Joining OIN

<font class="byline-author">Posted by Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager</font><br /><br />You'll often hear members of our open source team say, “Every time you use Google, you’re using Linux.” It’s absolutely true. Check a Google engineer’s workstation, and you’ll probably find it's running Linux. Do a search on Google.com, and a Linux server will return your results. Ever since Google got its start, Linux has given us the power and flexibility we need to serve millions of users around the world.<br /><br />In turn, we feel a strong responsibility to the Linux community, and we’re always looking for creative ways to put our resources in the hands of Linux developers. That’s why today we became a licensee of the <a title="Open Invention Network" href="http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/">Open Invention Network</a> (OIN), an innovative patent-sharing organization founded to create a legally protected environment for anyone who works with Linux.<br /><br />The concept behind OIN is simple. All OIN licensees, including participants such as IBM, Oracle, NEC and Sony, agree to cross-license <font class="q">their Linux-related patents to the others free of charge. Patent </font>issues therefore become a much smaller concern inside the community, and OIN members can focus their energy on writing and releasing software rather than vetting their code for intellectual property issues. It's the legal equivalent of taking a long, deep breath.<br /><br />For us, today’s announcement marks the latest development in a long, fruitful relationship with the open source community. The Google <a title="Summer of Code" href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/">Summer of Code</a> program has trained over 2,000 students as open source developers, many on Linux-related projects. We continue to fund external projects and host events like the <a title="Ubuntu Developer Summit" href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperSummitMountainView">Ubuntu Developer Summit</a> and the <a title="Linux Foundation Innovation Summit" href="http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Linux_Foundation_Collaboration_Summit">Linux Foundation Innovation Summit</a>. Hundreds of Googlers are submitting patches to Linux, and we’ve open-sourced over a million lines of code.<br /><br />We believe Linux innovation moves fastest when developers can share their knowledge with full peace of mind. We’re proud to participate in an organization that’s making that possible, and we look forward to seeing OIN grow and thrive.

Joining OIN

Posted by Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager You'll often hear members of our open source team say, “Every time you use Google, ...

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Kirkland does the Ragnar Relay

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Katya Rogers, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Go back in time with me to last Friday morning. It's 4:30 a.m. I am standing in a parking lot, watching 11 Googlers and friends adding finish decorating the mini-vans and loading coolers filled with Gatorade and snacks. We're planning to drive to <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;geocode=&q=Blaine,+WA&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1" target="_blank">Blaine</a> (Washington) and then run 187 miles over two days, relay-style, along the coast, finishing on the south end of Whidbey island. In other words, this is the <a href="http://www.ragnarrelay.com/index.php">Ragnar Relay</a>, an event that started in Utah 4 years ago, now in its first year in Washington State. Sounds crazy, huh? Fortunately, I'm working with people who consider no idea too outrageous -- not even the notion that running a multi-day relay would be "fun"!<br /><br />For the next 30+ hours we're <a href="http://www.ragnarrelay.com/northwestpassage/coursemaps/index.php">on the road</a>, catching naps in mini-vans and exchange points, overcoming challenges of running through summer Washington heat (who knew?) and total darkness (aided by headlamps), enjoying the roads that take us through the farmland (hello, llamas and blueberries!) and near the coast (over Deception Pass just before sunrise). We're ignoring blisters, scrapes, sore knees and ankles to get over the next hill, and another one after, and another one -- where our van is waiting, full of good cheer and ice-cold water. Then we push even harder to get to the exchange point.<br /><br />We get into <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&amp;amp;q=Langley,+WA&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=48.040447,-122.406921&spn=0.567442,0.850067&z=10&iwloc=addr" target="_blank">Langley</a>, our last town on the route, Saturday afternoon. We wait for the last runner at the finishing line, and cross it together -- tired, sore, and, astonishingly, ready to do it again next year. And that, dear readers, is the story of how some of us spent last weekend.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqtwMxwodIMxRaLWVgOxEV-GYiKt0Ls9edsP0mGBT3S_UmopMy_o1bAFlkyP1HGkx3q5gZrqUZ2uMhWaoD5lMGOTchvWk0lNv4LLG4K4GiCjw85ArKnyEhuyEftWsHXaloJmu0-n1N-Bpn/s1600-h/Ragnar.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5093956531757715026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqtwMxwodIMxRaLWVgOxEV-GYiKt0Ls9edsP0mGBT3S_UmopMy_o1bAFlkyP1HGkx3q5gZrqUZ2uMhWaoD5lMGOTchvWk0lNv4LLG4K4GiCjw85ArKnyEhuyEftWsHXaloJmu0-n1N-Bpn/s320/Ragnar.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a>

