Update on international climate negotiations

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog Team</span><br /><br />The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reached agreement in Bali on Saturday on a roadmap to reach a new international climate change agreement. Several Google.org team members attended and have shared their thoughts on some of the themes of the conference: putting the <a href="http://blog.google.org/2007/12/putting-bali-roadmap-in-context.html">Bali roadmap in context</a>, <a href="http://blog.google.org/2007/12/demanding-climate-justice-in-bali.html" id="baxw" title="climate change and economic development">climate change and economic development</a>, <a href="http://blog.google.org/2007/12/laboratories-of-low-carbon-economy.html" id="ybht" title="government and corporate actions">local government actions</a>, and an <a href="http://blog.google.org/2007/12/global-climate-change-conference-kicks.html" id="wndr" title="introduction">introduction</a> to the negotiations. We hope you find these writeups informative.

Update on international climate negotiations

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog Team The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reached agreement in Bali on Saturday on ...

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When giving is fun

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Joscelin Cooper, Google Blog team<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK43_P0dYH3g6VryklNDZdPATPO2JMYCqhUirDYX0HJGDq9ZDh_NzFpUCQOF7SWNSp_8q0Kab1ZUPLfKEYL5bOaLcl1rn34IfUR27dTetzq6Xbm2KJL-e8YhuC7GJ6dNDVG2SbB07zU9Ec/s1600-h/IMG_3159.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5144756103622510258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK43_P0dYH3g6VryklNDZdPATPO2JMYCqhUirDYX0HJGDq9ZDh_NzFpUCQOF7SWNSp_8q0Kab1ZUPLfKEYL5bOaLcl1rn34IfUR27dTetzq6Xbm2KJL-e8YhuC7GJ6dNDVG2SbB07zU9Ec/s320/IMG_3159.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br />Many of us are familiar with Batman or Spiderman and their super attributes from multiple film and comic book incarnations. But you might not be as familiar with a superhero swathed in aquamarine Lycra, sporting appropriately heroic pecs emblazoned with an iconic 'G.' Yes, that's Googleman, who manifested in various colorful forms at last week's 'Superhero' day at our London office.<br /><br />While Google is usually a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0701/gallery.Google_life/index.html">fun </a><a href="http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0701/gallery.Google_life/index.html"> place to work</a>, last Friday was especially fun -- with a purpose. London Googlers donned costumes and partook in themed activities to raise money for two local charities: <a href="http://kidsco.org.uk/" id="s2u8" title="Kids Company">Kids Company</a> establishes educational and therapeutic programs for at-risk children, and <a href="http://www.refuge.org.uk/" id="y400" title="Refuge">Refuge</a> offers shelter, support and counseling for those affected by domestic violence.<br /><br />Although many of our Londoners arrived at work in hero attire (and we can just imagine the reaction of fellow commuters on the Tube), those without a superhero alter-ego could select underwear (to be worn <i>over</i> their pants, naturally), masks and other paraphernalia, and transform themselves at the office. Please note that not everyone defined "superhero" as a masked, caped and Spandexed defender of justice; the entire cast of Scooby Doo, Inspector Gadget, and even Jesus were on hand. And to commemorate their heroic personas, there was an improvised blue screen for 'flying' photo ops.<br /><br />Googlers dined on superfoods -- antioxidant-rich eats that include salmon, spinach and broccoli -- and donated money based on the cost of such a lunch. Book and T-shirt vendors were on hand for those wishing to do a little holiday shopping, with 10 to 20% of the proceeds earmarked for the charities. Those wishing to move their own undesirable gifts along participated in a re-gifting sale, in which re-gifts were sold with all proceeds going to the chosen causes. A bike auction rounded out the day's fundraising events to bring the grand total for the charities to £1200 or more. Scroll through <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/jsteinback/SuperheroDayInLondon?authkey=AQQSmgEhUXM" id="crv:" title="this photo album">this photo album</a> to have a giggle, and perhaps to be inspired for your own fun with giving.

When giving is fun

Posted by Joscelin Cooper, Google Blog team Many of us are familiar with Batman or Spiderman and their super attributes from multiple film a...

