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Wrapup: Google Developer Days and Google I/O

Posted by Elizabeth Yin & Min Li Chan, Google Developer Programs May and June were exciting months for our developer team. Not only is it the start of summer in the Bay Area, but also the start of Google I/O and Google Developer Days around the world. Many of the team dispersed to various parts of the globe to meet with developers. Here's a quick recap of where we've been, and where we're heading. San Francisco, May 28-29 We started the summer with <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday/GoogleIO200802#" id="owhq" title="Google I/O on May 28-29th">Google I/O</a>. This two-day conference was our biggest developer gathering to date. While we'd love for every single software developer to come to these events, we realize that isn't possible. So we've recorded as many of the sessions as we could and made them available online. We've posted videos and presentations <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/io/" id="pow1" title="more than 70 of the sessions">more than 70 sessions</a> for you to view. Yokohama, June 10 Shortly after Google I/O, we kicked off our 2008 Google Developer Days. The first stop was <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday2008/DeveloperDayJapan#" id="c6l:" title="Yokohama, Japan">Yokohama, Japan</a>. Andy Rubin and Takuya Oikawa started the day before 1100 developers, highlighting the Android user interface, the Earth API's 3D graphics, and announcing Japan's new Google Developer API Expert program. <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/developerdayjapan/" id="d922" title="Videos and sessions are now available.">Videos and sessions are now available.</a> Beijing, June 12 Two days later, Marissa Mayer and Kai-Fu Lee opened <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday2008/DeveloperDayChina#" id="k0hk" title="Developer Day in Beijing, China">Developer Day in Beijing</a> for more than 2,000 developers, highlighting the effort between Google and local developer communities to collectively make the web better as a platform. Notably, we welcomed several new Chinese networks to the OpenSocial community, including 51.com, 51wan.com, Douban.com, Hainei.com, Tianji.com, Xiaonei.com, and YiQi.com. These networks join a few others that have already launched in China, including MySpace.cn and Tianya.cn, as well as CityIN.com, which has shipped a sandbox for developers. <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/developerdaychina/" id="j1a." title="Beijing videos and sessions are here.">Beijing videos and sessions are here.</a> Taipei, June 14 Next on the schedule was <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday2008/DeveloperDayTaiwan#" id="mx0h" title="Taipei's first Google Developer Day">Taipei's first Google Developer Day</a>, with 900 developers. In the developer showcase, we invited three developers to demonstrate web applications they'd built using Google APIs: Wei-chih Chiang, a student of Yi Shou University and his <a href="http://pi.isuphoto.org/photofeet.htm" id="x.:b" title="Photo Note">Photo Note</a> site, Jun-Chieh Huang, founder of <a href="http://www.ischool.com.tw/" id="qp-:" title="iSchool">ischool</a>, a website that integrates Google services for elementary and high schools in Taiwan, and <a href="http://funp.com/" id="mxot" title="FunP">FunP</a>, a social website integrating OpenSocial features. <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/developerdaytaiwan/" id="nk66" title="Here are the Taipei videos and sessions.">Here are the Taipei videos and sessions.</a> Sydney, June 18 Rounding out the Asia-Pacific Developer Days was an intimate group of <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday2008/DeveloperDayAustralia#" id="v:jd" title="450 developers in Sydney">450 developers in Sydney</a> right by scenic Darling Harbor. In addition to folks from Google, we were excited to have Daniel Reyes, Head of Engineering from MySpace AU, stop by to share his team's work with Gears. Also of note were six local developers who showcased their app at our <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday2008/DeveloperDayAustralia#5214827415724646066" id="dh:g" title="speedgeeking contest">speedgeeking contest</a>: contest winners Casey and Dan Russell of <a id="gmvu" href="http://www.cleancruising.com.au/" title="CleanCruising">CleanCruising</a>, Nick Lothian of <a id="w2.j" href="http://www.scootle.edu.au/" title="Scootle">Scootle</a>, Ken Hoetmer of <a id="afub" href="http://quikmaps.com/" title="Quikmaps">Quikmaps</a>, Tom Horn of the <a id="v:ho" href="http://cannonade.net/aubrey.html" title="Patrick O'Brien Mapping Project">Patrick O'Brien Mapping Project</a>, Tak Tran with the <a id="gqtu" href="http://www.matthuynh.com/cabtour/cabtour.php" title="Collaborative Autobiography">Collaborative Autobiography</a> site, and Tim Savage with the <a id="vihi" href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104881640610994779021/seqwater.xml" title="SEQ Brisbane Water Levels gadget">SEQ Brisbane Water Levels gadget</a>. Mexico City, June 23 John Farrell and Alfonso Luna opened our <a title="first Developer Day in Mexico City" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday2008/DeveloperDayMexico#" id="n3z6">first Developer Day in Mexico City</a>. 500 enthusiastic developers joined us from all over Central and South America, with a crowd of them gathering as early as 6am, well ahead of the 9am start time. Check out <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/developerdaymexico/" id="imgi" title="sessions">sessions.</a> Sao Paulo, June 27 Alexandre Hohagen and Paulo Golgher welcomed 750 developers to <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday2008/DeveloperDayBrazil02#" id="isrj" title="Google Developer Day in Sao Paulo">Developer Day in Sao Paulo</a>, the largest event in Google Brazil's history. The crowd was especially excited to hear Eduardo Thuler's announcement of orkut's upcoming support of OpenSocial in Brazil. Our Developer Days don't stop there, though. After a summer break, look for the team to hit the road again, including a new date in Bangalore. <div class="g-unit" id="vvhg"> <ul id="vvhg0"><li id="vvhg1"> September 16 - London, England </li><li id="vvhg2"> September 18 - Paris, France </li><li id="vvhg3"> September 23 - Munich, Germany </li><li id="vvhg4"> September 25 - Madrid, Spain </li><li id="vvhg5"> October 11 - Bangalore, India </li><li id="vvhg6"> October 21 - Milan, Italy </li><li id="vvhg7"> October 24 - Prague, Czech Republic </li><li id="vvhg8"> October 28 - Moscow, Russia </li></ul> </div> Stay tuned for registration details for these Developer Days.

