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Team Aquaduct wins Innovate or Die competition

Posted by Dan Reicher, Google.org team The contest said to "Innovate or Die" – and Team Aquaduct lives! In fact, the San Bruno, California team – consisting of John Lai, Adam Mack, Brian Mason, Eleanor Morgan, Paul Silberschatz – is living in grand (prize) style today after winning the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/pour-on-pedal-power.html">first Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine contest</a>. Team Aquaduct was declared the winner out of 102 entries by building a unique and functional solution to provide rural communities with access to clean water. The quintet will share the $5,000 grand prize, and each will receive a Specialized Globe bicycle – as will all five of the finalist runners-up (<a href="http://www.innovate-or-die.com/">read more about all the winners</a>). The contest encouraged people to evaluate environmental issues and develop ingenious solutions surrounding climate change. Many original and inspiring ideas emerged; make sure to visit the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/groups_videos?name=innovateordie">YouTube Innovate or Die page</a> to view all of the entries. And here's the video for Team Aquaduct's winning pedal-powered water transportation and filtration vehicle: <object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-U-mvfjyiao&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-U-mvfjyiao&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>

Team Aquaduct wins Innovate or Die competition

Posted by Dan Reicher, Google.org team The contest said to "Innovate or Die" – and Team Aquaduct lives! In fact, the San Bruno, Ca...

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The iGoogle Themes API

Posted by Kevin Tom, iGoogle Product Manager Since we launched themes on iGoogle last March, we've enjoyed seeing how people have connected with them. For instance, we've gotten fan mail for the "fox in the teahouse" theme, and seen some great blog posts generated when folks discover the Easter egg for each theme. Users and developers alike have been clamoring to know when they can develop themes for the iGoogle homepage, and we're happy to say that today is the day! Whether you like outer space, cartoons, dogs, or anything else, you can now create your own theme and help personalize iGoogle for millions of people. The Themes API lets you customize many portions of the iGoogle page. Your theme can also update the page's design based on variables, such as the time of day or location. This makes it easy to create a narrative that unfolds throughout the day, a landscape that changes as the sun rises and sets, or an abstract image that becomes more complex. Anyone who can build a website can create an iGoogle Theme. We worked with designers Yves Behar, Mark Frauenfelder, Troy Lee, and John Maeda to create some <a title="Custom designs" href="http://code.google.com/apis/themes/#Examples" id="yz53">custom iGoogle designs</a> to show some great examples of the types of themes you can create. <a href="http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/01/igoogle-themes-api.html">Read more on the Google Code Blog</a> and <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/themes">start creating your theme.</a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ0IHtFbeB9vtD4MQ0_xtKnmumcFJDIaT6D53S8S3wuAiV6BU1Hijj2Un28DGFR2FuLW7YFAbjtY3mJxIeBs0Gk3Lsot_FxXzmv3y4AE1cHooJ4_QPjgoKfGuJ0bYy4GSBWKqQDtmUyB6v/s1600-h/iGoog2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5155960761002075474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ0IHtFbeB9vtD4MQ0_xtKnmumcFJDIaT6D53S8S3wuAiV6BU1Hijj2Un28DGFR2FuLW7YFAbjtY3mJxIeBs0Gk3Lsot_FxXzmv3y4AE1cHooJ4_QPjgoKfGuJ0bYy4GSBWKqQDtmUyB6v/s400/iGoog2.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> Earth-light by Yves Behar, founder of the San Francisco design studio fuseproject

The iGoogle Themes API

Posted by Kevin Tom, iGoogle Product Manager Since we launched themes on iGoogle last March, we've enjoyed seeing how people have connec...

