New privacy tips video series

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Jane Horvath, Senior Privacy Counsel</span><br /><br />In order to give you the best possible information about the privacy settings for our products, we asked the engineers and product managers who actually designed them to explain how they work in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FCEE46AA997A23D9">a series of new videos</a> we released today on our <span style="font-family: times new roman;font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://www.youtube.com/googleprivacy" id="n-48" title="YouTube Privacy Channel">YouTube Privacy Channel</a></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">.</span></span> These videos feature Googlers sharing privacy tips, like how to use Google Chat’s “Off the Record” feature, how to limit the number of people who can view your Picasa photos, how to unlist your phone number from Google search results, and how to make the details of your Google Calendar entries private.<br /><br />Just as we’re dedicated to innovation when it comes to making better, more useful products, we’re also committed to finding new ways to educate you about how to control what information you share when using our products, and with whom. This series, along with the other videos on our YouTube Privacy Channel, are part of this awareness-raising effort. So watch the videos (including our very own blooper reel) and <span style="font-family:Arial;"><a href="http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py?form_type=user&stage=fm&user_type=user&contact_type=privacy&hl=en" id="dc3s" title="tell us">tell us</a></span> what you think. And we'll be adding new videos to the Privacy Channel now and again, so be sure to check back.<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XyuGCI7o_2c&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XyuGCI7o_2c&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>

New privacy tips video series

Posted by Jane Horvath, Senior Privacy Counsel In order to give you the best possible information about the privacy settings for our product...

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Holiday baking fun

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Amy Ho Seto, Google Chef</span><br /><br />Nothing evokes the spirit of the holidays more than the traditional foods that mark the season. Whether your holiday include latkes, a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/taste-of-fall.html" id="e83c" title="delicious Butternut squash souffle">delicious butternut squash souffle</a>, or even a deathless fruitcake, Googlers love to commemorate the occasion with food.<br /><br />Last week I spent the afternoon baking Christmas cookies with a group of culinary-minded Googlers. Traditionally, this cookie is not just a festive holiday snack; it also makes a great homemade gift and an absorbing arts and crafts project. Our little get-together not only resulted in some melt-in-your mouth treats, but also allowed us to roll up our sleeves and get creative. Check out the photo album from our baking session, and try my recipe for buttery shortbread cookies.<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fgblogphotos%2Falbumid%2F5145098339734208337%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="192" width="288"></embed><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Buttery Shortbread Cookies</span><br /><br />Preheat oven to 325 degrees.<br /><br />Mix the following ingredients until smooth:<br />1-½ sticks unsalted butter (must be soft)<br />2-3/4 cups sugar<br />1 teaspoon Kosher salt<br /><br />Then add the following ingredients and mix until smooth:<br />8 egg yolks<br />1/4 cup heavy cream<br />1 Tablespoon +1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract<br /><br />Add:<br />8 cups all-purpose flour.<br /><br />Mix everything thoroughly until dough comes together. Gather to a ball and flatten to a disc.<br /><br />Chill the dough until firm. You might want to prepare the dough in the evening before you plan on baking and chill it overnight.<br /><br />When chilled, roll to ¼-inch thickness, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Sprinkle tops with assorted sugars, jimmies and sprinkles.<br /><br />Bake at 325 degrees F for 10-12 minutes on either a sheet greased with vegetable oil spray or a cookie sheet pan with parchment paper. Edges will be golden when they are done.<br /><br />You may also bake the cookies plain, cool them, and then brush with <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240751" target="_blank" title="icing sugar"> icing sugar.</a> Cover the whole surface of the cookie.<br /><br />Serves: 4 dozen.

Holiday baking fun

Posted by Amy Ho Seto, Google Chef Nothing evokes the spirit of the holidays more than the traditional foods that mark the season. Whether y...

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Better flight stats results

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Nick Weininger, Software Engineer</span><br /><br /><div> <div class="Wj3C7c">The holiday season is upon us, and we know that many amongst you are traveling to be with family and friends. To make sure you spend more time celebrating and less time waiting at the airport, we're introducing a new flight status feature that we hope will make your travels easier.<br /><br />For the latest information on a flight's status, simply search for an airline and flight number, and the first result will tell you whether your flight is on time or delayed as well as the estimated departure and arrival times. Here's a quick example for a specific flight [American Airlines 123]:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgehYRqBWCs3UIVWF2asbDkeEt9Egk0RiqRX0MuzXz3NX9ZbDPU7WpIAWLAiww0t5k2Xt9WCjFXlMMTBVLEsQpZ1qHIz1JqVzJobVRmNniy9EuogFrbfkA1AT59PM6qBQGa48rBjmBRx3de/s1600-h/Flightstats.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5145104929967101394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgehYRqBWCs3UIVWF2asbDkeEt9Egk0RiqRX0MuzXz3NX9ZbDPU7WpIAWLAiww0t5k2Xt9WCjFXlMMTBVLEsQpZ1qHIz1JqVzJobVRmNniy9EuogFrbfkA1AT59PM6qBQGa48rBjmBRx3de/s320/Flightstats.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><br />Hopefully this makes your travels a little smoother. Happy holidays from the Google Search team.<br /><br /></div></div>P.S. We're still working on building a search feature that will find your lost luggage ;-) <span></span>

Better flight stats results

Posted by Nick Weininger, Software Engineer The holiday season is upon us, and we know that many amongst you are traveling to be with fami...

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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 href="http://www.youtube.com/debates" title="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 href="http://www.youtube.com/" title="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 href="http://www.youtube.com/davos" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" target="_blank" title="http://www.youtube.com/davos">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 href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ2AMGrnG0hm-_iUwhHnV2m6XCicSvIlsZnms2nZ_z_tGm_bMUDihACzuvEesKIGWdtCUnk1TQdukaWaCxPA_S_AHz9OpIgFdZfxUebW9v2BtMBU3atqLi88soryyCsPOCA7tPkt1F4K26/s1600-h/DavosQ.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><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 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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