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With a little help from your friends

Posted by Cristin Frodella, Product Manager, Education Initiatives Ever feel like your first idea isn't always your best idea, or that brainstorming with a friend really helps to inspire you? Similarly, when you're writing an essay or a short story, why would your first draft be the best one -- wouldn't you always want to take advantage of input from your pals? Revision writing is a critical piece of the writing process, and more and more, teachers are using the concept of working with a "writing buddy" to help make writing more fun and collaborative, and to teach students the importance of having support throughout the creative process. <a href="http://www.google.com/educators" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/educators">Google for Educators</a> and the talented writers at <a href="http://www.weeklyreader.com/" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank" title="http://www.weeklyreader.com">Weekly Reader</a> have buddied up on a lesson about revision writing, having worked with teachers all over the country to come up with tips and checklists for incorporating buddy writing in the classroom. Our online word processing tool, <a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a>, helps students create their first drafts, brainstorm with and inspire their peers, all while keeping track of each and every comma change, word replacement and new stroke of genius along the way. Come <a href="http://www.google.com/educators/weeklyreader.html">check out the lesson</a>, grab a few hints on using Google Docs and introduce your kids to buddy writing. We suspect their collaborations will get your creative juices flowing, too.

With a little help from your friends

Posted by Cristin Frodella, Product Manager, Education Initiatives Ever feel like your first idea isn't always your best idea, or that b...

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The road to better path-finding

Posted by Barry Brumitt, Software Engineer Way back at the end of 2005, Google Maps' driving directions were on par with other sites, providing basic driving directions in a few seconds. But the nature of the existing system made it nigh impossible to make it faster, add new features, or improve the quality of the routes. And better directions can yield tangible real-world benefits by saving people time and fuel, alleviating frustration, and making travel more pleasant. For all these reasons, it made sense to take a fresh look at the problem and to try to reinvent things such that we could provide a service markedly superior to the status quo. It's important to us to solve big problems. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijkstra%27s_algorithm" id="mnbi" title="automatically finding good routes">Automatically finding routes</a> quickly is a hard problem -- especially at a global scale (there are several hundred million road segments worldwide). Even if a routing program is needed to only look at 10% of the map and only examine each segment for a microsecond, it would take tens of seconds to compute a path. Route-finding has to be done automatically because it would be impossibly time-consuming to compute the best routes between all pairs of locations by hand. Fortunately, we have the tools, technologies, and expertise that make it easier to tackle such hard problems and to build systems for searching large data sets quickly. A small group of engineers (of which I was a part) created the Google Maps route-finding project in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=kirkland,+WA&ie=UTF8&z=13&iwloc=addr&om=1" id="y:4i" title="Kirkland, WA">Kirkland, WA</a> with the hope of building a world-class system for route-finding. This is the first project I've worked on at Google, and it has given me the opportunity to learn all about the infrastructure we have to build and launch products and features. We started with the geographic data sets already in use by other groups at Google. Then we designed, built, tested, and deployed a complete route-finding solution in under 12 months. Commutes across the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=from:+23rd+%26+Union,+Seattle,+WA+to:+720+4th+Ave,+Kirkland,+WA&sll=47.678334,-122.195177&sspn=0.025225,0.042572&ie=UTF8&z=13&om=1">520 Bridge from Seattle</a> became a favorite test query. As someone with a background in path planning and robotics, it's been great to work on a problem with such substantial theoretical and practical aspects. It took 10 months of hard work, thousands of <a href="http://research.google.com/archive/mapreduce.html">MapReduce</a> passes, and an uncountable number of lattes to complete. And 'complete' doesn't really capture it. Our new route-finding system is hundreds of times faster: it can find and describe a <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=15854922615829077343,54.943430,-162.533090&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=Alaska+Marine+Hwy%2FCold+Bay-False+Pass+Fry+%4054.943430,+-162.533090&daddr=24.546967,-81.802654&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=14&sll=24.545093,-81.798363&sspn=0.065661,0.085144&ie=UTF8&ll=48.341646,-122.871094&spn=96.207841,174.375&z=3&om=1">cross-continental shortest path</a> in well under a second. Shorter paths can be found proportionately faster. As evidenced by our '<a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/06/its-click-drag-situation.html">draggable directions</a>' launch earlier this year, this kind of performance fundamentally changes your Maps experience. It's now possible for you to change your route by simply dragging it or its endpoints. (<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=9791209313822906849,47.589300,-122.257610&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=47.613223,-122.302208&daddr=I-90+E+%4047.589300,+-122.257610+to:720+4th+Ave,+Kirkland,+WA&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=13&sll=47.603732,-122.250538&sspn=0.101044,0.170288&ie=UTF8&z=13&om=1">Here's an example</a> of the above route adjusted to use I-90 instead of WA-520.) No other planning service provides this feature, and it would have been impossible to ship without the massive speedup provided by the system we created. In the last few months, we've also added other features, like '<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=1755982661155317002,47.612970,-122.302710&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=23rd+Ave+%4047.612970,+-122.302710&daddr=720+4th+Ave,+Kirkland,+WA&mra=cc&dirflg=h&sll=47.603732,-122.250538&sspn=0.101044,0.170288&ie=UTF8&ll=47.675097,-122.24556&spn=0.201812,0.340576&z=12&om=1">avoid highways</a>' and '<a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-long-will-it-take-at-rush-hour.html">estimated time-in-traffic</a>.' Plus, we now cover about 50 countries worldwide. We've raised the bar for what a route-finding system can and should provide. We're pleased with what we've built, and you can expect further improvements in the coming months. Just recently, the Google Maps route-finding team moved to our new <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=fremont,+wa&ie=UTF8&ll=47.657815,-122.351689&spn=0.02431,0.042572&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=1">Fremont</a> Engineering office. I'm happy to report we don't have to <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=1755982661155317002,47.612970,-122.302710%3B16925305443141195884,47.649580,-122.349740&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=23rd+Ave+%4047.612970,+-122.302710&daddr=47.648954,-122.350488&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=17&dirflg=h&sll=47.648361,-122.350552&sspn=0.00631,0.010643&ie=UTF8&ll=47.634627,-122.325211&spn=0.050492,0.085144&z=14&om=1">commute</a> across Lake Washington at all anymore. In fact, nearly half the team cycles in every day! And <a href="http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=why-wa.html">we're always looking</a> for great people, so if any of this sounds like the kind of challenge you'd be up for, we'd love to hear from you.

