The Davos Question

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Ed Sanders, Product Marketing Manager, YouTube Europe</span><br /><br />Every year, many of the world's top leaders from politics, business and the global community -- including some of our own -- attend the <a href="http://www.worldeconomicforum.org/">World Economic Forum</a> in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss how to make the world a better place. This year, we wanted to give people around the world the chance to join them, and help them, by submitting their own answers to "the Davos Question," which is: "What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"<br /><br />So that's the question, but we all agree that it's finding the answer which will be tough.<br /><br />You may be familiar with the <a title="http://www.youtube.com/debates" href="http://www.youtube.com/debates">CNN-YouTube U.S. presidential debates</a>, which have made an enormous impact on interactive politics as we know it. The interactive component here is similar, but this is a global initiative where we are using the magic of <a title="http://www.youtube.com" href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a> to create an ongoing conversation between people in positions of authority, and those whose lives their decisions affect every day. Before the success of the CNN-YouTube initiative, such a conversation would never have been thought possible. And now we're trying to take it to an even more ambitious level.<br /><br />We see the Davos Question as a means to let people everywhere get close to, and influence, leaders whom they would never otherwise have a chance to reach. Equally, however, we want to show the actual participants at Davos the muscle with which YouTube is able to make a difference. It's kind of a two-way street: we can let everyday people into Davos, and at the same time we can show Davos the views of everyday people. And this is where it gets interesting. The YouTube community gets to vote and rank the submitted videos, and the highest-ranked ones will be featured at Davos. They will be used by the World Economic Forum to introduce topics in the plenary sessions, and we will be showing them directly to world leaders in the YouTube booth we are running onsite at Davos. The ongoing video blogs from some of the most influential people in the world which stem from the Davos Question will, we hope, kickstart a mechanism to really make a difference.<br /><br />Can you help? You bet. Spend some time over the holiday season thinking about your own answer to the Davos Question, and <a title="http://www.youtube.com/davos" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.youtube.com/davos" target="_blank">post a response</a> through the cool gadget we've developed. Then vote, rank, and encourage your friends and colleagues to get involved.<br /><br />Around here, we often talk about doing things which genuinely help the world. We think this is one way we can truly make the world sit up and take notice of what its people think about the most pressing issues of our time. But this time, instead of having it lost in the ether, we want to take it, wrap it up, and present it to some of the most important leaders we have, when the whole world is watching on YouTube.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2AMGrnG0hm-_iUwhHnV2m6XCicSvIlsZnms2nZ_z_tGm_bMUDihACzuvEesKIGWdtCUnk1TQdukaWaCxPA_S_AHz9OpIgFdZfxUebW9v2BtMBU3atqLi88soryyCsPOCA7tPkt1F4K26/s1600-h/DavosQ.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145098405911778754" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2AMGrnG0hm-_iUwhHnV2m6XCicSvIlsZnms2nZ_z_tGm_bMUDihACzuvEesKIGWdtCUnk1TQdukaWaCxPA_S_AHz9OpIgFdZfxUebW9v2BtMBU3atqLi88soryyCsPOCA7tPkt1F4K26/s320/DavosQ.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a>

The Davos Question

Posted by Ed Sanders, Product Marketing Manager, YouTube Europe Every year, many of the world's top leaders from politics, business and ...

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Giving through Google Checkout

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager</span><br /><br />We've heard from many of you that you'd like to know which organizations accept donations through our recently launched <a href="http://googlecheckout.blogspot.com/2007/09/introducing-google-checkout-for-non.html" id="ef7q">Google Checkout for Non-Profits</a>. We put together a <a href="http://www.google.com/checkout/promotions/donations.html">holiday page</a> that highlights some of these great organizations, including AmeriCares, Direct Relief and the March of Dimes, to name a few. Visit our Checkout blog for <a href="http://googlecheckout.blogspot.com/2007/12/finding-ways-to-give-back-during.html">more ideas</a> around ways to give back this season. And remember, when you give through Google Checkout, the organization gets 100% of your donation.

Giving through Google Checkout

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager We've heard from many of you that you'd like to know which organizations accept donations ...

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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 id="baxw" title="climate change and economic development" href="http://blog.google.org/2007/12/demanding-climate-justice-in-bali.html">climate change and economic development</a>, <a id="ybht" title="government and corporate actions" href="http://blog.google.org/2007/12/laboratories-of-low-carbon-economy.html">local government actions</a>, and an <a id="wndr" title="introduction" href="http://blog.google.org/2007/12/global-climate-change-conference-kicks.html">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 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK43_P0dYH3g6VryklNDZdPATPO2JMYCqhUirDYX0HJGDq9ZDh_NzFpUCQOF7SWNSp_8q0Kab1ZUPLfKEYL5bOaLcl1rn34IfUR27dTetzq6Xbm2KJL-e8YhuC7GJ6dNDVG2SbB07zU9Ec/s1600-h/IMG_3159.JPG"><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 title="this photo album" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/jsteinback/SuperheroDayInLondon?authkey=AQQSmgEhUXM" id="crv:">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 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.google.com/help/knol_screenshot.html"><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 title="Year-End Zeitgeist" href="http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/archive.html" id="d63e">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 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2vEoJhMs9W8IAb_DZwDZmJ8Ip4P9yOlaA71KC7P-VAMfhJlRgR3aWWK-NbgZsQqsUUAukDGc1_DGcwfSzN5aZ9OAQI7NglXx4O9v7DACwvFYrd5UHh2HY5EjcKHX4YLODQ06XK9yuhhBx/s1600-h/Postinit_spam_graph.gif"><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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