Carbon neutrality by end of 2007

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Posted by Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Operations </span><br /><br />Climate change continues to be one of the biggest, most challenging problems our planet faces, and we know that a sustained global effort is needed if we're going to have any hope of reversing its effects. In that spirit, today we're announcing that Google will become carbon neutral by the end of 2007. This is an important step in our long-term pursuit of holistic environmental solutions.<br /><br />Our plan to neutralize Google's carbon footprint includes three basic strategies:<br /> - reduce energy consumption by maximizing efficiency;<br /> - invest in and use renewable energy sources; and<br /> - purchase carbon offsets for the emissions that we can't reduce directly.<br /><br />To calculate our carbon footprint, we took into account emissions from purchased electricity, employee commuting, business travel, construction, and server manufacturing. In a partnership with the <a href="http://www.ert.net/" title="Environmental Resources Trust">Environmental Resources Trust</a> (ERT), we have independently verified this assessment, and will do so every year.<br /><br />In order to meet our short-term goal of carbon neutrality, we have decided to purchase some carbon offsets. To be clear, we see carbon offsets not as a permanent solution but rather as a temporary tool which allows us to take full responsibility for our impact right away. By investing in projects elsewhere in the world that cut the overall amount of greenhouse gases, we can help reduce climate impact now while we develop more sustainable strategies for the future. When considering an offset project, we carefully examine the project's environmental integrity, its ability to be monitored and verified, and the impact that our investment will have in furthering that project's goals. In other words, we want to make sure that our offset funding directly enables the project, and that the carbon savings of the project are real.<br /><br />As you may have read, Google already has several other environmental programs and initiatives in place. Last week <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/climate-savers-computing-initiative.html" title="we announced">we announced</a> the <a href="http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/" title="http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/ Climate Savers Computing">Climate Savers Computing</a> initiative to greatly improve computing energy-efficiency standards. (Make sure your next computer purchase is a compliant PC!) Transportation is another major area of focus. Our employee shuttle system provides a commute for more than 1,500 Googlers daily around the San Francisco Bay area, and several hundred more have also taken advantage of our rebate when they bought a fuel-efficient vehicle.<br /><br />We're equally committed to finding and developing new green technologies and sources of energy. We <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/clean-energy-update.html" title="just completed">just completed</a> our solar panel installation in Mountain View, the single-largest corporate solar installation in the U.S. to date. We've also joined the World Resources Institute's <a href="http://www.thegreenpowergroup.org/" title="Green Power Market Development Group">Green Power Market Development Group</a>, so we can work with other companies to make more green power available to everyone. And of course <a href="http://google.org/" title="http://Google.org">Google.org</a> is working on creative new initiatives, including <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/rechargeit_20070618.html" title="plug-in hybrid cars">plug-in hybrid cars</a>. In addition, we've set ourselves the ambitious goal of creating 50 megawatts of new renewable generation capacity--enough to power 50,000 typical U.S. homes--by 2012.<br /><br />Still, we're only one company, so aside from improving our own practices, we want to do more to raise awareness and commitment worldwide. We feel we can best do this through our products and services, which reach millions of people every day. For example, <a href="http://www.google.com/transit" title="Google Transit">Google Transit</a> makes it easier than ever to find and use public transportation around the globe. New custom tabs on iGoogle bring climate news, <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/gmcreator?moduleurl=gm_youtube.xml" title="energy-related talks on video">energy-related talks on video</a> from our @Google series and other environment-related content to your homepage. Google Maps users have created mashups to show <a href="http://flood.firetree.net/" title="possible coastal flooding">possible coastal flooding</a> if the sea level changes, or to map <a href="http://www.climate-charts.com/climate-map.html" title="climate data for cities">climate data for cities</a> worldwide. And we're urging lawmakers to create clear public policies on important issues like energy-efficiency standards, increased funding for public research and development of energy technologies, and regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.<br /><br />To learn more, visit our <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/" title="new site on energy initiatives">new site on energy initiatives</a>, which details much of this work to date.

Carbon neutrality by end of 2007

Posted by Posted by Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Operations Climate change continues to be one of the biggest, most challenging probl...

