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Gmail in your words

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing Manager Since launching Gmail in 2004, we've always supported the idea that email should be useful, fast, reliable, and fun. But instead of just hearing what we think about Gmail, we wanted to hear from you. So we <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/whats-your-story.html" id="i2ub" title="recently invited">recently invited</a> Gmail fans to share stories about how you're using it in unique and productive ways. Turns out that you're a creative bunch, and we got the <a href="http://youtube.com/video_response_view_all?v=R1epyJsRnBM">video submissions</a> (and 1500+ emails) to prove it. With so many stories to choose from, we decided to put them all together and showcase a bit of everything you had to say. To check out the collaborative video and some of the email stories we received, head to <a title="gmail.com/yourstory" href="http://www.gmail.com/yourstory" id="bkqs">gmail.com/yourstory</a>. You might even discover a new way to use Gmail that you'd never considered. <object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LS0CrSq_Ip8&rel=1"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LS0CrSq_Ip8&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object> We always love hearing from you, so if you still have a story to share <a href="http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=story" id="bba5" target="_blank" title="give us a shout">give us a shout</a>.

Gmail in your words

Posted by Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing Manager Since launching Gmail in 2004, we've always supported the idea that emai...

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Public transit made easy

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. - Ed. A little over a year ago, I blogged about <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/speech-friendly-textual-directions.html" id="r7wx" title="our simple textual directions">our simple textual directions</a> as an alternative to the popular graphical Google Maps interface. Those directions help me orient myself and learn my way around. But in the interest of safety -- my own and others! -- I choose not to drive and rely heavily on public transportation. Now that Maps has textual directions in place, it's easy to build on top of that interface to introduce new innovations that become immediately useful to someone like me. <a href="http://www.maps.google.com/transit">Google Transit</a> is a great example of this -- it helps me locate public transportation options and does so in the text format that I need. In addition, it offers several nice features to help me plan my trip: <ul><li> I can specify the desired departure or arrival time.</li><li> It will show more than one trip choice, allowing some flexibility with respect to when I'd like to start.</li><li> It estimates the amount of walking required to get to a transit stop/station.</li><li> It identifies the length of waiting at each transit point.</li><li> It estimates the comparable cost of transportation options, where available.</li></ul>But these aren't the only benefits. Behind the scenes is the <a href="http://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.html" target="_blank">Google Transit Feed Specification</a> (GTFS), an open data format used by public transit agencies to upload their data. <a title="Several agencies" href="http://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed/wiki/PublicFeeds" id="w5r9">Several agencies</a> are already using these public feeds. Though GTFS is never seen by commuters directly, it opens up a wealth of possibilities with respect to accessibility and alternative access, such as building custom user interfaces and specialized route guidance applications that are optimized for people with special needs. Though we added this alternative view to enhance the accessibility of Google Maps for blind and low-vision users, we hope that everyone finds it a useful addition to your commute arsenal. So next time you use the Maps graphical interface, give its cousin, the simple textual directions, a try -- there might be times when you find yourself using it even if you can see. And here's to ever more open data feeds from the various public transport agencies!

Public transit made easy

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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Searching for solutions

Posted by Sheryl Sandberg, VP, Global Online Sales & Operations Just over two years ago, I <a title="wrote here" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/about-googleorg.html" id="fijs">wrote here</a> that we were taking a broad approach to philanthropy under the umbrella of Google.org. Today Google.org <a title="announced" href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20080117_googleorg.html" id="qagv">shared</a> its game plan, announcing five core initiatives to help combat climate change, global poverty and emerging threats such as pandemic disease. These initiatives draw upon Google's strengths in access to information and scalable technology. We'll use a range of approaches including grants, investments in for-profits and advocacy, and will continue to tap the experience of Google engineers and other team members. We're working alongside experienced partners to carry out these initiatives. For example, one of the initiatives is aimed at improving the quality of delivery of basic services, such as education or clean water. In rich countries we take it for granted that clean water comes out when we turn the tap, and our children learn to read when they go to school. But in many countries in the developing world, essential public services are not working, especially for the poor. Governments are investing huge sums -- to the tune of $700 billion -- to provide basic services, but the lack of two-way information flow inhibits the effectiveness of delivery and the ability of communities to hold providers accountable. The <a title="Inform and Empower" href="http://www.google.org/inform.html" id="phbx">Inform and Empower</a> initiative explores ways to bridge that gap. One of our partners is <a title="Pratham" href="http://www.pratham.org/" id="qwa5">Pratham</a>, a non-governmental organization (NGO) in India that creates the <a title="ASER Report" href="http://www.pratham.org/aserrep.php" id="zfs9">ASER Report</a>, a yearly nationwide survey on education outcomes. Their 2005 report provided data for the first time on basic reading and math skills for children in rural India. The report seeded a national conversation between governments, NGOs and private providers about the state of education and served as a catalyst for change. Our support will help expand their work to other sectors and potentially to other countries. Please visit <a title="Google.org" href="http://www.google.org/" id="t42q">Google.org</a> for more information on Inform and Empower and the other initiatives announced today.

Searching for solutions

Posted by Sheryl Sandberg, VP, Global Online Sales & Operations Just over two years ago, I wrote here that we were taking a broad appro...

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Google India Women in Engineering Award 2008

Posted by Manoj Varghese, Human Resources Director, India Diversity at Google means having a workforce that reflects the diversity of our customers' perspectives, ideas and cultures -- one that thinks and acts inclusively, and fundamentally values people's similarities and differences. As part of our ongoing commitment to encourage women to excel in computing and technology, the India team has taken our first steps: in December we launched the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/jobs/womeninengineering/index.html">Google India "Women in Engineering Award"</a> to recognize women in the field of computer science and engineering. In its inception year, we have extended this award to recognized engineering schools across India; it is open to any woman student in computer science engineering who meets the <a href="http://www.google.co.in/jobs/womeninengineering/award/criteria.html">application criteria</a>. This initiative has been received positively, as has been indicated by the inundating queries and subsequent applications. The last date for applying is January 31st and we are looking forward to hearing from even more <a href="https://services.google.com/inquiry/womeninengineering">applicants</a>. After our panel reviews all applications, the winners will be announced in a little more than a month, on February 29th. The winners will be invited to visit the Google engineering office in Bangalore during first week of March for a conclave comprising of keynotes, panel discussions, tech talks, breakouts and an award ceremony. We hope this award will encourage students to take up computer science engineering as their study, and perhaps <a href="http://www.google.co.in/jobs/womeninengineering/award/photos.html">inspire</a> some of you to take this up as a career too.

Google India Women in Engineering Award 2008

Posted by Manoj Varghese, Human Resources Director, India Diversity at Google means having a workforce that reflects the diversity of our cu...

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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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