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The view from the Sky

Posted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride">Sally Ride</a>, Ph.D., former astronaut It's true: astronauts have a great view! When I was <a href="http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/ride.html">orbiting Earth in the space shuttle</a>, I had the unbelievable experience of being able to float over to a window and look back down at our planet, then off into space at the stars. Absolutely spectacular! These days my feet are closer to the ground, and my mission doesn't involve circling the Earth. I run a science education company, <a href="http://www.sallyridescience.com/">Sally Ride Science</a>, that creates entertaining science materials for elementary and middle school students and classrooms, so I'm always looking for cool tools that can engage kids and help them learn more about our world. <a href="http://earth.google.com/sky">Sky in Google Earth </a>is great, and we plan on using it in some of our programs. (Read more on the <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/08/sky-final-frontier.html">Google Lat Long blog</a>.) As you can probably tell from the video I did on Sky with a Google engineer, I always loved astronomy. I even put together (OK, with the help of some folks at Sally Ride Science and Google) a special KML showcase of some of my favorite extra-solar places -- nebulae where stars are born, remnants of exploding stars, and even a bunch of stars that have ... planets orbiting around them! (No, scientists haven't found any like Earth yet.) If you know any kids or teachers who like astronomy, send them to Sky (the <a href="http://earth.google.com/sky/skyedu">resource page</a> is a good start) -- and tell them to check out the Sally Ride Science KML feature.

The view from the Sky

Posted by Sally Ride , Ph.D., former astronaut It's true: astronauts have a great view! When I was orbiting Earth in the space shuttle ,...

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An update on Google Video feedback

Posted by Bindu Reddy, Google Video Product Manager When your friends and well-intentioned acquaintances tell you that you've made a mistake, it's good to listen. So we'd like to say thank you to everyone who wrote to let us know that we had made a mistake in the case of Google Video's Download to Own/Rent Refund Policy vs. Common Sense. To recap: we decided to end the Google Video download to own/rent (DTO/DTR) program, and are now refocusing our Google Video engineering efforts. The week before last, we wrote to Google Video DTO/DTR program customers to let them know that videos they'd already bought would no longer be playable. We planned to give these users a full refund or more. And because we weren't sure if we had all the correct addresses, latest credit card information, and other billing challenges, we thought offering the refund in the form of Google Checkout credits would entail fewer steps and offer a better user experience. We should have anticipated that some users would see a Checkout credit as nothing more than an extra step of a different (and annoyingly self-serving) kind. Our bad. Here's how we're hoping to fix things: <ul><li>We're giving a full refund -- as a credit card refund -- to everyone who ever bought a video. We'll need you to make sure we have your most recent credit card information, but once we know where to send the money, you'll get it.</li></ul><ul><li>You can still keep the Google Checkout credit that you've received already. Think of it as an additional 'we're sorry we goofed' credit. </li></ul><ul><li>We're going to continue to support playing your videos for another six months. We won't be offering the ability to buy additional videos, but what you've already downloaded will remain playable on your computer. </li></ul> We take pride in moving quickly, and we think this philosophy helps to create lots of new and innovative products. But it also leads to errors that -- upon reflection and your feedback -- we need to rectify. This was one of them. We make mistakes; we do our best not to repeat them -- and we really do try to fix the ones we make. That said, the very least that our users should expect from us is that our mistakes be new and innovative, too. ;) We appreciate your responses, and hope our actions convey just how seriously we take everyone's feedback.

An update on Google Video feedback

Posted by Bindu Reddy, Google Video Product Manager When your friends and well-intentioned acquaintances tell you that you've made a mis...