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More sharing

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sam Schillace, Engineering Director</span><br /><br />We're pleased to announce that we've acquired the assets of Zenter, a company that provides software for creating online slide presentations.<br /><br />You've heard us talk a lot about using the web to improve group collaboration and information sharing. These days, when you create a document -- whether it's a text document, a spreadsheet, or a presentation -- you usually want to share it, collect feedback, or communicate about it in some way. We on the <a href="http://docs.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Docs & Spreadsheets</a> team focus on making this experience easier and more powerful for you. In particular, we're working to <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/were-expecting.html">add presentation-sharing capabilities</a> to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and we're excited about the addition of Zenter's technology and team to that effort.

More sharing

Posted by Sam Schillace, Engineering Director We're pleased to announce that we've acquired the assets of Zenter, a company that pro...

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YouTube in 9 more domains

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sakina Arsiwala, International Manager, YouTube</span><br /><br />The YouTube community began life speaking English, but thanks to the uniquely expressive medium of video, today there is a global village of content makers and viewers. With a noteworthy number of YouTube visitors now coming from outside the U.S., it's high time we go multilingual.<br /><br />Today at a Google press event in Paris, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are announcing the launch of nine new domains in <a href="http://www.youtube.com.br/">Brazil</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.fr/">France</a>, <a href="http://it.youtube.com/">Italy</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.jp/">Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.nl/">the Netherlands</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.pl/">Poland</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.es/">Spain</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.ie/">Ireland</a>, and the <a href="http://www.youtube.co.uk/">UK</a>.<br /><br />In response to many requests, each new site is fully translated and localized for each country including content (Featured Videos, Director Videos, Promotions), as well as the interfaces, search, user support, and such community features as video ratings, sharing, and content flagging. And these new localized versions are built using Google search technology, so you can quickly find more of what you want to see. Perhaps best of all, you can continue to use <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">youtube.com</a>, or move to one of these localized sites -- and switch seamlessly between the two. Happy creating, viewing and sharing!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update:</span> Removed link to user content.

YouTube in 9 more domains

Posted by Sakina Arsiwala, International Manager, YouTube The YouTube community began life speaking English, but thanks to the uniquely expr...

