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Accessibility mashups: AxsJAX fun with XKCD Comics

Posted by T.V. Raman, Research Scientist From time to time, our own <a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/raman/">T.V. Raman</a> shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful. Earlier this year, I blogged about the potential presented by <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/web-apis-web-mashups-and-accessibility.html" target="_blank" title="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/web-apis-web-mashups-and-accessibility.html">accessibility mashups</a> with respect to delivering web interfaces that are optimized to a user's special needs. More recently, my office-mate Charles Chen and I blogged about our work on <a href="http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2007/11/introducing-axsjax-access-enabling-ajax.html" target="_blank" title="http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2007/11/introducing-axsjax-access-enabling-ajax.html">AxsJAX</a> as a framework for leveraging Web-2.0 for injecting accessibility enhancements into web applications. As we head into the holiday season, we decided it was time to have some fun and generate a few laughs based on what we've worked on during the year. As chance would have it, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Munroe">Randall Munroe</a>, the creator of the <a href="http://www.xkcd.com/" target="_blank">XKCD comic strip,</a> visited our Mountain View campus to give an <a com="" href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24" v="zJOS0sV2a24">extremely entertaining talk</a>. He even made a reference to blind hacker geeks! So the temptation was too hard to resist. We had to speech-enable his comic strip. The XKCD comics are highly visual, with a short comment from the author accompanying many of the episodes. Having a detailed written description that is visible to everyone would spoil the comic for the average user; part of the fun is to understand the jokes purely from the sketches. At the same time, notice that indexing and searching online comics runs into the same challenge that blind users face: to be able to locate past episodes, one needs access to textual transcripts that capture the essence of each sketch. To help with the latter, fans of online comics like XKCD have created a <a href="http://www.ohnorobot.com/" target="_blank" title="http://www.ohnorobot.com">search engine</a> devoted to indexing comic strips, replete with full text transcriptions. This is an example of a social Web application where fans can transcribe their favorite comics including XKCD. In the Web 1.0 world, I would have to pull up an XKCD episode, then go to the site containing the transcripts, and finally find the associated transcript in order to make sense of the comic. But this is exactly where Web 2.0 mashups excel; mashups are all about bringing data from multiple Web sources into a single integrated view. Once we realized this, we were able to AxsJAX the XKCD site with a small amount of code. Now, I can browse to the XKCD comic site, and listen to each episode -- with the underlying AxsJAX-based mashup taking care of the minutiae of retrieving the relevant transcript and integrating it into the comic strip. This approach leverages all that is powerful about web-based applications: <ul><li>Distributed accessibility --- the XKCD author does not need to create the transcripts. </li><li>Transcripts can be integrated from across the web. </li><li>The accessibility enhancements do not spoil the fun for XKCD readers in general. </li><li>And with Open Source self-voicing plugins like <a href="http://firevox.clcworld.net/" target="_blank" title="http://firevox.clcworld.net">Fire Vox</a>, every XKCD user can listen to the strip when desired. </li></ul>

Accessibility mashups: AxsJAX fun with XKCD Comics

Posted by T.V. Raman, Research Scientist From time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as...

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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 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 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/googleprivacy" id="n-48" title="YouTube Privacy Channel">YouTube Privacy Channel</a>. 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. 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 <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> what you think. And we'll be adding new videos to the Privacy Channel now and again, so be sure to check back. <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

Posted by Amy Ho Seto, Google Chef 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. 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. <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> Buttery Shortbread Cookies Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix the following ingredients until smooth: 1-½ sticks unsalted butter (must be soft) 2-3/4 cups sugar 1 teaspoon Kosher salt Then add the following ingredients and mix until smooth: 8 egg yolks 1/4 cup heavy cream 1 Tablespoon +1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Add: 8 cups all-purpose flour. Mix everything thoroughly until dough comes together. Gather to a ball and flatten to a disc. Chill the dough until firm. You might want to prepare the dough in the evening before you plan on baking and chill it overnight. When chilled, roll to ¼-inch thickness, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Sprinkle tops with assorted sugars, jimmies and sprinkles. 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. 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. 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

Posted by Nick Weininger, Software Engineer <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. 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]: <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> Hopefully this makes your travels a little smoother. Happy holidays from the Google Search team. </div></div>P.S. We're still working on building a search feature that will find your lost luggage ;-)

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

Posted by Ed Sanders, Product Marketing Manager, YouTube Europe 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?" So that's the question, but we all agree that it's finding the answer which will be tough. 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. 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. 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. 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. <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

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

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog Team 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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