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Google Checkout badges for non-profits

Google Checkout badges for non-profits

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager You may have heard about the recently launched Google Checkout for Non-Profits , which is a fast a...

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Australia's election map redrawn

Posted by Rob Shilkin and Julian Sonego, Google Australia Australia's federal election is on 24 November 2007, and the campaign is well and truly in its final stages. Prime Minister Howard and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd are adding <a href="http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&ie=UTF-8&q=howard+rudd+campaign&btnG=Search" title="http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&ie=UTF-8&q=howard+rudd+campaign&btnG=Search">final details to their policies</a> and making their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND4bjDqE45k&feature=related" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND4bjDqE45k&feature=related">final appeal for votes</a>. You may recall that we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/australia-readies-itself-for-google.html" title="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/australia-readies-itself-for-google.html">launched an election site</a> in September to help Australians stay informed. We've now updated the "Australian 2007 Election" <a href="http://maps.google.com.au/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=-25.335448,135.745076&spn=33.002964,59.765625&z=4&om=1" title="http://maps.google.com.au/maps/mm?ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=-25.335448,135.745076&spn=33.002964,59.765625&z=4&om=1">feature in Google Maps</a> so that, for all 150 House of Representatives seats, you can click on any candidate's name to see all their Google search results, or their YouTube channel. And with one click, you can now find an incredible array of information from across the Internet -- news stories, videos, personal websites, party websites, blogs, and all the rest -- about all 1,054 candidates for all 150 seats. We've also added in all polling booth locations based on information from the <a href="http://www.aec.gov.au/" title="http://www.aec.gov.au/">Australian Electoral Commission</a>, so voters can easily find their nearest polling booth on the map, together with opening hours and wheelchair accessibility. Voting in Australia is compulsory, so there's now no excuse not to turn up and have your say next Saturday. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfq0etWdbu2kFl4IvE0fmfx3gIrfOLGCQbV7nnVQyBl5xc500SRkS_UlX4OsHcZkdC4PmoD8dQ4hPVDRJjiScgw928bzc_fCJVS1DasvTVphtj66ezEt9UsuAISubaQ5x3Eh44HVNj-8ex/s1600-h/AU_election_map.BMP" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5132878144675990514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfq0etWdbu2kFl4IvE0fmfx3gIrfOLGCQbV7nnVQyBl5xc500SRkS_UlX4OsHcZkdC4PmoD8dQ4hPVDRJjiScgw928bzc_fCJVS1DasvTVphtj66ezEt9UsuAISubaQ5x3Eh44HVNj-8ex/s320/AU_election_map.BMP" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>

Australia's election map redrawn

Posted by Rob Shilkin and Julian Sonego, Google Australia Australia's federal election is on 24 November 2007, and the campaign is well ...

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Free expression and controversial content on the web