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A clean energy update

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Dan Reicher, Director, Climate and Energy Initiatives, Google.org</span><br /><br />Today <a href="http://google.org/">Google.org</a> is launching an exciting project that offers a glimpse of a smarter energy future: cars that plug into an electric grid powered by solar energy. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (“plug-in hybrids”) can achieve 70 -100 miles per gallon, quadrupling the fuel economy of the average car on the road today (~20 mpg). As we demonstrated at today’s event, plug-in hybrids can sell power back to the electric grid when it's needed most through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology<br /><br />As you may know, one of Google.org's core missions is to address climate change. In the U.S., transportation contributes about one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions –- with more than 60 percent of those emissions coming from personal vehicles. By accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrids and vehicle-to-grid ("V2G") technologies, this new project, <a href="http://www.google.org/recharge/">RechargeIT.org</a>, aims to reduce emissions and dependence on oil while promoting clean energy technologies and increasing consumer choice. Linking the U.S. transportation system to the electricity grid maximizes the efficiency of our energy system. From these efforts, we believe the environment will benefit -- and consumers will have more choices to fuel their cars.<br /><br />We've been working with Google engineers and <a href="http://www.hymotion.com/">Hymotion</a>/<a href="http://www.a123systems.com/">A123Systems</a> to build a small fleet of plug-in hybrids, adding an external plug and additional batteries to a regular hybrid car so that it runs on electricity with gasoline (or even better, biofuels) to extend the driving range for longer trips. Here's what it looks like:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjws2EsrJ9Ek-BIy5wRgkOejneFArfwUaCI4lMdca0sPNOoxz1zOky50elzpOUL8t3eIcL4ZJfOKDAaHajvZx4W6BGxp9Gg_nYoh-uTb2OKsQdj5z6xBDysTAPv41F7blP3PwONJvAzHOJK/s1600-h/PHEV_car.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077457709546282210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjws2EsrJ9Ek-BIy5wRgkOejneFArfwUaCI4lMdca0sPNOoxz1zOky50elzpOUL8t3eIcL4ZJfOKDAaHajvZx4W6BGxp9Gg_nYoh-uTb2OKsQdj5z6xBDysTAPv41F7blP3PwONJvAzHOJK/s320/PHEV_car.png" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br />Since most Americans drive less than 35 miles per day, you easily could drive mostly on electricity with the gas tank as a "safety net." Our goal is to demonstrate the plug-in hybrid and V2G technology, get people excited about having their own plug-in hybrid, and encourage car companies to start building them soon.<br /><br />In the preliminary results from our test fleet, on average the plug-in hybrid gas mileage was 30+ mpg higher than that of the regular hybrids. In conjunction with Pacific Gas and Electric, we also demonstrated the bidirectional flow of electricity through V2G technology, and have awarded $1 million in grants and announced plans for a $10 million request for proposals (RFP) to fund development, adoption and commercialization of plug-ins, fully electric cars and related vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. (Here's the <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/rechargeit_20070618.html">full release</a>.)<br /><br />As for Google Inc., today the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/corporate-solar-is-coming.html">solar panel installation</a> we announced last October is now producing clean, renewable electricity for our Mountain View, CA headquarters.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5k5Xxf5k_EAwD4VFj-ZhDLf6eUIunv5Od50i7uRu3oTDEorcDo-LH7YKJPRFa52uxc06c7GBvVwvyct3eocabxykqBuX9cTeqW1lV6R7N44ff5YI-HBu_Yj16pQ8MzMM1Bumr3nrzkng/s1600-h/Solarpanels_patio.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5077462773312724226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5k5Xxf5k_EAwD4VFj-ZhDLf6eUIunv5Od50i7uRu3oTDEorcDo-LH7YKJPRFa52uxc06c7GBvVwvyct3eocabxykqBuX9cTeqW1lV6R7N44ff5YI-HBu_Yj16pQ8MzMM1Bumr3nrzkng/s320/Solarpanels_patio.png" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br />The system will offset peak electricity consumption at the solar powered offices and the newly constructed solar carports have charging stations for the plug-in hybrids. At 1.6 megawatts -- with an electricity output capable of powering approximately 1,000 average California homes -- the Google project is the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S. to date, and one of the largest on any corporate site in the world. To see how much electricity these panels are producing right now, visit our new <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/solarpanels">performance monitoring site</a>.<br /><br />To learn more about the initiative, we encourage you to explore the rest of <a href="http://www.google.org/recharge/">RechargeIT.org</a>. And to see what others are saying about plug-in hybrids and V2G technology, be sure to watch <span>this video</span>.<br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oDjSbWTJbdo"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oDjSbWTJbdo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object>

A clean energy update

Posted by Dan Reicher, Director, Climate and Energy Initiatives, Google.org Today Google.org is launching an exciting project that offers a...

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This blog's M.O.

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Elliot Schrage and Karen Wickre, Global Communications & Public Affairs</span><br /><br />Just about 3 years ago, we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/05/is-this-thing-on.html">launched</a> this blog as a fast and direct way to reach Google users, friends and anyone else interested in our goings-on. Even though it's a blog from Google, it's by Googlers, not from a single executive (or founder). We've encouraged hundreds of people to write about news and ideas from all their respective corners of the company. A lot of the posts you read are news and updates about products, because that's what the bulk of Googlers work on. But with an eye towards transparency, we also share our positions on issues -- for example, our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/google-in-china.html">role in China</a>, our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/point-of-google-print.html">perspective on digitizing books</a>, our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/update-lanes-gifts-v-google.html">comment</a> on a lawsuit. And occasionally we're keen to share snippets of our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/snakes-in-plain-old-office-building.html">culture</a> or highlight <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/health-care-information-matters.html">industry developments</a> we find noteworthy.<br /><br />Our communications team manages the blog, but consistent with our grassroots way of doing things, it's Googlers who propose content and write the posts (and likewise, develop new blogs). When it comes to editing copy, we aim for a very light touch -- focusing mainly on clarity of information, not sanitizing style.<br /><br />Since this blog first appeared, another 52 Google blogs have also launched. At present, 18 of them are not in English, and we expect that number to grow as we expand around the world. All of these other Google blogs (the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com">full list</a> is on the righthand side of the main blog) have smaller readership because they are more tightly focused on the details of a specific product (like <a href="http://adwords.blogspot.com/">AdWords</a> or <a href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/">AdSense</a> or they represent Google in a country (including <a href="http://googlepolska.blogspot.com/">Poland</a> and <a href="http://adwords-br.blogspot.com/">Brazil</a>), or they speak to a niche audience, like <a href="http://librariancentral.blogspot.com/">librarians</a> or <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/">webmasters</a>. Typically they don't feature the same topical expanse we think will be of interest to most Google users.<br /><br />In short, we're relying as always on the power of the Internet -- in this case, the incredibly easy-to-use publishing platform known as the blog -- to help interested folks understand how we work, and what we do. As new resources and media tools come into being, we want to make use of those too. One of these is the <a href="http://youtube.com/google">Google Channel on YouTube</a>, where it's a priority to post videos and presentations by Googlers, including our executives, as quickly as we can following public events.<br /><br />Through all of these means and others -- podcasting, video blogs, forums -- we plan to continue being as direct as possible with you concerning our news and views. So thanks for reading, and stay tuned.