Wrapup: Google Developer Days and Google I/O

Posted by Elizabeth Yin & Min Li Chan, Google Developer Programs May and June were exciting months for our developer team. Not only is i...

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Google Apps continues to build in Europe

Posted by Roberto Solimene, Enterprise Director, EMEA With Google Apps nearing the venerable age of 17 months, we have already seen more than 500,000 organizations adopt Apps as part of their business, with another 3,000 signing up every day. Many of those customers are small- and medium-sized businesses, but more and more large enterprises are also opting for the cost savings and greater flexibility that cloud computing offers. A good example is Taylor Woodrow, a UK-based construction, facilities management and engineering company that has just moved all its employees onto Google Apps Premier Edition. Their 1,800 users can now collaborate from offices, construction sites, and client premises across the UK and Benelux. Not only has it brought greater mobility and flexibility to everyone, but Taylor Woodrow's director of IT estimates he's saved £1 million in the process. <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2008/07/taylor-woodrow-migrates-1800-users-to.html">Read more on the Google Enterprise Blog</a>.

Google Apps continues to build in Europe

Posted by Roberto Solimene, Enterprise Director, EMEA With Google Apps nearing the venerable age of 17 months, we have already seen more tha...

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Google learns to crawl Flash

Posted by Ron Adler and Janis Stipins, Software Engineers Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. Recently, we've improved the performance of this Flash indexing algorithm by integrating <a href="http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200806/070108AdobeRichMediaSearch.html">Adobe's Flash Player technology</a>. In the past, web designers faced challenges if they chose to develop a site in Flash because the content they included was not indexable by search engines. They needed to make extra effort to ensure that their content was also presented in another way that search engines could find. Now that we've launched our Flash indexing algorithm, web designers can expect improved visibility of their published Flash content, and you can expect to see better search results and snippets. There's more info on the <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html">Webmaster Central blog</a><provides more="" technical="" details=""> about the Searchable SWF integration.</provides>

Google learns to crawl Flash

Posted by Ron Adler and Janis Stipins, Software Engineers Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash f...

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Making it better

Posted by Kristen Holway, Account Executive, Media Sales Over the summer solstice weekend, Seattle/Kirkland Googlers posed this question to people attending the <a href="http://www.fremontfair.com/">Fremont Fair</a>: "How would you make our world, or our city, better?" The goal of the Fremont Fair "Make it Better" Project was to engage the Seattle community in an active discussion around improving our world. This is the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8cU45IsYDY&feature=related">second year</a> we've partnered with Solid Ground to participate in the fair, a free event organized by <a href="http://www.workshopevents.com/">The Workshop</a> to benefit local efforts to address homelessness, hunger and racism. Check out the video responses to our question that were just posted on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=SolidGroundWA&p=r">Solid Ground YouTube channel</a>. Whether it's about ending poverty, improving equal access to education or any of the myriad of other challenges our world faces, we want to use our technology to stimulate creative discussion about the ideas that are important to Seattle-area citizens and to local Googlers.