The road to better path-finding

Posted by Barry Brumitt, Software Engineer Way back at the end of 2005, Google Maps' driving directions were on par with other sites, pr...

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Bloggers blog, readers donate, students benefit, tomatoes dance

Posted by Josh Mendelsohn, Program Manager Back in early October <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/got-blog-help-student.html">we announced</a> our support for the Blogger Challenge put on by <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/" id="peke">DonorsChoose.org</a>. Now that October has come to a close, it's time to recognize what DonorsChoose, 100+ bloggers and their readers have accomplished: they've raised $420,000 for classroom projects, which will benefit more than 75,000 students in low-income communities. We promised a nod to those who helped raise the most money for students, so without further ado, here are the Blogger Challenge categories and winning blogs: <ul><li>Lit Liberation: <a href="http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/10/04/karmic-capitalist-should-i-wait-until-im-rich-to-give/" id="uczo">Tim Ferriss</a></li><li>Technology: <a href="http://www.avc.blogs.com/" id="jhyf">Fred Wilson</a></li><li>General: <a href="http://www.tomatonation.com/" id="vw8j">Sarah Bunting</a></li><li>Topical/Local: <a href="http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/" id="z4hk">Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan</a> </li><li>Science: <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/" id="s8ze">PZ Myers</a> </li></ul>We extend our gratitude and congratulations to these winners and all of the participating bloggers for making this a success. Of course, we all owe thanks to their readers for supporting students. Sarah Bunting of Tomato Nation took this to heart and thanked her readers in her own (tomato) way -- enjoy! <object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/c7QbpRaLwnw&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/c7QbpRaLwnw&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>

Bloggers blog, readers donate, students benefit, tomatoes dance

Posted by Josh Mendelsohn, Program Manager Back in early October we announced our support for the Blogger Challenge put on by DonorsChoose....

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Where's my Gphone?