This blog's M.O.

Posted by Elliot Schrage and Karen Wickre, Global Communications & Public Affairs Just about 3 years ago, we launched this blog as a fa...

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The state of our video ID tools

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Steve Chen, YouTube co-founder</span><br /><br />Recent speculation and stories like this <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118161295626932114.html"><span style="font-style:italic;">Wall Street Journal</span> article</a> or this <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSWEN871820070612">Reuters report</a> on YouTube's use of video identification tools made us think it would be useful to clarify what we’re doing. <br /><br />We’ve been developing improved content identification for months, and we’re confident that in the not-too-distant future, we’ll unveil an innovative solution that will work for users and content creators alike. This is one of the most technologically complicated tasks that we have ever undertaken. But YouTube has always been committed to developing sustainable and scalable tools that work for all content owners.<br /><br />Even though we haven’t given too many details, we’ve been hard at work. Earlier this year we implemented audio fingerprinting technology from Audible Magic, to help identify the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/audioswap_main"><u>audio content</u></a> of music partners like Warner Music, Sony BMG, and Universal. Today we're experimenting with video identification tools, and will share with you a few core principles driving our technology development, past and present.<br /><br />We are beginning tests on an automated system to identify and match specific videos. The technology extracts key visual aspects of uploaded videos and compares that information against reference material provided by copyright holders. Achieving the accuracy to drive automated policy decisions is difficult, and requires a highly tuned system. Once accuracy is achieved, the challenge becomes speed and scale to support the millions of people who use YouTube every day. We are working with some of the major media companies to test what we have developed. We’re excited about the progress so far, and we’re dedicated to making these tests successful, but as always with cutting-edge technologies, there’s no guarantee of success.<br /><br />Now, when it comes to spotting pornography and graphic violence, and other content prohibited by our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/t/terms">terms of use</a>, nothing beats our community flagging. Once a user flags a video, we immediately review it and remove it if we find a violation. But our community can’t identify infringing content. We all know pornography and violence when we see them. But <a href="http://youtube.com/t/howto_copyright">copyright</a> status can only be determined by the copyright holder. That is because almost anyone who creates an original video has the copyright for that work, and such a wide range of copyright holders' preferences vary widely. <br /><br />Some copyright holders want control over every use of their creation. Many professional artists and media companies post their latest videos without telling us, while some home video-makers don't want their stuff online. Some legal departments take down a video one day and the marketing department puts it up the next. Which is their right, but our community can’t predict those things, and neither can we. The same is true for technology. No matter how good our video identification technology gets, it will never be able to read copyright-holders’ minds.<br /><br />If a content owner identifies material that she doesn’t want on YouTube, she can request its removal with the click of a mouse</span></span>. If particular users repeatedly infringe copyrights, we terminate their accounts. We have long made a practice of creating a unique "hash" of every video removed for alleged copyright infringement and blocking re-uploads of the hash. We <a href="http://youtube.com/t/community_guidelines">educate users</a> on what is and isn’t permissible under the law. Our upcoming video identification system will be our latest way of empowering copyright holders, going above and beyond legal requirements.<br /><br />We’ll continue our focus on delivering a great user experience. YouTube's no-fuss upload lets video artists collapse the gap between the creative moment and its worldwide publication. It helps our hundreds of media partners - as well as marketers and advertisers - spread their hottest work while it's still hot. And it enables presidential candidates participating in our YouChoose 2008 program to engage in a direct, open dialogue with voters, bringing transparency, access and authenticity to the political process. We’re carefully designing our new identification technologies to not impede those free and fast forms of expression.<br /><br />In conclusion, a content management system has to have technology that provides high quality matching and detection, but it also has to apply business rules in ways that support the business objectives of partners while providing high quality user experiences. With the introduction of our video identification tools, YouTube will continue to be the leader in online video, and the premier destination for watching and sharing original videos worldwide. Now, back to <a href="http://youtube.com/testtube">work…</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Update:</span> </span>Added direct link to Wall Street Journal story.