Making it better

Posted by Kristen Holway, Account Executive, Media Sales Over the summer solstice weekend, Seattle/Kirkland Googlers posed this question to ...

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I got married... with Google

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager, Google Docs Team We love hearing stories about how our products help people, and let's face it -- weddings are one time when help is needed. For many couples, planning a wedding can be an organizational nightmare. But for David and Bergin Boyle, the planning turned into a fun experiment on the web. The Boyles used Google Calendar to pick a wedding date that fit both of their schedules. They created to-do and RSVP lists with Google Docs and shared them with their relatives and friends. And they created a site containing the wedding details for their guests, complete with a <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101817072506192973654.00043e7f633475fe9d6c8&ll=41.877741,-72.125244&spn=4.474005,9.008789&z=7">personalized Google Map</a> featuring the local Stonington, Conn., sights as well as places of note in the surrounding metropolitan areas. As a result, David reports he was undaunted by the planning process. And with the help of <a href="http://buzz.blogger.com/2008/05/blogger-now-schedules-future-dated.html">Blogger's "future-dated posts" feature</a>, the couple was able to post their wedding story on the groom's blog at the same time that they strolled down the aisle. Here's the <a href="http://infoclarity.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-just-got-married-thanks-google.html">full story</a> in their own words. Our best wishes to the Boyles!

I got married... with Google

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle, Product Manager, Google Docs Team We love hearing stories about how our products help people, and let's fac...

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Using data to fight webspam

Posted by Matt Cutts, Software Engineer This post is the latest in an ongoing <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/making-search-better-in-catalonia.html">series</a> about how we harness the data we collect to improve our products and services for our users. - Ed. As the head of the webspam team at Google, I'm in charge of making sure your search results are as relevant and informative as possible. Webspam, in case you've never heard of it, is the junk you see in search results when websites successfully cheat their way into higher positions in search results or otherwise violate <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769#quality" id="jelw" title="search engine quality guidelines">search engine quality guidelines</a>. If you've never seen webspam, here's a good example of what you might see if you click on a link in the search results that's spam (click on the image to see it larger). <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirDPtpF3pioH-F9uZ0T1FNpHd9vpdifV0E9j_buoKVuQy2DkskJB3ZqxAubtEXLj4oq-N0iUBdjTpYtADO0r91gS3W8FeHfQR7B9-ZAmbbNbo1YezDiV6o_5KbeRuxeUC8_3hYIEaMj3uw/s1600-h/webspam.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216926735305016946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirDPtpF3pioH-F9uZ0T1FNpHd9vpdifV0E9j_buoKVuQy2DkskJB3ZqxAubtEXLj4oq-N0iUBdjTpYtADO0r91gS3W8FeHfQR7B9-ZAmbbNbo1YezDiV6o_5KbeRuxeUC8_3hYIEaMj3uw/s320/webspam.gif" style="cursor: pointer;" /></a> <div style="text-align: left;">You can see how unhelpful such a page would be. This example is filled with almost no original content, irrelevant links, and information that is of little use to a user. We work hard to ensure you rarely see search results like this. Imagine how annoyed you would be if you clicked on a link from a Google search result and ended up on a page like this. Searchers don't often see blatant, outright spam like this in search results today. But webspam was much more of an issue before Google became popular and before we were able to build effective anti-spam methods. In general, webspam can be a real annoyance, such as when a search on your own name returns links to porn pages as results. But for many searches, where getting relevant information is more critical, spam is a serious problem. For example, a search for <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=prostate+cancer" id="n.y3" title="prostate cancer">prostate cancer</a> that's full of spam instead of relevant links greatly diminishes the value of a search engine as a helpful tool. Data from search logs is one tool we use to fight webspam and return cleaner and more relevant results. Logs data such as IP address and cookie information make it possible to create and use metrics that measure the different aspects of our search quality (such as index size and coverage, results "freshness," and spam). Whenever we create a new metric, it's essential to be able to go over our logs data and compute new spam metrics using previous queries or results. We use our search logs to go "back in time" and see how well Google did on queries from months before. When we create a metric that measures a new type of spam more accurately, we not only start tracking our spam success going forward, but we also use logs data to see how we were doing on that type of spam in previous months and years. The IP and cookie information is important for helping us apply this method only to searches that are from legitimate users as opposed to those that were generated by bots and other false searches. For example, if a bot sends the same queries to Google over and over again, those queries should really be discarded before we measure how much spam our users see. All of this--log data, IP addresses, and cookie information--makes your search results cleaner and more relevant. If you think webspam is a solved problem, think again. Last year Google faced a rash of webspam on Chinese domains in our index. Some spammers were purchasing large amounts of cheap .cn domains and stuffing them with <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2188281,00.asp" id="nkze" title="misspellings and porn phrases">misspellings and porn phrases</a>. Savvy users may remember reading a few blogs about it, but most regular users never even noticed. The reason that a typical searcher didn't notice the odd results is that Google identified the .cn spam and responded with a fast-tracked engineering project to counteract that type of spam attack. Without our logs data to help identify the speed and scope of the problem, many more Google users might have been affected by this attack. In an ideal world, the vast majority of our users wouldn't even need to know that Google has a webspam team. If we do our job well, you may see low-quality results from time to time, but you won't have to face sneaky JavaScript redirects, unwanted porn, gibberish-stuffed pages or other types of webspam. Our logs data helps ensure that Google detects and has a chance to counteract new spam trends before it lowers the quality of your search experience. Update: Enlarged image. </div></div>