Posted by Andy Rubin, Director of Mobile Platforms Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we're not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing -- the <a href="http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/android_overview.html">Open Handset Alliance</a> and Android -- is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYozIZOgDk">Android</a> is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications -- all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation. We have developed Android in cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance, which consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile. Through deep partnerships with carriers, device manufacturers, developers, and others, we hope to enable an open ecosystem for the mobile world by creating a standard, open mobile software platform. We think the result will ultimately be a better and faster pace for innovation that will give mobile customers unforeseen applications and capabilities. We see Android as an important part of our strategy of furthering Google's goal of providing access to information to users wherever they are. We recognize that many among the <a href="http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/putting_27_bill.html">multitude of mobile users</a> around the world do not and may never have an Android-based phone. Our goals must be independent of device or even platform. For this reason, Android will complement, but not replace, our longstanding mobile strategy of developing useful and compelling mobile services and driving adoption of these products through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world. It's important to recognize that the Open Handset Alliance and Android have the potential to be major changes from the status quo -- one which will take patience and much investment by the various players before you'll see the first benefits. But we feel the potential gains for mobile customers around the world are worth the effort. If you’re a developer and this approach sounds exciting, give us a week or so and <a href="http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/developers.html">we’ll have an SDK available</a>. If you’re a mobile user, you’ll have to wait a little longer, but some of our partners are targeting the second half of 2008 to ship phones based on the Android platform. And if you already have a phone you know and love, check out mobile.google.com and make sure you have Google Maps for mobile, Gmail and our other great applications on your phone. We'll continue to make these services better and add plenty of exciting new features, applications and services, too. What would your phone do? <object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jWtFeIw8MVM&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jWtFeIw8MVM&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>

Where's my Gphone?

Posted by Andy Rubin, Director of Mobile Platforms Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we're not a...

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OpenSocial makes the web better

Posted by Joe Kraus, Director of Product Management As the web goes, so goes Google, and that's why we care about making the web better. Five months ago, <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/gears_20070530.html" id="d4zo" title="we launched Google Gears">we launched Google Gears</a> to make the web better by making it work offline. Now, we want to make the web better by making it more social. A tremendous amount of activity is occurring on social networks these days. Hundreds of millions of people share photos, rate movies, and throw virtual sheep at one another. All these social networks are looking to give their communities more and more things to do -- and they realize they can't do it on their own. They need to open up and become platforms for developers to extend. So, many social networks have looked at, or launched, their own APIs that typically do the same kinds of things: give access to user profiles and friend networks, and allow an application to post activities so that everyone's circle of friends knows what the others are doing. All of this has been good news, because developers could get their applications onto a social network. But there's a problem: it wasn't one or two social networks doing this, but ten or fifteen. Now, to get on all the social networks a developer has had to customize their application for each one. When your "development team" is just one or two people, the proliferation of APIs forces you to make tough choices, because you can't do that much one-off work. Not only is this situation bad for developers, it's bad for consumers too: When developers can't afford to do the work to make their applications work on a certain social network, the people using those networks lose out. That's why today we're excited to introduce <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial">OpenSocial</a>, a set of common APIs that make it easy to create and host social applications on the web. OpenSocial allows developers to write an application once that will run anywhere that supports the OpenSocial APIs. It's good for developers because it makes it easier for them to focus on making their web apps better; they get lots of distribution with a lot less work. It's good for websites, because they can tap into the creativity of the largest possible developer community (and no longer have to compete with one another for developer attention). And finally, it's good for users, because they get more applications in more places. Global members of the OpenSocial community include <a href="http://www.myspace.com/" id="cgm8" title="MySpace">MySpace</a>, <a href="http://www.engage.com/e/home.htm" id="gw3_" title="Engage.com">Engage.com</a>, <a href="http://www.friendster.com/" id="h4nm" title="Friendster">Friendster</a>, <a href="http://www.hi5.com/" id="tibr" title="hi5">hi5</a>, <a href="http://www.hyves.net/" id="hs9w" title="Hyves">Hyves</a>, <a href="http://www.imeem.com/" id="npgx" title="imeem">imeem</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/" id="uhyg" title="LinkedIn">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="http://www.ning.com/" id="lh01" title="Ning">Ning</a>, <a href="http://www.oracle.com/index.html" id="glfc" title="Oracle">Oracle</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=orkut&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.orkut.com%2FRedirLogin.aspx%3Fmsg%3D0%26page%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.orkut.com%252F&hl=en-US&rm=false&passive=true" id="l_r5" title="orkut,">orkut,</a> <a href="http://www.plaxo.com/info" id="tq3a" title="Plaxo">Plaxo</a>, <a href="http://www.salesforce.com/" id="yw13" title="Salesforce.com">Salesforce.com</a>, <a href="http://www.sixapart.com/" id="tu4y" title="Six Apart">Six Apart</a>, <a href="http://www.tianji.com/index.html" id="igv." title="Tianji">Tianji</a>, <a href="http://www.viadeo.com/en/connexion/" id="y94f" title="Viadeo">Viadeo</a>, and <a href="http://www.xing.com/" id="odbv" title="XING">XING</a>. We were thrilled to see <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/partners.html">so many partners turn out</a> for our very first CampFire One event, a small gathering of developers at the Googleplex. They do the best job of explaining why they support this vision of an open, programmable web. And so in the spirit of being social, we want to share the video from tonight's event. <object height="366" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9KOEbAZJTTk&rel=1&border=0"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9KOEbAZJTTk&rel=1&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="366" width="425"></embed></object>

OpenSocial makes the web better

Posted by Joe Kraus, Director of Product Management As the web goes, so goes Google, and that's why we care about making the web better....