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The flow of information at the Googleplex

Posted by Bo Cowgill, Economics Group <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/putting-crowd-wisdom-to-work.html" target="_blank">Earlier</a> on this blog, we shared some exciting early results from our firm's implementation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market" target="_blank">prediction markets</a>. At <a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/Annual_Meeting/index.htm" target="_blank"> last Friday's meeting</a> of the <a href="http://www.aeaweb.org/" target="_blank">American Economic Association</a>, we shared the results of a deeper study, "<a href="http://services.google.com/blog_resources/google_prediction_market_paper.pdf">Using Prediction Markets to Track Information Flows: Evidence From Google</a>," that uses prediction markets to show how organizations process information and respond to external events. Here are some interesting findings: <ul style="margin-left: 40px;"><li>Traders in the same location tend to make the same trades at the same time. The trades of cubemates within a small radius is the best predictor we found. By using a record of historical office changes, we could observe that the correlation begins shortly after people are seated nearby. It makes sense, because the physical proximity enables easy communication. As Eric Schmidt (our CEO) and Hal Varian (now our Chief Economist) <a title="advised in 2005" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10296177/site/newsweek/print/1/displaymode/1098/" id="ha2h">advised in 2005</a>: "The best way to make communication easy is to put team members within a few feet of each other. No telephone tag, no e-mail delay, no waiting for a reply." As you can see below, our finding about the importance of proximity holds, even once we account for many other factors. </li></ul><ul style="margin-left: 40px;"><li>Although we did find strong correlations among professional and social contacts, these were substantially weaker than the correlations for micro-geography. We also measured the influence that people on similar projects, in similar places in the organization and with similar demographic characteristics exert on each other. This helped establish that geographic proximity -- and not some other type of similarity -- was responsible for the correlations we saw. </li><li>Despite the markets' <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/putting-crowd-wisdom-to-work.html" target="_blank">strong forecasting abilities</a>, there is a slight optimistic bias driven mainly by new employees. On average, outcomes that were good for Google were overpriced by 20%. This bias was strongest on days after appreciations in <a href="http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=GOOG" target="_blank">Google stock</a> and, ironically, for outcomes under our own control! We also find biases against extreme outcomes and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_selling" target="_blank">short selling</a>. Given a range of five outcomes, the middle ones were typically overpriced and unprofitable by comparison with the outliers. </li></ul>Although the proof is in the paper, nothing quite helps like a graphic. Below you can see a snapshot of trading in one of our offices. The areas where employees are making profitable decisions is green, and the areas where employees are making unprofitable decisions is red. There are about 16 profitable traders in that big green blotch in the middle! <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjywR15lrIVIYdFuh0IDqVsMVnPQVMxgjpyWnA1_fS-iNstN7jQ_SYHQzD3ygneqNlEqrqr5MfXNWTTP40rDZ4RQ9_qfA_Wm3E25URcxU0CNadIxGmlae4vo7n3Cv4GrIw6Ozq1ebMLVIVk/s1600-h/Prophit_heatmap.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5152906522414261346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjywR15lrIVIYdFuh0IDqVsMVnPQVMxgjpyWnA1_fS-iNstN7jQ_SYHQzD3ygneqNlEqrqr5MfXNWTTP40rDZ4RQ9_qfA_Wm3E25URcxU0CNadIxGmlae4vo7n3Cv4GrIw6Ozq1ebMLVIVk/s320/Prophit_heatmap.JPG" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a> </div>

The flow of information at the Googleplex

Posted by Bo Cowgill, Economics Group Earlier on this blog, we shared some exciting early results from our firm's implementation of pre...

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Baby steps to a new job

Posted by Gretta Cook, Software Engineer, Google Seattle In late 2004, Google opened an engineering office <a title="near Seattle" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=720+4th+Avenue,+Kirkland,+WA&sll=47.67842,-122.195236&sspn=0.001994,0.004951&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=47.678522,-122.195649&spn=0.00942,0.021651&z=16&iwloc=addr" id="sux:">near Seattle</a>, and my son Elliott was born. I had heard great things from my friends who worked for the company down in California, and I was eager to join their ranks in this new local office. But the timing was all wrong: I wanted to spend a few years at home with my new baby. Elliott and I had lots of fun. We went to the park and the library together. We read nursery rhymes and played peek-a-boo. We baked muffins and did finger painting. We did not, however, debate the relative merits of our favorite cache replacement policies, or write and debug multithreaded C++ code. So by the time Elliott was ready to start preschool and I was ready to go back to work, I had to ask: Would I still be able to pass a Google interview, or had I forgotten all of my technical skills? If I wanted to land the job, I had to get serious: I needed to brush up on my data structures and algorithms, my coding, not to mention general interview skills. For the next few months, I hired a babysitter to come and watch Elliott one afternoon a week. I split that time between studying my college computer science textbooks and participating in online coding contests. The coding contests were particularly valuable because they forced me to work through the design and coding stages quickly, just like in an interview. The details of the standard Java and C++ libraries came back to me as I scrambled to get my contest code to run before time was up. I even asked friends to do mock interviews with me so I could get used to writing code on a whiteboard again. In the end, all of this paid off. My day of interviews went really well, and I got the job! The Seattle-area office and Elliott turned three recently; they're both thriving. I feel very fortunate to have the two of them in my life. And I'd encourage anyone -- including new moms -- who is interested in <a title="a job at Google" href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/" id="mq-x">a job at Google</a> to go for it.