Posted by Rachel Whetstone, Director of Global Communications and Public Affairs, EMEA Our world would be a very boring place if we all agreed all the time. So while people may strongly disagree with what someone says, or think that a particular newspaper article is total nonsense, we recognize that each of us have the right to an opinion. We also know that letting people express their views freely has real practical benefits. Allowing individuals to voice unpopular, inconvenient or controversial opinions is important. Not only might they be right (think Galileo) but debating difficult issues in the open often helps people come to better decisions. While most people agree in principle with the right to free expression, the challenge comes in putting theory into practice. And that's certainly the case on the web, where blogs, social networks and video sharing sites allow people to express themselves - to speak and be heard - as never before. At Google we have a bias in favor of people's right to free expression in everything we do. We are driven by a belief that more information generally means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual. But we also recognize that freedom of expression can't be -- and shouldn't be -- without some limits. The difficulty is in deciding where those boundaries are drawn. For a company like Google with services in more than 100 countries - all with different national laws and cultural norms - it's a challenge we face many times every day. In a few cases it's straightforward. For example, we have a global all-product ban against child pornography, which is illegal in virtually every country. But when it comes to political extremism it's not as simple. Different countries have come to different conclusions about how to deal with this issue. In Germany there's a ban on the promotion of Nazism -- so we remove Nazi content on products on <a href="http://www.google.de/" title="http://www.google.de/">Google.de</a> (our domain for German users) products. Other countries' histories make commentary or criticism on certain topics especially sensitive. And still other countries believe that the best way to discredit extremists is to allow their arguments to be publicly exposed. All this raises important questions for Internet companies like Google. Our products are, after all, specifically designed to help people create and communicate, to find and share information and opinions across the world. So how do we approach these challenges? It should come as no surprise to learn people have different views about what should appear on our sites. How and where to draw the boundaries is the subject of lively debate even within Google. We think that's healthy. And partly because of this, we realize that creating a flawless set of policies on which everyone can agree is an impossible task. Google is not, and should not become, the arbiter of what does and does not appear on the web. That's for the courts and those elected to government to decide. Faced with day-to-day choices, however, we look at our products in three broad categories: search, advertising and services that host other people's content. Search is the least restricted category. We remove results from our index only when required by law (for example, when linked to content infringing copyright) and in a small number of other instances, such as spam results or results including unauthorized credit card and social security numbers. Where feasible, we tell our users when we remove results. At the other, most restrictive, end of the spectrum, we have what might be called commerce products –- the text of the advertisements we carry, which are subject to clear <a href="http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guidelines.cs&topic=9271&subtopic=9279">ad content policies</a>. The most challenging areas are where we host other people’s content -- offerings like Blogger, Groups, orkut and video. On the one hand, we're not generating the content and we aim to offer a platform for free expression. On the other hand, we host the content on our servers and want to be socially responsible. So we have terms that we ask our users to follow. (See <a href="http://www.blogger.com/content.g">Blogger</a> and <a href="http://help.orkut.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=57444">orkut</a> for examples.) So the question becomes: how do we enforce those terms? In general, Google does not want to be a gatekeeper. We don't, and can't, check content before it goes live, any more than your phone company would screen the content of your phone calls or your ISP would edit your emails. Technology can sometimes help here, but it's rarely a full answer. We also have millions of active users who are vocal when it comes to alerting us to content they find unacceptable or believe may breach our policies. When they do, we review it and remove it where appropriate. These are always subjective judgments and some people will inevitably disagree. But that’s because what’s acceptable to one person may be offensive to another. We also face the added complication that laws governing content apply differently in the different parts of the world in which we operate. As we all know, some governments are more liberal about freedom of expression than others. These legal differences create real technical challenges, for example, about how you restrict one type of content in one country but not another. And, in extreme cases, we face questions about whether a country's laws and lack of democratic processes are so antithetical to our principles that we simply can't comply or can't operate there in a way that benefits users. But it's not only legal considerations that drive our policies. One type of content, while legal everywhere, may be almost universally unacceptable in one region yet viewed as perfectly fine in another. We are passionate about our users so we try to take into account local cultures and needs -- which vary dramatically around the world -- when developing and implementing our global product policies. Dealing with controversial content is one of the biggest challenges we face as a company. We don’t pretend to have all the right answers or necessarily to get every judgment right. But we do try hard to think things through from first principles, to be as transparent as possible about how we make decisions, and to keep reviewing and debating our policies. After all, the right to disagree is a sign of a healthy society.

Free expression and controversial content on the web

Posted by Rachel Whetstone, Director of Global Communications and Public Affairs, EMEA Our world would be a very boring place if...

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Calling all developers: $10M Android challenge

Posted by Steve Horowitz, Engineering Director Last week we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/wheres-my-gphone.html">announced</a> the <a href="http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/">Open Handset Alliance</a>, a group of mobile and technology leaders committed to improving the mobile experience and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYozIZOgDk">Android</a>, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Today, the team is releasing an early look at the <a href="http://code.google.com/android/">Android SDK</a> for developers interested in building applications for Android. To get things rolling, we've also announced the <a href="http://code.google.com/android/adc.html">Android Developer Challenge</a>, which provides $10 million in awards for developers who build great applications for Android. Read more on the new <a href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/">Android Developers blog</a> to learn about this exciting mobile platform. With so many brilliant minds striving to design engaging, innovative applications, mobile users around the world (3 billion and counting!) can expect phones equipped with dynamic and unprecedented applications very soon.

Calling all developers: $10M Android challenge

Posted by Steve Horowitz, Engineering Director Last week we announced the Open Handset Alliance , a group of mobile and technology leaders ...