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Encouraging people to contribute knowledge

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Udi Manber, VP Engineering</span><br /><br />The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal.<br /><br />Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.<br /><br />The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors' names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors -- but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word "knol" as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we'll do the rest.<br /><br />A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will <b>not </b>serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.<br /><br />Knols will include strong community tools. People will be able to submit comments, questions, edits, additional content, and so on. Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.<br /><br />Once testing is completed, participation in knols will be completely open, and we cannot expect that all of them will be of high quality. Our job in Search Quality will be to rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google search results. We are quite experienced with ranking web pages, and we feel confident that we will be up to the challenge. We are very excited by the potential to substantially increase the dissemination of knowledge.<br /><br />We do not want to build a walled garden of content; we want to disseminate it as widely as possible. Google will not ask for any exclusivity on any of this content and will make that content available to any other search engine.<br /><br />As always, a picture is worth a thousands words, so an example of a knol is below (double-click on the image to see the page in full). The main content is real, and we encourage you to read it (you may sleep better afterwards!), but most of the meta-data -- like reviews, ratings, and comments -- are not real, because, of course, this has not been in the public eye as yet. Again, this is a preliminary version.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/help/knol_screenshot.html" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143633654863762834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExMdgB26aura6PG3c3q-ZfJlulNEQLI8clssURvgiUn71GNuGWZ7qLfqEaYsg05sA0H5t1ClQ0XQxqIikOV2uB_ynrlMdYelcvXrub6KNIU1kX_bfLsxuIeUGRMaRqQ4XSnMj6p6qnlo/s1600/thumb.png" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a>

Encouraging people to contribute knowledge

Posted by Udi Manber, VP Engineering The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more...

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The results are in

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Susan Straccia, Google Zeitgeist Team</span><br /><br />Every year we put out the <a href="http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/archive.html" id="d63e" title="Year-End Zeitgeist">Year-End Zeitgeist</a>, a look at the most popular and fastest-rising search terms in hopes of telling us something about what's been on our (collective) mind. This was my first year working on this project, and I'm here to report I was pleasantly surprised by many of the findings. Yes, 2007 was a big year for U.S. politics, and, of course, there were several peaks coinciding with the indiscretions of a few starlets -- but what I found particularly interesting were some of the timeless themes that surfaced: what is love, who is god and how to kiss, to name a few. No matter how much changes over time, these questions seem to be constants. I don't know about you, but I hope we never get to the bottom of them. Searching for an answer is half the fun.<br /><br />If you haven't already done so, be sure to check out our <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2007/index.html">complete list for 2007<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></a>.

The results are in

Posted by Susan Straccia, Google Zeitgeist Team Every year we put out the Year-End Zeitgeist , a look at the most popular and fastest-rising...

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Postini looks back on 2007

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Adam Swidler, Product Marketing Manager, Postini</span><br /><br />For years now, anti-spam efforts have been like a game of checkers played at night. The bad guys make their move, Postini responds, and the majority of our customers are pleasantly oblivious to the fact that as much as 90 percent of their incoming mail is spam. This year, it became a game of chess. Data from Postini data centers shows that virus attacks hit record levels, spam percentages in Europe are catching up with global trends, and the volume of spam became more volatile as spammers dramatically varied their tactics, as seen in this graph:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2vEoJhMs9W8IAb_DZwDZmJ8Ip4P9yOlaA71KC7P-VAMfhJlRgR3aWWK-NbgZsQqsUUAukDGc1_DGcwfSzN5aZ9OAQI7NglXx4O9v7DACwvFYrd5UHh2HY5EjcKHX4YLODQ06XK9yuhhBx/s1600-h/Postinit_spam_graph.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143157661816222930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2vEoJhMs9W8IAb_DZwDZmJ8Ip4P9yOlaA71KC7P-VAMfhJlRgR3aWWK-NbgZsQqsUUAukDGc1_DGcwfSzN5aZ9OAQI7NglXx4O9v7DACwvFYrd5UHh2HY5EjcKHX4YLODQ06XK9yuhhBx/s320/Postinit_spam_graph.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br />To find out what made 2007 really different from any earlier year, and to see some forecasts for 2008, check out the the <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2007/12/1-billion-messages-not-served.html">Google Enterprise blog</a>.

Postini looks back on 2007

Posted by Adam Swidler, Product Marketing Manager, Postini For years now, anti-spam efforts have been like a game of checkers played at nigh...

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Google Toolbar: Take your tools with you