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Google Labs India

Posted by M T Raghunath and Gokul Nath Babu Manoharan, Software Engineers Keeping up with the spirit and celebrations of India's 60th year of Independence, we present to you a new platform that showcases our favourite ideas for Indian users: <a href="http://labs.google.co.in/" target="_blank" title="http://labs.google.co.in/">Google India Labs</a>. Enthusiastic bloggers noted our initial announcement on 15th August; now here's the full story. Though 60 years young, India has a history dating back to the dawn of civilization. The incredible diversity of this great nation is the kind of challenge Google loves. And in line with our mission of making information universally accessible, we're now offering an easier way to search in 14 Indian and South Asian languages. You don't need a special keyboard or software; all you need is a web browser, a mouse, and a Unicode font for your language. So whether you speak অসমীয়া (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/assamese_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/assamese_keyboard.xml">Assamese</a>), বাংলা (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/bengali_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/bengali_keyboard.xml">Bengali</a>), ગુજરાતી (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/gujarati_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/gujarati_keyboard.xml">Gujarati</a>), हिंदी (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/hindi_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/hindi_keyboard.xml">Hindi</a>), ಕನ್ನಡ (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/kannada_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/kannada_keyboard.xml">Kannada</a>), മലയാളം (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/malayalam_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/malayalam_keyboard.xml">Malayalam</a>), मराठी (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/marathi_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/marathi_keyboard.xml">Marathi</a>), नेपाली (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/nepali_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/nepali_keyboard.xml">Nepali</a>), ଓଡ଼ିଆ (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/oriya_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/oriya_keyboard.xml">Oriya</a>), ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/punjabi_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/punjabi_keyboard.xml">Punjabi</a>), संस्कृतम् (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/sanskrit_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/sanskrit_keyboard.xml">Sanskrit</a>), සිංහල (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/sinhala_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/sinhala_keyboard.xml">Sinhala</a>), தமிழ் (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/tamil_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/tamil_keyboard.xml">Tamil</a>), or తెలుగు (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/telugu_keyboard.xml" title="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/telugu_keyboard.xml">Telugu</a>), we can help you find content on the web in your language. To get started, add one or more of these <a href="http://labs.google.co.in/indic.html" target="_blank" title="http://labs.google.co.in/indic.html">iGoogle gadgets</a> to your personalized iGoogle home page. You can use these gadgets to compose queries, and ask Google to search the vast Internet in your very own language. <div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33FcrggjfN2H7z9-B1R51HbWe3h_nPCSiUIAcbhJx-A1antUAqIqMXHCd2u34OfI9pXgSpvmySLAbPpb4Tql5rni5XWHfpNWXXnZUrKa1ZhDANQ617EBfLUoUjMNK-JVBZ1b8JP0aWydZ/s1600-h/INDIA_languages.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5099693467938359378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33FcrggjfN2H7z9-B1R51HbWe3h_nPCSiUIAcbhJx-A1antUAqIqMXHCd2u34OfI9pXgSpvmySLAbPpb4Tql5rni5XWHfpNWXXnZUrKa1ZhDANQ617EBfLUoUjMNK-JVBZ1b8JP0aWydZ/s320/INDIA_languages.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;">If you're interested in writing in Hindi, we have brought out the transliteration feature from <a href="http://www.blogger.com/hindi" target="_blank" title="http://www.blogger.com/hindi">Blogger </a>into an independent product of its own: <a href="http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/transliterate/indic/">Google Indic Transliteration</a>. This tool will let you type in Hindi, using an English keyboard. Type out words phonetically, and let Google convert them into the correct Hindi word. For example, type "Bharat" to see "भारत". You'll soon discover that our sophisticated transliteration technology makes it<a href="http://big.corp.google.com/%7Eanupama/wahwah/transliteration-729266.bmp" title="http://big.corp.google.com/~anupama/wahwah/transliteration-729266.bmp"> </a>really easy to compose in Hindi. Our algorithm might get the occasional word wrong, but it is always willing to learn. You can teach it by clicking on the wrong word and correcting it. This is also available as an <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=en&url=indic_transliteration.xml" id="ki:6" title="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=en&url=indic_transliteration.xml iGoogle Gadget">iGoogle Gadget</a>. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYygRGmyP6OJbUNZTtXhdpPU-TSHJhmOj9nuId1pZI4IhTdb8K870Q6vzOKF14WhWHrZ1kiajcjycuReWTFNxiWVdQ_jSSH-ZdQZ4KnAsQslfDPVbkkE0SfiYIMFVn4km7UBaAVRwAPbB/s1600-h/INDIA-snippet.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5099694674824169570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiYygRGmyP6OJbUNZTtXhdpPU-TSHJhmOj9nuId1pZI4IhTdb8K870Q6vzOKF14WhWHrZ1kiajcjycuReWTFNxiWVdQ_jSSH-ZdQZ4KnAsQslfDPVbkkE0SfiYIMFVn4km7UBaAVRwAPbB/s320/INDIA-snippet.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a> </div> We've really enjoyed bringing these products to you, and we're <a href="mailto:indialabs@google.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:indialabs@google.com">eager to hear from you</a>. There is a new <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/google-india-labs/" target="_blank" title="http://groups.google.com/group/google-india-labs/">user community</a> for discussion around our new technologies, and we'll keep adding new things to our Labs page, so please visit us often.

Google Labs India

Posted by M T Raghunath and Gokul Nath Babu Manoharan, Software Engineers Keeping up with the spirit and celebrations of India's 60th ye...

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Namaste India!

Namaste India!

Posted by M T Raghunath and Gokul Nath Babu Manoharan, Software Engineers Happy 60th birthday, India! We can't wait to celebrate, but we...

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Online ad-serving tests

Posted by Alex Kinnier, Group Product Manager We're always experimenting and testing ways to deliver relevant and new kinds of ads, and as part of that, we recently started running a test of an ad serving technology that will help us understand online ad serving better, and allow us to experiment with some new approaches to privacy for third-party ad servers. The privacy features we'll test in these experiments follow some recently-announced policies, such as a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/cookies-expiring-sooner-to-improve.html" id="h-8r">shorter expiration date for the cookie</a> set on your computer and <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-long-should-google-remember.html">anonymization of the logs data after 18 months</a>. In our ad-serving tests, we're introducing an <a href="http://www.google.com/ads/gcc_privacy.html">opt-out mechanism</a> so people can opt out of the test ad-serving cookie if they wish. In addition, we’re going to experiment with ways the industry could provide improved transparency for consumers and providing users with additional controls over the data gathered by ad servers. Some of the ideas we're exploring include: <ul><li>using "crumbled" cookies, so that the data typically associated with one unique identifying number or "cookie ID" will be broken up among multiple different cookies and diffuse the ad history of individual users; </li></ul><ul><li>providing better forms of notice within ads, to help users understand who is serving the ads they see, and what data is being collected; and</li></ul><ul><li>giving users the ability to provide feedback to us about the ads they like and don't like. </li></ul>Like all experiments, these ideas may or may not work out. And they won't be effective unless the industry adopts them -- we are not likely to implement these ideas alone. But we are excited to start innovating in this area for our advertising customers and for our users. We welcome your <a href="mailto:testadserving@google.com">feedback.</a>