Baby steps to a new job

Posted by Gretta Cook, Software Engineer, Google Seattle In late 2004, Google opened an engineering office near Seattle , and my son Elliott...

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AdWords and local markets

Posted by Brynne Zuccaro, Channel Marketing Specialist, Local Markets According to a <a href="http://searchengineland.com/071011-110013.php" id="ci77" title="WebVisible-Nielsen survey">WebVisible-Nielsen survey</a> from October 2007, 74% of people use search engines to find information when purchasing a product or service from a local business. Yet millions of businesses don’t have websites, and even those that do, don’t often engage in search marketing because they lack the time, knowledge or resources. To address this gap, our AdWords Local Markets Team has partnered with companies including Yellow Pages directories, website developers and traditional media businesses to help create search-based ad products and strategies. We recently hosted the first annual Local Markets Symposium at our Mountain View Googleplex, which brought together more than 150 current and prospective Google AdWords Authorized Reseller partners to discuss how we can bring the power of local online advertising to small and medium-sized businesses. An array of experts spoke, including Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, local advertising guru Greg Sterling, industry bloggers, a Wall Street analyst, as well as a panel of local AdWords advertisers. What became clear throughout the day is that there’s a tremendous opportunity for local merchants to grow their business through online marketing. If you’re with a company seeking to promote the adoption of search engine marketing by small and medium-sized businesses, visit <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/reseller/index.html">our Google AdWords Authorized Reseller site</a>.<div> </div><div>Update Feb 25, 2010: Fixed link to reseller site. </div>

AdWords and local markets

Posted by Brynne Zuccaro, Channel Marketing Specialist, Local Markets According to a WebVisible-Nielsen survey from October 2007, 74% of pe...

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Front row for First in the Nation

Posted by Ginny Hunt, Google Election Program Tonight when Iowans gather in living rooms and high school gyms to take the first step in selecting our U.S. Presidential nominees, Google and YouTube will give you a front row seat. We're working together with local Iowan media organizations and political parties to bring you real time results and citizen-generated videos from the caucuses –- an up-close and personal perspective in the process to elect the next President. Iowa caucus goers and out-of-state political pundits alike can upload videos of the Iowa Caucus to YouTube, giving you a direct view into this vibrant political scene. These Iowa Caucus videos can be found at the <a title="YouTube Channel" href="http://www.youtube.com/iowacaucuses" id="ukk-">Des Moines Register's YouTube Channel</a> and span a variety of perspectives from predictions and personal reflections to interviews and candidate analysis. And starting tonight (approx. 8-10 pm CST), you can use <a title="Google Maps" href="http://maps.google.com/#source=ogbiowa" id="m1xq">Google Maps</a> to view real-time caucus results by county. The political parties in Iowa will be working with us to publish these results to our <a title="Iowa Caucus map" href="http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fmapfiles%2Fmapplets%2Fiowacaucus%2Fiowacaucus.xml&ie=UTF8&ll=42.0656,-93.6914&spn=5.040111,5.493164&z=7&om=1" id="sy2j">Iowa Caucus map</a> as soon as they come in, so that everyone can access results online when Iowans finish caucusing. To stay on top of campaign coverage, check out the <a title="Google News Election" href="http://news.google.com/news?topic=el&promo_msg=el" id="fcl0">Google News Election</a> section, where you can also find the <a title="Election 2008 Google gadget" href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/igoogle/election.html#utm_source=en-zz-jan3blogpost&utm_medium=zz&utm_content=jan3blogpost&utm_campaign=en" id="se73">Election 2008 Google gadget</a> for a one-stop shop to follow the campaign trail.