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Aseem Sood, Product Manager, Google Toolbar Team</span><br /><br />I've started to notice something peculiar about the Toolbar team, and that's this: we literally can't seem to stop carrying the Toolbar around with us. When we moved to a new space in our Mountain View campus, we brought along a hallway-sized printout of it. For Halloween, eighteen of us dressed up as the different parts of the Toolbar itself.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMVgCbQ2N2bD-AhefGIz9T7ARTzXgVmzeCqaBlnKP8dCLGGLRy4d8uAgr7IAS-JLkAL85-FAn8PzhNFDYj6PdK_EpNu3wkI2tKnuvQ_PFWTiE7j4vsWvZyc4_5HNMcwSWUHh0NRnXtghD_/s1600-h/tbcostume.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143165571573151714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMVgCbQ2N2bD-AhefGIz9T7ARTzXgVmzeCqaBlnKP8dCLGGLRy4d8uAgr7IAS-JLkAL85-FAn8PzhNFDYj6PdK_EpNu3wkI2tKnuvQ_PFWTiE7j4vsWvZyc4_5HNMcwSWUHh0NRnXtghD_/s320/tbcostume.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br />And now with the latest beta release of the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer, my fellow product manager Avni and I couldn't wait to point out the new features.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qM5JbVSjV8A&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qM5JbVSjV8A&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Maybe it's on our minds, because with the latest version of Toolbar, you can <span style="font-weight: bold;">save your settings online</span>, and then get all of your bookmarks, custom buttons and AutoFill information from your different computers -- like when you're at home, or at work, or if you get a new computer for the holidays. It's kind of like carrying your Toolbar with you, but without the hassle of cardboard and string, and a lot more useful.<br /><br />And, yes, there are some new reasons for you to carry your Toolbar with you, too.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">You can accessorize with Google Gadgets:</span> We <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/all-buttoned-up.html" id="rgxk" title="first released custom buttons">first released custom buttons</a> with search and feed functionality, and now we've added support for many Google Gadgets. In Toolbar, gadgets can even interact with the pages you're on, like with the Google Product Search gadget, you can just highlight the name of something you'd like to buy on any page and do a quick price comparison right there.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Google Notebook is built in:</span> We realized that saving links as bookmarks to come back to is great, but not quite enough. So now you can collect text and images, too and put them into notebooks right from the Toolbar.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />You'll get suggestions instead of error pages:</span> If you mistype a URL or a page is down, now the Toolbar will give you that familiar "Did you mean" with alternatives, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=gmail.commm" id="c3zk" title="like when you do a Google search">like when you do a Google search</a>.<br /><br />We still have the original Toolbar features, like automatic form filling, pop-up blocking and spelling correction, too, so give it a try and let us know what you think at <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/T5">http://toolbar.google.com/T5</a>.

Google Toolbar: Take your tools with you

Posted by Aseem Sood, Product Manager, Google Toolbar Team I've started to notice something peculiar about the Toolbar team, and that...

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Haere Mai! Google Maps lands in New Zealand

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Noel Gordon, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Today we're pleased to announce the full launch of <a href="http://maps.google.co.nz/" target="_blank" title="http://maps.google.co.nz/ Google Maps in New Zealand">Google Maps in New Zealand</a>. Although we've offered basic mapping in New Zealand for some time, today we're unveiling a localised and customised site for our users in New Zealand. We've added full local business search capabilities, plus the <a href="http://www.google.com/local/add/lookup?hl=en-AU&gl=NZ" target="_blank">Local Business Centre</a>, so that any Kiwi business can get a free listing.<br /><br />While we know New Zealanders care about a lot more than rugby, racing and beer, we're pleased that now Google Maps can help you find the nearest place to do any of those things. Plus, you can find a <a href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cafe+ponsonby&ie=UTF8&z=15&om=1" target="_blank" title="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=cafe+ponsonby&ie=UTF8&z=15&om=1 cafe in Ponsonby">cafe in Ponsonby</a>, an <a href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=indian+restaurant+wellington&ie=UTF8&z=9&om=1" target="_blank" title="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=indian+restaurant+wellington&ie=UTF8&z=9&om=1 Indian restaurant in Wellington">Indian restaurant in Wellington </a>, a <a href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=plumber+dunedin&ie=UTF8&z=13&om=1" target="_blank" title="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=plumber+dunedin&ie=UTF8&z=13&om=1 plumber in Dunedin">plumber in Dunedin</a>, or a great <a href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=queenstown+hotel&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=11&om=1" target="_blank" title="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=queenstown+hotel&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=11&om=1 hotel for your next holiday">hotel for your next holiday</a>. All available on a PC or <a href="http://www.google.co.nz/gmm/index.html" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.co.nz/gmm/index.html mobile phone">mobile phone</a> near you!<br /><br />And of course, Kiwis can also use Google Maps to look up an address, get <a href="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=auckland+to+rotorua&sll=-45.031104,168.662731&sspn=0.33435,0.6427&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9&om=1" target="_blank" title="http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=auckland+to+rotorua&sll=-45.031104,168.662731&sspn=0.33435,0.6427&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9&om=1 driving directions">driving directions</a> (and the ability to drag them around), browse our satellite imagery, and even create custom maps that you can share with friends, all using the simple interface.

Haere Mai! Google Maps lands in New Zealand

Posted by Noel Gordon, Software Engineer Today we're pleased to announce the full launch of Google Maps in New Zealand . Although we...

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