first step in the evolution toward universal search. Today, we're making that first step available on google.com by launching the new architecture and using it to blend content from Images, Maps, Books, Video, and News into our web results. With universal search, we're attempting to break down the walls that traditionally separated our various search properties and integrate the vast amounts of information available into one simple set of search results. Here are a few of my favorite searches that show off the power of universal search: <ul><li><a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=+steve+jobs&btnG=Search">steve jobs</a></li><li><a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=darth+vader&btnG=Search">darth vader</a></li><li><a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=nosferatu&btnG=Search">nosferatu</a></li></ul>In addition, we've rolled out a few new navigation elements and experimental features to help our users better navigate our site and find the information they're looking for. These include contextual navigation links above the search results that help users "drill down" to specific types of information. For instance, developers who search for [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=python&btnG=Search">python</a>] will see links for "web," "blogs," "books," "groups," and "code," whereas [<a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=downtown+los+angeles&btnG=Search">downtown los angeles</a>] will show a different set of links. Also, in terms of integration and navigation, today we introduced a new universal navigation bar at the top of all Google web pages to provide easier navigation to your favorite Google products, such as Gmail. While today's releases are big steps in making the world's information more easily accessible, these are just the beginning steps toward the universal search vision. Stay tuned!

Universal search: The best answer is still the best answer

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience Back in 2001, Eric asked for a brainstorm of a few "splashy" ide...

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Why does Google remember information about searches?

Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel We recently <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/taking-steps-to-further-improve-our.html">announced a new policy</a> to anonymize our server logs after 18–24 months. We’re the only leading search company to have taken this step publicly. We believe it’s an important part of our commitment to respect user privacy while balancing a number of important factors. In developing this policy, we spoke with various privacy advocates, regulators and others about how long they think the period should be. There is a wide spectrum of views on this – some think data should be preserved for longer, others think it should be anonymized almost immediately. We spent a great deal of time sorting this out and thought we’d explain some of the things that prompted us to decide on 18-24 months. Three factors were critical. One was maintaining our ability to continue to improve the quality of our search services. Another was to protect our systems and our users from fraud and abuse. The third was complying—and anticipating compliance—with possible data retention requirements. Here’s a bit more about each of these: <ul><li>Improve our services: Search companies like Google are constantly trying to improve the quality of their search services. Analyzing logs data is an important tool to help our engineers refine search quality and build helpful new services. Take the example of Google Spell Checker. Google’s spell checking software automatically looks at your query and checks to see if you are using the most common version of a word’s spelling. If it calculates that you’re likely to generate more relevant search results with an alternative spelling, it will ask “Did you mean: (more common spelling)?” We can offer this service by looking at spelling corrections that people do or do not click on. Similarly, with logs, we can improve our search results: if we know that people are clicking on the #1 result we’re doing something right, and if they’re hitting next page or reformulating their query, we’re doing something wrong. The ability of a search company to continue to improve its services is essential, and represents a normal and expected use of such data.</li></ul><ul><li>Maintain security and prevent fraud and abuse: It is standard among Internet companies to retain server logs with IP addresses as one of an array of tools to protect the system from security attacks. For example, our computers can analyze logging patterns in order to identify, investigate and defend against malicious access and exploitation attempts. Data protection laws around the world require Internet companies to maintain adequate security measures to protect the personal data of their users. Immediate deletion of IP addresses from our logs would make our systems more vulnerable to security attacks, putting the personal data of our users at greater risk. Historical logs information can also be a useful tool to help us detect and prevent phishing, scripting attacks, and spam, including query click spam and ads click spam.</li></ul><ul><li>Comply with legal obligations to retain data: Search companies like Google are also subject to laws that sometimes conflict with data protection regulations, like data retention for law enforcement purposes. For example, Google may be subject to the EU Data Retention Directive, which was passed last year, in the wake of the Madrid and London terrorist bombings, to help law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of “serious crime”. The Directive requires all EU Member States to pass data retention laws by 2009 with retention for periods between 6 and 24 months. Since these laws do not yet exist, and are only now being <a href="http://www.epic.org/privacy/intl/data_retention.html">proposed and debated</a>, it is too early to know the final retention time periods, the jurisdictional impact, and the scope of applicability. It's therefore too early to state whether such laws would apply to particular Google services, and if so, which ones. In the U.S., the Department of Justice and others have similarly called for <a href="http://www.epic.org/privacy/intl/data_retention.html">24-month data retention laws</a>.</li></ul>At the same time, regulators in other parts of governments have argued for shorter retention periods, reflecting the conflicts in every country between privacy and data protection objectives on the one hand, and law enforcement objectives on the other. Companies like Google are trying to be responsible corporate citizens, and sometimes we are told to do different things by different government entities, or to follow conflicting legal obligations. It's hard enough to get different government entities to talk to each other inside one country. When you multiply this by all the countries where Google must comply with the laws, the potential conflicts are enormous. Nonetheless, Google is committed to providing its users around the world with one consistent high level of data protection. It’s also worth reiterating that we do not ask our users for their names, address, or phone numbers to use most of our services. For those who want to see what their logs history looks like, we offer transparent access via a Google Account to their own personal <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?hl=en&continue=http://www.google.com/history/%3Fzx%3DFhAUmYIBL0U&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nui=1&ltmpl=reauth&service=hist&srr=1">Web History</a>. Finally, we maintain rigorous internal controls of our logs database. We look forward to an ongoing discussion with privacy stakeholders around the world as we pursue a common goal of improving privacy protections for everyone on the Internet.