Front row for First in the Nation

Posted by Ginny Hunt, Google Election Program Tonight when Iowans gather in living rooms and high school gyms to take the first step in sele...

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This year of Google blogging

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team It's that time again, the end of a year - time to tote up Google's blogging activity for the last 365 days. First, a few bits of data about this particular blog: <ul><li>Number of posts this year: 300</li><li>New product announcements: 15 (not counting our <a title="April 1 product" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/April%201" id="arw6">April 1 release</a>)</li><li>News about upgrades and additions to products: 87</li><li>Announcing products in more languages and countries: 30</li><li>Acquisitions: 12</li><li>Unique visitors: 6,738,830 (for 8,655,830 visits)</li><li>Languages: 511 (preferred language configured on computers)</li><li>Top non-Google referrers: Yahoo, Digg, Slashdot, Fark</li></ul>Beyond these basics, this year saw many more posts on privacy (9), <a title="accessibility" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/accessibility" id="q2e_">accessibility</a> (10), and <a title="energy and the environment" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/environment" id="w10l">energy and the environment</a> (11). We blogged a good deal about Google's <a title="people and culture" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/googlers%20and%20culture" id="r7nx">people and culture</a>, our various offices around the world, and the pastimes and passions of Googlers (26, including 2 <a title="recipes" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/recipe" id="v-ic">recipes</a>). We talked about <a title="healthcare issues" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/healthcare" id="ecq0">healthcare issues</a> that challenge consumers (5). There were competitions including Google Code Jam and events for developers, educators and others (29). Through YouTube, there has been much <a title="political activity" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/politics" id="eutf">political activity</a> (7) in the U.S. as well as in <a title="Australia" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/australias-election-map-redrawn.html" id="olp8">Australia</a>. The posts that elicited the most reaction in terms of views and linkbacks include: - the much-discussed <a title=""Gphone"" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/wheres-my-gphone.html" id="pii.">"Gphone"</a> news - our thinking about the upcoming <a title="FCC spectrum auction" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/whos-going-to-win-spectrum-auction.html#links" id="q8w:">FCC spectrum auction</a> - what the <a title="OpenSocial APIs" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/opensocial-makes-web-better.html#links" id="tpxx">OpenSocial APIs</a> could mean - how a <a title="black screen" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-black-new-green.html#links" id="dj35">black screen</a> might not save energy - announcing the <a title="Knol test project" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/encouraging-people-to-contribute.html" id="m0x8">Knol test project</a> - building <a title="your own Google homepage" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/build-your-own-google-homepage.html" id="c6w-">your own Google homepage</a> Of course, there's more than business to write about. We celebrated <a title="National Gorilla Suit Day" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/office-of-apes.html" id="yir4">National Gorilla Suit Day</a>, <a title="kerfuffle over the Valentine's Day doodle" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/strawberries-are-red-stems-are-green.html" id="m.xv">deconstructed the Valentine's Day doodle</a>, and then <a title="a snake went missing" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/snakes-in-plain-old-office-building.html" id="clv.">a snake went missing</a>. As for the Google family of blogs, there's been lots of growth this year: 42 new ones launched, for a total to 83 active company blogs. Increasingly, Googlers want to quickly and regularly convey product news and updates to various constituents, and blogs are a great way to do that. Among the most popular of this newest crop are the <a title="Gmail blog" href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/" id="fn2q">Gmail blog </a>(nearly 1.5 million unique visitors), the Orkut blogs (in <a title="English" href="http://en.blog.orkut.com/" id="ecs7">English</a> - 3.5 million uniques; and <a title="Portuguese" href="http://blog.orkut.com/" id="dm6w">Portuguese</a> - 8.8 million), and <a title="Google Lat Long" href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/" id="q5yh">Google Lat Long</a>, with 824,000 unique visitors, which covers everything geographical. In addition, readers can now turn to new product blogs