Using data to fight webspam

Posted by Matt Cutts, Software Engineer This post is the latest in an ongoing series about how we harness the data we collect to improve ou...

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Free cross-product webinar for webmasters

Posted by Jon Stona, Product Marketing Team Three of our most useful products for website owners are <a id="mrdk2" title="Google Webmaster Tools" href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools" target="_blank">Google Webmaster Tools</a>, <a id="mrdk3" title="Google Analytics" href="http://www.google.com/analytics" target="_blank">Google Analytics</a>, and <a id="mrdk4" title="Google Website Optimizer" href="http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer" target="_blank">Google Website Optimizer</a>. On July 8, we're joining forces to bring you a free webinar about all of them so you can learn more about how they can boost your website when used together. Here's the trifecta: Google Webmaster Tools is a resource to gauge the visibility of your pages on Google. It shows you which of our search queries drive traffic to your site and lets you see where your site is included in the top search results. You'll even be able to identify your top content and view the words that other sites use to link to it. Google Analytics provides further insight on how people land and navigate on your site, regardless of whether they arrive through Google search, pay-per-click ads, or other means. You can see which geographical regions people come from, view your top landing pages, and compare the effectiveness of all your ads, e-mail newsletters, affiliate campaigns, referrals, and keywords on Google and other search engines. Google Website Optimizer then enables you to act on the information you've gathered about your site and make concrete improvements. After identifying your high-traffic but low-converting pages, you can test different combinations of content to determine which one most yields the outcome you're looking for. To be clear, we keep a strict wall between search and ads; your site ranking won't affect your ad placement and vice versa. Still, by using all three tools together, you'll gain a complete, detailed picture of how your site's visitors arrive, interact, and respond to changes in content or design. And if you're already using one tool, you can use your same login for the others. Our first-ever joint webinar for Webmaster Tools, Analytics, and Website Optimizer will take place: DATE: Tuesday, July 8 TIME: 9:00 a.m. PT (Pacific Time) JOIN US: <a title="Register to attend" id="mrdk14" href="http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=113541&s=1&k=CB05AB57071FCC9968D5BAE69762C198" target="_blank">Register to attend</a> If you can't make that date, you'll be able to access an archived version of the presentation via the same registration URL. And lest you forget, you can always visit <a title="Google Webmaster Central" href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/" id="t_ha">Google Webmaster Central</a> to see everything we offer to help you build and maintain your best site. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFl_TWK0u3NPwI_szyiIBaW4BbbHc-e4hs1yDub0vrLUQIjiqaTkyvkEYIrhcx9XVzosYKTmRhEWhNyGa1t1GWriKTB_6MYXRdeEjBPTFAWaqdtlBce0Ezdf22b0s-kifoHKP5lU4RXvFa/s1600-h/gwc+image.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216223514463198242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFl_TWK0u3NPwI_szyiIBaW4BbbHc-e4hs1yDub0vrLUQIjiqaTkyvkEYIrhcx9XVzosYKTmRhEWhNyGa1t1GWriKTB_6MYXRdeEjBPTFAWaqdtlBce0Ezdf22b0s-kifoHKP5lU4RXvFa/s400/gwc+image.gif" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>

Free cross-product webinar for webmasters

Posted by Jon Stona, Product Marketing Team Three of our most useful products for website owners are Google Webmaster Tools , Google Analyti...

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