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By the pricking of our thumbs...

Posted by David Griswold, Google Blog Team ... something Googley this way comes. <center><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fgblogphotos%2Falbumid%2F5127629313818181793%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></center> It's that time of year, when ghouls, goblins, and <a href="http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html">Zeitghosts</a> roam Google in search of fresh human bandwidth. We hope you enjoy these Halloween photos from several of our offices, and wish you a safe -- but suitably scary -- celebration. And if you're looking to plot that perfect trick-or-treat route, might we recommend the My Maps feature on <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?tab=wl">Google maps</a>? You can even tag videos and pictures from your spooky night, highlighting your favorite stops. If you like seeing our ghoulish get-ups, you can use <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/home">Picasa Web Albums</a> to share yours with kindred costumed spirits. Now get out there and enjoy <a href="http://www.google.com/books?id=HvFAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA55&dq=Halloween&as_brr=1&ei=PPkoR_XoOZ_SiQGI8NS1DA">All Hallow's Eve</a>.

By the pricking of our thumbs...

Posted by David Griswold, Google Blog Team ... something Googley this way comes. It's that time of year, when ghouls, goblins, and Zeitg...

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It's not about the spam

Posted by Brad Taylor, Software Engineer and "Spam Czar" When Gmail's spam filters are working perfectly, no one talks to us anti-spam engineers. But as soon as something goes wrong, our users, our friends, and even our Google colleagues who use Gmail for their corporate mail are sure to tell us. That's just the way we like it. Spam is not something people should grow numb to and accept as a fact of life. We *want* people to complain. That's the only way things get better. Due in large part to all the great feedback we get, things are better. We're keeping more spam out of your inbox than ever before, so more and more, you can use Gmail for things you enjoy without even realizing that the spam filter is there most of the time. It's not too different from driving a convertible down the freeway with the top down, with the wind blowing through your hair and no traffic jams to destroy the mood. Now, I'm not saying we're perfect, but the really good news is that it seems like spammers are finally starting to get discouraged. Attempts to spam Gmail users have been leveling off over the last year and more recently, even declining slightly. We <e still="" have="" work="" to="" do="" and=""><a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/thanks-for-all-spam-reports.html">need your help clicking on the "Report Spam" button</a>, but through continuous improvement we are approaching the world we all want to live in. </e><a href="http://www.google.com/mail/help/fightspam/spamexplained.html"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW9cWNImd59wbZ4UioJA8REwEs_9yULVHuyvylxf5nQQ67c0Vn0zh8cLfHk75sE3tuVrj5Bna4A7v2XihUHvNl3Pbt8urAYk9MjdhQN32g9YG8z6YPnwUzLxE1_VJrYR7_EjXVKcl5DgWo/s1600-h/gmail_spam_graph.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5128281736225513170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW9cWNImd59wbZ4UioJA8REwEs_9yULVHuyvylxf5nQQ67c0Vn0zh8cLfHk75sE3tuVrj5Bna4A7v2XihUHvNl3Pbt8urAYk9MjdhQN32g9YG8z6YPnwUzLxE1_VJrYR7_EjXVKcl5DgWo/s320/gmail_spam_graph.gif" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a></a> <e still="" have="" work="" to="" do="" and=""> <a href="http://www.google.com/mail/help/fightspam/spamexplained.html"></a>As much as we don't want you to even think about spam, people are naturally curious and ask questions such as "where does spam come from?", "who buys the shoddy stuff spammers advertise?" and "how do you catch spam?" We're engineers, though, not forensic experts or economists, so while we can only speculate about the first two questions, we can talk authoritatively about the last one -- spam-catching. To that end, we've put together <a href="http://www.google.com/mail/help/fightspam/getstarted.html" id="f2sr" title="a video explaining how our spam filters work">a video explaining how our spam filters work</a>: <object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8FVme_xIRYk&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8FVme_xIRYk&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object> Now if we could only get a "Report Traffic" button in our cars ... </e>

It's not about the spam

Posted by Brad Taylor, Software Engineer and "Spam Czar" When Gmail's spam filters are working perfectly, no one talks to us a...

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