Why does Google remember information about searches?

Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel We recently announced a new policy to anonymize our server logs after 18–24 months. We’re...

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A whole new experience for Google Analytics

Posted by Jeff Veen, UI Design Manager A year and a half ago, we released Google Analytics as a free service to help people measure the success of their Web sites. In that time, the response has been fantastic - hundreds of thousands of sites across the Web have access to this powerful analysis previously only available to the enterprise. Now, we're taking the next step: making that analysis even more accessible and easy to use. Today we're announcing a complete redesign of <a href="http://analytics.google.com/">Google Analytics</a>. We started over a year ago with dozens of interviews with power users, those new to analytics, and everyone in between. They told us they needed their data organized in a more intuitive way. They wanted to be able to see traffic trends in context with more explanation of what the numbers mean. And they needed tools to help them communicate what they'd found with others. This research fed months of development and design iteration to create a totally new user experience. We've been working on this since I blogged about <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/here-comes-measure-map.html">the Measure Map acquisition</a>. Since then, we've collaborated with the combined team from Google and <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/circle-of-analytics.html">Urchin Software</a> to bring user-centered design to their strong development skills. I couldn't be more pleased with the results. You can find out more at the <a href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/2007/05/new-version-of-google-analytics.html">Google Analytics Blog</a> and be sure to check out <a href="http://services.google.com/analytics/tour/index_en-US.html">this demo</a> for more details.

A whole new experience for Google Analytics

Posted by Jeff Veen, UI Design Manager A year and a half ago, we released Google Analytics as a free service to help people measure the succ...

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Presidential campaign trail winds through the Googleplex

Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs, and Elliot Schrage, VP, Global Communications and Public Affairs Though the first votes won't be cast in the presidential election for another eight months, the 2008 campaign is already in full swing. There are lots of important issues at stake in this election, including a host of thorny policy issues surrounding the Internet and the continued growth of the U.S. technology industry. Since all of us -- consumers, businesses, and political leaders -- will have to address those issues in the coming years, we've invited all the presidential candidates to come visit our headquarters in California and share their ideas in town hall-style meetings with our employees. In February we were honored to host Sen. Hillary Clinton on campus for the first candidate visit, and last Friday we welcomed Sen. John McCain as our second visitor. We're flattered that the other candidates have responded positively to our invitations, and we're working to schedule their visits over the next few months. Just as the Internet poses interesting policy questions, it also helps empower citizens with more information. So, to help potential voters learn more about the candidates and their views on the issues, we've posted the complete, unedited videos of these candidate talks on YouTube. Take some time to check out <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=cwYKIsJwi2c" title="http://youtube.com/watch?v=cwYKIsJwi2c Sen. Clinton's talk">Sen. Clinton's talk</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDDixe_N5sE" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDDixe_N5sE Sen. McCain's">Sen. McCain's</a> (as well as a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=832JTKBifpU" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=832JTKBifpU special interview">special interview</a> that Sen. McCain did with YouTube's CitizenTube).

Presidential campaign trail winds through the Googleplex

Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs, and Elliot Schrage, VP, Global Communications and Public Affa...