The state of our video ID tools

Posted by Steve Chen, YouTube co-founder Recent speculation and stories like this Wall Street Journal article or this Reuters report on Y...

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Is there a doctor in the family?

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Roni Zeiger, M.D., Product Manager, Google</span><br /><br />Before joining Google, I was a full-time primary care doctor. My time working with patients every day, hearing their stories and trying to help make them better, is an experience I will cherish forever. And about once a week, I still practice as an urgent care doctor at a county hospital. Based on these experiences, I have witnessed the problems patients face. One of the biggest ones I see is the difficulty patients have getting answers to the most basic questions, such as 'What tests and treatments should I know about if I have type 2 diabetes? Is the care I am getting on par with what most experts recommend?'<br /><br />Many patients are comfortable letting their doctors worry about these questions for them. But I think patients get better care when they are more informed about generally accepted standards of care, and know more when talking to their doctors. Of course, I don't recommend that patients treat themselves. They can't simply do searches on the Internet, self-diagnose and treat. While there is an endless amount of information available online, it's difficult to know what is quality information and what is not. Patients need to see their doctors to get the right medical care. But better-informed patients recover faster, manage chronic illnesses better and may even avoid some illnesses altogether. And patients should feel in control of their situation.<br /><br />I was recently reminded of these issues when I was hospitalized. I wanted to know more about the best treatment options for my situation, so I called a few doctor friends and got all the information I needed. Because of that, I think I recovered faster, and I certainly felt better as a more active participant in my own care. But most people don't have this kind of access to medical expertise.<br /><br />In addition to my medical training, I studied medical informatics before coming to Google. I learned about computer systems that are designed to remind doctors about tests and treatments that their patients should have. I can say from personal experience that it is difficult to remember everything I should be doing for my patients, or to read every new article on the latest test or drug. These systems help doctors get the information they need to deliver quality care.<br /><br />I believe patients should also have access to these kinds of systems so that they can help make sure they are getting the best care. If you search online to learn more about diabetes, it should be easy to find out what the generally recommended treatments and tests are.<br /><br />Now I'm part of the team here working on health and we're trying to do something about this problem. Adam Bosworth, who is leading our team, has alluded to this in previous posts such as <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-do-you-know-youre-getting-best-care.html">this one</a> as well as in some speeches he has made at healthcare conferences.<br /><br />We have been talking to many medical experts to understand what the best guidelines are, and how we can determine which ones apply in different circumstances. If such guidelines were more available to patients, they might be able to, by inputting information such as age, gender or medications, learn about recommended screening tests and other preventive measures, or about harmful drug interactions. (The problem of drug interactions is reason enough to work on this: in the U.S. alone, it is estimated that over 770,000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals from adverse drug events. Many of these medical errors could be prevented if patients or doctors checked for drug interactions.)<br /><br />As we work on this project, we are of course paying very close attention to privacy. If such a tool were available, you should be able to enter as much or as little information as you want -- and it's important that you be allowed to access this kind of information without entering your name, insurance number or other personal information. We also think that if you want to save this information, you should have that choice so you can access it later or share it with your doctor.<br /><br />When I help my loved ones navigate an illness or get up to date with screening tests, I wonder how those who don't have a doctor in the family manage their health. When a patient comes to see me with a pretty good understanding of their treatment options, I find that refreshing. But really, I wish it were just easier for patients to get the information they're looking for. While we don't expect to develop the perfect solution, I hope that some day we'll be able to offer something that is a step in the right direction.

Is there a doctor in the family?

Posted by Roni Zeiger, M.D., Product Manager, Google Before joining Google, I was a full-time primary care doctor. My time working with pati...

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