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Crossing team and global boundaries

Posted by Reza Behforooz, Software Engineer In my first month at Google, I complained to a friend on the Gmail team about a couple of small things that I disliked about Gmail. I expected him to point me to the bug database. But he told me to fix it myself, pointing me to a document on how to bring up the Gmail development environment on my workstation. The next day my code was reviewed by Gmail engineers, and then I submitted it. A week later, my change was live. I was amazed by the freedom to work across teams, the ability to check in code to another project, the trust in engineers to work on the right thing, and the excitement and speed of getting things done for our users. Engineers across our offices (and across projects) have access to the same code; I didn't have to ask for anyone's permission to work on this. Since then, I've done my best to use my <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/enhanced-searching-with-firefox.html">20% time</a> on other projects. A few weeks ago, I noticed that our engineering team in India had launched an on-screen keyboard for <a href="http://labs.google.co.in/indic.html">several Indic languages on Labs</a>. I speak Farsi, and thought it would be useful to make one for myself and ham-zaboonam (that's Farsi for 'people who speak my language'). After launching <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/10/put-yourself-on-map.html">my latest </a><a blog="" href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/10/put-yourself-on-map.html" post="">project</a> for Google Maps, I emailed M. T. Raghunath, the engineer in India who built out the keyboard Gadgets, to learn how I could make one for Farsi. He had already worked with several language experts to create keyboards in 14 Indic languages and had recently included right-to-left support for <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=urdu+on-screen+keyboard&root=%2Fig&dpos=top&url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/urdu_keyboard.xml">Urdu</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=arabic+on-screen+keyboard&root=%2Fig&dpos=top&start=7&url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/arabic_keyboard.xml">Arabic</a>, which he created with the help of Googlers from our Hyderabad office. He was excited and pointed me to the code. After a week of iteration, you too can now use the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/farsi_keyboard.xml">Farsi Gadget</a>. Google has <a href="http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=about.html&about=locations&src=engusjobs">many engineering offices</a> around the world; I currently work in <a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=720+4th+Avenue,+Kirkland,+WA+%28Seattle+Engineering+Office%29&ie=UTF8&ll=47.678623,-122.196293&spn=0.036523,0.06197&z=14&iwloc=addr&om=1">Seattle</a> and M. T. works in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Vittal+Mallya+Road,+Bangalore,+Bangalore,+Karnataka+India&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.388698,58.798828&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=0,12.971119,77.597310&ll=12.971104,77.597294&spn=0.053614,0.057421&z=14&om=1">Bangalore</a>. We have a lot more engineers than a few years ago when I made the changes to Gmail, but I'm happy to relive the same magic I shared with the Gmail team with a Googler across the globe. By the way, <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/kashmiri_keyboard.xml">a Kashmiri Gadget is also available</a>, thanks to help from Sarwat Nisa, a Hyderabad-based Googler.

Crossing team and global boundaries

Posted by Reza Behforooz, Software Engineer In my first month at Google, I complained to a friend on the Gmail team about a couple of small ...

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Congrats to Google scholarship winners

Posted by Ricardo Jenez, Engineering Director Google aspires to be an organization that reflects our global audience by supporting a diversity of perspectives, ideas and cultures, which is one reason we created scholarship programs with both the <a href="http://www.uncf.org/scholarships/scholarDetailSGA.asp?id=84">United Negro College Fund</a> and <a href="http://scholarships.hispanicfund.org/applications/subsectionID.1,pageID.123/default.asp">Hispanic College Fund</a>. These programs provide $5,000 to both undergraduate and graduate students who have demonstrated academic excellence in the fields of computer science and computer engineering. They're meant to encourage students to excel in their studies and become active role models and leaders. It's our hope that these programs also help dismantle barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields. (<a href="http://www.google.com/jobs/scholarships" id="brc4">Read more</a> about the various Google scholarship programs.) A few other Googlers and I recently volunteered to help select the winners for this year's round. We were inspired reading the scholarship applications; in fact, we identified with the difficulties that these students faced in order to get a great education. Now it's time to congratulate the 33 winners. This accomplished group of men and women demonstrated excellence in the field of computer science and made significant contributions to their communities. Each person receive $5,000 towards their studies, and they're all invited to attend our annual scholarship weekend, held at our Mountain View headquarters next spring. 2007 Google United Negro College Fund Scholarship Winners <blockquote><ul><li>Christopher Clark, University of California, Los Angeles</li><li>Linda Mmayi, American Inter-Continental University</li><li>Delvin Kelleybrew, Howard University</li><li>Andrew Pryor-Miller, University of California, Los Angeles</li><li>Nia Bradley, Howard University</li><li>Kieran Jordine, Albany State University</li><li>Shanna-Shaye Forbes, University of Texas, Austin</li><li>Tanisha Washington, CSU Long Beach</li><li>Kalifa Llewellyn, Howard University</li><li>Jason Mars, University of Virginia</li><li>Hans Anderson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology</li></ul></blockquote>2007 Google Hispanic College Fund Scholarship Winners <blockquote><ul><li>Nicole Ameche, University of California, Irvine</li><li>Garrett Brown, University of Michigan</li><li>Lina Cordero, CUNY City College</li><li>Carolina Gomez, Georgia Institute of Technology</li><li>Sonny Hernandez, University of Southern California</li><li>Juan Lang, University of California, Davis</li><li>David Mireles, University of Texas, El Paso</li><li>Josh Morales, University of Texas, Pan American</li><li>Omar Oropeza, University of Texas, Brownsville</li><li>Hillaury Perez, University of Houston</li><li>Isaac Persing, University of Arizona</li><li>Christian Roca, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art</li><li>Adelein Rodriguez, University of Central Florida</li><li>Jose Romero-Mariona, University of California, Irvine</li><li>Amanda Ryan, Victoria College</li><li>Marlies Santos Deas, Miami Dade Community College</li><li>Caio Soares, Auburn University</li><li>Christopher Soghoian, Indiana University, Bloomington</li><li>Oscar Tapia, New Jersey Institute of Technology</li><li>Yuly Tenorio, University of California, Berkeley</li><li>Pablo Guikubi Vanwoerkom, Indiana University, Bloomington</li><li>Joshua Zuniga, Oregon State University</li></ul></blockquote>

