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More tools for citizen participation

Posted by Peter Foo, Associate Webmaster and Mark Lucovsky, Technical Director Political participation isn't just about casting your vote; everyone should be able to become an informed participant instantly. When Americans want to learn about candidates and issues using Google, we find that they want more than one source, and immediate results. Instead of sitting through entire television broadcasts, voters are going online to get their daily dose of politics - as they did during the primaries, when searches for political queries spiked. We created a page on <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/trends/elections/" id="u685" title="2008 US election trends">2008 US election trends</a> that highlights search queries on candidates by location to show how, during this election season, voters across the nation are getting politically engaged online. Use the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?synd=open&source=ggyp&moduleurl=cqueries.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/queries_1.2.xml%3Fp%3D1">Candidate Search Queries map</a> to see which cities are searching more for Obama or McCain, and the News by Candidate tool on the trends page to see the latest headlines on each of the presidential contenders. Our political outreach efforts are aimed at providing citizens with useful knowledge on where candidates, office holders and advocacy groups stand. As more Americans go online and take simple steps to participate in politics, we aspire to promote democracy and informed participation in the process by equipping voters with useful information through search.

More tools for citizen participation

Posted by Peter Foo, Associate Webmaster and Mark Lucovsky, Technical Director Political participation isn't just about casting your vot...

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What comes next in this series? 13, 33, 53, 61, 37, 28...

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience Late one night in the summer of 2000, I found myself answering user support emails in response to two new features we had just released, Advanced Search and Preferences (at the time catchily called "Language, Display, and Filtering Options" :)). Busy crafting answers about how to set Safesearch or change the number of results offered by default, I worked my way through the email queue. And then I saw it: The next email had just a number ("37") in the subject - and no message text. What a weird form of spam, I thought. Why would anyone be motivated to just send a number? I searched for the user's email address to see what else had been sent. Interesting. Lots of numbers: 33, 53, and then a clue: "61, getting a bit heavy, aren't we?" Furthermore, the date on each of the messages seemed very familiar. Then I realized that's because the dates were all days that I had launched various changes on the homepage. "Getting a bit heavy?" - that one did correspond to one of the wordiest homepage releases we had ever done. Could the sender be counting words? Sure enough, I looked back, counted the words myself, and he was - a manual, human version of a scale for the Google homepage. He was weighing our homepage and letting us know when it was getting too heavy. One of his earliest mails had a note in the body: "What happened to the days of 13?" - referring to the word count on the initial 1999 homepage. This mystery and its revelation was really interesting because I thought about the homepage, and how to keep it simple, all the time. Yet I hadn't thought to look at it through this very simple lens: just count the words. The fewer, the better. Ever since that night, this has been our discipline, and everyone who works on the homepage and its design knows the current number: 28. (That's the word count for the basic page if you are signed out, there's no promotional line running beneath the search box, you've set Google as your homepage and thus don't get the "Make Google Your Homepage!" link, and you count "©2008 Google" as two words.) So, today we're making a homepage change by adding a link to our privacy overview and policies. Google values our users' privacy first and foremost. Trust is the basis of everything we do, so we want you to be familiar and comfortable with the integrity and care we give your personal data. We added this link both to our homepage and to our results page to make it easier for you to find information about our privacy principles. The new "Privacy" link goes to our Privacy Center, which was revamped earlier this year to be more straightforward and approachable, with videos and a non-legalese overview to make sure you understand in basic terms what Google does, does not, will, and won't, do in regard to your personal information. How does privacy relate to homepage word count? Larry and Sergey told me we could only add this to the homepage if we took a word away - keeping the "weight" of the homepage unchanged at 28. Given that the new Privacy link fit best with legal disclaimers on the page, I looked to the copyright line. There, we dropped the word "Google" (realizing it was implied, obviously) and added the new privacy link alongside it. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhheI1hqEAozhnspac5k1uiUO5zHFjaGpJpXr_my5jqwxNZGeEuxW10g-5Ir7tbC9B6_z-hFKpRk_VgylZI0paAshlmBu1XEBSPuizhRdbW17ht194_pPxwLDNeOVj7YerkTLajL7ynVJCQ/s1600-h/blogpost.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218887618314035170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhheI1hqEAozhnspac5k1uiUO5zHFjaGpJpXr_my5jqwxNZGeEuxW10g-5Ir7tbC9B6_z-hFKpRk_VgylZI0paAshlmBu1XEBSPuizhRdbW17ht194_pPxwLDNeOVj7YerkTLajL7ynVJCQ/s1600/blogpost.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 0px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a> We think the easy access to our privacy information without any added homepage heft is a clear win for our users and an enhancement to your experience. You can <a href="http://www.google.com/privacy.html" id="dvb2" title="check out the new Privacy Center here">check out the new Privacy Center here</a>.

What comes next in this series? 13, 33, 53, 61, 37, 28...

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience Late one night in the summer of 2000, I found myself answering user suppor...

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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 href="http://www.cleancruising.com.au/" id="gmvu" title="CleanCruising">CleanCruising</a>, Nick Lothian of <a href="http://www.scootle.edu.au/" id="w2.j" title="Scootle">Scootle</a>, Ken Hoetmer of <a href="http://quikmaps.com/" id="afub" title="Quikmaps">Quikmaps</a>, Tom Horn of the <a href="http://cannonade.net/aubrey.html" id="v:ho" title="Patrick O'Brien Mapping Project">Patrick O'Brien Mapping Project</a>, Tak Tran with the <a href="http://www.matthuynh.com/cabtour/cabtour.php" id="gqtu" title="Collaborative Autobiography">Collaborative Autobiography</a> site, and Tim Savage with the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104881640610994779021/seqwater.xml" id="vihi" title="SEQ Brisbane Water Levels gadget">SEQ Brisbane Water Levels gadget</a>. Mexico City, June 23 John Farrell and Alfonso Luna opened our <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/developerday2008/DeveloperDayMexico#" id="n3z6" title="first Developer Day in Mexico City">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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