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Some updates from Google Finance

Posted by Kuldeep Gharat, Software Engineer Earnings season is one of the busiest times in the world of finance. There's barely enough time to join an earnings call if you are combing through all the latest news and quarterly statements. Today, we're adding content on these events content so you never have to miss an earnings call again. You can view earnings calls, analyst meetings, and any other material event on your company and portfolio pages. Further, you can download these events directly to your <a href="http://calendar.google.com/">Google Calendar</a>. And in response to many of your requests, we've also added a few smaller features to Google Finance, including: <ul><li> Historical prices: View and download historical end-of-day prices for any U.S. or Canadian company </li><li> Portfolios: You can now download the latest portfolio performance and transaction details from your portfolio </li><li> News feeds: Stay on top of the news using your feed client such as <a href="http://reader.google.com/" title="Google Reader">Google Reader</a>, <a href="http://bloglines.com/" title="Bloglines">Bloglines</a>, or as part of your <a href="http://google.com/ig" title="personalized homepage">iGoogle</a> </li><li> Last week, <a href="http://gigaom.com/2007/04/27/google-finance-gets-tiny-upgrades/" title="you may have read">you may have read</a> that there are now ticker symbols on news results for public companies on Google News. Click on the symbol and you'll go to the corresponding page on Google Finance. </li></ul>We hope that you find these features useful. As always, please <a href="http://www.google.com/support/finance/bin/request.py?contact_type=suggestion&submit=Continue" title="please let us know">let us know</a> what else we can to to help you manage your finances using <a href="http://finance.google.com/" title="Google Finance">Google Finance</a>.

Some updates from Google Finance

Posted by Kuldeep Gharat, Software Engineer Earnings season is one of the busiest times in the world of finance. There's barely enough t...

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Calendar on the go

Posted by Aarati Parmar Martino, Software Engineer, Google Calendar team Many people schedule their day on the fly, and are often away from their computers when they need to run to their next event. With <a href="http://calendar.google.com/">Google Calendar</a>, you don't have to be online to be alerted about upcoming events—all you need is a mobile phone. Now you can set up mobile SMS (text message) reminders that will be sent to your mobile phone. In fact, now you can schedule reminders for events on your personal calendar or any other calendar to which you're subscribed. Whether it's <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=3l6so11tn505dane18t57fsrbs%40group.calendar.google.com&dates=20070401%2F20070501">your favorite baseball team's schedule</a>, a family calendar, or any other calendar to which you have access, you can set up mobile reminders. This feature is available in all the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37032">18 languages</a> we support.

Calendar on the go

Posted by Aarati Parmar Martino, Software Engineer, Google Calendar team Many people schedule their day on the fly, and are often away from ...

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G'day, California

Posted by Alice Boxhall, Software Engineer When I mention I'm an engineer in our Sydney office, I'm often greeted with looks of surprise: it seems many people aren't aware of our Australian presence. Thus, it is with great pleasure that we are inviting engineers from Silicon Valley (or anywhere in California) to the Googleplex in Mountain View next Tuesday, 8 May for <a href="http://services.google.com/events/gday_google">G'day Google</a>: an evening (6-9 pm) open house event showcasing Google Australia. G'day Google will feature: <ul><li> Demonstrations of cool Google technology that has been built in Sydney </li><li> Talks about what global engineering products are currently being worked on in Sydney; it's <a href="http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives/010257.html">not just Google Maps!</a> </li><li> Australian food and drink -- I'm talking <a href="http://www.vegemite.com.au/">Vegemite</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich">sangers</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_yabby">yabbies</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_pies">meat pies</a>, <a href="http://www.boags.com.au/">Australian beer</a>, <a href="http://www.coopers.com.au/">more Australian beer</a>, and <a href="http://www.penfolds.com.au/">wine</a> </li></ul> There will be several Australian Google engineers there (including me!) to chat with you California sorts about life as a Google engineer down under. Working in the Sydney office is lots of fun and incredibly challenging. My desk looks over Darling Harbour, so it can sometimes be difficult to spend all day looking at a monitor. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuvainK1M8L8Qt5tYhSLILKWudjIOwNxCThnf_f30OSv0TKqf2uVsKhuFlWKnXk-faVEst5D_ttHWCIBodenW-a8hHhhEXHd24sSyYySHugFk842yJ8Z3m8xYpbUeHL528UVijrZRHmlkc/s1600-h/Sydney_office.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5059719429824119826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuvainK1M8L8Qt5tYhSLILKWudjIOwNxCThnf_f30OSv0TKqf2uVsKhuFlWKnXk-faVEst5D_ttHWCIBodenW-a8hHhhEXHd24sSyYySHugFk842yJ8Z3m8xYpbUeHL528UVijrZRHmlkc/s320/Sydney_office.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a> If you happen to be one of the 100,000 Australian expats who lives in California, it's not too late to sign up for G'day Google! We’ll have photos and reports from the event on the Google Australia blog next week.

G'day, California

Posted by Alice Boxhall, Software Engineer When I mention I'm an engineer in our Sydney office, I'm often greeted with looks of surp...

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