Kirkland does the Ragnar Relay

Posted by Katya Rogers, Software Engineer Go back in time with me to last Friday morning. It's 4:30 a.m. I am standing in a parking lot,...

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Google Apps goes global

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sanjay Raman, Google Apps Product Manager</span><br /><br />Our mission is to "organize the <span style="font-weight: bold;">world's information</span> and make it <span style="font-weight: bold;">universally accessible</span> and useful." Note that twice in this eleven-word mission statement, we mention that this is a global effort, not just a problem we're solving only for English-speaking users in the U.S. That global focus is critical, because fully 65% of Internet users around the world speak a language other than English. In fact, the Internet's top 10 languages still only account for around 85% of users -- and the remaining 15% represents almost 200 million people.<br /><br />As part of our broader effort to make Google accessible to more people in their native languages, we're announcing a number of updates for <a href="http://www.google.com/a" title="Google Apps">Google Apps</a>, our customizable package of hosted communication and collaboration <a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/user_features.html" title="applications">applications</a> for businesses, schools, and other organizations. Several features and components previously available only to English users and administrators of Google Apps are now available in other languages, too. Here's a quick rundown of what's new for non-English speakers:<br /><ul><li> Google Apps <a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions_spe.html" title="Premier Edition">Premier Edition</a> for companies and organizations needing an uptime guarantee for email service, 10 gigabytes of email storage per user, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/apps/" title="integration APIs">integration APIs</a> and multi-lingual telephone support for critical issues (support experts are available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch). Also, for a limited time, you can try Premier Edition for free for 30 days.<br /></li><li> Google Apps <a href="http://www.google.com/a/partners/" title="Partner Edition">Partner Edition</a> for ISPs and portals that want to offer Gmail and other applications to their subscribers.<br /></li><li> Google <a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/dands.html" title="Docs & Spreadsheets">Docs & Spreadsheets</a>, which lets Google Apps users create and collaborate in real time, right from their browsers. </li><li> The <a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/start_page.html" title="Start Page">Start Page</a>, a central place for Google Apps users to preview their inboxes, calendars and documents, access their organizations' essential content, and search the web. </li><li> A more user-friendly <a href="http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/control_panel.html" title="control panel">control panel</a> interface for Google Apps administrators. </li><li> <a href="http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=61369" title="Mail migration tools">Mail migration tools</a> for administrators who want to switch from a different email system (available with Premier and Education Editions only). </li></ul>Not only are we adding these features to the languages Google Apps already supports; we're also rolling Google Apps out in six more languages. Here's the full list: <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=fr" title="French">French</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=it" title="Italian">Italian</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=de" title="German">German</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=es" title="Spanish">Spanish</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=nl" title="Dutch">Dutch</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=sv" title="Swedish">Swedish</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=no" title="Norwegian">Norwegian</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=da" title="Danish">Danish</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=fi" title="Finnish">Finnish</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=tr" title="Turkish">Turkish</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=pl" title="Polish">Polish</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=uk" title="Ukrainian">Ukrainian</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=cs" title="Czech">Czech</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=ru" title="Russian">Russian</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=zh_CN" title="Chinese (Simplified)">Chinese (Simplified)</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=zh_TW" title="Chinese (Traditional)">Chinese (Traditional)</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=ja" title="Japanese">Japanese</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=ko" title="Korean">Korean</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=pt_BR" title="Brazilian Portuguese">Brazilian Portuguese</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=th" title="Thai">Thai</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=vi" title="Vietnamese">Vietnamese</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=ar" title="Arabic">Arabic</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=iw" title="Hebrew">Hebrew</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=id" title="Indonesian">Indonesian</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=hu" title="Hungarian">Hungarian</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=en_GB" title="UK English">UK English</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/a/?hl=en" title="US English">US English</a>.