Congrats to Google scholarship winners

Posted by Ricardo Jenez, Engineering Director Google aspires to be an organization that reflects our global audience by supporting a diversi...

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Google Earth for 557 boxing champs

Posted by Kevin Willer, Head of Central Region Development Recently, a group of Chicago Googlers who are passionate about sports came together to find ways to support Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. We got in touch with folks from World Sport Chicago, who had recently agreed to organize the <a href="http://www.worldboxingchicago.org/" id="r-.v" title="AIBA World Boxing Championships">AIBA World Boxing Championships</a>, and asked them how Google technology could help support this local event with global reach. Together, we came up with an idea to educate fans about the boxers and their home countries through an <a href="http://aibaworldboxing.googlepages.com/aiba_world_boxing_championship.kml" id="tu_h" title="Google Earth information overlay">information overlay</a> on <a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a>, embedding select information about each boxer and their sponsoring country in pop-up windows across the globe. Then we took this idea further by matching up our software with <a href="http://www.accenture.com/Global/Services/Accenture_Technology_Labs/Services/SeeingTheBigPicture.htm?c=ad_07grusglbpsgs_0607&n=Accenture_Interactive_sL05Accenture_Interactive_accenture_interactive_network" id="ubcg" title="Accenture's Interactive Wall Technology">Accenture's Interactive Wall Technology</a> to make the information even more lively. The Accenture Interactive Wall literally put the power of Google Earth at one's fingertips, so that people could manipulate the globe using their hands. Thousands of fans visited this display during the championships and we're pleased we could play a part in developing this learning tool for them. <div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOgbC_du-p0-kdZMvGWh5w-cFx9on00K7BTtTv0MTFphk4I-Ocwtq_AhbLt7a2thn39o4G4QU3StcdhYIwDjBDzkxjKut0ljKAjdYIfRdAycU9ncOPD1GKz7cEYYWwiw4oGBlEGvIu_8S/s1600-h/Google+Earth+Overlay.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5130544957364943234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOgbC_du-p0-kdZMvGWh5w-cFx9on00K7BTtTv0MTFphk4I-Ocwtq_AhbLt7a2thn39o4G4QU3StcdhYIwDjBDzkxjKut0ljKAjdYIfRdAycU9ncOPD1GKz7cEYYWwiw4oGBlEGvIu_8S/s200/Google+Earth+Overlay.jpeg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>Here's Chris Lobdell in front of the interactive wall. </div> When members of the Mongolian boxing team visited and asked how it worked, a volunteer helped them learn the controls, and they were quickly off to explore the planet. In a few seconds, they made their way to Mongolia, and were able to locate the gym back home where they had trained in for these very championships. They were amazed at the technology and the ease of use in finding their homes. Chris Lobdell, one of our customer solutions engineers, worked closely with Bruno Bowden from the Google Earth team to build this interactive mashup. Using boxer profile information provided by the USOC, Chris merged the profile for each boxer and coach with data about the represented country (population, land mass and currency). Googlers love a challenge, and this was an interesting one, especially considering the short timeframe in which it needed to be done, the massive information overlay development, and the integration with Accenture's display.

Google Earth for 557 boxing champs

Posted by Kevin Willer, Head of Central Region Development Recently, a group of Chicago Googlers who are passionate about sports came togeth...

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