including those for <a title="Google Finance" href="http://googlefinanceblog.blogspot.com/" id="mij.">Google Finance</a>, <a title="Google News" href="http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/" id="ogeg">Google News</a>, and <a title="Mobile" href="http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/" id="yiu4">Mobile</a>. Reflecting keen interest in activity outside the U.S., the YouTube blog had the greatest number of comments for its <a title="June post" href="http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=ktewBXNbyTw" id="ftjw">June post</a> about the fact that YouTube is available in 9 more countries, followed by the August post <a title="announcing InVideo ads" href="http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=rQpNsTzbgqM" id="wbkt">announcing InVideo ads</a>. On the ads side: there are now 6 more non-English blogs for AdSense publishers (<a title="French" href="http://adsense-fr.blogspot.com/" id="zsf6">French</a>, <a title="Turkish" href="http://adsense-tr.blogspot.com/" id="o_ss">Turkish</a>, <a title="Japanese" href="http://adsense-ja.blogspot.com/" id="obdv">Japanese</a>, <a title="Korean" href="http://adsense-ko.blogspot.com/" id="a8.y">Korean</a>, <a title="Italian" href="http://it-adsense.blogspot.com/" id="q-m0">Italian</a>, <a title="Chinese" href="http://adsense.googlechinablog.com/" id="s1wm">Chinese</a>). The AdWords team opened blogs for <a title="Brasil" href="http://adwords-br.blogspot.com/" id="bost">Brasil</a> and the <a title="Netherlands" href="http://adwords-nl.blogspot.com/" id="hjnp">Netherlands</a>, Japan now has <a title="its own Analytics blog" href="http://analytics-ja.blogspot.com/" id="m0ma">its own Analytics blog</a>, and there are now <a title="German" href="http://googlewebmastercentral-de.blogspot.com/" id="ya-8">German</a> and <a title="Chinese" href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/" id="v6nl">Chinese</a> versions of the popular <a title="Webmaster Central" href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/" id="xksc">Webmaster Central</a>. (The most popular ads-related blog is the one for <a title="Analytics blog" href="http://analytics.blogspot.com/" id="s-b.">Analytics</a>, with nearly half a million unique visitors, followed by closely <a title="Inside AdSense" href="http://adsense.blogspot.com/" id="n7.u">Inside AdSense</a> and then <a title="Inside AdWords" href="http://adwords.blogspot.com/" id="nase">Inside AdWords</a>.) To keep current and share their work, developers got a raft of new blogs, too, including those focused on APIs for <a title="YouTube" href="http://apiblog.youtube.com/" id="c7oj">YouTube</a>, <a title="Checkout" href="http://googlecheckoutapi.blogspot.com/" id="x3qt">Checkout</a>, <a title="Gears" href="http://gearsblog.blogspot.com/" id="nxwq">Gears</a>, <a title="Mashup" href="http://googlemashupeditor.blogspot.com/" id="eo80">Mashup</a>, and <a title="Gadgets" href="http://googlegadgetsapi.blogspot.com/" id="rdpp">Gadgets</a>. Needless to say, there are now also blogs for <a title="Android" href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/" id="q9s:">Android</a> and <a title="OpenSocial" href="http://opensocialapis.blogspot.com/" id="bwub">OpenSocial</a>. Two new country blogs, for the <a title="Czech Republic" href="http://google-cz.blogspot.com/" id="s:og">Czech Republic</a> and <a title="Australia" href="http://google-au.blogspot.com/" id="k.4.">Australia</a>, went public, to talk about all things Google in their regions. Yet more readers congregated around the new <a title="Public Policy" href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/" id="kj:o">Public Policy</a> and <a title="Google.org" href="http://blog.google.org/" id="zawg">Google.org</a> blogs, as well as one dedicated to <a title="online security" href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/" id="utt.">online security</a> and malware. Despite all this activity, and the fact that a growing number of companies also host corporate blogs, the <a title="Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki" href="http://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi" id="zdsn">Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki</a> (a collaborative project begun by Wired Magazine and SocialText) indicates that even today, just 46 of the Fortune 500 companies (about 9%), have active public blogs produced by company employees that focus on the company and its products. Let's hope in 2008 that number goes up. We think such blogs can serve users, journalists, critics, investors, and fans more effectively and directly than more traditional approaches. Apparently, so do 41,395,926 people around the world - the number of visitors to all of our blogs this year.

This year of Google blogging

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team It's that time again, the end of a year - time to tote up Google's blogging activity for th...

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