Google Apps goes global

Posted by Sanjay Raman, Google Apps Product Manager Our mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally ac...

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Google Finance in Canada - for real

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Dion Loy, Google Finance Engineer</span><br /><br />Though it was noted a bit earlier, now we're really pleased to introduce <a href="http://finance.google.ca/finance" target="_blank">Google Finance Canada</a>, a localized version of Google Finance tailored specifically, as you might guess, for Canadian investors. Canadians are the second largest group of Google Finance users, and as a Canadian myself, I'm excited to see Canadian financial information presented in the familiar easy to use Google Finance format. This new edition includes:<br /><ul><li>Top financial news from Canadian sources<span class="q"><span style="color: rgb(85, 0, 85);"> </span></span> </li><li>Search with a preference for Canadian companies </li><li>Front-page high level economic data from the Bank of Canada </li><li>Portfolios in Canadian currency (or the currency of your choice) </li><li>Equity data from the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, and Canadian mutual funds </li></ul> <p>In addition, stock quotes and charts for Canadian-listed companies are now available through the <a href="http://www.google.com/">Google.com</a> web search.</p>

Google Finance in Canada - for real

Posted by Dion Loy, Google Finance Engineer Though it was noted a bit earlier, now we're really pleased to introduce Google Finance Cana...

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Now there's Google Finance for Canada-update

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Dion Loy, Google Finance engineer</span><br /><br />Oops. We hit the button too soon. Watch for news about Google Finance in Canada next Tuesday.

Now there's Google Finance for Canada-update

Posted by Dion Loy, Google Finance engineer Oops. We hit the button too soon. Watch for news about Google Finance in Canada next Tuesday.

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Robots Exclusion Protocol: now with even more flexibility

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Dan Crow, Product Manager</span><br /><br />This is the third and last in my series of blog posts about the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP). In the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/controlling-how-search-engines-access.html">first post</a>, I introduced <span style="font-family:Courier New;">robots.txt</span> and the robots <span style="font-family:Courier New;">META</span> tags, giving an overview of when to use them. In the <a title="second post" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/robots-exclusion-protocol.html">second post</a>, I shared some examples of what you can do with the REP. Today, I'll introduce two new features that we have recently added to the protocol.<br /><br />As a product manager, I'm always talking to content providers to learn about your needs for REP. We are constantly looking for ways to improve the control you have over how your content is indexed. These new features will give you flexible and convenient ways to improve the detailed control you have with Google.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tell us if a page is going to expire</span><br />Sometimes you know in advance that a page is going to expire in the future. Maybe you have a temporary page that will be removed at the end of the month. Perhaps some pages are available free for a week, but after that you put them into an archive that users pay to access. In these cases, you want the page to show in Google search results until it expires, then have it removed: you don't want users getting frustrated when they find a page in the results but can't access it on your site.<br /><br />We have introduced a new <span style="font-family:Courier New;">META</span> tag that allows you to tell us when a page should be removed from the main Google web search results: the aptly named <span style="font-family:Courier New;">unavailable_after</span> tag. This one follows a similar syntax to other REP <span style="font-family:Courier New;">META</span> tags. For example, to specify that an HTML page should be removed from the search results after 3pm Eastern Standard Time on 25th August 2007, simply add the following tag to the first <span style="font-family:Courier New;"></span> section of the page:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"><META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="unavailable_after: 25-Aug-2007 15:00:00 EST"></span><br /><br />The date and time is specified in the <a title="RFC 850 format" href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0850.txt">RFC 850 format</a>.<br /><br />This information is treated as a removal request: it will take about a day after the removal date passes for the page to disappear from the search results. We currently only support <span style="font-family:Courier New;">unavailable_after</span> for Google web search results.<br /><br />After the removal, the page stops showing in Google search results but it is not removed from our system. If you need a page to be excised from our systems completely, including any internal copies we might have, you should use the existing URL removal tool which you can read about on our <a title="Webmaster Central blog" href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/04/requesting-removal-of-content-from-our.html">Webmaster Central blog</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Meta tags everywhere</span><br />The REP <span style="font-family:Courier New;">META</span> tags give you useful control over how each webpage on your site is indexed. But it only works for HTML pages. How can you control access to other types of documents, such as Adobe PDF files, video and audio files and other types? Well, now the same flexibility for specifying per-URL tags is available for all other files type.<br /><br />We've extended our support for <span style="font-family:Courier New;">META</span> tags so they can now be associated with any file. Simply add any supported <span style="font-family:Courier New;">META</span> tag to a new <span style="font-family:Courier New;">X-Robots-Tag</span> directive in the <a title="HTTP Header" href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html">HTTP Header</a> used to serve the file. Here are some illustrative examples:<br /><ul><li>Don't display a cache link or snippet for this item in the Google search results:<br /></li></ul> <div align="left"><span style="font-family:Courier New;">X-Robots-Tag: noarchive, nosnippet</span><br /></div> <ul><li>Don't include this document in the Google search results:<br /></li></ul><span style="font-family:Courier New;">X-Robots-Tag: noindex</span><br /><ul><li>Tell us that a document will be unavailable after 7th July 2007, 4:30pm GMT:</li></ul><span style="font-family:Courier New;">X-Robots-Tag: unavailable_after: 7 Jul 2007 16:30:00 GMT </span><br /><br />You can combine multiple directives in the same document. For example:<br /><ul><li>Do not show a cached link for this document, and remove it from the index after 23rd July 2007, 3pm PST: </li></ul><span style="font-family:Courier New;">X-Robots-Tag: noarchive<br />X-Robots-Tag: unavailable_after: 23 Jul 2007 15:00:00 PST</span><br /><br />Our goal for these features is to provide more flexibility for indexing and inclusion in Google's search results. We hope you enjoy using them.