Online ad-serving tests

Posted by Alex Kinnier, Group Product Manager We're always experimenting and testing ways to deliver relevant and new kinds of ads, and ...

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A simple way to get more storage

Posted by Ryan Aquino, Software QA Engineer Lead, Picasa Web Albums As someone who tests Google products daily, I know that the simplest solution is often the one that works best. In the case of online storage, whether it's a picture, a video or an email, you should just, well, be able to store it without having to worry about whether you've got enough space in each particular product. That's why the Picasa team is pleased to tell you that in a few hours we'll be rolling out extra storage that you can purchase to use across several Google products (today, Picasa Web Albums and Gmail; soon, other applications like Google Docs & Spreadsheets). That will help make storage really useful, like letting you upload lots of full resolution images to Picasa Web Albums. When you reach the limit of free storage (i.e., 1GB for Picasa Web Albums, 2.8GB for Gmail), consider this your overflow solution. Plans start at $20/year for 6GB (yes, $5 cheaper than before), with larger plans ranging up to 250GB. If only testing everything were this easy. We'll update this post as soon as we're ready to take your order. Update: And we're live! To buy more storage, <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageStorage" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" target="_blank" title="Manage Storage">go here.</a>

A simple way to get more storage

Posted by Ryan Aquino, Software QA Engineer Lead, Picasa Web Albums As someone who tests Google products daily, I know that the simplest sol...

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Finding fresh results

Posted by Peeyush Ranjan, Engineering Manager and Hong Zhang, Software Engineer We work hard to keep our search results as fresh as possible so that they reflect the most up to date content on the web. However, given the immense medium the Internet is, it's hard to find all those pages that have just come into existence and make them available when people come looking for the latest information on new topics, whether it's a highly anticipated cell phone launch, news about a popular celebrity or the latest political maneuvers. What makes providing the latest information harder is the small amount of time we have between the page creation and when we'd like to serve those results to you. Despite these challenges, one thing should not be hard: finding the freshest results on the page. To make it easier for you to spot the newer pages among the search results, we are now going to tell you how long ago we've seen a page containing what we think you're looking for. For example, if on August 6th you were searching on Google.com for latest financial information following the Friday financial sector action, here's how that result would have looked in the past: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAlQEd4xA8EcbQli9-SiCYG3cExJLz8Gs9zRZ_cUuLFkPz5iLHWvrCfSJjukUg6beT4N23KyLuR500Z1IaYDRJRVCPPuH-yRC1ZGrFGBAYEve30BXzK3mrRFERXvSgD66LVgr7hY1hTi2l/s1600-h/Fresh+result-old.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095987548777549410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAlQEd4xA8EcbQli9-SiCYG3cExJLz8Gs9zRZ_cUuLFkPz5iLHWvrCfSJjukUg6beT4N23KyLuR500Z1IaYDRJRVCPPuH-yRC1ZGrFGBAYEve30BXzK3mrRFERXvSgD66LVgr7hY1hTi2l/s320/Fresh+result-old.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a> From this you could only see that we crawled this page at a day level granularity. But now when you do this search you will also be able to tell how long ago we noticed this page, so you can quickly pinpoint which of these is results is likely to contain more recent information. Here's the same example showing the annotation that tells you there's something new in the results we've seen recently. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTwOwq2FdZPV-swYdew9E-Wa8rVt0K3PkJ9vG9PY6Itci3A1GRtklv6g0CXL1XNFj2easwZ1PGp0WXieQlm138u48Pn5uE6VMk9lIpWB_YF6kOgb1xhS8S0-DLf-ybkgdrsT0uV-6oj6u/s1600-h/fresh+result-new.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095988197317611138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTwOwq2FdZPV-swYdew9E-Wa8rVt0K3PkJ9vG9PY6Itci3A1GRtklv6g0CXL1XNFj2easwZ1PGp0WXieQlm138u48Pn5uE6VMk9lIpWB_YF6kOgb1xhS8S0-DLf-ybkgdrsT0uV-6oj6u/s320/fresh+result-new.jpg" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a> So if you're looking for the most recent content on the web, this change should make it easier to find. And if you're a webmaster looking to tell us about all the new content on your site we haven't looked at yet, check out our support for <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/11/joint-support-for-sitemap-protocol.html">sitemaps</a>.

Finding fresh results

Posted by Peeyush Ranjan, Engineering Manager and Hong Zhang, Software Engineer We work hard to keep our search results as fresh as possible...

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