Robots Exclusion Protocol: now with even more flexibility

Posted by Dan Crow, Product Manager This is the third and last in my series of blog posts about the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP). In the ...

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Computer science resources for academics

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Dan Peterson, Product Manager</span><br /><br />Google has a long history of involvement with universities, and we're excited to share some recent news on that front with you. At the main Google campus this week we're hosting the <a href="http://www.google.com/events/facultysummit2007/agenda.html">Google Faculty Summit</a>, which involves <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/">universities</a> <a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/">all</a> <a href="http://www.mit.edu/">over</a> participating in discussions about what we're up to in research-land as well as computer science education - something very near and dear to us.<br /><br />Meanwhile, because we know that between teaching, doing research and advising students, computer science educators are quite strapped for time, we've recently launched a site called <a href="http://code.google.com/edu/">Google Code for Educators</a>. While you may have previously heard about our <a href="http://www.google.com/educators/index.html">offerings for K-12 teachers</a>, this new program is focused on CS topics at the university level, and lets us share the knowledge we've built up around things like distributed systems and AJAX programming. It's designed for university faculty to learn about new computer science topics and include them in their courses, as well as to help curious students learn on their own.<br /><br />Right now, Google Code for Educators offers materials for AJAX web programming, distributed systems and parallel programming, and web security. The site includes slides, programming labs, problem sets, background tutorials and videos. We're eager to provide more content areas and also more iterations for existing topic areas. To allow for liberal reuse and remixing, most sample course content on Code EDU is available under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons</a> license. Please let us know <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Code-for-Educators">your thoughts</a> on this new site.<br /><br />Beyond CS education, another important faculty topic is research. <a href="http://research.google.com/">Google Research</a> offers resources to CS researchers,including papers authored by Googlers and a wide variety of our tech talks. You might be interested in learning more about <a href="http://labs.google.com/papers/mapreduce.html">MapReduce</a> and the <a href="http://labs.google.com/papers/gfs.html">Google File System</a>, two pieces of Google-grown technology that have allowed us to operate at enormous scale. We also recently put together a few university research programs and we're eager to see what academics come up with.

Computer science resources for academics

Posted by Dan Peterson, Product Manager Google has a long history of involvement with universities, and we're excited to share some rece...

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